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GLEANINGS IN BEE CUIvTURE. 



July 1. 



time should probably be allowed for the seal- 

 ing of 10 square inches, it is likely that some 

 of the cells were sealed when the inmates were 

 less than 8 days old. Next day at 4 p. M. 

 some cells were still unsealed when all had 

 passed the age of 5 da' s 4 hours. 



Comb b gave much the same testimony : 6 

 worker-cells were sealed when none had pass- 

 ed the age of 8 days 4 hours (they may have 

 been considerably short of that), and a few 

 cells were left unsealed when all had passed 

 the age of 8 days 2 hours. 



On comb e four worker-cells were sealed 

 when the oldest lacked 45 minutes or more of 

 being 8 days old. On this same comb, the 

 last quecncell started (with too old 1 irva)was 

 not sealed till it was 9 days 3 hours old or old- 

 er. 



July 5 I started an experiment for the sole 

 purpose of deciding something about the times 

 and seasons of development. At noon I gave 

 to No. 84 an empty comb for the queen to lay 

 in, and took it away 4 hours later, with about 

 80 eggs in it, putting it over an excluder on 51. 

 This upper story was strong in bees, and it 

 was no doubt well cared for. July 8, 4 P. M., 

 only 5 eggs were hatched. At this time all 

 the eggs were at least 3 days old, showing that 

 most of them did not hatch till after 3 days 

 old. I think others have n ported considera- 

 bly less than this, showing tliat the bees are 

 not uniform in their proceedings, but very 

 likely Mr. Cowan is right in giving 3 days as 

 the time for eggs to hatch. 



At this time, July 8, 4 P. M., the comb was 

 given to No. 18, its queen, all i's brood, and 

 some of its bees being taken away at this 

 time, leaving it a fair colony, but not strong. 

 July 10, 6 A. M., larvae were lavishly fed, sev- 

 eral slightly enlarged as for queen-cells, and 

 one hooded. One or several observations were 

 made daily, but it is not necessary to recite 

 all. 



July 13, 6 A. M., one queen-cell sealed and 

 one worker-cell. These were somewhere from 

 7 days 14 hours to 7 days 18 hours old. At 9 

 A. M , no change. At noon a few more work- 

 er-cells sealed. At 6 15 p m., another queen- 

 cell sealed. This cell must have been sealed 

 when not more than 4 hours under 8 days old, 

 and not more than 6 hours 15 minutes over 8 

 davs old. These were perhaps the only queen- 

 cells started with larvae of proper age, for the 

 age limit was reached July 11, 4 p. M. But 

 the bees continued to start queen-cells, and 

 seemed especially desperate in the matter when 

 the age limit had been passed some two days, 

 for 16 fresh queen-cells were star'ed between 

 July 13. 6 15 p. M , and 4.30 the next morning. 

 It should be remarked, however, that 4 other 

 cells had been started soon after the age limit 

 was passed. 



It would seem as if the attempt to make 

 queens of too old larvae had the effect to pro- 

 long the time of sealing beyond what it would 

 have been if the larvae had been treated 

 throughout as workers. Notice what follows, 

 and you will see that this is so. When the 8 

 days from the laying of the last egg had been 

 passed 12 hours 30 minutes, there were 16 

 queen-cells unsealed. At 17 hours past the 8 



days, 9 were still unsealed. At 21 hours past 

 the 8 days, 3 were still unsealed. At 25 hours 

 past the 8 days, 2 were still unsealed. I am 

 sorry to say there is no note when these last 

 two were sealed. 



July 20, 6 A. M., no queen had yet emerged. 

 At 10.25 A. M., one was out of the cell and 

 was removed. This queen emerged from the 

 cell in not less than 14 days and 14 hours, and 

 not more than 14 days 22 hours 25 minutes, 

 after the laying of the egg. 



There seems nothing in these observations 

 to throw discredit on the table of Mr. Cowan, 

 and it may not be an unfair inference that he 

 drew his conclusions from colonies of fair 

 strength while others used nuclei. 



A practical consideration is that those who 

 count upon 16 days from the laying of the 

 egg to the emerging of the queen may have a 

 fine batch of queen cells destroyed by a queen 

 emerging inside of 15 days. 



It appears quite plain that bees are not uni- 

 form in their performances, and it would be 

 nothing strange that the next experiment 

 should give different results. 



I am quite strongly of the opinion that there 

 is much more varia.ion as to the time of seal- 

 ing queen cells than there is in the time of 

 sealing worker-cells. I have been surprised 

 sometimes, upon opening a sealed queen-cell, 

 to fiud it occupied by so small a larva, and this 

 with every thing in prosperous condition. 

 The bees can afford to vary no little with 

 queen cells, while such variation with workers 

 would be disastrous As a rule the rations of 

 the worker are carefully measured out, not an 

 iota remaining unused ; and if the larva should 

 be sealed up a da}- or two before the usual 

 time, the worker would be dwarfed if not 

 starved. With a royal' larva it is different. 

 From first to last it has an excess of food, and 

 if sealed up while quite small it has a suflB- 

 cient supply to last. 



Marengo, 111., Jan. 12. 



[This article, as will be seen by the date, 

 was written about the first of the year ; but I 

 have held it till now so that the interesting 

 conclusions can be verified or disproved in the 

 apiary. I should like to have our readers, 

 especially queen -breeders, go into the matter 

 carefully ; for in a practical way it involves 

 the matter of choice queens, and that means 

 honey. 



What surprised me is that in one of the ex- 

 periments conducted the bees should have 

 apparently waited so long before starting the 

 bulk of the cells ; for Dr. Miller says that 16 

 fresh queen-cells were started on the 13th of 

 July, just 8 days after the eggs were laid, or 5 

 days after the larvae were hatched. We have 

 heretofore assumed that larvae just hatched, 

 or larvae not more than 3 days old, was the 

 preferred age ; but here is a case where the 

 bees evident'y had a preference for the five- 

 day limit. Now, the question is, was this ex- 

 ceptional with this colony, or is it the com- 

 mon average ? Now, friends, don't you see a 

 great deal of importance attaches to this ? — 

 Ed.] 



