THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



CONDUCTED BY CH. DADANT. 



Who is there that would not have fol- 

 lowed with interest the discussion on the 

 copulation and laying of the mother bee, 

 that had been begun at the Saltzbourg 

 meeting ? At the receipt of each num- 

 ber of the Bienen Zeitung I thought that 

 the minds of the opponents were becom- 

 ing more excited, but I was mistaken. 

 Mr. Collin abandoned the battle tield and 

 •withdrew from the stand, so that Mr. 

 Huber remained alone. Later the Bienen 

 Zeitung published several articles on this 

 question, but nobody treated it in a com- 

 plete manner, so that the question re- 

 mains as it was in the beginning, when 

 taken in a practical view. 



I write this essay to conduct the novice 

 on the track, through which he will be 

 able to form an opinion, helping it with 

 experiments and observations. In order 

 to ascertain at what age the heat begins 

 in the young queen it is necessary to 

 know at what time she has left the cell. 



Generally, a mother bee becomes de- 

 veloped into a perfect insect within 16 or 

 17 days from the time when the egg is 

 laid, if properly attended to. 



If properly attended to, the larvse is de- 

 veloped in three days. 



In well stocked colonies and during an 

 abundant harvest, I have seen the larv« 

 hatch after after two days and 4 hours. 

 In a temperature of 32 to 33 degrees (cen- 

 tigrade) I have seen the larvae hatch after 

 2 days and 6 hours. In artificial swarms 

 made with brood combs, in which the 

 brood was but thinly covered with bees, 

 the larvae often hatched on the 4th or 5tli 

 day after being laid. 



In a colony that had suddenly become 

 weak, some of the oggs did not hatch for 

 for a week until this same colony had be- 

 come strong again and the bees were able 

 to attend to their hatching. I will simply 

 mention the fact that bee-eggs that have 

 been deprived of sufficient heat are still 

 capable of becoming developed after 10 

 or 12 days. 



As the egg needs no nourishment but 

 requires only heat to become a living 

 being, the duration of time in which the 

 larvae becomes developed in the egg de- 

 pends on the brooding, that is on the 

 degree of heat that the bees produce in 

 the brood chamber. We can assert that, 

 as a general rule, the larva; leaves the egg 

 in three days. 



In too high a temperature all organic 

 life ceases. Tiiere is undoubtedly also 

 for bee-eyirs a maximum of heat that can- 



not be exceeded. Bees do not produce 

 in the interior of the hive such a degree 

 of heat that the eggs lose their capacity 

 of becoming developed ; I think that the 

 highest temperature in which they still 

 become developed is 37 to 38 deg. (centi- 

 grade — 98 to lUO Farh.). This supposi- 

 tion is based on the observation that such 

 a heat is about the highest that can be 

 supported in the hive when the sun 

 strikes it. I made the same observations 

 on butterfly eggs. Such experiments can- 

 not be tried with bee's eggs as the wax 

 melts. These eggs assuredly would perish 

 rapidly in a temperature of 50 deg. fah. 



It results from the above remarks that 

 it will always be impossible to establish 

 in every case the length of time in which 

 the larvae becomes developed in the egg. 

 Generally, the royal larvae lives 5 days 

 and 12 hours in the open cell. 



If it is not a small affair to establish 

 the length of time during which the egg 

 becomes changed to larvae, it is yet much 

 more difficult to determine positively the 

 period during which the larvae lives in 

 the open cell. Let the reader make 

 minute observations on the subject and 

 publish them in this paper, for it is pre- 

 cisely on this question that there is least 

 known. Francis Huber, of Geneva , 

 says that the royal larvae remains in the 

 open cell for live days. According to 

 my observations which differ but a few 

 minutes from those of Van Berlepsch, the 

 royal larvae remains in its open cradle 5 

 days and 12 hours, supposing that the 

 temperature is regular and that the larvae 

 is amply fed. When I removed the comb 

 containing the uncapped royal cells once 

 an hour for two days to inspect it, I 

 found that these royal cells were sealed 

 over only 5 to 8 hours later. Afterwai'ds 

 I removed from the hive some combs 

 containing royal larvae, I removed the 

 bees and placed one of these combs in an 

 empty hive for 24 hours. I obtained in 

 this hive a temperature of 23 to 26 deg. 

 by means of heated bricks. After this 

 time, I returned this comb to the colony 

 and those cells were sealed 14 hours, and 

 in several cases 15 hours, later than they 

 should have been if in normal conditions. 



It results from these experiences, that 

 the royal larvic becomes developed more 

 slowly and are therefore sealed more 

 tardily, when the necessary attentions 

 have been interrupted and when food is 

 given them after a prolonged interrup- 

 tion. It is known by everybody that 

 royal larvie requires more than the usual 

 time for their development when raised 

 in an artificial swarm that cannot pro- 

 duce the necessary heat for the brood. — 

 F. W. Vogel, in Bienen Zeitung. 



