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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



placed over their hives before they 

 hatched, and remained there till spring. 

 Right here I will relate a lesson that I 

 learned in these operations, that I prob- 

 ably never would have learned any other 

 way. Now listen closely. 



I noticed that every single queen that 

 became stimulated for egg-laying never 

 became impregnated, but was always a 

 drone-layer ; and every one that retained 

 her virgin size, and did not partake of 

 any food to stimulate her, went right 

 through, and became mated in the 

 spring, and laid right off and made a 

 good queen. 



Some virgins became stimulated for 

 egg-laying much younger than others; 

 and I now see that whenever any virgin 

 queen is brought up and stimulated by 

 the bees, or by partaking of a sufficient 

 quantity of the food that prepares her 

 for egg-laying, she is never fertilized. 

 So I now firmly believe that a queen is 

 rendered incapable of becoming fertil- 

 ized, or else she never cares to fly for 

 that purpose, and I would not be sur- 

 prised if it ruined her forever, to begin 

 laying before she is ready, or before she 

 is impregnated. 



My idea about when a queen is too old 

 to be fertilized is, when she partakes of 

 the stimulations that cause her begin to 

 lay. Some well-developed virgin queens 

 will become stimulated right in mid-sum- 

 mer, before they are mated, hence drone- 

 layers. Some young queens will lay 

 drone-eggs for awhile when they first 

 begin to lay, and then lay worker-eggs 

 right along; but, mind you, these queens 

 were mated before they began to lay. 

 Only made a mistake, or the stimulation 

 from the male had not thoroughly devel- 

 oped at the time when she was ready to 

 lay. One of these two reasons is apt to 

 be the cause of her laying drone-eggs 

 first. 



This little bit of experience of mine 

 causes me to say that I think a second 

 mating of a queen is one of the impossi- 

 bilities in beedom. J. A. 



Bees in Southern California — Skunks. 



Our location resembles the one so well 

 described by Mr. Wilder, on page 20 of 

 Gleanings for Jan. 1st, only 1 have not 

 tongue to tell its beauties. Near the 

 north end of the valley is a huge rock 

 with a crevice through the center, which 

 has for years contained a swarm of bees ; 

 they were so situated that it was impos- 

 sible to get at the cluster. Last season 

 I determined to put them into hives. 



I closed up all entrance to the crevice 

 by filling up with old sacks, sage-brush, 

 or anything that came handy, except 

 one place over which I put a wire cone 

 three feet long with only a bee-space in 

 the top. At the base of the cone I 

 placed a hive with a frame of brood in 

 it, and I soon had a fine swarm in the 

 hive. Every few days I changed the 

 hive for an empty one, until I had, by 

 furnishing each hive with brood for a 

 queen, nine good colonies from that 

 rock. 



What bees were left with their old 

 queen absconded. As soon as I had bees 

 enough for a swarm in a hive, I placed 

 it near the base of the rock, sheltered it 

 from the sun, and left them to rear their 

 queen and build up for winter. They 

 were doing finely when there appeared 

 on the scene his royal highness, the 

 skunk, attended by a long and numer- 

 ous train of relatives. The way I out- 

 generaled him is what I wish to relate. 



In front of each hive I put stones 

 about the size of a man's fist, in such a 

 position that the bees could enter be- 

 tween the stones. The next tier was 

 placed on top of the first, so as to make 

 break joints just as our grandfathers 

 used to stone up a well in the old coun- 

 try. We used plenty of stones, bunches 

 of cactus, and everything of that nature 

 that came to hand. When his skunk- 

 ship knocks for admission, the bees start 

 to come out, and meeting the cold air 

 and stones, turn back before the skunk 

 can reach them. I have tried the rock 

 act not only on the bees I spoke of, but 

 also on the bees of a neighbor which 

 were unfortunate enough to be left in 

 my care, and it worked like a charm. 

 The skunks soon grew discouraged and 

 and left for apiaries where they don't 

 use rocks. 



In the house-aplary and home yard 

 the steel trap is always " on tap " along 

 the line of entrance, and I often find 

 them occupied not only by skunks but 

 badgers, wild cats, mountain cats, squir- 

 rels, and even lizards. We have one 

 variety of lizard — a big, black fellow, 

 with bright stripes, that will soon (if 

 left alone) clean up a colony of bees. 

 Those I dispose of with a little 22 tar- 

 get-gun. For the skunk I use the shot- 

 gun. John Collins. 



Elsinore, Calif. 



A Binder for holding a year's num- 

 bers of the Bee Journal we mail for 

 only 50 cents ; or clubbed with th« 

 Journal for $1.40. 



