1872.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



scantily fed, and therefore imperfectly developed. 

 I have not, however, been able to discover that 

 queens of extra size and beauty are more proli- 

 ne, or that they produce a handsomer progeny, 

 than smaller and darker ones bred from the 

 same mother. L. L. Langstiioth. 



Oxford, Butler Co., Ohio, July 4, 186 i. 



A few years after writing the above article, 

 we made the experiments referred to in the May 

 No., page 2G8, showing how the color of the 

 brightest young queens can be changed by with- 

 drawing them from the care of the bees. About 

 the same time we had, in the month of August, 

 a large number of queens hatch, for which we 

 had no immediate use, and it occurred to us that 

 we might preserve them for future use by put- 

 ting them with a few bees into the small boxes 

 used for sending off queens. The boxes were set 

 in a cool place, each one labelled with the charac 

 ter of its queen for color. When we examined 

 them, after about ten days' confinement, we 

 were surprised to find that iheir beauty had 

 sadly degenerated. From these and other facts, 

 we learned that to be certain of retaining the 

 color of queens after they hatch, they ought, un- 

 less in the hottest weather, to be kept in colonies 

 large enough to secure good animal heat. 



It may seem unaccountable that while the 

 color of the young workers remain the same, 

 that of queens should be so easily changed, but 

 such are the facts. The deterioration in color 

 from unfavorable conditions must not be con- 

 founded with that which often occurs in queens 

 supposed by the inexperienced when first 

 hatched, to be very beautiful, but which become 

 darker under any circumstances. The expert 

 breeder seldom fails, on seeing a just hatched 

 queen, to decide what her type of color will be 

 if she is left in charge of a good colony, and to 

 make the proper allowance for the seeming de- 

 terioration which almost invariably precedes her 

 fertilization. After they begin to lay, the color 

 of Italian qneens is no more subject to change 

 than that of the workers, showing only the 

 ordinary effects of age. The color of the most 

 brilliant queens seeming gradually to become 

 duller as they grow older. L. L. L. 



[ For the AmericHo Bee Journal ] 



Extraordinary instance of Sagacity in Bees. 



The facts which we are about to relate, are the 

 most interesting of all the special bee wonders 

 which have come under our own observation. 

 We should hardly venture to give, them to the 

 readers of the Journal, if we did not feel it to be 

 a sacred duty for every observer to give to the 

 world any such facts, however seemingly incredi- 

 ble, confident that a fact ("factum^) in nature 

 is a thing done by the All-Wise Creator, and that 

 in due time its verity will be made apparent to 

 all. ♦ 



In the year 18G4, we conceived the idea that a 

 very strong colony, queenless and without brood 

 from which to supply their loss, might perhaps 

 by having only a few worker eggs or larvae given 

 to them, be induced to rear queens of extra size 



and beauty. To such a stock, we gave a piece 

 of comb, with suitable brood ; about half an inch 

 wide and three inches long. Examining it a few 

 days after, we found a dozen or more queen cells 

 begun, and with the head of a pin, removed the 

 queen larvae from all of them but four, and left 

 none in any of the other cells. When those cells 

 were all capped, we thought it would be economy 

 to set the strong stock to work upon a second 

 lot. As we had put the first piece of comb into 

 a place cut out for it between one of the uprights 

 of the frame and the comb, we put the second 

 into a.similar place on the other side of the same 

 comb. Lifting out the combs a fews days after 

 to note progress, we were surprised to rind not 

 a single royal cell begun on this last inserted 

 piece, and not a single larva3 in any of its cells. 

 Looking at the piece first put in, to our amaze- 

 ment we found all the royal cells from which the 

 tenants had been extracted, occupied afresh ! 

 and the cells much more advanced than at the 

 time we destroyed their first occupants. These 

 bees were evidently determined not to lose the 

 labor they had bestowed on the first set of cells, 

 and had removed to them the larvae from the 

 worker cells on the opposite side ! The queen, by 

 a law of her nature depositing her eggs in the 

 proper cells, the bees have no necessity or in- 

 clination ordinarily to disturb them ; and it is an 

 exceptional occurrence for them ever to do it. 



Let those who can find in all the operations of 

 this wonderful insect in which Aristotle could 

 see "something divine," nothing but what they 

 call a blind unreasoning instinct, account if they 

 can, for this unusual but wise adaptation of 

 special means to ends which it was impossible 

 for them to foresee. 



L. L. Langstroth. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Droning?, No. 2. 



1. A careful study of Mr. Grimms' article in 

 January number, on "Rearing artificial queens, 

 and their value," leads me to ask : Have we suf- 

 ficiently reflected on the importance of having a 

 number of pure drone laying Italian queens in 

 our apiaries'? Would not our main object be 

 more speedily attained in this way than by 

 restricting ourselves to fertile queens? Fill the 

 air as he did in April with thousands of pure 

 Italian drones, and if we have any pure queens 

 in the apiary we almost ensure the preservation 

 of purity, but on the other hand if we leave this 

 matter to chance we need not expect anything 

 but hybrids. I do not forget the Dzierzon 

 theory, and therefore do not hold out the hope 

 than an apiary can be Italianized in one season ; 

 but I am sure that the object will be sooner 

 reached if one works with both hands as it were. 



2. Mr. W. J. Davis does good service in coun- 

 selling a more careful and systematic culling of 

 our hives. We are too greedy as a general thing 

 — too anxious to multiply stocks — to save suspi- 

 cious hives. Now, in my humble judgment, it is 

 worse than lost time to be feeding weak stocks. 

 Double them, trible them, and then feed, if you 



