110 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



swarm ; but the queen not following them, they 

 returned as they did last year, and I treated 

 them as before, making a new swarm with the 

 wing and dust pan. But this time I did not 

 get the queen, as I learned from the queen cells 

 started on the brood comb given to them. On 

 returning after an absence of about four weeks, 

 I found a large cluster of bees adhering to the 

 under side of the mother colony. A closer ex- 

 amination revealed comb and, to my great sur- 

 prise, brood, and plenty of it. Here, then, was 

 my prolific hybrid queen doing an outside 

 business on her own account, having left a 

 youthful queen and a prime colony inside to 

 take her place. I thought of Novice's " Giant- 

 ess," and concluded I had got her equal. But 

 what to do ? was the question. She could not 

 live there all winter with her swarm, and she 

 must be saved. She had evidently attempted to 

 follow a second swarm, had fallen to the ground, 

 crawled up one of the legs of the hive, and es- 

 tablished her headquarters underneath its bot- 

 tom, where her faithful followers found her and 

 took up their abode. Seven combs were built, 

 the longest nine inches, and reaching to the 

 ground about six inches, all crammed with brood 

 mostly capped. These combs I cut away from 

 the hive very carefully, one at a time, brushed 

 off the bees into a new hive set on the site of 

 the old one, fastened the combs into frames 

 with strips of paper cut from flour bags, as re- 

 commended so highly by some writer in the 

 Bee Journal, and congratulated myself on 

 having created a fine new swarm from almost 

 nothing. This was all done in the morning. 

 I felt it necessary to takcone look at them to- 

 wards night, to see what a nice thing I had 

 done ; when, to my utter surprise, I found all 

 the combs laying in one mingled mass of confu- 

 sion on the bottom of the hive. The bees had 

 in that short period gnawed away the paper 

 strips, and hence the downfall of the combs. 

 There was a double handful of the prettiest 

 paper pulp you ever saw, on the bottom of the 

 hive and among the combs. Had the queen 

 been killed by the downfall ? Luckily, no 1 I 

 found and caged her, removed the comb, clean- 

 ed out the pulp, remembered seeing at a neigh- 

 bor's some slats made for Venitian blinds — 

 wouldn't they be just the thing to hold the 

 combs in the frames ? Tried them ; nothing 

 could be finer ; took them out in three days — 

 combs all fastened to the frames; put in on each 

 side, one nice frame of solid honey from the 

 parent hive. They are now in good order for 

 wintering, and the most prolific queen I ever 

 saw is saved. I shall breed from her next sea- 

 son, although a hybrid of the fourth generation. 

 She is also one of the prettiest queens I ever 

 saw — a uniform dark -yellow or mahogany 

 color, the whole length of the abdomen. Who 

 has a pure Italian colony, or any other, that has 

 made, this season, one hundred pounds of box 

 honey and cast two good swarms ? 



R. Bickford. 

 Seneca Falls, N. Y., Oct. 1868. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Queens Mating Twice, and Color of Ital- 

 ian Bees. 



Mr. Editor:— My article in the last Journal 

 has stirred up a hornet's nest, aud been the 

 means of putting me in communication with 

 many of your readers. 



Many of them take exception to my idea that 

 queens do not male with two drones, and I wish 

 to set them right as to my meaning, as some of 

 them misunderstand me. When I used the term 

 "mate" I meant copulation which resulted in 

 impregnation, and not copulation simply, for I 

 can imagine that a queen might meet a drone 

 and bring home signs of impregnation, without 

 impregnation having actually taken place; which 

 being the case, instinct would send her forth 

 again, in order that she might be fertilized. 

 Tins explanation of my letter, and of my position 

 on this subject, I am ready to defend against all 

 comers. 



In an article in your Journal, I see that some 

 people have an idea that the honey crop has a 

 direct tendency to make light or dark shades. 

 This I do not believe, and can show facts which 

 will do away with the idea. I have two sister 

 queens, one dark and the other light, whose pro- 

 geny is just the reverse — the dark queen bring- 

 ing out invariably light bees, and the light queen 

 dark; and this at all seasons, whether apple, 

 clover, or buckwheat Avas the material from 

 which the honey was gathered. A friend of 

 mine, Mr. W. O. Sweet of West Mansfield, who 

 is largely interested in queen-raising, and who 

 has taken great pains to secure the purest stock, 

 has been engaged in testing this matter of color 

 the last season, by a plan similar to the Kohler, 

 has succeeded in getting both queens and drones 

 of almost any required shade. I have seen, at 

 his apiary, drones on whose abdomen there was 

 scarcely a trace of black — a very light orange 

 marking it as perfectly as the rings on the work- 

 er. I am aware, of course, that imported queens 

 generally are quite dark, and that their daught- 

 ers grow lighter through successive generations; 

 but the working progeny of imported queens is 

 invariably in accordance with the mother color, 

 which would not be the case were it affected by 

 the honey crop. 



As this color question is one which may have 

 a direct bearing on the matter of purity, I should 

 like to hear from some one who is posted on the 

 color variations of the "Italian bee" at home. 

 J. E. Pond, Jr. 

 Foxboro', Mass., Sept. 12, 1868. 



The darker the hive, the more contented the 

 beea. 



Among the "Farm Items" of the Neio York 

 Tribune lately, is the following : — 



" In Australia the bees are as large as horse- 

 flies, and do not sting." 



That is, they are about as big as a piece of 

 chalk, and arc native, natural non-combatants 

 and non-resistants, who, unable to appeal to the 

 fierce arbitrament of arms, allow themselves to 

 be despoiled of their property and turned out ol 

 house and home, without even going to law. 



