116 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



August 



they are hopelessly queenless, having 

 no eggs or larva? from which to pro- 

 duce a queen. 



Some 10 or 12 years ago I called 

 on a neighbor bee-keeper of consider- 

 able experience. After examining 

 the bees and other fixtures, he told 

 me of a colony he had left queenless, 

 some 6 or 8 weeks since, not for the 

 purpose of testing if bees really did 

 carry or move eggs from one cell to 

 another, but he was experimenting on 

 another line. Remember this bee- 

 keeper was no beginner, he under- 

 stood his business, and knew when a 

 colony was or was not queenless, or if 

 any eggs or larva? remained in the 

 hive from which a queen could be 

 reared. We went back to examine 

 this colony, when to his surprise a 

 young queen was found with the bees, 

 just hatched from the cell. This bee- 

 keeper positively stated that nothing 

 remained in the hive from which a 

 queen could be reared, and from the 

 time they had been queenless, and his 

 being always sure before making a 

 statement, I think we might reasona- 

 bly suppose that the egg used to rear 

 this queen, had been carried from an- 

 other hive. There are many ways by 

 which a queenless colony might ob- 

 tain a queen, but as this queen had 

 just emerged from the cell, we were 

 sure she had been hatched in the 

 queenless hive or colony. I will admit 

 that beginners often make mistakes. 

 I have a letter now before me, that 

 indicates very plainly that beginners 

 do make mistakes. The contents are 

 about as follows: "Introduced the 

 two queens which I bought of you at 

 the same time. One of them is doing 

 splendidly, but I do not know what 



to think of the other, it has been 

 about three weeks and I have looked 

 in the hive four times, every time 

 she runs out and the bees follow her. 

 The first time they went 20 to 25 rods 

 and lit on the ground ; I found the 

 queen, clipped her and put her back 

 in the hive. In a few days I looked 

 again when out she came, this they 

 do every time I look at them. When 

 I leave them alone they are all right. 

 I can find no eggs in the combs. 

 The other one commenced laying in a 

 very few days and now has the hive 

 filled with brood." Of course another 

 queen was sent this friend, but from 

 my early experience I am almost sure 

 one of the queens was introduced to 

 a colony that already had a queen, 

 one that was reared from a 6 to 8 day 

 larva?, and one that never will be any 

 good, perhaps will never mate. Now 

 if my New York friend should read 

 this please remember that I am not 

 making any reflections whatever, but 

 have just given this to guard begin- 

 ners in introducing queens and to 

 show how easy mistakes are made. 



Well do I remember the first real 

 valuable queen I bought; for this 

 queen I paid $10.00 and wanted to be 

 very sure of everything. So the 

 order and the $10.00 were sent and at 

 about the same time a colony was 

 made queenless to which this queen 

 was to be introduced as soon as she 

 arrived, but the queen did not arrive 

 until 8 or 10 days had expired, by 

 this time many queen cells had been 

 started, on arrival of this queen all 

 these queen cells were destroyed but 

 somehow one must have been over- 

 looked which hatched at about the" 

 same time or a little before the queen 



