1884 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



51 



nally in despair I told my wife I should just 

 like to see Mr. Quinby or Mr. Langstroth 

 find that queen, and that I would give pret- 

 ty nearly a five-dollar bill to see them do it. 

 Years have passed since then, and I have got 

 over the difficulty of finding queens, like al- 

 most any other difficulty ; and for the en- 

 couragement of the juveniles, and some of 

 the older " niles " too, I will say that we can 

 get used to almost any thing that anybody 

 else can do, so as to have it at our fingers' 

 ends, as it were. 



Well, what I started out to say was this : 

 That one great trouble with my early efforts 

 was, I was always expecting the queen to be 

 something very much different from the 

 other bees. Of course, I did not really ex- 

 pect her to be as large as an ox, but just 

 thought, from the pictures in the books, that 

 she would be very large and tall, so as to 

 stand head and shoulders away over the rest ; 

 whereas the truth is, unless "we look into a 

 hive when the queen is in the height of her 

 laying, she does not look so very much dif- 

 ferent from the worker-bees, and therefore 

 we are to find her more by the attitude 

 and behavior of the other bees toward her, 

 than from any great difference in looks. In 

 order to show you just exactly what a queen 

 looks like, I have been at some expense in 

 having an engraving made from a photo- 

 graph of the queen and bees, just as they 

 stand on the comb. Here it is : 



W 



-^ / r 



THE QUEEN AND HER RETINUE. 



She looks rather insignificant, does she 

 not, little friends, compared with queen-bees 

 we see in the advertisements y Nevertheless, 

 I think the picture is a pretty truthful one, 

 both of bees and queen. After your eye has 

 been educated^to catch the slightest glimpse 

 of^the peculiar^^action of the workers when 

 near the queen, you will learn to hunt her 

 almost without knowing it. Your eye finds 

 her, and I have seen some of the juveniles 

 whose eyes would pounce on a queen (if that 

 is thelright expression) quicker than either 

 father or grandfather, even with the aid of 

 their spectacles ; and these little chicks do it 

 by^noticing the behavior of the bees. Do 

 yon not see how they all stand around her, 

 putting out their antennae, or feelers, very 

 much as you put out your bauds and lips to 



the baby in a caressing sort of way, giving 

 him a kiss on top of his little woolly head, or 

 perhaps his shoe, or plump, fat leg ? They 

 seem to love their queen, and like to touch 

 her and caress her. When she walks toward 

 them, those before her stand out of the way 

 just as you would back off for the baby, 

 when he is learning to creep. They will 

 twist around, and sway their bodies in a 

 graceful sort of way, just as you see that bee 

 at her left hand curving his body as she 

 comes around. In fact, these motions have 

 become so familiar to us that I have been in 

 the habit of telling tlie boys, as soon as they 

 pick up a comb, '' There, boys, you will find 

 the queen on that comb, on one side or the 

 other." Now, 1 had not seen her at all, but 

 I knew pretty well by the way they acted, 

 that they had just been paying their atten- 

 tions to iier. You will notice that the queen 

 is in size almost the same as the bees around 

 her. It is, in fact, the diiTerence in shape, 

 rather than tiie difference in size. Her wings 

 lie close to her body, as you see, while the 

 others are all spread out, more or less. Her 

 body is also slim and pointed, while others 

 are blunt — more like that of a drone. By 

 the way, we ought to have had a drone in 

 that group, but I did not get him. If any of 

 you can give me a good photograph of a 

 drone, I will pay for all expense and trouble. 

 Perhaps some of our amateur photographers 

 who keep bees might manage it. I suppose 

 the queen we have pictured here was taken 

 out of season, when she was laying very little 

 if any. During the height of the honey sea- 

 son she would lengthen out nearly a half 

 longer, lint her wings anrl body and head 

 would be about the same. You will notice 

 her shoulders are larger, and differently 

 shaped from those of a worker-bee. I ofteii 

 find her, just by getting a glimpse of that 

 part of her body. Now. then, when you look 

 for a queen again, see if yon don't succeed 

 better. 



Jn closing up this article in regard to find- 

 ing queens, we venture to put in a little pic- 

 ture we used some time ago in the Merry- 

 banks stories. 



HUNTING FOR 'J HE QUEEN. 



You see, our old friend has so much troub- 

 le in finding the queen that he has got a la- 

 bel made to paste on her back. Every thing 

 is all fixed, as you see ; but, alas ! he can 

 not paste on his label, because as usual th^ 

 queen is nowhere to be found. 



