120 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[Nov., 



vate. We also expect a forcing-box, hiver, and 

 swarmer, all combined ; and means which will 

 enable the bee-keeper to compel a plurality of 

 queens in every colony, without division, in the 

 same apartment. 



But I am wandering from my purpose, which 

 was simply to start the inquiry — how shall we 

 reach, and dispense the necessary knowledge 

 among those who still keej) their bees in unim- 

 proved hives? The State governments should 

 foster bee culture as they foster other agricul- 

 tural pursuits. Why not have a separate de- 

 partment for bee culture in every State, under the 

 charge of a man qualified to suiierintend it and 

 difiusc its advantages in the community? In 

 some of the German States the number of hives 

 will average hundreds to the square mile, and 

 that too in soil comj^aratively sterile. How was 

 this brought about ? Simply by encouraging and 

 fostering tlie business. And cannot the Ameri- 

 can States produce the same results? Millions 

 of barrels of honey go to waste annually in this 

 country, merely from the want of Ijees to gather 

 the nectar of flowers. What, say you, bee- 

 keepers of Iowa, shall we not make a united 

 effort to secure the means by which tliose wlio 

 have bees in our beautiful State shall be fur- 

 nished with power (knowledge) to effect the 

 gratifying change ? The bees of every hive now 

 in the State, producing ordinarily ten, twenty, 

 or thirty pounds, may be made to produce annu- 

 ally from one hundred to two hundred pounds. 



Mr. Gallup will please accept our thanks for 

 his practical and insti"uctive communications in 

 the Journal. Will he not f\ivor us with an ar- 

 ticle on this subject. Let Iowa be the first to 

 take a stand in favor of promoting bee culture. 



Monroe, Iowa. J. AV. Seay. 



[For the Americaa Bee Journal.] 



Argo's Puzzle. 



R. M. Argo has found a job foi- Gallup. 



That bees will sometimes build worker-comb 

 when there is no queen present is a positive fact, 

 but the rule is almost invariably drone comb. 

 The fact that they built one-third drone comb is 

 no proof that they did not have an old queen. If 

 they are gathering honey abundantly, they are 

 very apt to build too much drone comb ; and 

 sometimes they do so in such cases, even with 

 a young prolific queen. But with such a queen, 

 when they are gathering just suflicient to build 

 comb and store but little honey, the rule is al- 

 most invariably worker comb exclusively. 



That bees will frequently make i)reparations 

 for swarming immediately after being hived is 

 another positive fact, especially when the season 

 is good and the newly hived swarm is large. 

 The first case of the kind that came under my 

 observation, occurred a niunber of years ago in 

 Canada. I hived an extra large swarm for a 

 neighbor, sometime in the forenoon. About four 

 o'clock in the afternoon the shout came across 

 the mill stream, "my bees are going oft'!" I 

 left all, and followed them to a large pine stub. 

 I cut down the stub, split it open, took out tlie 

 bees, ljut them in the same hive. That night 



they were sold as an unlucky swarm, removed 3j 

 miles, and in just eight days from the time they 

 were replaced in the hive, they sent out a large 

 swarm, which left for the woods. The bees then 

 belonged to my cousin. They left on Saturday. 

 On Sunday I went to church close by my cousin's, 

 and he informed me that his bees had filled their 

 hive and swarmed, and the swarm left for parts 

 unknown. I was rather incredulous, but after 

 church went and made an examination. Sure 

 enough, the hive was completely filled and sev- 

 eral sealed queen cells in sight, with several 

 more unsealed near the bottom of the comb. 

 The hive was a box twelve inches square by 

 fourteen inches high, and when the swarm was 

 hived I had to put on a large box before the bees 

 could all be got in the hive. That box was nearly 

 filled with comb, but the bees that went off took 

 the honey with them. On the fifteenth day they 

 sent out a second swarm. So much for pur- 

 chasing an unlucliy swarm !— Since then I have 

 had several cases of the same kind come under 

 my observation ; one in the summer of 1868, and 

 another this summer. The one in 1868 was not 

 a large swarm, and they did not fill their hive 

 before sending at a swarm. The case this season 

 was a large artificial swarm made by putting to- 

 gether bees from several hives, with a queen. — 

 I should be strongly inclined to think that, in 

 your case, they started queen cells for the pur- 

 pose of superseding the old queen. When a 

 queen has begun to fail at about swarming time, 

 and forage is abundant, they cast a swarm. In 

 my case, in 1^68, it was no doubt caused by the 

 bees sui)erseding the old queen. I had a case 

 this season, where the first swarm came out with 

 a young queen, leaving the old queen in the hive, 

 with plenty of sealed queen cells. In another 

 case, when making an artificial swarm, I found 

 the old queen and a joung one both fertile, with 

 several sealed queen cells. 



Orcluird, Iowa. E. Gallup. 



The amputation of one of the antenna of a 

 queen bee appears not to aftect her perceptibly, 

 but cutting oft' both these organs produces a 

 very striking dei'angement of her proceedings. 

 She seems in a species of delirium, and deprived 

 of all her instincts ; everything is done at ran- 

 dom ; yet the respect and homage of her workers, 

 towards her, though they are received by her 

 with indifterence, continue undiminished. If 

 another in the same condition be put in the 

 hive, the bees do not appear to discover the dif- 

 fei'ence, and treat them both alike ; but if a 

 i:)erfect one be introduced, even though fertile, 

 they seize her, and keei^ her in confinement, and 

 treat her very unhandsomely. " One may con- 

 jecture from this circumstance, that it is by those 

 wonderful o?-gans, the attennce, that the bees knoio 

 their own queen.'''' 



That which is profitable only to the speculat- 

 ing business, though it be theoretically plausible, 

 deserves not to be recommended or accepted, if 

 it be not calculated to produce beneficial results 

 to the practical bee-keeper. 



