226 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL AND GAZETTE. 



are uot wanting in examples of domestic animals 

 having their habits and instincts cliangedin ac- 

 cordance with a material altera' ion of their cou- 

 stitulion. That a queen bee docs not secrete wax 

 is sufficiently accounted for by the fact that she 

 lays her hundreds and perhaps thousands of 

 eggs per day. And after this manner other 

 differences may be reconciled. 



As j'oiir article above leterred to introduced 

 this subject, I thought I should be pardoned in 

 making these additional suggestions, in the hope 

 that you may publish anolher article inviting 

 further investigations upon this very interest- 

 ing subject. Exery etiort at discovering the 

 operations of nature, secret or open, is sure to 

 enhance in our esteem the wisdom and gornl- 

 ness of the Great Giver of all things, although 

 we may not succeed in the particular purpose 

 with which we started out. 



I am, very truly, yours^ 



Maktin Heckakd. 



For the American Bee Journal and Gazette. 



Bee Battles Again. 



If I have not trespassed too much upon your 

 patience by my communication published in the 

 April number of the Joukkal, I beg to send you 

 an account of one of the battles which occurred 

 in my apiary in the fall of '65. That year the 

 spring pasture was very good, and all stocks 

 swarmed *wo or three times ; but early in June 

 the terrible drought set in, and continued until 

 about the middle of September. 



In consequence of the total failure of the sum- 

 mer flowers, the late swarms were in a starving 

 condition. One morning in the latter part of 

 September or first of October, I was much sur- 

 prised to see that violent eti'orts were being made 

 lo rob (as I thought,) one of my strongest hives-, 

 but upon making a-closer examination, I found 

 that one of my after swarms, being entirely 

 without honey, had deserted its hive, and made 

 an attack upon its more wealthy neighbor. 



The main body of assailants hung in a cluster 

 under the portico of the hive, and made frequent 

 rushes for the entrance. Fortunately the blocks 

 were not more than an inch apart, and the de- 

 fenders easily held their ground. Now and 

 then a party of the besieged would sally forth, 

 when a skirmish in the air would take place, 

 each bee stinging an enemy and never relin- 

 quishing her hold until one or the other fell to 

 the ground dead or wounded. 



The tight continued several hours, and when 

 it was over, the ground was covered with dead 

 bees for several rods around the hive, and the 

 attackers had disappeared. Whether they were 

 all killed or whether some succeeded in joining 

 the hive, I am unable to say. Soon after the 

 fight began, 1 found the queen of the swarm in 

 front of the hive they had attacked, and re- 

 moved her; but her bees did uot seem to be af- 

 fected in the least about her loss. This same 

 scene wasreeuactedin several of my hives, and 

 in every instance the aggressors were desitute 

 of stores. 



W. 



Elkiudge, Md., April 24th, 1867. 



For tner American Bee Jonrnaland Gazette. 



Mr. Editok r Since writing the first article 

 on tbe kind of hive I vise, in your journal, I 

 have had a jiumber of imquines for a better de- 

 scription of the hive. In order to answer theirs 

 all, I will just say it is the Ke'sej'' hive, with 

 the lower apartment cut down to 13 inches Id 

 height, frames and all; with the permauent di 

 vision board taken out, and three more frame? 

 insevted, with a channel cut in the bottom board 

 for entrance, instead of bottom of hive; and a 

 transient division board to divide otf the hive 

 tor raising queens, building up colonies, &c. 

 I raise my queens in this hive in preference to 

 the miniature hives. By raising queens in this 

 way, and leaving her in the hive long enough 

 f€>r her brood to mature before taMng her away 

 I can build up a good colony by fall, and raise 

 a succession of queens all summer. Thus you 

 perceive there is no cutting or mutilating comb, 

 and no loss in any way ; for all the comb your 

 queen-raising colony builds is all right, provi;<» 

 ding you do allow them to build comb only 

 while they have a fertile ciueen. And here let 

 me say that in dividing a swarm by making 

 two ovit of one, in the manner the most of peo- 

 ple do it, and trusting to one part raising a 

 queen, is the ruin of more stocks than almost 

 anything else, except bad wintering. The old 

 colony .where the queen is should be kept 

 strong and numerous under all circumstances ; 

 and you should build up your young colony as 

 soon as they have a fertile queen, by the help 

 of the old one. I have taken away one frame 

 from a numerous colony, and had them to fill 

 an empty one with comb in one night, and the 

 ciueen has nearly filled it witli eggs in the same 

 time. EnsHA GALLtiP. 



Osage, Iowa, April 22, 1867. 



For the American Bee Joarnal and Gazette. 



Anolker of tho^e Exceptions which 

 Prove the Utile. 



On opening a small hive in which had beeru 

 left only one ciueen-cell, I found that from it 

 had hatched a crippled Italian queen. Her 

 wings were imperfect, one of them was wanting, 

 and there was some trouble with her legs, one 

 of them appearing to be useless. 1 should have 

 killed her at once, but eggs Irom pure queens- 

 were not at that lime very plenty, and I knew 

 that to take her away would make the others 

 uneasy, unless I supplied them w.ith the means 

 of rearing another, so I left her unliarmed tor 

 a while. More than a week after on opening 

 the hive to destroy her, I found eggs in it, and 

 her appearance indicated that she was fertile. 

 Supposing she would deposit only drone eggs, 

 1 was about to kill her, when a triend with me 

 proposed that I let her be and see the result. 

 In three Aveeks fine workers appeared, after- 

 wards some drones, and when as an experiment 

 I changed her from that hive into another, the 

 bees reared some fine queens from the eggs she 

 left. It seems impossible that she could fiy ; 

 how then was f:he fertilized ? Has atiy one 

 observed a similar instance ? 



Ellen S. Tupfer. 



Brighton, Iowa. 



