THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL AND GAZETTE. 



145 



usual size when hatched out. If, however, 

 there are only Egyptians in the hive, all the 

 bees will ultimately revert to their original 

 size." 



Herr Vogel then gives his opinion of my 

 hives, of wiiich I had sent him a description, 

 accompanied by a sketch of one of my frames, 

 which in respect to size occupy an intermediate 

 position between the large ones in use in 

 America, and the diminutive ones of Germany, 

 and are, as I believe, the best adapted for our 

 climate. He says : 



' ' The Egyptian bees require as large a hive 

 as the Italian. I think your hive is too wide. 

 Tlie Dzierzonhive is made but ten inches wide, 

 (Prussian measure.) Hives provided with 

 frames are eleven inches in width, but the 

 combs are then also but ten inches wide, as the 

 frame stands otf a quarter of an inch on each 

 side, and each part on either side is a quarter of 

 an inch thick, consequently four c^uarters, or 

 one inch, must be deducted. We find here that 

 the bees winter better in narrow hives, because 

 the warmth is better kept together in tliem. 

 Our hives have three stories, one above 

 another, (stiinderstock,) and each story con- 

 tains from ten to twelve combs, so that the 

 stock, when filled, contains from thirty to tliir- 

 ty-six combs, each ten inches wide, and about 

 8 inches high. The ' lagerstock' has but two 

 stories, each story containing about fifteen 

 combs, both taken together, about thirty. My 

 opinion as to the size of your hives may, how- 

 ever, be wrong, because I know England, its 

 climate, and bee-pasture only from books, and, 

 therefore, may be mistaken. The breadth of 

 our comb-bars is exactly an inch, and differs 

 from t lie breadth of your bars. Your bars are 

 too narrow, as a brood-comb is exactly one inch 

 thick; but will just suit the Egyptian bee, whose 

 comb is not so thick." 



Referring to regicidal attacks on young 

 queens, Herr Vogel says : 



"It has frequently happened to me that young 

 queens were killed by their own workers; but 

 this was only the case after their returning from 

 a successful wedding flight." For certain rea- 

 sons which Herr Vogel states, they then seem 

 strange to the bees, wherefore they are often 

 treated hostilely, nay, even killed. 



"You are quite right," continues Herr Vogel, 

 " in saying that Egyptian queens mating with 

 Italian drones produce only Egyptian drones. 

 Observation has shown this also in the present 

 year. Likewise Egyptian queens impregnated 

 by black drones bred only pure Egyptian drones. 

 If the young queen is a true one by birth, the 

 mating with a drone of another species has no 

 intluence whatever on her male offspring. 



"I do not find that the Egyptian queens quit 

 their cells sooner tlian the Italian. If this lias 

 been the case with you, then the bees have 

 chosen a larvae more than three days old, from 

 which to raise a queen, wherefore your queens 

 hatched sooner. It has repeatedly happened to 

 me that queens left their cells on the tenth day; 

 but this was only the case when the bees had 

 larva', lour or five days old, from which to rear 

 a (lueen. 



" You did well to raise young Egyptian 



queens this summer. Next spring you will 

 have Egyptian drones in greater abundimce. 

 The latter are on the whole of a more beautiful 

 color than the Italian drones, which, as a rule, 

 vary in color." 



Being willing to conclude what I thought 

 worth extracting from Herr Vogel's letters, I 

 have advanced somewhat too far in point of 

 time, and must therefore go back to the end of 

 July, when I received the Egyptian queen. As 

 before stated, she alone survived the journey 

 and the hazards of an introduction to a small 

 colony of Italians, which I immediately pro- 

 ceeded to strengthen by the careful selection and 

 gradual addition of ripe brood-combs from other 

 and stronger stocks. This process being neces- 

 sarily somewhat slow, I could not wait for its 

 conclusion, but was, of course, compelled to 

 defer operations until my Lilliputian Semiraniis 

 had so far recovered from the fatigues and 

 dangers incident to her journey and translation 

 to an alien stock, to commence the all-important 

 duty of oviposition in her new realm. It was 

 not, therefore, until the 7th of August that I 

 found myself in a position to take the first step 

 towards propagating my new and very interest- 

 ing acquisition. As it was essential that in en- 

 deavoring after this end I should not deteriorate 

 even in the slightest degree the little colony 

 presided over by the illustrious stranger whose 

 dangers and adventures formed the subject of 

 my last paper, I may be excused for entering' 

 somewhat into detail in describing the process 

 by which the prosperitj^ of the original colony 

 was not only not retarded, but was even actually 

 advanced by the measures adopted for propa- 

 gating the new race. Selecting, then, one of 

 the original combs in Vtiiich her Egyptian ma- 

 jesty had by this time deposited a good many 

 eggs, I, on the above-mentioned day, swept 

 every bee from it back into the hive with a 

 feather, and supplied its place with a comb full 

 of sealed brood from another hive, thus actually 

 benefitting and strengthening the Egyptian 

 stock. Putting the abstracted comb into a 

 nucleus-box, I added to it two honey-combs, 

 placed on each side, and brushed into the box 

 all the bees from three brood-combs lifted out oi' 

 a strong hive for that purpose. Substituting a 

 sheet of perforated zinc for the crown-board of 

 the nucleus-box, and closing the entrance by 

 means of the same material, I at once conveyed 

 it to a dark room, where it remained until 

 dusk. As soon as darkness had pretty well set 

 in, it was placed on its intended stand, the en- 

 trance unbarred, and the crown-board replaced. 

 A grand rush was, of course, the result, but it 

 was too dark to take wing, and the iuvokmtary 

 truants were, perforce, compelled to remain 

 where they were until the next morning, when 

 numbers, doubtless, returned to their own hive. 

 Notwithstanding this desertion, so many bees 

 remained lliat had never taken flight, and, con- 

 sequently, knew not their way home, that royal 

 cells were started in due course, and the Ih'st 

 queen was hatched on the 22d of August, just 

 fifteen days after the formation of the little ar- 

 tificial colony. 



I had a few, but only a very few, full-sized 

 Italian drones remaining, and my principal 



