A X I N" (i S IN |{ K !•: (' U L T U H E 



469 





FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



incnt iiientioiicd, and of course know that 

 wliou a colony ceases to exist, whether it be 

 bhiwn up by dyiKiniite, starves in winter, or 

 dies because nothing but drone brood is left 

 in the hive, tliere can be no supersedure. 

 Perhaps I ouglit to liave modified my state 

 ment by saying: "In the natural course of 

 events, if a colony continues to exist, its 

 queen is superseded before she dies." Even 

 a statement of that kind leaves Mr. Butsch 

 and myself very far apart in our views, and 

 as those views are based on observation on 

 both sides it must be that there is a great 

 difTerence in the behavior of bees in the 

 West Indies and the United States, or else 

 in different strains of bees. 



His bees only "in a few exceptional 

 cases" rear a successor to a failing queen; 

 my bees, I think, do not in one case in a 

 hundred fail to rear a successor. It may 

 be worth while to find out, if we may, what 

 is, in general, the observation of others in 

 this matter. Is the difference in localities, 

 or is it in the bees? Perhaps we may be 

 told what has been observed at Medina. 



Mr. Butsch makes what will to many 

 s(>eni a sur])rising statement, when he says: 

 "Bees as a rule will not start queen-cells as 

 long as there is a living queen in the hive, 

 whether she be a virgin, a laying queen, or 

 a drone-laying queen." Surely swarming- 

 cells could not have been in mind, and 

 swarming-cells form a large part of all the 

 (pieen-cells that are started. So far as I 

 know, bees will not start queen-cells for 

 swarming unless there be in the "hive a liv- 

 ing worker-laying queen. C. C. Miller. 



Marengo, 111. 



[Our experience with failing queens is 

 much the same as Dr. Miller 's. In those rare 

 instances in which the failing queen is not 

 superseded, we have always supposed that 

 the bees did their part and raised a young 

 queen, but that she became accidentally 

 lost — perhaps in mating. We understand 

 that there is quite a loss in the mating of 

 virgins in the West Indies. Possibly this 

 would explain the difference in the experi- 

 ences of Mr. Butsch and Dr. Miller. — 'Edi- 

 tor.] 



A trailer belonging to 1". A. .Sali.sl*nr> of .Syracuse, N. V., the wheels of Hliidi iire made to track exactly 

 with those of the auto. This plan of loading shipping caseis (or hive^) shows how to get on a big load 



without tying. 



