686 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 1. 



commencing with 1876. I kept a record of the 

 yields of all the leading spiaries in Ventura 

 Co., and found that they averaged about as 

 well as my own, which was 7.5 pounds to the 

 hive. The next six years, including the present 

 one, for we shall get no honey this year, my 

 apiary averaged only 35 lbs., which reduces the 

 average for the past nineteen years to (j2>h lbs. 

 per hive, spring count, and extracted honey. 

 So great have our yields been at times, that our 

 expectations will hardly allow us to think the 

 average as low as it is. 

 Ventura, Cal. 



DO BEES TRANSPORT EGGS 1 



A COUPLE OF WELI.-AUTHENTICATED CASES 

 PROVING THAT THEY DO. 



By John PJiin. 



Editor Oleanings: — In regard to the dis- 

 cussion as to whether or not bees ever trans- 

 port eggs from one cell to another, it may be 

 well to note that a single well-authenticated 

 case is amply sufficient to prove the positive, 

 but that a hundred well-explained cases on the 

 negative side still leave the question open. In 

 Langstroth's work, "The Hive and Honey- 

 bee," third ed., page 319, we find the following: 

 " I have, in several instances, known them to 

 carry worker eggs into royal cells. Mr. Wag- 

 ner put some queenless bees, brought from a 

 distance, into empty combs that had lain for 

 two years in his garret. When supplied with 

 brood they raised their queen in this old comb! 

 Mr. Richard Colvin, of Baltimore, and other 

 apiarian friends, have communicated lo me 

 instances almost as striking." 



This passage I have failed to find in Dadant's 

 book. Unless we impeach Mr. Wagner's ve- 

 racity, I do not see how this case can be ex- 

 plained. Wagner certainly knew a queen from 

 a drone. 



New York, July 24. 



[Thanks. We did not think to consult the 

 old Langstroth on the Honey-bee, and are, 

 therefore, obliged to you. Samuel Wagner 

 was one of the keenest and brightest men 

 the bee-keeping world ever knew. No man, 

 except Langsfoth and Quinby, did more for 

 the advancement of bee culture in the early 

 days than this same " lamented Wagner." His 

 testimony, together with the facts presented by 

 others more recently, proves conclusively that 

 bees may and do transport eggs.— Ed.] 



DO BEES REMOVE EGGS T 



MOKE EVIDENCE. 



By A. (1. Mitchell. 

 The discussion on the above question is, to 

 say the least, interesting. While Willie Atch- 

 ley is positively certain they never do. Bro. 

 Golden is equally certain that they do. Strange 

 how widely we differ on matters apicullurai! 

 but while we are compelled to rely on circum- 



stantial evidence to the extent that we are in 

 the apiary, and while we view the same things 

 from different standpoints and different lines of 

 work, different beliefs will exist, although we 

 are all equally honest. 



Some twelve years ago a visiting bee-keeper 

 told me that hopelessly queenless colonies 

 would frequently steal eggs from other colonies 

 for the purpose of raising a queen. Of course, 

 I regarded the story as fishy; but having at 

 times found queenless colonies with freshly 

 started cells having eggs in them while there 

 was no sign of eggs or brood in any other part 

 of the hive, I decided to test the matter at the 

 first chance, which came in a very few days. 

 As I had. some time previously, divided quite a 

 number of colonies for increase, putting five 

 frames of brood and honey in each hive, and 

 allowing the queenless halves to rear queens, 

 in looking them over aboat the time the young 

 queens should have commenced laying I found 

 one with three queen-cells started, and with 

 from two to five fresh eggs in each cell, but not 

 an egg or particle of brood in any other part of 

 the hive. Now, instead of giving them a 

 queen or queen-cell, as I had always done be- 

 fore in such cases, I covered the hive up and 

 left them to work out their own destiny. Well, 

 the result was, that, in about 1.5 days. I found a 

 perfect queen walking over the combs, one cell 

 cut open on the end and the other two on the 

 side, in the regulation way. Not wishing to 

 let one test decide it, and really not wanting to 

 believe it at all, I tested it in the same way, 

 and in the most careful manner the next sea- 

 son, and also the next, making three tests, all 

 with the same results. I then let the matter 

 rest until last season, as I was satisfied; but 

 seeing an editorial in the ^picuWitrist, stating 

 that such a thing never occurred in the world, 

 and that the idea was only the imaginings of a 

 cranky brain. I tested it again with a full col- 

 ony that had been queenless 28 days, and with 

 the very same result; and that queen is a very 

 fair one, and bosses that same colony to day. 

 How the eggs got there is the question. I can 

 see no other way for it than that the bees car- 

 ried them from some other hive. 



Now, where we have laying workers in a 

 queenless colony, they will, as friend .\tchley 

 says, pile the eggs into the queen-cells that are 

 in process of construction, but they don't stop 

 at that, but go on in cell-stubs, drone comb, 

 and even lay the worker comb full at times, 

 but never allow the queen-cells they have laid 

 in to mature, but cut them down as fast as the 

 workers complete them. No doubt, if the 

 queen-cells were introduced to queenless colo- 

 nies they would produce drones. I'll find out, 

 the next chance I have, even if it costs me a 

 colony of bees to do it. I sometimes find a dead 

 drone in a queen-cell where the other cells, 

 built at the same time, all produce perfect 

 queens. 



