No. 6. 



Bees. 



177 



and 25th, when the bees are at work on 

 buckwheat. At such times all good swarms 

 will raise a brood of drones, whether the 

 queen be young or old. Although this con- 

 tradicts the theory that the queen must be 

 at least eleven months old before they lay 

 eggs for the drones, it is certain they will 

 raise them at any time when they get plenty 

 of honey, and as it gets scarce they will de- 

 stroy them — consequently the last of July is 

 a time of massacre. In the summer of '42, 

 they killed them the fore part of June, and 

 we got no swarms, but the hives were crowd- 

 ed with bees. I never had a swarm when 

 they were destroying the drones. 



Mr. Weeks says — "when the first swarm 

 leaves the hive, no queen, in any stage of 

 existence, is left." But I have examined 

 hives the same day that the first swarms 

 left, and found cells finished containing 

 queena This has been the case in four 

 hives out of five. I have driven out a 

 swarm after several days of bad weather, 

 and found queens' cells finished. Four 

 hours of sunshine in the middle of the day, 

 would probably have brought out the swarm. 

 While examining a glass hive, during the 

 past summer, I saw the bees constructing a 

 royal cell. I watched it for more than a 

 week. When finished I predicted a swarm, 

 — although none were crowded outside for 

 want of room. The very day I expected 

 them, they came out. In eleven days after, 

 a second swarm came out. Previous to the 

 last leaving, I had the satisfaction of seeing 

 a young queen several times while making 

 the piping noise, such as we can always 

 hear just before the coming out of all 

 swarms excepting the first of the season. 

 She appeared very uneasy, running about in 

 all directions, only stopping to vibrate her 

 wings against her body, which was done 

 simultaneously with the sound. This proves 

 that queens sometimes make the noise when 

 they are not in the cells. The other bees 

 made no attack^npon her, as some writers 

 have stated ihey will do in such cases. 



The supposition that all hives are left des- 

 titute of a queen when the first swarm 

 leaves, has led to error in practice. Mr. 

 Colton, of course, thinks, that young queens 

 are unnecessary to produce swarms, as it is 

 said his hive can be made to swarm within 

 two days, at any time. Mr. Jones' dividing 

 hive is en the same principle. I had sup- 

 posed it was an established fact, that if a 

 ewarm was driven out with the old queen, 

 leaving plenty of bees and young brood in 

 the comb, queens might be raised as well as 

 if they had swarmed, but I was mistaken. 

 I tried three at first — not one swarmed. The 

 only way in which I have ever succeeded in 



making them raise a queen from workers' 

 eggs or larvse, is to give them but a small 

 piece, and then twelve days is as soon as 

 they can perfect one. When I have occa- 

 sion to take out a swarm and leave bees in 

 the old hive, I find I must be very cautious, 

 especially if it is not in swarming season. 

 If I can see no preparation for a queen, I 

 generally supply them with one in the cell. 

 If any one doubts there being any young 

 queens commenced at the time the old one 

 leaves, they can be satisfied that they are 

 so, — at least sometimes, — by the following 

 mode of examination. The evening after a 

 swarm has left, or the next morning, blow 

 some tobacco smoke into the hive to stupify 

 the bees; turn the hive bottom upwards, 

 puff some smoke between the combs; the 

 bees will retreat and give an opportunity to 

 examine the combs, to the distance of six or 

 eight inches into the hive. In many hives 

 there will be some sheets of comb that do 

 not extend across the whole way, making 

 an edge somewhere near the middle. On 

 this edge is generally placed the royal cells. 

 Sometimes they are on the outside, next the 

 hive, and often on the bottom. Look through 

 the hive, giving the bees a puff of smoke 

 occasionally, to keep them quiet. It is very 

 seldom the queen cells are so near the top 

 as not to be seen. I counted nine the past 

 summer, in one hive, within two inches of 

 the bottom. Some were sealed over, others 

 not more than half done. This was the 

 next morning after a swarm had left. 



Another point in dispute, is whether the 

 queen ever leaves the hive, excepting when 

 leading a swarm. I have seen them do so 

 often, in all instances between one and three 

 o'clock, P. M., at which time more drones 

 are out than at any other. She always 

 came from a hive that a first swarm had left 

 some fifteen or twenty days previous; con- 

 sequently they were young queens. 



Mrs. Griffith, of New Jersey, I think, has 

 watched for this, and felt confident that no 

 such occurrence ever took place, and she 

 has added as an objection, that as the pros- 

 perity of the hive depended on one bee, and 

 that one should leave for an excursion in the 

 air, it would be liable to be devoured by 

 birds, driven off by winds, or destroyed by 

 other casualties, by which the hiVe would be 

 lost. Now, just such cases do actually oc- 

 cur. The queen at this period, from some 

 cause, is occasionally lost — one in twenty, 

 on an average, — and with me, this year, one 

 in ten. The apiarian who cannot ascertain 

 this loss, does not understand his whole bu- 

 siness, and as there are many who do not, I 

 will say that if they would take the trouble 

 to look at their hives for a minute in the 



