THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



207 



was not attended by any when she left. Did 

 these bees find and gather around her while she 

 was yet abroad at a distance ? Or did they 

 merely recognize her in front of the stand on 

 her return, and join in welcoming her home ? 

 Though she was absent more than an hour, the 

 latter conjecture seems to be the more probable 

 one. 



That the queen was able to return safely to 

 her hive, though she had flown from a comb 

 distant eight paces from it, may be accounted 

 for by regarding the large retiuue by which she 

 was accompanied on her return, as formed by 

 the bees which discovered and recognized hei, 

 for the purpose of conducting hor to her native 

 home. 



Dr. Prexjss. 



Dirschau, Oct. 18, 18G8. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Querist's Questions Answered 

 [American Bee Journal, vol. 4, page 108.] 



Querist desires to have some questions an- 

 swered. I should like to try. It has long been 

 my intention to write occasionally for the 

 American Bee Journal, but my poor hus- 

 band's illness prevented me hitherto. He is 

 still lame, and requires great care. 



Question No. 1. Some beekeepers take the 

 position that natural swarms will gather more 

 honey, build more comb, and have more brood 

 during the first week after they archived, than 

 artificial ones. Is this true ? and if so, why ? 



Answer. Experience teaches us that natural 

 swarms, as a rule, will gather more honey, 

 build more comb, and have more brood during 

 the first eight or ten days after they are hived 

 than artificial ones. The reason is, that if the 

 artificial swarm has not been made by a first- 

 rate bee-master, accustomed to pay attention to 

 everything, it will almost always get compara- 

 tively too many young bees — that is, bees which 

 arc not yet sixteen days old. Now, bees in the 

 first sixteen days of their lives attend only to in- 

 door work ; and thus it is evident that, as there 

 are not enough rid bees to do out-door work, 

 there is not as much honey gathered as by 

 swarms which contain the just proportion of 

 old and young bees, as natural swarms always 

 do. With this the progress of comb-buildiDg 

 stands in close connection. If there is but little 

 honey gathered, but few combs will be built 

 and very little brood raised, for brooding keeps 

 pace with building. Another reason is that the 

 artificial swarm is general^ placed too nenr its 

 old standing place, and consequently, during 

 the first few days, many bees return to their old ! 

 home. If you try to make an artificial swarm, 

 by driving the queen and a number of bees out 

 of a straw hive, add thereto outlying bees swept 

 off from the front of other hives, and carry it 

 about two miles from its old stand, such artifi- 

 cial sicarm will not be inferior to any natural 

 swarm equally strong. 



Question No. 2. Suppose we have, at the 

 honey harvest, two colonies in the same apiary, 

 each having 20,000 or 30,000 bees— the same 

 number of old and young bees — the same 



amount of worker and drone comb, a fertile 

 queen equally prolific ; the same quantity of 

 honey and bee-bread, in the same style ot hive, 

 managed alike in every respect, and one gathers 

 fifiy pouuds of honey and the other seventy- 

 five hounds — what should cause the difference ? 

 We have cases on record very similar to the 

 above, and who can give the solution '? 



Answer. If I really understand the question, 

 I will give the solution. At the close of the 

 season, you not unfrequently find hives, which 

 seemingly ha^e the same number of bees, the 

 same amount of worker and drone comb, 

 queens equally fertile, and nevertheless a differ- 

 ence in the Aveight of honey stored There may 

 be several reasons for this ; but, as a rule the 

 difference is caused by a change of queen. If 

 one of the hives changes its queen, the honey 

 I harvest may be considerably increased or dimin- 

 : ished by that occurrence. It is increased when 

 I the change takes place while nature is still rich 

 I in supplies of honey, for then the bees will have 

 I no brood to nurse eight days after the old queen 

 I is gone, and can devote all their time and ener- 

 j gy to honey-gathering ; and thus before the 

 young queen is fertile and begins to lay eggs, 

 the hive will be very rich in honey. It is di- 

 minished, if the rearing of the queen and her 

 fecundation be too long delayed ; for then the 

 old bees are lost, from time to time, and before 

 the young ones begin their out-door labors the 

 honey season is over. 



Question No. 3. Novice says that he cannot 

 doubt that it [meal feeding] saved them honey 

 in some way or other. Now, is Novice sure of 

 this. Please tell us what your bees used to 

 make these little pellets of flour and meal to 

 pack so nicely in their baskets ? Do you think 

 it was Avater V If it was not water, was it hon- ■ 

 ey ? If honey, whence did they get it, if not 

 from their own hives ? Are you suie they did 

 not even go so far as to unseal their honey for 

 the purpose named ? If each hive used say five 

 pounds of that rye and oat meal, how much 

 honey think you does it take to pack it into 

 bee-dough? Did you not also observe that your 

 bees began to breed quite rapid! y, as soon as 

 they began to work on your out-cloor food ? 

 When they are raising young bees, do they not 

 use up the honey just in proportion to the 

 rapidity of breeding V 



Answer. 1. Bees do not save, like a good 

 housekeeper. They require each clay a certain 

 quantity of honey to nourish themselves and 

 their brood, and that quantity they use, whether 

 they have much or little to live upon. If that 

 quantity is wanting, they do not content them- 

 selves with half rations, but decamp, or starve. 

 2. Water will not answer for making those 

 little pellets, because it is not glutinous. In 

 order to pack their pellets so nicely in their 

 baskets, bees use honey, which they take along 

 with them out of their hives. You can prove 

 this by tasting such little pellets, when you will 

 surely detect the honey. 5. If they arc obliged 

 to carry in meal or bee-bread, and have not 

 enough unsealed honey they certainly will un- 

 seal it. 4. It would be difficult, if not impos- 

 sible, to state precisely in figures the weight of 

 honey which bees will want in carrying five 



