1897 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



an immature cell is to the bees nothing but a 

 lump of strange wax, which they proceed to 

 tear down, while an advanced one has al- 

 ready the scent of a queen, and is accepted as 

 such. 



Some precaution is to be taken in putting 

 them in. Sometimes the bees spoil them in 

 trying to fasten them to the combs. Perhaps 

 the best would be to use some kind of cell -pro- 

 tectors. To facilitate the operations, entrance- 

 guards ought to be used so as to prevent the 

 loss of a swarm in case some queens happened 

 to emerge before the time anticipated. It is 

 well to see that queen -cells be not started be- 

 tween the time the cell is put in until the 

 young queen emerges, or, rather, to destroy 

 them. None will be begun after she is out, or, 

 at least, very seldom. 



INFLUENCE OF BEE-PARALVSIS. 



As I have often stated, bee-paralysis exists 

 here, and is a serious drawback to the apiarist. 

 The malady damages in several ways. First, 

 by reason of less activity in the bees, 

 which, as the malady advances, become more 

 and more paralyzed; secondly, shortening of 

 their life; and, thirdly, a failure in the laying 

 powers of the queens. This takes place during 

 the second year of their life, or even sooner. 

 In such cases they are generally superseded; 

 and with the superseding, swarming takes 

 place. The result is a great excess of swarm- 

 ing besides some loss of brood during that time 

 as a result of the failure of the queen. A''ery 

 often queens disappear entirely without any ap- 

 parent cause. 



Occasionally the bees fail to requeen, either 

 because the colony is too small or because the 

 sick bees lack the necessary activity. In that 

 time, and under such circumstances, the colony 

 enter into what some writers have called the 

 second stage of the disease. One of its charac- 

 teristics is that very young bees, even just 

 emerged, show already the symptons of the 

 disease. 



The only way I can account for It is that, 

 when the queen has reached that degree of 

 sickness, her eggs contain already the germs of 

 the disease. This supposition is not improb- 

 able. The disease of the silkworm is produced 

 by a bacillus almost identical to the one pro- 

 ducing bee-paralysis; and in the silkworm the 

 disease is transmitted from one generation to 

 the next, through the eggs of the female moth. 



Any careful reader of the bee-papers may 

 have noticed that, while our leading writers do 

 not think that bee-paralysis is such a terrible 

 thing, reports come now and then from honey- 

 producers of disastrous results. This corrobo- 

 rates the above supposition. Most of our lead- 

 ing writers are queen-breeders, and renew 

 their queens all the time, which results in vig- 

 orous and healthy queens, or, rather, queens 

 that may barely have the germ of the disease, 



while the honey-producers leave the requeen- 

 ing to the care of the bees, resulting in queens 

 reaching the age of two or three years, occa- 

 sionally more. My own experience is the same. 

 By frequent requeenings, I find that I can keep 

 the disease within comparatively narrow lim- 

 its, but not cure it completely, showlpg that 

 other ways of contamination exist also. 



CONSTRUCTION OF QUEEN-CELLS. 



From ages past until now it has been admit- 

 ted that, when the bees were too crowded, they 

 decided to swarm, and constructed queen-cells 

 to save the old colony from being left queenless. 

 That last part of the program is a mere sup- 

 Dosition. I doubt whether the swarming bees 

 care a snap what becomes of the old colony. 



Some four years ago I acquired, during my 

 experiments, an entirely different opinion on 

 the subject— an opinion that the following 

 years have fully confirmed. The construction 

 of queen-cells is due to an excess of larval food. 

 It takes place when three conditions exist: 1. 

 A honey flow which furnishes the materials; 

 2. A considerable number of young bees acting 

 as nurses, and preparing the food; 3. A dimi- 

 nution of the brood to be fed, that is, not enough 

 to consume all the food prepared. 



The diminution of brood to be fed may be 

 caused either by the lack of empty comb to re- 

 ceive the eggs or by the failure of the queen to 

 lay enough. A young vigorous queen will lay 

 all the eggs (if she has room enough) that her 

 colony can take care of. That is the reason 

 why, unless decidedly cramped for space, a 

 queen of the year's rearing will seldom swarm, 

 or, to put it properly, her colony will not often 

 construct queen-cells. 



CONFLICT BETWEEN QUEEN AND QUEEN-CELLS. 



By the time the queen-cells are sealed, or 

 soon after the old queen realizes (probably be- 

 cause the sealed queens begin to have the 

 queen's peculiar odor) that she has rivals, she 

 attempts to destroy them; but the bees in- 

 stinctively prevent her from doing so. The ex- 

 citement keeps growing worse and worse, and 

 finally culminates in swarming. If two or 

 more queens are in her presence a fight ensues, 

 and only one is left; but when one queen, can 

 not destroy these contained in the queen-cells, 

 she is sure to swarm, or, rather, the racket she 

 raises induces swarming, and the whole outfit 

 goes out together. A caged queen placed in a 

 colony has the same effect as a queen-cell, as I 

 found out by an involuntary experience my- 

 self. Some German writer has advised that 

 very process in order to compel a colony to 

 swarm. 



If the cells are where the queen can not be 

 aware of their presence, in an upper story, for 

 instance, no swarming will take place, showing 

 conclusively that the jealousy of the queen 

 against the cells is-the cause of the swarming. 



Knoxville, Tenn. 



