1870.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



115 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Why are Two Queens Sometimes Found in One 

 Eive? 



Mr. Editor:— Mr. A. Green, in the October 

 number of the Journal, gives an account of tind- 

 ing two queens in one hive. Other correspond- 

 ents have also given us their knowledge of simi- 

 lar facts ; but none have, I think, given us any 

 reasons for such excei^tions. 



Last fall I bought an Italian queen from a 

 reliable breeder. She came recommended as A 

 No. 1. I received her on the 8fch of September. 

 All the workers sent with her were dead, except 

 two ; and she was herself so benumbed by cold 

 that I had quite a time of it bringing her back to 

 vitality. Finally I succeeded in getting her quite 

 lively, and introduced her to a tolerably weak 

 swarm. On the 10th of October finely marked 

 Italians were flying in front of the hive. I 

 spared no pains in wintering. (I winter out-of- 

 doors.) In April she had filled three cards of 

 brood. I then gave her a card of drone-comb. 

 She would not look at it, and I moved it back 

 and put in its place a card of worker-comb, 

 which she filled with eggs almost instanter. I 

 then i)ut the drone-comb in the middle of the 

 cluster, and got about fifty drones. Of course I 

 was stimulating, and kept plenty of honey in the 

 hive. I put in other worker-comb, but she re- 

 fused to lay any more. I then took out a frame 

 to start a nucleus, and in about a week after, when 

 examining the old stock, I found queen cells 

 started and the old queen on the comb, appar- 

 ently all right. In due course a young queen 

 was hatched, and after destroying the queen-cells, 

 she remained with the old queen ten days before 

 she was fertilized, and at least a week after she 

 was laying. At the end of three weeks the old 

 queen v/as gone. 



Now, what does this prove? Simply that the 

 queen was chilled in coming by mail, which 

 interfered with her prolificness, rendering her 

 supersedure a necessity for the future welfare of 

 the colony. She was tolerated in the hive by 

 the new queen and bees, having lost that distinct 

 individuality peculiar to the queen bee, and con- 

 sequently become to them (the workers and 

 young queen) no more than a common bee. I 

 cannot help but conclude that when such excep- 

 tions occur, the course relatively is the same. 

 Frederick Crathorne. 



Bethlehem, lotea, Oct. 9, 1870. 



[For the Americaa Bee Journal.] 



The Coming Convention. 



It cannot be too deeply impressed on the mind 

 of the bee-keeper, that a small colony should 

 be confined to a small space, if we wish the bees 

 to work with the greatest enei-gy, and offer the 

 stoutest resistance to their numerous enemies. 

 Bees do most unquestionably "abhor a vacuum," 

 if it is one which they can neither fill, warm, 

 nor defend. Let the prudent bee-master keep 

 his stocks strong, and they will do more to 

 defend themselves against all intruders, than he 

 can possibly do for them, even though he spend 

 his whole time in watching and assisting them. — 

 Langstroth. 



Mr. Editor : — AYe would like to attend the 

 prospective convention of bee-keepers, which is 

 to assemble the coming fall or winter, and to 

 take by the hand some of the many correspond- 

 ents we have followed through the columns of 

 your Journal, and hear their opinions by the 

 word of mouth, but we must forego that pleasure 

 at present. We are poor and have not straight- 

 ened up yet the ravages of war. We are rebuild- 

 ing as fast as our means will admit, and hope in 

 a few years more to see our once desert looking 

 country "blo.ssom as the rose." We have lost 

 our substance, the toil of years, and in bee par- 

 lance, though driven out and robbed of comb 

 and honey, are allowed to return in a bad season, 

 to recuperate. 



When these bee conventions become yearly in 

 our country, (and I hope they will, ) we will be 

 sure to attend, if within the range of our flight. 

 We would be delighted to see the diftercnt speci- 

 mens of honey and bees which should be in at- 

 tendance, and ahead of anything to see except 

 the phiz of Novice, Gallup, Grimm, and their 

 ilk, side by side the difterent hives in working 

 order. A great majority of the hives with mova- 

 ble frames are patented, many are not, and we 

 would like to see them on exhibition, opened, 

 and the points of excellence each contains, 

 shown. We don't mean the sub-venders of dif- 

 ferent patents, who are travelling over the coun- 

 try, and attend at the difterent fall fairs, who 

 never kept or owned a hive of bees, know noth- 

 ing of "the nature and habit of the insects, and. 

 who move up to you and talk as learnedly on the 

 bee as Langstroth or Dzierzon could ; but men of 

 experience and veracity, who have tried and used 

 for several seasons the hive on exhibition, through 

 poor as well as rich harvests ; and hives of dif- 

 ferent forms and capacity, which you could 

 criticise, and the good qualities, or the real or 

 imaginary defects of which a man might point 

 out, without danger of being called a mutton- 

 head and ignoramus. There are several different 

 patents in our country, and if they are not thrown 

 over the fence the first season, they are sure to 

 go the way of all trash the second. Some un- 

 fortunate purchasers try to get their mousy back 

 by transforming the hives into troughs to feed 

 the cow in ; otliers convert them into boxes for 

 hen-nests. In many of these cases, however, it 

 is through the ignorance of the keepers that they 

 do not succeed. 



One year ago, Esq. Boring, a Justice of the 

 Peace from one of our rural districts, thought to 

 outstrip his neighbors in honey and bee-keeping, 

 and ordered a hive with which you could control 

 swarming, catch the drones, keep out moths, and 

 the Lord only knows what its owner didn't claim 

 for it. Draw out the chamber, take out honey 

 enough for supper, and replace the drawer, and 

 all is right, nice, and snug ! I believe they call 

 it the Buck-eye, patented by Mitchell. Esq. Boring 

 was eager to have bees in, and couldn't wait for 

 a natural swarm, but drove in a fine stock. He 

 was so well pleased with it and its workings, that 



