660 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 



is, I mean to be, until I am pretty well sat- 

 isfied there is some reason for adopting 

 another kind of bees. The queen you allude 

 to did come to hand just as you said she 

 would, in fine order, workers and all.— 

 Friend B., it is quite a curiosity to know 

 just how you make this candy tliat works 

 such wonders, if tliat has any thing to do 

 with it. If you prefer to sell the recipe in- 

 stead of making the cantly (and I am not 

 sure but this is the best way), tell us what it 

 is worth, and we will pay you well for it. 

 You have achieved success in mailing 

 queens across tlie ocean, and 1 confess I feel 

 quite a little dcgiee of i)ri(le in liearing you 

 speak with such full assurance, wliile it is 

 backed up by actual success. If I mider- 

 stand correctly, friend Jones intimated to 

 Ernie, on his recent visit, that he had de- 

 cided to drop both Syrians and Holy-Land 

 bees, and breed only the Italians and Car- 

 niolans. 



FEBTILIZATION OF A QUEEN-BEE. 



A WORD OJ" CAUTION TO INVESTIGATORS. 



J^ RO. ROOT:-In Gleanings, p. 601, Mr. G. D. 

 IM Kentner gives an account of a " meeting- be- 

 "W^ tween a drone and a queen on the board in 

 '"' front of the hive," where a swarm of bees 

 was entering-. Tlie purpose and result of 

 that meeting we ai-e left to infer; but, are you not 

 a little too fast in concluding: that the queen was 

 thereby fertilized, or that queens are ever fertilized 

 in such circumstances? Mr. Langstroth says, p. 125, 

 " Young queens^never leave the hive for impregna- 

 tion until they are established as heads of indepen- 

 dent families," and I believe that is sound doctrine. 

 Many drones, and usually several virgin queens, 

 are found in after-swarms; but nobody knows 

 whether they " meet " and mate at that time, or 

 make appointments for any future meeting— I ven- 

 ture to think that they do nothing of the sort. The 

 accounts that we have from time to time need sift- 

 ing. A lawyer would cross-question your witness, 

 and find a very impoi-tant missing link in his testi- 

 mony, though it seems clear and straightforward, 

 and evidently given in good faith. But he does not 

 say whether he ever saw that queen again, or knew 

 that she was then and there impregnated. The 

 signs of copulation are very conspicuous and un- 

 mistakable, and we have seen them scores of times; 

 but any one that claims to have seen the act must 

 give proof before we can admit his claim. While 

 Langstroth is at hand, see what he says, p. 137, of 

 attemptingtopry into this mystery. Has anybody, 

 during nearly thirty years, coiiie any nearer an oc- 

 ular demonstration? Let me give a true and 

 exact account of a similar "meeting" that I wit- 

 nessed last year, and in almost the same woi-ds of 

 your correspondent, only this queen was in a cage 

 Avhere her cell had been put for safe keeping, and, 

 lifting the cloth where I wished to introduce her, 

 I let her run from the cage on top of the frames 

 where many bees were running about, being 

 queenless. This queen immediately met a drone, 

 and they "clinched" as if they tried to sting each 

 other, and soon the drone fell back, and the queen 

 was dragging the drone, and soon they parted and 

 the drone was dead, and the queen went back into 

 the hive, and the bees followed. 



I know not what designs that unfortunate drone 

 had, whose tragic fate he witnessed, but mine was 

 evidently not dreaming of danger, or planning any 

 elopement, but just walking across the street (as I 

 may say), when this queen started out to " run a 

 muck," seized and stung him in her fui-y, and, 

 when free from that first victim, tried to sting oth- 

 ers right and left. As I had seen such ca,ntan- 

 kcrous queens before, I understood the game at 

 once, and took out the frame to follow the sequel. 

 The workers thus attacked promptly pinned this 

 termagant by head, arms, and legs, and I left them 

 to settle her case. She came out of that scuffle 

 with one long leg queerly bent back and ci'ippled, 

 but fortunately her wings were unharmed, and in a 

 few days she took her flight and was regularly im- 

 pregnated, and I don't think any one witnessed that 

 meeting, though I interviewed her daily afterward, 

 until she became the mother of many bees. 



I had another young queen that stung a worker 

 and dragged her about a while in my observing- 

 hive. Now, the books say that queens sting only 

 other queens; but thei-e are exceptional cases, and 

 I could mention a few more. 



I should like to suggest a reason for these queer 

 antics of the princesses, as some one has styled 

 them. In each instance these princesses had issued 

 from their cells on original frames where others 

 were hatching near them, or a dozen or more were 

 in cages where the cells had been placed to ensure 

 their safety. They became uneasy, and an.xious to 

 get at each other, excited by the note of defiance, 

 and furious to such a degi-ee that they were i-eady 

 to stab right and left, no matter whom they hit; 

 and they did not feel around for a soft place as 

 woi-kers often do, but plunged in the poisoned dag- 

 ger on the instant of contact. 



It seems as though this rancorous temper needs 

 control, and the bees often get excited in their turn, 

 and overdo the discipline, so that the queen is not 

 interested in any subsequent proceedings when 

 they have got through. 



Moral.— An honest witness may be in error in re- 

 gard to what he thought he saw, and he and others 

 much more in error as to the inferences drawn. 



Casky, Ky., Sept. 8, 1884. D. F. Savage. 



Thanks for your caution, friend S.; but if 

 I understand you and Mr. Liuigstroth, you 

 are both a little behind the times. As much 

 as seven or eight years ago I reared queens, 

 and kept tliem caged until the proper age, 

 and let them out one at a time, and had 

 them fertilized. When they came home 

 from their wedding-trip they were caged, 

 and used as laying queens. Kep(n-ts of these 

 experiments were fully given at tlie time. 

 If I am correct, they had never been lieads 

 of families at all. But in a short time back, 

 reports have been given of queens being 

 hatched out in the house, and kept in a tum- 

 bler until they were old enough to meet the 

 drone. They then went out, and, after a 

 lapse of the projier time, returned with the 

 propel- marks of fei-tilization, and were ready 

 to iutroducc into new hives. I have seen 

 (pieens from after-swarms go out upon their 

 wedding-trii) within an lioui- after hivingthe 

 swarm.— Very likely, what has been re- 

 ported as a meeting between the queen and 

 drone has been only like your case, where 

 the queen stung a drone and killed him. 

 I have seen caged queens sting worker-bees 



