266 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOUENAL. 



[June, 



The queen cell found in this hive proves that 

 it had been queenless for some days. Did you 

 discover it on the 14th of October, or later? This 

 circumstance may help to decide the question. 

 The agitation wliich you noticed would lead one 

 to think that this hive had just lost its queen, 

 and in this case the one you offered, it was not 

 probably the queen it had lost. 



To be able to explain a fact in natural history, 

 one must know well the accompanying circum- 

 stances, without which any decision is too haz- 

 ardons. Thi-; calls to mind a trait in the fidelity 

 of bees that I must relate to you. 



One day I took from a colony a virgin queen 

 that I had given it, to see Ikjw the workers 

 would behave under the circumstances. As 

 there was no brood in the hive *iie loss of thj 

 queen was ii'reparable. I was curious to sec what 

 they would do, but I could not perceive any agi- 

 tation among them, nor anything that led me to 

 suspect that they regretted her loss, or even 

 knew of her absence. I was about to conclude 

 that their indifierence arose from her sterility and 

 I found it quite natural that tliey should have 

 no affection for a mother that was of no use to 

 them ; but this liuman reasoning was noc the 

 reasoning of the bees, and I was soon undeceived. 



The next day I found the queen numb, from 

 cold or hunger, in the box where I had put her. 

 I therefore placed her in the hive ; as i-oon as 

 they perceived her on the table where she was 

 lying, I saw a few workers range themselves 

 around her, caress her, fawn over her with their 

 proboscis, offer her lioney which she did not take, 

 and brush her with tlieir feet ; all this was use- 

 less ; she was dead. 



Their care did not diminish from ten o'clock in 

 the morning to eight o'clock in the evening ; I 

 then took her away, and without any object in 

 view, placed heron the window sill of my study, 

 in which the hive was. Returning there at ten 

 o'clock in the morning, I was much surprised to 

 find my dead queen surrounded by bees, circling 

 about iier in the way yon know, and giving to 

 her dead body their customary honor. 



The night was not warm, nevertheless the 

 dead queen was not abandoned, and on the mor- 

 row I found her faithful guard lavishing upon 

 her the same care they had rendered during her 

 life. 



I once more returned her body to the hive and 

 at the same time introduced a young fertile 

 queen, not doubting but that the bees would in- 

 stantly appreciate the value of my gift, and 

 would prefer the mother I had given them to the 

 dead virgin queen from whom they could expect 

 nothing ; another reasoning, also human and 

 quite as pitiable as the preceding. The bees 

 who do not reason, and who perhaps are none the 

 worse for it, treated the strange queen very 

 rudely ; they held her in the middle of a mass 

 of bees so that slie could not move, and kept her 

 thus over eighteen hours. At this stage the 

 knot of bees reached the entrance of the hive ; 

 it was larger than a nut ; the bees that formed 

 it imparted to it such a movement, that we saw 

 it roll like a ball which it resembled in form, to 

 the edge of the stand on which the hive rested. 

 Arrived there, a continuation of the same move- 



ment caused it to fall on the floor without alter- 

 ing its form ; we extricated* the queen just as 

 you did ; she had not received a sting but she 

 was very weak ; we succeeded in restoring her 

 by returning her to her natal hive. 



The bees I liave been speaking to you of obsti- 

 nately cared for the dead bcwly of their queen 

 during two days and a half ; I then took her 

 away and gave them young larvse that they 

 nursed, and from which they procured another 

 queen. 



From this and other similar examples, I am 

 inclined to believe the seco;id supposition of no 

 value, and that the queen which was not re- 

 ceived by any of your hives was certainly a 

 stranger to them all. 



I have dispensed with the hinges of the leaf 

 hive with regret ; it is very convenient to open 

 the hive like a book, but when it comes to 

 shutting it up, there is an ol)]ection that com- 

 pelled me to abandon this way. In closing the 

 frames the bees get in the angle formed by two 

 frames, and as the angle grows smaller, one una- 

 voidably crushes those which persist in remain- 

 ing in this dangerous situation. Burnens, with 

 all his skill, could not avoid often killing them 

 in this way, Und it is he who asked m9»to get rid 

 of the hinges and proved the necessity of it.f 



You understand, sir, that you run no risk at 

 all of crushing the bees when the frames are not 

 fastened to each other — you can bring them close 

 together without forming any angle, and can 

 give the bees time to dispose of themselves on 

 the faces of the two combs.:]: 



The invention you have made for uniting four 

 frames, appears to me excellent ; but the leaf 

 hive must have a cover to protect it from changes 

 of wet and dry, which will after a time warp the 

 wood of the frames. It is not then enough, as I 

 have formerly said, to bind together the hive 

 with a cord or twine ; such a band is too weak, 

 and does not prevent the hive from bursting 

 open. I might have foreseen this, but can one 

 think of everything? 



You will receive in a few days, sir, a small 

 box containing a model of a hive and a little 

 memoir, which I thought to add to this letter, &c. 

 But as the rest is not ready, I cannot longer de- 



* I have frequently lost a queen by attempting to 

 extricate her — the bees becoming so excited as to 

 sl'niii her. Tauirht by sad experience, I no longer at- 

 tempt to separate tlie bees, but put the ball into a 

 vessel uf colrt water ; they will then very speedily un- 

 cluster, and the queen can be safely secured. 



L. L. L. 



f The generous nature of Huber is no where more 

 a]>parent, tlian in his readiness to give to every one 

 full credit for valuable observations or suggestions, 

 " <S'«((m cuiquc^ ^ — h\s own, to each one, seems to have 

 been with him a sacred ma.Kim. L. L. L. 



X In Bnvan, on the Honey Bee, 1838, p. 108, may be 

 found Dnubar''x improved Iluber hive. The frames 

 are held together on the front " by shifting butt hinges, 

 and at the back by hooks and eyes." To prevent the 

 bees from being crushed, in the manner described by 

 Huber, Dunbar "ploughed out the edges of the 

 frames throuirh their whole extent, to within an 

 ci'^hth of an inch of their outsides." 



L. L. L. 



