260 



THE AMEEICAN BEE JOURNAI,. 



[May, 



mortality of forced queens, until drawn to it by 

 the articles in the Bee Journal. True, out of 

 a hundred or more colonies, I would occasionally 

 lose a queen under a year old ; but I thouq^ht, 

 and yet think, it to be only incidental mortality, 

 which holds a sway over all animated nature, 

 leveling in the dust the infant of days, as well as 

 the man with hoary locks. 



Queens reared from larvse too far advanced 

 towards the chrysalis state, are worthless. How 

 many days old the larvfe may be and yet make 

 good queens. I am unprepared to say, but sup- 

 pose they should not be over three days old. In 

 the summer of 1867, I gave to bees in a nucleus, 

 eggs fresh laid from which to propagate a queen, 

 but saw no signs of a royal cell until the tenth 

 day, when one was just started. When the queen 

 hatched, the only perceivable difference from a 

 worker was in the taper of the body and the 

 shape of her head. She never laid any eggs, but 

 soon disappeared from the nucleus. As a general 

 rule, all feeble queens at hatching, and that do 

 not lay eggs the first week after copulation, 

 should be discarded ; but in very early spring 

 or late fall, this rule will not hold good. To de- 

 velop large and healthy queens, rear the royal 

 cells in a hive crowded with bees. It is not ne- 

 cessary that the hive should be of full size, so it 

 holds three or four frames of the size used in the 

 apiary. Never remove the cell to a smaller nu- 

 cleus, unless crowded with bees, until two or three 

 days before the time to hatch. When about 

 maturity, they are harder to chill, and hatch out 

 strongei", than if removed earlier to more feeble 

 swarms. To know when to remove the cells, you 

 must know whether you introduced eggs or 

 larvas. If larvae, then their age, as queens, will 

 hatch in sixteen days from the egg, and some- 

 times sooner, in very warm weather, with good 

 forage. When larvae are used, examine if there 

 are any advanced grubs. If so, destroy th'-m, 

 by inserting a small stick into the cell, sufficiently 

 hard. 



It is a fact known to some, and probably many 

 leading bee keepers, that when forage is right 

 and the atmosphere warm and damp, Italian bees 

 in large apiaries will swarm off bj^ the dozen 

 swarms per day, leaving no preparations for 

 royal cells. But I never discovered that forced 

 queens under such circumstances were less pro- 

 lific or shorter lived, than under other circum- 

 stances. Yet it may possibly be so, though not 

 very probable. 



A. Salisbury 



Camargo, IVs. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Transferring Eoes. 



I have liad some experience in transferring 

 bees from box hives to those having movable 

 combs, and think my experience may benefit 

 some of the readers of the Journal. I have trans- 

 ferred bees in June, October, November and 

 March. The time recommended by most writers 

 is when the apple trees are in bloom, but my ex- 

 perience proves that March is a better time than 



later in the season. At that time there is little 

 brood in the combs, and the bees may be trans- 

 ferred with little disturbance to breeding opera- 

 tions ; and then, when the breeding season has 

 fully come, they are ready, without farther liin- 

 derance, to proceed with their work. I have four 

 stocks that I transferred early in the present 

 month, and they are all doing well. I opened 

 one of the hives yesterday, and found sheets of 

 comb nearly full of brood f'rom top to bottom. 



There is a prevalent opinion that bees must 

 secrete wax in order that they may repair the 

 combs and attach tliem to the frames ; but this 

 is a mistake. Whoever will examine the repairs 

 they make, will find that the wax used is taken 

 from the combs repaired, as the new work is of 

 the exact color and quality of the comb repaired 

 or attached to the frames. Combs put into frames 

 in March, when no wax was being secreted, were 

 securely fastened in a few days, so that the sticks 

 by which they were secured in position could be 

 removed. 



There are only two dangers in transferring 

 thus early — robbers and loss of queens. I have 

 had no trouble on these accounts. Robbers in- 

 deed made a brief attack, but by contracting the 

 entrance to the new hive, the bees defended them- 

 selves with so much vigor that the robbers soon 

 gave uj) the attemj^t. I cut the combs out of the 

 old hives without first driving the bees out into 

 a driving box. By u.sing care, only a few bees 

 were killed, and in every case, the Cj[ueen was 

 found to have escaped unhurt. I have trans- 

 ferred thirteen colonies, and have never lost a 

 queen yet. 



The stocks transferred in October and Novem- 

 ber wintered well, and are in fine condition this 

 spring, except one that, by being neglected a 

 little too long, starved to death. I put three 

 weak colonies together, and when they were 

 united in (October) they had not more than four 

 pounds of honey. These I wintered on sugar 

 syrup, and they are now doing well, and promise 

 to repaj'^ with interest all the care they have 

 received. 



In a future number I may give my method of 

 transferring bees to movable comb-hives, with 

 such directions as will enable any one of ordinary 

 skill to perforin the operation without difficulty. 



M. Mahin. 

 New Cas le, Lid., March 23d, 1871. 



As the sun sinks his broad disk below the 

 horrizon, to rise with new lustre — his rays leap- 

 ing over the mountains ; so the busy bee, exclu- 

 ded by the twilight, rushes forth at early dawn 

 on buoyant wings, and from every floral cup sips 

 the njctar of heaven, which darkness hid. 



A. Salisbury. 



The entire economy of the hive seems to 

 emanate exclusively from the tvvo most promi- 

 nent attributes of instinct, that of self-preserva- 

 tion, and that other more important axis of the 

 vast wheel of creation, the secured perpetuation 

 of the kind by the conservative and absorbing 

 love of offspring. — Schuckard. 



