1873.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



113 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Queries. 



On page 78, of October number of the A. B. 

 J., D. L. Adair says : '• I speak advisedly when 

 I say, that so long as the balance is perfect, no 

 drone comb will be constructed by the bees, 

 nor will any queen cells be constructed." 



Now, in view of this assertion, will he or 

 some one else inform me why, during an abun- 

 dant honey harvest, the bees will build onlv 

 drone comb when an empty frame is inserted 

 in the brood department of a populous colony? 

 I have tried the experiment a number of times 

 with the same result, invariably, where a single 

 frame was inserted. It appears to make na 

 difference whether or not the extractor lias 

 been used immediately preceding the insertion 

 of the empty frame. I a«k for information ; 

 for it is iutenselyannoying toflnd a frame filled 

 with drone comb, when we wish to increase the 

 scope of the brood nest by placing an empty 

 frame between full combs. 



I removed a hybrid queen from a full colony 

 and inserted a capped queen cell, which was 

 destroyed before it hatched, by a young queen 

 reared from the hybrid stock, which I removed 

 as soon as discovered, and before she ma'ed, 

 and introduced, by the wire cage proces.<^, one 

 of my finest queens. When I liberated her 

 she was kindly received. She had been caged 

 fully eight hours. At the expiration of about 

 two weeks I opened the hive to find no brood, 

 but a very fine young queen just hatched, 

 which I readily knew to be a daughter of the 

 queen I had introduced. Upon reflection I 

 then remembered that my little six-year-old 

 boy had insisted that that hive had swarmed a 

 day or two after the queen was released. He 

 had the promise of a little observing hive, if 

 he should first see a swarm come forth, and he 

 complained not a little that his mother could 

 not see the swarm where it had " settled," in 

 a peach tree, by which he lost his credit of a 

 hive of bees. " It was about as big as my two 

 fists," said he. I then watched the hive closely, 

 and was surprised to find that upon the queen 

 commencing to lay eggs, the bees commenced 

 to construct queen cells, and continued so to do 

 after repeated destiuction of ihe same, until 

 her brood, which was very fine, commenced 

 hatching, at which time the hatched young 

 queen, despite my efforts to prevent it, and 

 before I w^as aware of the fact, the young queen 

 killed her mother. I then introduced a piece 

 of brood from another colony, and at once the 

 bees commenced to provide for another queen. 

 I again removed the brood and have now left 

 them to their folly. If they destroy the last 

 hatched queen, they must perish, as it will be 

 too late for a wedding flight, as the young 

 queen has just commenced to lay, 



I should be glad to have some explanation 

 of this strange phenomena, that I might know 



the cause, and thus guard against a recurrence 

 of the same. By this freak I have lost two of 

 my finest queens. Can if, be accduvtcd for f The 

 hive was populous, and was supplied with an 

 abundance of stores. This strange proceeding 

 commenced about the first of August, and the 

 last queen has just commenced to lay, and it is 

 now Oct. 4. 



Bees have done well this summer, /. e., those 

 that survived the terrible frosts of last winter, 

 and are in good condition for wintering. 



Lima, O. J. E. Richie, 



•-• — ■ 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Novice. 



Dkar Bee Journal : We have had " our 

 say" so often on the subject of wintering, 

 through these pages, that we have this fall ])re- 

 ferred to say nothing more, but we really can- 

 not keep still while so many, as it seems to us, 

 persist in blundering hopelessly in a wrong di- 

 rection. 



Now those who have had no experience with 

 the '* great liee malady," and have no fear of it, 

 may skip tli« following, but to those who have 

 suffered and may suffer again, we would make 

 this last a])peal, and in doing so we shall, as 

 usual, censure heavily some of our veteran 

 teachers for purposely or carelessly leading our 

 suffering friends astray. 



Mrs. Tu])per, in the first place, makes the 

 remark that " as the fall honey in the nest is of 

 extra quality, there will be no need of taking 

 it from the bees to prevent dysentery," totally 

 ignoring the very abundant testimony to the 

 effect that neither by the looks, taste nor smell 

 could any one have inferred that the honey 

 taken from hives from which the bees had 

 died was other than of the finest quality. 

 Honey scaled up nicely, as well as unsealed, 

 and that gatliered from the clover fields in 

 June, seemed to produce disaster alike, as care- 

 ful experiments showed the winter before last. 

 That some localities have been exempt from 

 the disease, we all know, but when it has once 

 a])peared, it seems sure to come again, and each 

 succeeding winter seems to open a new field for 

 its ravages. Has she no fear that those who 

 heeded her advice in risking their bees again 

 on natural stores, may not next sj^ring, when 

 lamenting over their losses blame her for hav- 

 ing advised them thus. We cannot help feel- 

 ing tliat Mrs. T. reads the journals to as little 

 purpo.se as did Quinby, when he suggested 

 that the blame might be laid to the cold north 

 toinds, forgetting that bees, carefully housed, 

 had suffered from the bee disease just about 

 equally with those left on their summer stands, 



Mr. Burch, in the October number of the 

 Magazine, seems to have fallen in with " An 

 Old Mail's Views" given in the June number 

 of this journa) (although he don't give him 



