152 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[Jan., 



watched the ulterior proceedings and awaited the 

 issue. The workers did not remove or cast out 

 tlijse eggs (tliis was in the month of June), but 

 brooded theni till hatched and nursed the lai'vaB, 

 extending and slightly widening the side walls 

 of the cells, in due time sealing them with convex 

 caps ; aud finally there issued from them seve- 

 ral dozen of small drones — such as are usually 

 bred iu humped wtn-ker cells — as the result of that 

 demonstration. Hence, reasoning from analogy, 

 while conceding that queens do not unfrequently 

 lay eggs in royal cells, may we not claim — till 

 direct, conclusive evidence to the contrary is 

 furnished— that those eggs are either discarded 

 and cast out and replaced by others, iinder the 

 auspices of the workers ; or if, in rare cases, 

 hatched and nursed, produce (??"o;ies— usually 

 still-born, or prematurely perishing in the cell. 

 — Ed. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Eggs in Queen Cells. 



Mr. Editor : — Having read in the December 

 number of the American Bee Journal an article 

 from the pen of Adam Grimm, and your com- 

 ments on the same, in regard to the depositing 

 of the egg in the queen cell, I have concluded 

 to relate a case that came under my notice in 

 the summer of 1860. One day during the swarm- 

 ing season several swarms came off in quick 

 succession. One alighted on the body of a dead 

 plum tree, ajid being hurried, I was somewhat 

 rough with them, aud suppose I injured the 

 queen, but I got it into the hive and carried it to a 

 stand. Immediately afterward another swarm 

 was hived, and placed near the one spoken of, 

 after which but little notice was taken of them 

 till the eleventh day. On that morning I found 

 that the bees after building some combs in the 

 first hive had nearly all deserted it, and found 

 the queen lying dead on the ground in front. 

 The deserters had joined the other swarm, and 

 after filling the hive with comb and brood the 

 bees had passed through a crevice in the honey 

 board and were building in the upper chamber, 

 from which I immediately removed them and 

 put on bo.Kes. In the afternoon of the same day 

 this colony swarmed. Nearly all the bees left 

 with the swarm, and flew directly to a tree in 

 the woods. After returning from following the 

 runaways, I opened the hive, and on the edge of 

 one of the combs I found a cluster of four queen 

 cells. I examined them carefully. Thei'e was 

 no egg in either of them. The next morning I 

 opened the hive again, and there was an egg in 

 each of the four cells. About the middle of the 

 day, as there were so few bees iu the hive, 

 I added to it a very small swarm having a 

 queen. I looked again in the evening, and the 

 four cells were again empty. This is conclusive 

 evidence to me that, in this case, the eggs were 

 placed in the cells after the queen left the hive, 

 although they (the cells) were built while she 

 was in it. Now, if in some cases the workers 

 transfer the eggs to the queen cells, is it not 

 more than probable that they do it in all cases, 

 whether the queen is present or not ? 



Pi-evious to this occurrence I had read Lang- 

 stroth's work, in which your theory in regard to 

 the impregnation of the e^g is given, but was 

 not able to account for the sex of the queen, if 

 the egg in the queen cell is deposited there by 

 the queen mother. Since then I have no hesita- 

 tion in endorsing your theory in regard to pres- 

 sure producing impregnation. 



I have owned and handled bees for more than 

 twenty years ; have used the movable comb hive 

 since 1858, and have been a reader of the Journal 

 for the last six months. 



Milton Hewitt. 



Perry opolis, Ohio, Dec. 12, 1871. 



m;^" The foregoing communication may serve 

 to throw light on an interesting problem in bee- 

 culture. The facts stated have not, we believe, 

 been remarked before by any observer, and 

 attention being now drawn to the matter, we 

 trust it will next season be made a subject 

 of careful investigation. • The insertion and 

 subsequent removal of the eggs is of itself a 

 curious circumstance, and is probably significant. 

 Future observations may enable us to trace ita 

 bearing on the production of queens. Observers, 

 however, should constantly bear in mind that 

 the object of inquiry is not to sustain or confute 

 theory, but to elicit aud establish truth. — [Ed. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Italian Bees Not "Working in Boxes ! 



In the second line of the second column, page 

 103 of the Journal for November, 1871, we find 

 the above remark, reported as made by Mr. 

 Marvin, of St. Charles, a j^rominent apiarian 

 who keeps Italian bees, and, so far as I know, 

 keeps them exclusively. Similar remarks we 

 find on page 109. 



As box honey is most convenient for transport- 

 ation to market, and fetches nearly double the 

 price that extracted honey does, this would really 

 be a grave charge, if it had any foundation. 

 When I stopped selling in the spring, this year, 

 I had only two hundred and ninety (290) colo- 

 nies of bees left. Eighteen of these were queen- 

 less or had drone layer queens, and five of them 

 became so weak that I united them with other 

 weak stocks. A number of strong stocks were 

 weakened in May and June, by taking bees from 

 them to start over one hundred nuclei. These 

 two hundred and sixty-seven (2(37) colonies in- 

 creased to six hundred and forty-four ( 644), and 

 gave nine thousand nine hundred and forty-six 

 (9,946) pounds of box honey. At the end of 

 July we had estimated it as amounting to twelve 

 thousand (12,000) pounds; but, owing to the 

 great drouth, the bees replenished their stores in 

 the main chamber from the contents of the 

 boxes. This yield would no doubt have been 

 increased by four thousand (4,000) pounds more, 

 if we had not used the extractor, and five hun- 

 dred (500) i)ounds besides from hives that had 

 been weakened in starting the nuclei — increasing 

 the average yield to fifty- four (54) pounds per 



