128 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



move the selected larv8e,aud insert it in the 

 cell from which the black larvae was re- 

 moved. The bees will accept the change 

 and rear a queen therefrom. The other 

 method is to insert ihe selected larvae in 

 incipient queen cells of a queenless colo- 

 ny, and the bees will supply the royal 

 jelly, and from the inserted larvae, rear a 

 queen. 



The Secretary said he had learned since 

 coming into the room that Mr. C. C. 

 Vaughan, who had also been appointed to 

 prepare an essay on the same subject, 

 could not be present, as he had gone into 

 the queen, business more extensively than 

 an}^ of us — that he had a young one at liis 

 home that would weigh from fifteen to 

 twenty pounds. 



The society unanimously voted that Mr. 

 Vaughan was excusable for his absence. 



Tlie Secretary moved tliat the further 

 discussion of the subject of " Queen Rear- 

 ing and Italianizing," be postponed until 

 the meeting in May, and that as nearly 

 every member present had had some de- 

 serlions in the last few days, we take that 

 subject up. Adopted. 



The President called upon the Secretary 

 to open up the question. The Secretary 

 replied that he preferred to hear the expe- 

 rience of others, and jot it down; would 

 state however, that he was in his yard on 

 last Friday ; that he observed one stock on 

 the eve of swarming or deserting; that 

 he closed up the entrance to the hive, and 

 that those which had got out, after flying 

 around for a while, returned and re-entered 

 the hive; that a fugitive swarm entered 

 the yard during the evening, but as lie was 

 not present, preferred to have Mr. Staples 

 speak of it. 



Mr. Staples said he had plenty of expe- 

 rience in that line this year, and that he 

 could not assign any satisfactory cause 

 for it. Have written to different bee jour- 

 nals and some pi'ominent apiarists, but 

 had been unable to get any satisfactory 

 reasons as to the cause or remedies 

 therefor. They had deserted brood in all 

 its stages, with an abundance of pollen 

 and honey. In the hive referred to by Mr. 

 Andrews, I opened it in the evening and 

 found everything in plenty : on the same 

 day started a nucleus willi the combs and 

 brood of our Dadaut queen; had caged 

 and placed the queen of the stock of bees 

 of which the nucleus was formed, and 

 laid the cage containing her on top of the 

 hive. Shortly atter I discovered some- 

 thing wrong in the yard, and found an in- 

 truding swarm entering the nucleus. I 

 caught the queen and caged her also ; she 

 died during the night. I fumigated the 

 bees and they took up peaceably with each 

 other. Like Mr. McLean, I like strong 

 colonies for early queen rearing, and had 

 selected the strongest in our yard, but 

 thuse refugees entering it made it much 

 more so. By having strong stocks to rear 



from we get more and better queen cells. 

 Was not able himself to assign any rea- 

 sons for bees deserting ; there was a gen- 

 eral rule among bee keepers that bees 

 would not desert brood and eggs, yet it 

 had failed in the last few years. We have 

 had an open winter throughout the United 

 Slates, and bees have been rearing brood 

 all the while; the mortality has also been 

 great in this locality, all stocks have 

 young bees, and he could not see why 

 young bees should be playing such tricks,, 

 unless it be that when the weather is warm, 

 and the bees flying out in great numbers, 

 induced the queen to come out. In the 

 case on yesterday it was not poverty — 

 neither was it natural swarming — but 

 something uncommon. 



J. C. Moore. Did you notice whether 

 the queen was with the first swarm ? 



D. Staples. Did not; but found plenty 

 of eggs in the hive, showing that they 

 were not queenless. 



S. D. McLean. In reference to queen 

 being with them would say that a queen- 

 less colony never swarms out. If queen- 

 less and wanting in store they will die in 

 the hive. Yesterday was a warm fine 

 day. We have had a remarkable winter,, 

 and our bees were very weak. I think 

 there are several causes for their desert- 

 ing — one cause is their being robbed,, 

 ajnd another is want of stores. 



J. C. Moore. I made the inquiry of 

 Mr. Staples because I had a swarm to come 

 out which had no queen, yet they deserted 

 the hive by swarming as they do in natural 

 swarms. I found tlie queen dead on the 

 bottom board. 



Si D. McLean. Perhaps the dead queen 

 of Mr. Moore may have been the queen of 

 some other colonj' which had deserted 

 their hive and intruded upon his. In such 

 cases bees form a complete knot over the 

 queen, and hug her as it were to death. It 

 may have been a queenless hive, and an 

 other (jueen attempting to take up quar- 

 ters in it. 



President Rainey. That is tact more 

 becoming to a lawyer than a doctor. 



J. C. Moore. I am satisfied that there 

 was no other queen, and that the dead one 

 was the one belonging to the hive, for I 

 had found her a few days before in a help- 

 less condition, and had ottered her some 

 food, in endeavoring to partake of which 

 she had fallen to the bottom board. I am 

 very positive that she was the one belong- 

 ing to the hive. 



D. Staples. Mr. President, in the dis- 

 cussion of this question a new subject has 

 arisen — that is the instinct of bees. He did 

 not think that bees were governed by in- 

 stinct any more than any other animals;, 

 they were not governed by instinct but by 

 surrounding circumstances. 



S. D. McLean thought they were gov- 

 erned by instinct; they of themselves have 

 made no improvement. 



