156 



THE AMEEICAN BEE JOURNAI/. 



[Jan., 



last season, prove to be hardy and prolific 

 mothers. One of the number I used in forming 

 a stock on the 20th of August last that had lost 

 its queen by being killed in introducing. Having 

 the young queen caged and i^laced on tlie top of the 

 frames for twenty-four hours, and as nearly half 

 of the swarm seemed to enclose the cage, I 

 thought it looked as if they were bound to ac- 

 cept the new mother, and concluded I would 

 liberate her. But in three days after I could 

 not find her. I waited ten days longer, but 

 neither queen nor eggs made their appearance, 

 and as it was late in the season, being the 16th 

 of August, I concluded to break it uj), although 

 I had one queen in a nucleus l)Ox awaiting the 

 mating with the drones, which were beginning to 

 be so scarce that I kept feeding some stocks in 

 order to prevent their being killed. I succeeded 

 in getting her fertilized, and as soon as she began 

 to lay eggs, I placed her in a cage on top of the 

 frames of the hives that showed such great ad- 

 herence to their new mother. But this time I 

 tried their patience a little more and kept her 

 caged three days. By that time nearly all the 

 brood was hatched, and the swarm was only one- 

 half as strong as it ought to be at that season ; 

 but for experiment's sake I kept it up. On the 

 third day, I liberated the queen, -and three days 

 after, being the 23d of August, I had the pleasure 

 of finding eggs in abundance. But, as for the 

 queen, my goodness what a queer sight ! I had 

 clipped off the right wing before caging her, and 

 to all appearance the bees must have found fault 

 with it, in this case, as she now had the left fore- 

 arm off, just a little stump remaining. I suppose 

 they intended thus to preserve the balance in dis- 

 figuration ! Well, I did not expect much to 

 come after it, but finding her busy laying eggs, 

 I fed them regularly half a pound of syrup, 

 (made as mentioned before} during twelve days, 

 then I doubled the allowance for a week, and 

 by the end of three weeks, she had filled the 

 brooding space. I kept on feeding in that way 

 till the 15th of September, when to all aiipearance 

 I was going to have the most populous stock in 

 the place ; and so it proved itself in fact. But, 

 as you perceive, the entire contents of the hive 

 is unnatural every way, with the exception that 

 the queen cell was nearly matured in a populous 

 stock before removal ; but not being fertilized 

 in swarming time, and with but one wing and 

 one forearm, and being moreover fed with such 

 unnatural food, and drugged in the bargain ; 

 "that won't do" my neighbors of the natural 

 type tell me. AVell, perhaps they may be right, 

 but I hope to be able to show my No. 4 on its 

 original stand next spring ; at any rate you shall 

 hear of it, be the report good or bad. 



Well, Mr. Editor, I think I have trespassed 

 the limits of your patience, but trust you will 

 grant me the liberty of saying just a few words 

 more about entire natural queens, of which I 

 proposed to make the only use last season, but I 

 slipped up. Now this is one of the things new 

 to me. I Avould like to know the experience of 

 some of your correspondents and readers,name]y, 

 that out of eleven young queens that I caught 

 from an old box hive which swarmed seven times, 

 I caught first three ; next day two in the forenoon 



and three in the afternoon ; on the following day 

 two ; and on the next day one. Out of some 

 two or three times swarming they invariably re- 

 turned again, which accounts for so many issues. 

 This is the only box hive I have, and I will put \\\i 

 with it no longer, as it has caused me more 

 trouble and required more watchfulness than any 

 twelve in movable frames. I will, therefore, 

 transfer it next spring. Now, that I may come 

 to the point, I will say of these queens, I ar- 

 ranged them all, singly of course, in nucleus 

 boxes, some with two and some with three 

 combs, 4^ by 6 inches in each, put half a pint of 

 bees of the same hive — that is I made eleven 

 swarms from this box hive, only for the purpose of 

 getting the queens mated; so that, as I might have 

 use for one or more, I would have them in readi- 

 ness, and have none but natural queens. I found 

 I had to put them in the cellar twenty-four hours, 

 for they swarmed out immediately. The first 

 one and the second, I kept tliem in a dark place 

 several hours, until they were pretty quiet ; 

 then gave them a stand and opened the hive. 

 One by one they left, and all went back to the 

 old hive, till only a small handful remained, and 

 then they went en tnasse. The third I still 

 locked up and kept locked till next morning ; 

 and then opened the entrance. The queen 

 passed out three times that day, but was unsuc- 

 cessful in meeting with a drone. Next morning, 

 when I came, they had just swarmed out and 

 went into a hive that was occupied by a swarm 

 from the same old box hive, being a second 

 swarm hived six days previous. As this hive 

 was furnished with comb, I had difficulty in get- 

 ting the queen liberated, as she was densely im- 

 prisoned and her bees slain. I procured some 

 bees from the old box hive, as they would not 

 likely hurt her. Next day the old box swarmed 

 again, and I got some of the bees and put them 

 along with the queen, as they would stay where 

 put. I kept them confined twenty-four hours, 

 and had them in the box for ten days. She 

 made no attempt to leave to meet the drones, and 

 laid no eggs. She had her forearm off, which I 

 suppose happened when she was among the im- 

 prisoning cluster. At any rate, one day I saw 

 robbers storming the box, and what became of 

 that queen I do not know. The fourth queen was 

 duly fertilized, and filled both combs with eggs. 

 She remained seven days, and then swarmed 

 out. I put them back, gauged the entrance 

 three days. After opening it,*the first tiling I 

 knew they were gone, leaving combs filled with 

 honey, bee bread, and brood, and three drone 

 larvjE in worker cells. The fifth queen did pre- 

 cisely the same. The sixth filled one comb only, 

 leaving two drone larvfe. The seventh laid a few 

 eggs, and skedaddled. So on to the eleventh. 

 Now, queens raised from the cell, and hatched 

 in a nucleus box, never served me thus. 



I forgot to mention that, when I started to 

 feed the No. 4 stock, with its crippled queen, I 

 had weighed six other stocks. When all done, on 

 the 1st of October, I weighed them again, and 

 found that this No. 4 only weighed three pounds 

 lighter in proportion to what the others did. 

 That is, it consumed only three pounds more 

 than the others ; and while the others had very 



