22 THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



untested Italian queen received through the mail. Before placing 

 the queen in the hive I punctured a hole about half way through 

 the queen candy in the cage to enable the bees, seeing they were 

 so few, to liberate the queen a little sooner. In a week I looked 

 for the queen but failed to find her and I am sure I made a thorough 

 examination. 



I gave them another queen ; this time, however, leaving the 

 candy just as it was in the cage. When I looked for the second 

 queen a week later she had disappeared just as the first one had. I 

 looked over every frame, in every corner of the hive as well as out 

 on the alighting board but could find nothing to indicate a queen 

 ever had been in the hive. I concluded I'd spend no more good 

 greenbacks on that hive so gave them a frame of eggs and brood 

 from a Caucasian colony, but they built no cells, so I took a frame 

 from another full-blooded Caucasian hive with two fine cells and 

 gave that to them, and found both cells torn open in a couple of 

 days and the baby queens thrown out the front door. 



By this time I was pretty sick of the whole outfit but hated to 

 give up the job I had started, so a couple of days later I went at 

 them again to see if there were any indications of a laying worker, 

 and while doing this my eye caught a little bit of a runty bee, 

 smaller than the average worker, but with the unmistakable outline 

 of a queen. I captured her and after a good look to satisfy myself 

 there could be no mistake about her being a queen, I nipped her 

 head ofif. Then I gave them another frame of brood from a Cau- 

 casian colony, intending to unite them later with a couple of the 

 weaklings and make one good colony out of the lot for winter. 



August 14th I had to go away for a couple of weeks and was so 

 busy on my return that it was the 5th of September before I looked 

 into the hive again. I noticed they were taking pollen into the hive 

 but thought it only another indication of freakishness, but imagine 

 my surprise on opening the hive to find three of the finest frames 

 of sealed brood you ever saw in your life, as well as a few young 

 yellow Italian bees hatched out. and also there were plenty of eggs 

 and larva, and parading over the combs in a most workmanlike 

 fashion was a dandy Italian queen. Now will you tell me, please, 

 where in Sam Hill that queen came from? I can't see how I could 

 have missed her if she is one of the first two I tried to introduce, 

 and if she is one of these, why didn't she put the little hybrid runt 

 out of business? It may be that a young queen from some other 

 hive made a mistake and got into the wrong pen, and that is the 

 only solution of the puzzle I can figure out. 



Geneseo, N. Y. 



[I'll give it up. Doctor. Possibly some of my subscribers can 

 solve the problem.] 



