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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL AND GAZETTE. 



only last out till she begins egg-laying; lier 

 subjects tlienccfonvard a,ppcar as heartily loyal 

 as if she had never been incarcerated. 



In conclusion, I may observe that while some 

 declare themselves unable to endorse my 

 opinion that the imprisonment of a young queen 

 by her worker sisters can be characterized as a 

 regicidal attack, they totally ignore the fact that 

 I have supported this opinion by relating three 

 several instances which came under my own 

 observation, and in which the incarceration of 

 such queens by their workers has been attended 

 by fatal results. According to their views, our 

 verdict in all these cases should, of course, be : 

 " Killed by kindness." But from this conclu- 

 sion I, for one, must entirely dissent, and would 

 record my unhesitating conviction, founded on 

 considerable experience and many opportunities 

 of judging, that in all cases, and under all cir- 

 cumstances, whenever a cpieen, either old or 

 young, is imprisoned by workers, her life is in- 

 variably in great jeopardy, and that no such 

 thing ever occurs amongst bees as what may 

 be termed the "friendly arrest" of a queen. — 

 A Devonshire Bee-keeper. 



Much abuse has, from the earliest times, been 

 lavished on the drones, and their indolence and 

 gluttony have become proverbial. Indeed, at 

 first siglit, it seems extraordinary that seven or 

 eight hundred individuals should be supported 

 at the public expense, and to common appear- 

 ance do nothing all the while, tliat may be 

 thought to earn a living. But the more we 

 look into nature, the more we discover the truth 

 of that common maxim — that nothing is made 

 in vain. Creative Wisdom cannot be caught 

 at fault. Therefore, where we do not at present 

 perceive the reason of things, instead of cavil- 

 ling at what Ave do not understand, Ave ought to 

 adore in silence, and Avait patiently till the veil 

 is removed, Avhich, in any particular instance, 

 conceals the final cause from our sight. The 

 mysteries of nature are gradually opened to us, 

 one truth making way for the discovery of an- 

 other; but still there will always be in nature, 

 as well as in revelation, even in those things 

 that fall under our daily observation, mysteries 

 to exercise our faith and humility, so that we 

 may always reply to the caviller : " Thine OAvn 

 things, and those that are groAvn up with thee, 

 hast thou not knoAvn; how then shall thy A'es- 

 sel comi^rehend the way of the Highest?" 



Reaumur observes that in a hive, the popu- 

 lation of Avhich amounts to 18,000, the number 

 that enter the hive in a minute is a hundred; 

 Avhich, alloAving fourteen hours in the day for 

 their labor, makes 84,000. Thus every indivi- 

 dual must make four excursions daily, and some 

 five. In hives Avhere the population was 

 smaller, the numbers that entered Avere com- 

 paratively greater, so as to give six excursions 

 or more to each bee. But in this calculation 

 Reaumur does not take into account those that 

 are employed Avithiu the hive in building combs 

 or feeding the young, Avhich must render the 

 excursions of each bee still more numerous. 



Artificial Queenraising. 



The first in England to test the practicability 

 of raising queen-bees from Avorkcr larvae or 

 eggs was Bonner, the well-known British api- 

 arian. It appears, however, to haA'C been tried 

 by him merely to gratify his curiosity, for \re 

 do not find that he applied the process to prac- 

 tical uses in his apiary. Thenceforward, till 

 about the time of the publication of Kirby & 

 Spencc's Introduction to Entomology, it is 

 scarcely more than casually alluded to in any 

 English work on bee-culture. Kirby & Spence 

 furnish a somcAvhat detailed, though defective 

 and partially erroneous historical account of it, 

 without claiming to have any personal knowl- 

 edge of Avhat they call " this miracle of nature," 

 and merely giving, in their first edition, the ob- 

 servation and conjectural inference of Mr. 

 Payne, of Shipdam, in Norfolk, in confirmation 

 of the " extraordinary fact." 



Subsequently, in a later edition of their work, 

 the}' insert in a note the following extract from 

 Mr. Payne's diary, Avhich, so far as is now 

 known, entitles that gentleman to rank next to 

 "Old Bonner," in England, in experimentally 

 verifying "this most extraordinary circum- 

 stance in the natural history of the bee." The 

 extract from the diarj' is as follows : 



"July 10,1820. A late second-SAvarra was 

 hived into a box constructed so that eacli comb 

 could be taken out and examined separately. 

 On the 7th of August the queen was removed, 

 and each comb taken out and closely examined. 

 There Avas not the least appearance of any royal 

 cells, but much brood and eggs in the common 

 ones., On the 14th, three cells Avere ob.served, 

 nearly finished, Avith a large grub in each. On 

 the 18th and 31st they remained in the same 

 state. On the 22d, tAvo queens Avere found 

 hatched; one Avas removed, and the other left 

 Avith the stock, the remaining royal cell being 

 still closed. On the morning of the 2;^d, a dead 

 queen Avas thrown out of the hive; upon Avhich 

 examination being made, the royal cell left 

 closed on the 22d Avas found open, and a living 

 queen in the stock, Avhich Avas allowed to re- 

 main." 



Sixteen days is the time assigned to a queen 

 for her existence in her preparatory states, be- 

 fore she is ready to emerge from her cell. 

 Three days she remains iu the egg; when 

 hatched, she continues feeding, as a larva;, five 

 days more; Avhen covered in, in the royal cell, 

 she begins to spin her cocoon, Avhich occupies 

 another day; as though exhausted ])y this labor, 

 she UOAV remains perfectly still for two days and 

 sixteen hours; and then assumes the pupa;, in 

 which state she remains exactly four days and 

 eight hours — making in all the period just 

 named above. This is on the assumption of 

 ordinary summer temperature. Colder Aveather 

 Avill somewhat protract the period; and a higher 

 temperature may hasten it sligiitly. The 

 workers require four days more to Ijriug them to 

 maturity, and the drones eight days — the 

 former remaining twenty days in their prepara- 

 tory state, and the latter tAventy-four. 



