THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL AND GAZETTE. 



ISO 



tobacco-smoke in till they are stupefied The 

 worker will recover, Avhile the drone will never 

 slir ugain. The drones are unable to endure 

 niechauicnl injuries as well as the workers or 

 queens. A moderate pressure on the thomx or 

 abdomen will kill a drone, whereas the workers 

 will long survive a severe injury of the thorax; 

 and how little they are affected by the very 

 crushing of the abdomen is evident from the 

 laet that bees, thus damaged, are not unfre- 

 tjuently seen returning from foraging excur- 

 sions, apparently as busy as those entirely un- 

 injured. 



JS'ot less tenacious of life is the queen-bee. 

 Stupified with ether, and prematurely trans- 

 fixed with a needle, she speedily recovered, and 

 showed signs of life still in the following day. 

 IIow long she would have survived, I did not 

 feel disposed to ascertain. 



Last summer I removed a common cjueen, in 

 order to introduce an Italian. To preserve her 

 for future use, I sought to confine her on the 

 empty comb under a queen cage, but crushed 

 one of her abdominal rings in the attempt. 



Regarding her as now no longer serviceable, 

 I slightly crushed her thorax and laid her aside, 

 intending to remove her after my work was 

 finished. When I returned, about an hour later, 

 I could not find her, and concluded that she 

 had dropped on the ground in her death- 

 struggle. Next evening I wished to ascertain 

 liow the bees treated their new queen, and 

 finding that they still manifested great ani- 

 mosity, deemed it advisable to defer liberating 

 her till the next day. But even then they were 

 not reconciled to her, and I gave them another 

 day for cultivating her acquaintance. On the 

 fourth evening the bees seemed somewhat more 

 contended; but I did not altogether like ap- 

 pearances, and therefore managed the process 

 of liberation very cautiously. Well was it that 

 I did so, for scarcely was the cover lifted i^e- 

 fore a dozen angry bees enclosed her, and i Jiad 

 much trouble to secure her from the assault, and 

 <;onfine her afresh. In the course of the ensu- 

 ing night it occurred to me that there must be 

 some special cause for the protracted animosity 

 of those bees, and their continued refusal t) ac- 

 cept the offered c^ueen; and I suspected the 

 cause would be found in the queen-cells started. 

 Next morning I opened the hive to remove 

 them, but was disappointed in not finding any. 

 Not a trace of a ciueen-cell could be discovered; 

 but, to my surprise, newly-laid eggs Avere seen 

 here and there in the cells. As these were thus 

 scattered, I concluded that there was a fertile 

 worker in the hive, which caused the hostile 

 demonstration towards the nfi"ered queen. With 

 a view of capturing and destroying the supposed 

 usurping worker, I transferred the comb con- 

 taining the eggs to an empty hive, and had al- 

 ready commenced to shake into it the bees from 

 the other combs, when I saw a ciuoen at large 

 on the first comb I took in hand, and perceived 

 at a glance that it was the identical one which 

 1 thought I had killed five days before ! I took 

 care to despatch her effectually then, and on 

 introducing to the colony again the previously 

 rejected queen, she was received without fur- 

 ther trouble. 



Another proof of the tenacity of life in a 

 queen came under mj- observation last iSeplem- 

 ber. At aboitt thi-ee o'clock in the afternoon of 

 the 9th of that mouth, I removed the queen of 

 one of my colonies, confined her in a cage, car- 

 ried her to my study, and ijlaced her on a table. 

 She was still very active next morning, moving 

 about discontentedly in the cage. At neon i 

 offered her some honey, of which she took no 

 notice till I touched her autennaj with it, when 

 she ate the whole of it. I repeated the experi- 

 ment in the afternoon, but could not induce her 

 to do more than drop her proboscis in it a few 

 times slightly ; and she evinced no more dis- 

 position to partake of it, when it was again 

 offered to her in the evening But on the llih 

 she ate of it freely, nor did she entirely reject it 

 on the evening of that day. 



On the moining of the I2th lagain fed her, and 

 also let a few drops fad into her cage, without, 

 however, perceiving that she ate auy of it. She 

 appeared to be as active and lively as ever on 

 this the fourth day of her confinement; but 

 about noon she began to ttei precisely like a 

 young queen, grasping the wires of her cage 

 with her feet, Mad pressing her wings close to 

 her body. She repeated this teeting treciueutly, 

 at longer or shorter intervals, but refused to 

 take lood. On the following day she couiinued 

 teeting at intervals till after noon, when she be- 

 came silent, and her movements began to be 

 more languid. On ihe morning of the 14th she 

 was still living, though exceedingly feeble, and 

 refused to partake of the honey offered to her. 

 I left her in this condition about ten o'clock, 

 and when I returned, an hour later, she was 

 dead. She thus endured the pains of solitude 

 or isolation, and the want of accustomed at- 

 tention, for more than 139 hours. 



Such experiments unciuestiouably excite un- 

 pleasant feelings, and if made from sheer reck- 

 lessness, might fairly be denounced as involv- 

 ing cruelty to animals. Yet they may prac- 

 tically subserve a useful purpose. Thus it is 

 evident from these observations, that in the 

 transmission of Italian qtteens to great dis- 

 tances, by express or steamer, it is unnecessary 

 that they should be acconq^anied by a large 

 number of workers. Our American correspon- 

 dents have frecjuently complained that the sup- 

 ply (^f Inmey was exhausted, and bees and 

 queens perished from starvation during the 

 voyage. This can be obviated by supplying a 

 larger c[uantity of honey, and sending a smaller 

 number of workers. There would then be no 

 danger that the stock of food would run short, 

 and the ciueen would be adequately cared for, 

 though not surrounded bj'' a dense crowd. A 

 few dozen workers are c]uite sufficient to secure 

 her comfort, and insure her safety. 



Kleike. 



Tiiouon it may Avith much show of reason 

 be supposed that it is the sensation of heat Avhicli 

 causes bees to swarm; yet Avhat possible con- 

 ception can be formed of its being bodily sen- 

 sations that lead bees to send out scouts in 

 search of a place suitable for the new colony, 

 severid days before swarming ? 



