THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



83 



eggs, I inserted it in a comb belonging to the 

 queenless colony. Would they recognize the 

 superior value of these eggs, and properly 

 care for them ? 1 was curious as to this, but 

 hud nothing further in view. Three days 

 later tiiese bees had become as quiet as those 

 of our other colonies. The mortality occa- 

 sioned by their leaving the hive suddenly 

 ceased, for they suddenly ceased to come 

 forth . We marvelled greatly, and were happy 

 enough when on Jan. 8 we were able once 

 more to investigate. 



On examining the piece of comb inserted 

 Dec. 16, we found to our chagrin — nothing. 

 Greatly disajipointed for the moment, we 

 proceeded to lift the next comb. Here we 

 found a little capped drone brood, in drone 

 comb. Near the center of this was suspended 

 a long, slender, capped queen cell ! The bees 

 seemed to be deeply interested in it, and clus- 

 tered about it so thickly that it was with 

 some ditticulty that we assured ourselves that 

 the cap had a brownish and soou-to-be-lifted 

 appearance. 



"Have you your penknife, Nellie?" 1 

 eagerly demanded. 



Nellie answered my query by coolly taking 

 the frame from my fingers and carefully drop- 

 ping it into its place. 



"I think we will leave her to introduce 

 herself," she said gravely. "These bees are 

 so very peculiar and punctilious, — they might 

 object to taking her from the point of a 

 knife ! " 



" But," I remonstrated, " the cell may con- 

 tain only a dead or dying drone; I should 

 have found out." 



" You don't think so, neither do I, neither 

 do the bees, evidently; and you don't want 

 to risk bringing about a relapse from the 

 quiet of the past two weeks, to the old dis- 

 content and restlessness — you know you 

 don't." 



Nellie sometimes forgets she is my junior, 

 Imt, in consideration of her ordinary docility, 

 I usually yield to her upon such occasions, 

 and console myself for the temporarj^ abne- 

 gation of authority by holding the reins a 

 little tighter when I recover them. 



In the present case I only remarked mildly, 

 " Well, admitting that a worker egg was car- 

 ried across from the piece of inserted comb, 

 and successfully deposited in the queen cell, 

 what has become of the remaining forty-nine 

 (more or less) worker eggs ? " 



" Oh," said Nellie, "they only succeeded 

 with the fiftieth egg; the remaining forty- 

 nine didn't bear transportation." 



"An explanation more convenient than 

 probable, I suspect." 



" Well," said Nellie, " I can suggest an- 

 other—shall I ? " 



"Certainly; why not?" 

 " Because it is rather shocking. Perhaps 

 the eggs were hatched. Somewhere, I have 



seen a suggestion, or an assertion, to the ef- 

 fect that for the compassion of royal jelly, 

 young larvie — " 



"That will do, my dear; I remember ! I 

 very much i)refer your first explanation." 



We closed the hive with the mental agree- 

 ment that it would lie well to search for our 

 hypothetical (lueen on the next warm day. 



Such a day — a day both warm and still — 

 came not until Feb. 28. But with it, alas ! 

 came company; guests whom, on ordinary 

 occasions, we delighted to honor. As it was 

 — well, we womanfully choked down our 

 bitter regret that our friends had not chosen 

 washing day, or any other day lint this — met 

 them smilingly, and entertained them as best 

 we could, while the warm, sunny hours of 

 the afternoon — hours that for weeks we had 

 sighed for — passed by, and our opportunity 

 was gone ! 



We console ourselves only by reflecting 

 that spring is at hand, and the colony is still 

 alive. That it is much reduced in numbers, 

 we must admit; but, we, nevertheless, regard 

 it hopefully. The bees that we see at the 

 entrance are, now, as bright, as small, and 

 as active as their more favored neighbors. 

 In any event, we shall not change our present 

 opinion — that for truly enjoyable winter bee 

 keeping, a queenless colony is indispensable ! 

 Cyula Linswik. 



For tlie American Bee Journal. 



Clipping Queens' Wings; 



SIZE OF HIVES; "NEW IDEA" HIVES; ANI> 

 OTHEK THINGS. 



At the late meeting of the North American 

 Bee-Keepers' Society I read a paper on the 

 Wings of Bees, showing that thej'^ must be 

 important organs aside from their mechanical 

 use as organs of flight; in fact that they are 

 a part of the pulmonary system, and that 

 any injury to the wings must affect the 

 strength and value of the queens. Mr. Root, 

 in his " Gleanings," without publishing the 

 paper at all, says I say that " bees breathe 

 through their wings," leaving it to be under- 

 stood that I state that they compose the entire 

 lungs, when any one who will read the paper 

 will see that I take no such position. 



I wrote to Mr. R. an explanation of his er- 

 ror and suggested to him that it would be 

 fairer for him to publish the paper so that 

 the readers might judge for themselves. He 

 publishes a part of my letter, only. He still 

 refuses to publish the paper, for which he 

 gives the following reason in his February 

 number. He says: 



" We declined publishing the paper then, 

 and do now, on the ground that very few peo- 

 ple indeed are capable of deciding what is 

 truth and what is error in the micros'^opic 

 world," and he goes so fur as to take to task 



