396 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15. . 



Years ago Mr. D. A. Jones asserted that the 

 motions or actions of a queen are often what 

 govern the treatment of the bees toward her, 

 and I am quite inclined to think he was par- 

 tially or wholly right. In the above case the 

 queen was undoubtedly frightened by her fall 

 and from being picked up, and so ran into the 

 hive pellmell ; which was not the way the bees 

 were used to seeing their own mother act, so 

 they concluded her to be a stranger, and rush- 

 ed upon her, fearing she might be the means 

 of killing their own mother, for they had not 

 so far missed their mother's presence. Then 

 she was found where the bees did not expect 

 her to be, and this gave evidence to them that 

 she was an intruder. Then, lastly, the queen 

 probably had acquired a foreign scent by be- 

 ing picked up with the hand, so the smell was 

 not like that of their mother's, and this alone 

 often causes the bees to treat their own queen 

 as they would a stranger. In circumstances 

 like the one described, I always pick up some- 

 thing like an entrance -block, spear of grass, or 

 weed-stalk, etc., allowing the queen to run on 

 it, when it is held near the center of any 

 comb, having brood in it, when the queen, 

 attracted by her subjects, will walk off on the 

 brood, and in nine cases out of ten appear at 

 home at once, as she is now where she was 

 before the hive was disturbed. 



QUEENS BEGINNING TO LAY. 



Question. — About how long after emerging 

 from the cell before the queen goes out to 

 meet the drone ? How long after mating be- 

 fore she begins to lay ? What I really wish to 

 know is, how long a time must elapse between 

 the time the first or prime swarm issues from 

 the parent colony, and the time the young 

 queen begins to lay. By knownng this, it will 

 help me much in ascertaining whether each 

 hive that sends out a swarm has a laying 

 queen later on. 



Answer. — In the above we have something 

 which is very often overlooked by very many 

 bee-keepers, and thus colonies are allowed to 

 go without a queen till laying workers appear, 

 or the colony dwindles down to where robber 

 bees take away all the honey the hive contains. 

 As a rule, the time from the issuing of the 

 first swarm to the time the first young queen 

 emerges from her cell, is seven days. Then, if 

 after-swarming is allowed, it will be all the 

 way from four to eight days before a young 

 queen becomes established in the hive, over 

 her rivals, and this established queen may be 

 only one or two days old when thus establish- 

 ed. As a rule, queens which have their own 

 way fly out to meet the drone when from five 

 to seven days old, so it may be five or six days 

 after such queen is established before she 

 mates. Then there is a period of from two to 

 three days after mating before she begins to 

 lay. Hence when after-swarming is allowed 

 it will often be 24 days before the queen com- 

 mences to lay, and it is useless to look in such 

 (after-swarming) hives any sooner than this. 

 Then if you look when the queen has been 

 laying only a few hours, the eggs will be so 

 "few and far between" that it will bother 

 you to find them ; hence I always consider it 



good policy to wait 27 days, at which time 

 young larv£E should begin to appear, which, 

 together with eggs in several combs, tells you, 

 generally, upon the lifting of the first center 

 comb of the hive, that a "young queen is 

 there all right." If no eggs or larvLe are 

 found, a frame of brood should be immediate- 

 ly given, when you will look again in 48 hours 

 to see if queen- cells are being started. If so, 

 then the colony should be given a laying 

 queen at once, or, if this is impossible, two or 

 three frames of brood should be given them, 

 else they dwindle to where they will be of lit- 

 tle value before any young bees will hatch 

 from a queen they may raise frofn the brood 

 given. But suppose after-swarming is not al- 

 lowed, then we have seven days to the time 

 the first young queen emerges from her cell, 

 seven days to the time she flies to meet the 

 drone, and three days to the time she begins 

 to lay, this making 17 days as the shortest 

 time any young queen is likely to be found 

 laying from the time the prime swarm issues. 

 Then I would wait three or four days more till 

 eggs and larvte might become abundant in the 

 combs, so I could expect to ascertain what I 

 wished to know on lifting only one or two 

 combs. My practice is to look for eggs and 

 larvae on the 23d day from time of swarming, 

 where no after-swarms are allowed, or on the 

 27th day where such swarming is allow^ed. 

 But, more often still, I do not look into any 

 hive at all of late years, as years of looking at 

 the way the bees act at the entrance and in the 

 sections has enabled me to tell at a glance 

 along about the date named, whether the col- 

 onies have laying queens or not. When you 

 find a colony that does not have a laying 

 queen the 2oth day after the first swarm is- 

 sues, just watch the bees in their actions at the 

 entrance, and compare their actions with one 

 you know has a queen which has been laying 

 two or three days. Then look at the work, or 

 " non-work," going on in the sections of the 

 two hives ; and if you are a careful observer 

 you will ever afterward be pretty sure regard- 

 ing this matter without ever even opening a 

 hive ; in fact, so sure that you will very likely 

 express yourself to others in the matter very 

 much as did the negro editor of that Texas 

 paper, who considered words inadequate when 

 he " boomed " John D. McCall for the mayor- 

 alty in this unique style: "Mr. McCall is 

 eminently a pious man, honest as the days are 

 long ; certainly he never embellishes meager 

 conceptions with a dazzling trope, nor uses 

 fine words to conceal poverty of sense, but, 

 honest to express his conviction, his congeni- 

 ality, like a brook in the leafy month of June, 

 takes no pains to woo your eye or ear to its 

 musical and sparkling waters ; but, come 

 when you will come, in serene weather or in 

 cloudy days, daytime or nighttime, it mur- 

 murs sweetly as it goes ; break on it in the 

 thicket, cross it in the meadow, it welcomes 

 you with the same pleasing note ; flowing it 

 sings, and singing it flows ; and his piety 

 gives the sweetness of its tone to his life and 

 character. These metaphorical illustrations 

 are but faint ideas of the greatness of our sub- 

 ject." 



