THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



287 



or lonjirr, look out for worms if the weatlier 

 is warm, in a short tiiiu', unless it is soon 

 talcen I'an' of. Comi)s tliataro not wanted 

 for innnediate uso should l)e fumijiated with 

 brimstone. It not oidy preserves tlie combs 

 from tlie ravages of the moth and other in- 

 sects, but it keejis tlieni in tlu'ir natural 

 state from bei-ominu mouldy, drv, and 

 worthless. We usually fumigate tliem in 

 tins way: Take a lari;e dry-^oods box and 

 pack the combs around the sides, leaving 

 room in the centre lari^e enougli to admit a 



i;ood-sized stone. We heat the stone quite 

 lot and place it in the box, then put roll 

 brimstone on it and cover the whole thing 

 up as tight as possible to keej) the fumes of 

 the burning brimstone in, and my word for 

 it, no insect will ever touch those combs, 

 and if there are any about it, it is sure death 

 to them or to any eggs in them. Combs 

 that have been laid up thusly one season 

 are not worth much and we never use them. 

 We prefer to have our bees make new 

 combs, as bees work better in them. 



WOKKEK BEES IN DKONE COMB. 



If Mr. R. R. Murphy will look over the 

 back numbers of the Journal, say 9 or 10 

 years ago, he will find a case reported by 

 me of "worker bees in drone comb." We 

 gave a stock of bees a large proportion of 

 tlrone comb and fed them liberally, hoping 

 thereby to compel the queens to lay some 

 drone eggs. We examined the hive and 

 found plenty of eggs in the drone combs, 

 but when they hatched out they were all 

 worker bees. We have no trouble now in 

 getting all the drones we need. 



SWAKMING. 



Mr. Wm. Kellogg has his doubts about a 

 hive casting a swarm without first starting 

 queen cells. During our experience we 

 nave known of a large ninnber of such 

 cases. We had one this last season come 

 off and no cells were started, but the heat 

 of August drove them out. This stock had 

 a very prolific Italian queen, the largest one 

 I ever saw. After I had hived the swarm, I 

 examined the old hive and found no cells. 

 In the course of a few days I I'emoved a lot 

 'of cells and gave them a queen. This 1 

 could not do safely until they had made 

 some cells. H. Alley. 



Wenham, Mass. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Keeping Honey. 



I put up six one-pound cans of beautiful 

 lintlen honey, being careful to make it one 

 homogeneous mass by stiring. It was taken 

 from the combs by an extractor ( n July 20, 

 and put into cans on August 1. The cans 

 wei'e ))laced respectively as follows: One 

 in a dark dry cellar, one each under shades 

 ■of red, yellow, green, and blue glass, and 

 the sixth can in full light. On Nov. 8 the 

 honey in the cellar candied to a white. 

 Nov. 22 to Dec. 10, honey under colored 

 shades candied, first in the red, next in the 

 yellow, green and blue; while the honey in 

 full light remained transparent until Janu- 

 ary, when it soon candied after exposure to 

 intensely cold weather. From my experi- 

 ence, an equal temperature would preserve 

 eertain kinds of honey, while other kinds 

 would candy under almost any circum- 

 stance. I think that candied honey, instead 



of being looked upon with disfavor, should 

 be recognized as evidtuitly pure. 1 hope, 

 however, that the above experiments will 

 lead others to follow up the light tiieory 

 with beneficial results. ' 



A Wisconsin Bee-Keeper. 



For the American Boo .JournaL 



How Queens are Sometimes Lost. 



Many colonies become queenless, with 

 new begiiniers, during the spring and fore 

 part of summer; and when the bee-keeper 

 finds the (lueen is dead or missing and the 

 workers are constructing queen cells, he 

 concludes at once they are superseding their 

 queens. If he knows the queen is young 

 (being reared only the last season) he can 

 give no reason for their sui)ersedure, but if 

 it is one that he bought, he is apt to wrong- 

 fully blame the (lueen-breeder for sending 

 him an old queen instead of a young one, as 

 he agreed to. 



In 1805, Mrs. Tupper said: "bees often 

 destroy a queen for no apparent reason.' 

 There is no doubt that there are some cases 

 of bees superseding their queens; but they 

 are few, compared to the number that be- 

 come queenless. When I had but a few 

 colonies of bees I was anxious for them to 

 increase in number, and I would overhaul 

 them often, and assist them in every pos- 

 sible way. I have often opened a hive and 

 found all right, the queen laying splendidly 

 and the colony increasing rapidly in num- 

 bers, but when I opened it again two or 

 three days after, I found the queen dead and 

 half a dozen to a dozen or more queen cells 

 being constructed. This was apt to be the 

 case with my breeding hive, as I usually 

 looked at that the oftenest. In 187.5 I found 

 the cause of such destruction of queens. 



It is (with laying queens) simply by over- 

 hauling tlie colony in cold unfavorable 

 weather and during cold nights. Perhaps 

 overhauling them during a drouth of honey 

 might produce the same effect. Last year 

 (1875) 1 found my breeding queen dead 

 about the middle of May, and thought, of 

 course, it must be that they were supersed- 

 ing their queen. As I had read about bees 

 superseding old queens, I thought the queen 

 breeder had got out of having one old queen 

 die on his hands, though I bought her for 

 untested in 1874. Ithen reared seven of her 

 queens, but two of which ever became im- 

 pregnated, being too early in the season. 

 On the 13th and 14tli of June, we had very 

 cold mornings, but pleasant days. At noon 

 on the 14th 1 opened a hive that 1 knew the 

 queen would he one year old the 10th of 

 August, and while holding the comb with 

 the queen on it, and admiring everything 

 that was going on, the queen passed through 

 a small hole in the comb, and as she started 

 through i saw a worker seize hold of her. 

 I then turned the comb round to see what 

 the consequence would be, and found every 

 worker near her was pitching into her and 

 had her imprisoned in a moment. I then 

 rescued her and caged her the same as intro- 

 ducing a strange queen. I then thought it 

 must be the same uittuence the cold nights 

 had on them, and to make a farther test of 

 it, I went to a hive containing a fertile 

 queen less than a month old. I looked the 

 combs once over and failed to seethe queen; 

 I then handled the combs over the second 



