186 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[Feb., 



yet, that you have not thought of. We once 

 removed a large swarm of bees (from a house) 

 that had been there a number of years, and they 

 had a queen as large again as a common one. 

 Again, we removed a swarm from a large bass- 

 wood log, and found the old queen a tremendous 

 large one (not as large as an ox, but large 

 for a queen). "We also found extra large queen 

 cells, and made three extra large swarms from 

 the old log. Queens and queen cells were extra 

 large, that were raised in our large colonies 

 last season. The bees seem to expend large 

 amounts of wax on the cells, -and place an 

 extra large amount of food in them. D. L. 

 Adair, in his "'Outlines of Bee-Culture,'* says, 

 on page 13 : " It is found in practice, that the 

 queen is more prolific in a hive Adhere sh.e is not 

 crowded for room to deposit eggs, and the whole 

 population is more industrious.'" And on page 

 17, he says : '• Queens raised in full sized cham- 

 bers, are larger, more prolific, and live longer.^'' 

 &c. In practice, certainly, we agree with Mr. 

 Adair. If this is correct, then, in an extra large 

 colony, we can raise extra large queens to meet 

 the emergency. So fai-, so good. Right here, 

 we will say, that Mr. Adair's section hive is used 

 ih just as many forms, with the same size 

 frames or sections, as we used in our hive. We 

 obtained some valuable suggestions from him 

 and his hive at the conventions last winter. 

 After using the extractor, we formed an opinion 

 of what we wanted for a hive, and we went to 

 the conventions chock full of our ideas, and 

 Mr. Adair was the only individual we found 

 there that had formed the same opinions ; or if 

 others had, they kept them to themselves. We 

 do not intend to use large hives exclusively, but 

 in connection with our standard hives. 



E. Gallup. 

 Orchard, Iowa, Dec, 1871. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Virgin Queens becoming Drone Layers. 



One year ago last summer, I had at one time 

 secured so many hatched queens and maturing 

 queen cells, from stocks that had swarmed natur- 

 ally, that I had a queen in each of my one hun- 

 dred and three (108) nuclei then running, and 

 quite a number of queens left which I preserved 

 in nuclei that had no fertile queen. In a num- 

 ber of instances those extra queens were neg- 

 lected or killed by the workers, as soon as the 

 queen at liberty became fertile. A small num- 

 ber, however, was saved in such of these nuclei 

 as had lost the queens at liberty, during their 

 wedding flight. Much occupied, then, by other 

 pressing work, I did not liberate those queens 

 until they were fourteen days old. They were 

 readily accepted by the workers, and I noticed 

 some of them making their wedding flight the 

 same day they were liberated. Three days 

 afterwards I examined the nuclei containing 

 those queens, and found five of them fertile and 

 laying. This was on the seventeenth day after 

 they were hatched. A few days later I had oc- 

 casion to fill a laro:e number of orders for un- 



tested queens, and shipped those five among 

 others. Think of my surprise when I found the 

 progeny of all those five queens was drone brood 

 in worker combs ! Of course I had to send other 

 queens immediately ; but this turning drone 

 layer at so early an age, was contrary to all my 

 former experience. A queen that had hatched 

 on April 4th, at the time when I wintered out 

 my bees, did not commence laying until the forty- 

 third day of her age, and laid worker eggs ex- 

 clusively in worker cells for three months and a 

 half, when she commenced intermingling some 

 drone eggs among worker brood, and was then 

 superseded. Three other queens hatched on 

 April loth, and at liberty in their hives, com- 

 menced laying drone eggs exclusively on the 33d 

 day of their age. At one time in the month of 

 September I had forty-five queens, none of 

 which were impregnated, on account of cold, 

 I'ainy weather prevailing, over three weeks old. 

 The weather had changed, becoming fine and 

 warm, and all these queens, except a few that 

 were lost or killed, were impregnated in the 

 course of two days, and became regularly 

 fertile. 



If the above reported experience of young 

 queens becoming drone layers when caged four- 

 teen days in warm weather, should be confirmed 

 by further observation and corroborated by the 

 experience of other queen breeders, it would 

 seem to be established that virgin queens could 

 not be kept long in cages or queen nurseries 

 without detriment, even if thejr should not be 

 neglected or killed by the bees in whose hives 

 they are placed for preservation. I find, however, 

 that worker bees that have a prolific, fertile 

 queen in their hives, will try their best to destroy 

 virgin queens kept in queen nurseries or cages — 

 ]>robably apprehensive that their own queen was 

 in danger. 



A. Grimm. 



Jefferson Wis., 1871. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



In Peace Prepare for War, 



As there is not much to be done now that our 

 pets are snugly stored away in their winter 

 quarters, perhaps dreaming of better days, prob- 

 ably now is the mcst favorable time to mature 

 our jilans for the coming season. , 



We have read carefully the Journal for 1870 

 and 1871, and have been expecting so see some- 

 body recommending for the management of bees, 

 a plan like our own, or one very similar ; but as 

 we have not seen anything quite like it, we 

 will give it for whatever it may be worth. 



Mr. Editor, this is no new fangled thing. We 

 have practiced it for the past ten years, with the 

 best results. Like many readers of the Journal 

 I am located where forage consists almost en- 

 tirely of white and alsike clover ; and those 

 situated like myself will be the ones that will be 

 benefij;ed by my plan. Every beekeeper knows 

 that, "in such locations, the time for gathering 

 honey is very short — at longest not more than 

 sixty days. Now, if you expect much surplus, 



