144 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL AND GAZETTE. 



For the American Bee Gazette. 



Editor American Bee Gazette: 



Being a reader of your Bee Gazette^ I found 

 that you desire contributions for your paper 

 from all bee-keepers. I therefore send j'ou the 

 following lines, for use, if you find them im- 

 portant enough : 



1. By an examination of a colony of black 

 bees that was forced about six or eight weeks 

 before, I found it without brood of any kind, 

 and only a small number of bees. I therefore 

 concluded that the colony was without a queen, 

 and introduced an Italian queen. This queen 

 I found was killed three or four daj^s after- 

 wards. Not having taken auj' precaution in in- 

 troducing her, I considered tiiis the fault of the 

 queen's being killed. I concluded to introduce 

 another queen, and not being sureof thequeen- 

 lessness of the stock, I forced most all the bees 

 out of the hive, and carefully examined them, 

 but could not find a queen. I then let my 

 Italian queen run among these bees, and they 

 seemed very much pleased with her. The 

 swarm then was put back into its hive. The 

 queen so introduced was also found dead in a 

 few days. About four weeks after this, the 

 hive was found still without brood, and I con- 

 cluded that it had one of those little worker- 

 like queens which usually do not become fer- 

 tile. 



2. Mr. A, Fuerbringer had divided an Italian 

 colony ten days after swarming the first time, 

 giving some queen cells to botli parts. One of 

 ♦,hese parts lost its queen before she became fer- 

 tile. Supplied with broodcomb, it built a num- 

 ber of queen cells, some of wdiich were taken 

 away. One of those left hatched, and the young 

 queen destroyed the remainder of the cells. By 

 a close examination two weeks afterwards, no 

 brood, eggs, or cjueen could be found. A fer- 

 tile queen given to Mr. F. by a neighboring 

 bee-keeper, was, after being caged in this hive 

 for forty-eight hours, introduced and accei)ted. 

 Tliis queen was found killed before the eutriince 

 of the hive about eight days afterwards. On 

 examining the hive, two combs were found 

 filled with sealed brood, egg.s, and larvos. On 

 examination a week later, no queen or ([ueen- 

 cells, or any eggs, or very small brood, was 

 found. 



Informed of all this, I concluded to examine 

 this vexatious swarm. By carefully looking 

 over the two brood comb.^ 1 found a little 

 queenlike-looking bee, almost smaller than a 

 worker, but showing the queenshape in her 

 abdomen. This bee or queen w^as killed, and 

 in the evening the swarm showed all the sisjus 

 of a hive that had lost its queen. A fertile 

 queen, afterwards inti'oduccd, was accepted by 

 this hive, and it is in good condition now. 



3. A stock that had been forced about seven 

 weeks before w^as found, on examination, to 

 tfontain drone brood in worker comb, and I 

 concluded that it had lost its queen. I intro- 

 duced a queen into it, but could find no other 

 than drone-brood two weeks afterwards. I 

 therefore concluded that the queen put in was 

 cither killed by the bees or by a rival queen, 

 and forced to swarm. By an examination of 



the bees I could not find a queen. I therefore 

 let an Italian queen run among them. Waiting 

 to see what the bees would do with her, I saw 

 in a few minutes a very small black queen 

 chasing my Italian queen. This black queen 

 was killed, and the swarm then rehived. The 

 stock raised a good number of bees yet, and is 

 in good condition now. 



The foregoing caused me to lay down the fol- 

 lowing rules for the future : 



a. If a hive is found without worker-brood 

 forty days after the old queen was taken from 

 it or has swarmed out, and it is heavy enough 

 to winter, the bees in it are to be brimstoned; 

 and the queen and bees of a light colony are 

 to be put into it, after ^the hive of the killed 

 swarm ir. placed on the stand of the light 

 swarm. 



b. If a hive, forty days after swarming or 

 being forced, is found with drone-brood in 

 worker cells, the bees are to be killed, and the 

 hive treated as above. 



c. If a hive, forty days after swarming or 

 being forced, is found with drone-brood in drone- 

 combs, a queen is to be introduced with cau- 

 tion, if the swarm be not too small, or the season 

 not too Irtte. 



Some reader may ask — Is killing the bees ne- 

 cessary ? I say, no ! But the few bees found 

 in such hives are not worth the time necessary 

 to hunt out one of the small queens mentioned. 



A. Grimm. 



Jefferson, Wis., December 10, 1866. 



[From the (London) Journal of Horticulture.] 



The Egyptian Bee. 

 Part V. 



HOW I PROCEEDED TO INCREASE AND MULTIPLY 

 IT. 



Before entering upon a description of the 

 attempts which I made to propagate the Apis fas- 

 ciata during the autumn of last year, and the 

 degree of success by which they were attended, 

 I may be permitted again to refer to my cor- 

 respondence with Herr Vogel, which terminated 

 on his part with a long letter in his own lan- 

 guage, which reached me in September, and 

 from which I make the following extracts : 



" The Egyptian queen which you received 

 was reared in June last; she is, therefore, about 

 four months old. This queen has received a 

 true impregnation, because the mothers that 

 were reared from her brood here prochiced true 

 Egyptians. I sent you this queen because the 

 queens that were thus reared became all beauti- 

 ful and true Egyptians. 



"The cells of the Egyptian bees are one- 

 tenth narrower than the cells of our northern 

 bee, so that ten Egyptian cells, including tlie 

 partition Avails, arc equal in width to nine c(;lls 

 of our l)ces. If the Egyptian bee is bred in the 

 combs of Apis mellifica, and fed l)y natire bees.it 

 becomes bodily somewhat larger, and also 

 makes somewliat larger cells. The black or 

 the Italian bees no doubt feed the Egyptian 

 larva? with abundance of pollen, wherefore tlie 

 young bees bred in tlieir larger cells arc of un- 



