1886 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



855 



of the cluster to the top-bars. Now, the presence 

 of this moisture is nothing: detrimental; but as 

 time and days roll on. some of it, g'ctting- into hon- 

 ey-cells, ferments. In fact, I do not know but 

 there is some other ingredient drawn in, or the 

 pollen exerts some wonderful power, as it hardly 

 seems possible for a mixture of honey and water to 

 form so sour and stick}' a mess as is often found. 



From this foul accumulation proceeds an acrid 

 fume which (unlike the gas spoken of before) rises 

 to the top of the brood-chamber and there con- 

 tinues to accumulate, making the bees uneasy, 

 and they beg-in to move about; some of them at- 

 tempt to move the moisture, others sip sour honey; 

 but generally the bees exercise violently, and con- 

 sequently die of early old age. The last of the bees 

 in the colony, finding it a hard matter to keep 

 warm, are forced to activity, and the consumption 

 of honej', which, taken on to a cold and disordered 

 stomach, passes into the intestines and forms the 

 watery and half-digested liquid that causes the 

 distension of the bees, and soiling of the sur- 

 roundings, in case of true bee-diarrhea. 



Those who winter their bees with tightly sealed 

 brood-chambers are often heard to complain that 

 their bees got restless and uneasy from being too 

 warm. My experience has verified that it is not 

 the warmth, but it is the fitme of the sour and 

 fermenting mass below, rising and accumulating 

 In the upper portions of the brood-chamber; and 

 the removal of the solid cover at such a time 

 would convince any person of the truth of my 

 statement. C. W. Dayton. 



Bradford, Iowa. 



PIPING OF QUEENS. 



ALSO, CAN A QUEEN FLY AS SOON AS IT.4.TCHED? 



T WAS very much astonished at Mr. E. S. Miner's 

 1^ article, found on page 778, Oct. No., and at 

 ]ll friend Root's "suppot^ing" the piping noise of 

 ■*■ queens is made with their wings. Why I was as- 

 tonished at Bro. Miner, was that I have watched 

 scores of queens in the act of piping, and never yet 

 saw one move her wings further than a little tremu- 

 lous motion produced by the tremor of the body. I 

 am no scientist, but believe the noise comes from 

 the inside of the thorax, from all the observations I 

 have taken. Why I have watched this matter thus 

 closely, was because Quinby, in his " Mysteries of 

 Bee-Keeping Explained," attributes the noise to the 

 queen's wings. In nearly every thing Quinby wrote 

 in said book I found him unusually correct; so 

 when I heard, for the first time, that a queen was 

 piping on a frame I held in my hand, of course I 

 expected to see her go through an operation as de- 

 scribed by Bro. ^Miner. Instead of this she merely 

 drew her body down a little closer to the comb and 

 uttered the note, without moving, save the tremu- 

 lous motion spoken of above. Since then I have 

 watched scores, as I said before, only to see the 

 same thing. However, I might not be so positive 

 regarding the matter, that the wings are no help in 

 making the noise, were it not that I have often 

 heard old queens pipe when they had their wings 

 clipped. As I keep all of my queens' wings clii)ped, 

 it often happens, during a rush of swarming, that 

 many of my swarms are allowed to return back 

 where they came from, to wait until another day, 

 when I can attend to them. In supH cages, old 

 queens will, qujte frequently, pipe, 



A year or two ago I had a swarm kept back by 

 rainy weather till the joung queens were about 

 hatching, when it came out. For some reason 

 which I do not now remember, they were returned, 

 and the next morning I went to cut out the queen- 

 cells to save them, when 1 heard the old queen pip- 

 ing loudly— intact, the loudest lever heard aqueen. 

 This queen I know had only very short stubs of 

 wings, as I often clip every bit of all four of the 

 wings oft' which I can get otf, so I was again curious 

 regarding the matter, and watched her for several 

 minutes. The performance was the same as with 

 the others, so the tnatter was for ever settled, in my 

 mind, that the noise in piping is not made with the 

 wings. 



Now, I would not say a word regarding the so- 

 called "nonsense" of queens piping in the cells 

 were it not that I wish to correct what I consider 

 another mistake, which is, that some assert that a 

 queen just matured can fly. Perhaps tbere is no 

 one point in bee keeping that I have given so cai"e- 

 f ul attention to as this. What I mean by a queen 

 just matured, is, such a one as leaves the cell at the 

 time she is i-eady to come out, or mature; such as 

 hatch first in a colony, or such as are hatched in a 

 lamp-nurseri'. All such queens can not fly, any 

 more than can a worker just hatched, nor peep 

 either, and do not do so under 13 hours from the 

 time of hatching. My observations say a queen 

 must be 13 or more hours old to either peep or fiy, 

 and she can fiy as soon as she can peep, whether 

 she is in the cell at this time or not. I am not surer 

 of any thing in bee-keeping than I am that queens 

 peep in the cell, for I have had them do so while I 

 had my ear to the coll listening. Let me explain a 

 little: 



Three queen-cells on one comb are sealed at the 

 same time; and if nature has its course, all will ma- 

 ture in seven days, during warm Julj^ weather. If 

 the bees do not wish to swarm, all three will be al- 

 lowed to come out of the cells at once, when soon 

 all but one will be killed, none of which can fiy pre- 

 vious to killing. If the colony is an extremely 

 strong one they may run about unharmed for an 

 indefinite period, a la Jones, and might stay long 

 enough so some might fij'. If other cells not so near 

 maturity are in the hive they will be dcstroj^ed, so 

 that no piping will be heard. 



Now, we will take the same three cells again, but 

 this time the colony desires to swarm. One of the 

 three is allowed to hatch while the other two are 

 prevented from leaving the cell by the bees cluster- 

 ing about them. These queens mature the same, 

 and are just as old as is the one which is roaming 

 over the combs. They cut the capping of the cell 

 the same as did the other, but the bees put wax over 

 the joint all around, except a little spot from 1-33 to 

 1-16 of an inch long, through which the queen puts 

 her tongue, to be fed by the bees, which they do as 

 often as food is required. Not far from 20 to 2f 

 hours elapse, when the queen that is out is old 

 enough to think of leading out the swarm, so she 

 liegius i)iping, which she continues to do 30 to 30 

 hours longer, when, if the weather is good, the 

 swarm issues with this queen, she going out with 

 the very first bees of the swarm. The other two 

 queens are just as old as the one gone out, and 

 have been piping in their cells nearly as long as the 

 other piped outside. They arc also ready to fly as 

 soon as the bees or the apiarist lets them out, and 

 Often get out with the latter end of the swarro, 80 



