26 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[August, 



precisely, from after the third till the first fine, 

 warm and favorable day that occurs, such as 

 young queens themselves select for their bridal 

 excursions. On such a day, we lilt out the queen 

 cage with all its adhering bees, cover the hole in 

 the top of the hive with the perforated tin plate, 

 and set the wire gauze case or glass cylinder 

 on it ; thrust into it the adhering bees from the 

 queen cage, liberate the queen, let her pass down 

 among the bees, and cover the top of the case oi 

 cylinder. There •ought to be somewhat more 

 than a hundred bees in the cluster. Should there 

 not be so many, draw back the tin plate gently 

 and let an additional number of workers pass 

 up. Now suspend a piece of honey comb on the 

 peg or spear, cover the case or cylinder, and 

 place it in a dark chamber. At any time between 

 eleven o'clock in the forenoon and three o'clock 

 in the afternoon, a selected drone may be in- 

 troduced, liglit partially admitted, and fertiliza- 

 tion will soon follow. Should it not take place 

 on the first day, the experiment must be repeated 

 on the next, when it is almost sure to occur. 

 Mr. Dax assures me that he had frequently used 

 tJie process, and only on two or three occasions 

 had he found it necessary to introduce a second 

 drone, and was then invariably successful. 

 "Make the trial," said he, " it will not fail." 



Apart from the undoubted credibility of Mr. 

 Dax, other strong reasons lead us to presume 

 that a successful result would follow a i)roperly 

 made experiment. Why does not fertilization 

 take place within the hive itself? Evidently 

 because in the crowded condition of a colony it 

 could not be effected without interference, 

 leading to commotion which might endanger the 

 life of the queen. This being so, natural 

 instinct has provided that, for this jourpose, the 

 (iueen shall leave her hive Even should the 

 bee-keeper undertake to interpose in the ordinary 

 manner, by catching, confining and removing 

 the queen, she Avould still be filled with alarm, 

 and all her eftbrts would be directed to eftect 

 her escape and return to her hive — excitement 

 and anxiety dispelling every other passion or 

 natural impulse Whether a queen thus 

 removed be liberated in a roomy chamber and 

 permitted to fly among workers and selected 

 drones, or allowed to fly in the open air, re- 

 strained only by a silken string, the desired result 

 will rarely be attained. But by the method em- 

 ployed by Mr. Dax, the queen becomes neither 

 alarmed nor excited, for she is born in a state of 

 confinement ; and Avhen permitted to mingle with 

 a limited number of workers, she feels herself 

 free and companionable, yielding readily to her 

 natural impulse to provide for the growth of the 

 small colony. If now a mature drone be intro- 

 duced, fertilization will almost certainly follow, 

 because, from the small number of workers 

 present, clustered too, for tlie most part on the 

 inserted honey comb, no intei-ference or disturb- 

 ance need be apprehended. Such are the 

 grounds which induce me confidently to expect 

 a successful result. 



But what is to be done when the hives have 

 no opening at the top, or having one, have still 

 a vacant space between it and the ranges of 

 combs below? With hives of this kind I made 

 my unsuccessfid experiments. In these cases, I 



l)ushed the last two combs so far aside that the 

 cage containing the queen cell could be inserted 

 in the vacuum ; and that the remainder of the 

 space might not remain unoccupied, I cut out 

 two additional queen cells, caged and inserted 

 them in like manner. As the base board of each 

 ^queen cage was tliree inches square, the three 

 just filled out the width of the hive, wliich was 

 nine inches. This, and the cold weather then 

 prevalent, may have been the cause that the 

 embryo queens did not hatch ; they probably 

 became chilled. They failed to emerge, and as 

 fall pasturage was then still abundant, the 

 v/orkers built a comb to each cage and filled it 

 with honey. 



My second attempt was made with a queen 

 cell in the top opening of a straw hive, which 

 moreover contained a queen. The bees paid no 

 attention to the cell thus placed overhead, and 

 consequently nothing came of it. Next spring 

 1 shall prepare for the hives having a honey 

 chamber in the top, a division board 1| inch 

 thick, Avith a suitable centie hole, substituting it 

 for the ordinary top division board, for the pur- 

 pose of experiment. If I should then also 

 separate the honey chamber by means of a 

 glazed division frame, I may possibly be a,ble to 

 dispense with the wire gauze case or glass 

 cylinder. But in such case the tin plate must 

 have precisely the length of the common top 

 division boards, and take the place of the division 

 board with the central hole. 



A. SEMLITSCa. 



Straszgang, Nov. 11, 18G9. 



[Translated for the American Bee Journal. Froiu the Bie- 

 uenzeituLg.] 



5ees iu Abyssinia. 



The war waged by England against King Theo- 

 dore attracted ijublic attention in a high degree 

 to that remarkable country, Abyssinia ; but 

 among bee-keepers few, even of those well in- 

 formed of the interesting advances and improve- 

 ments in bee-culture efi'ectcd within a few years 

 past, will have surmised that that country, de- 

 scribed as so beautiful and surpassingly fertile, 

 may possess peculiar interest for them. Yet 

 Abyssinia is in truth the very Eldorado of the 

 honey bee and her friends. 



Old Bochar, genuine Frenchman as he was, 

 years ago pointed out that country to my notice 

 when he quoted from Lobo's " Travels in Abys- 

 sinia in 1728," a glowing account of the bees, 

 the hives, and the honey there found ; and, thus 

 excited, I eagerly desired and sought for further 

 information. 



In that very unpretentious and thoroughly 

 truthful little volume, '^ E.rperienrein Abyssinia, 

 from 1858 to 1868," by Thomas Waldmeier, pub- 

 lished at Basil by C. F. Spittler, in 1869, I found 

 this incidental remark — " Nearly every country- 

 man keeps bees." This induced me to seek 

 for further particulars. Waldmeier was edu- 

 cated at the Crishona, near Basil, and had been 

 recommended to King l^ieodore as missionary- 

 mechanic, by the Protestant bishop Goburt of 

 Jerusalem. He occupied an important position 



