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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



another queen on the front of the hive, 

 which I gave to one of my neighbors, 

 who killed the queen of a full colony 

 and introduced the virgin queen. That 

 one is laying also, proving that they 

 were not hurt. From all the books at 

 my command, I find the oldest queen 

 kills the rest when swarming is over. 

 J. F. Truesdell. 

 Duncan's Falls, O., June 27, 1893. 



Answer. — Bees are the most aggra- 

 vating creatures imaginable. Just when 

 you think you know what to expect of 

 them, they will turn a sharp corner on 

 you and astonish you by doing just the 

 opposite of what you expected. It is so 

 commonly the case, that the books are 

 pretty safe in putting it down as a rule 

 that the first young queen that hatches 

 out destroys the others in their cells. 

 But every bee-keeper of sufiBcient experi- 

 ence knows that sometimes a number of 

 queens will be at liberty at the same 

 time, and then it is not a matter of 

 greater age, but of superior strength 

 and skill as to which shall be the sur- 

 vivor. 



Occasionally a young queen may be 

 seen disconsolately sitting outside a hive, 

 whether it be that she has been driven 

 out by the workers, by some rival, or 

 what not. But you will probably find 

 that in the majority of cases all young 

 queens that are brought out of the hive 

 by the bees are dead queens. 



Why were the Queens Killed? 



Why did the bees kill two queens in 

 an upper story, a la Doolittle ? Having 

 prepared ten queen-cells and placed in 

 an upper story with a queen-excluder, 

 on June 16th, on June 26th I had 7 oif 

 the 10 cells completed, 4 of which I 

 placed in 4 colonies made queenless for 

 that purpose 48 hours before. Those 

 cells placed in colonies hatched, and are 

 all right. I left three of the cells on the 

 stick, after putting the cells in the 

 hives. I had made a queen-excluder 

 division in the upper story mentioned; 

 on one side I had two cells on the stick, 

 and on the other side a comb of brood 

 and one of honey, with a cell on the 

 brood-comb. Now, then, I had two 

 nice queens hatch, one on each side, but 

 — about 36 hours after they hatched 

 out, I found one had been killed by the 

 bees, and the other one being balled, 

 both are dead. D. A. Cadwalladkr. 



Prairie du Rocher, Ills., Juno 30. 



Answer. — It isn't of so much conse- 

 quence to know why bees do certain 



things as to know what they will do un- 

 der certain circumstances. You will 

 probably find that sometimes bees will 

 rear queens in the upper story, just as 

 yours did, and that sometimes they will 

 uterly refuse to do anything of the 

 kind. So they will sometimes continue 

 the young queens and have them go to 

 laying, and sometimes they will do as 

 yours did. Just what makes the differ- 

 ence seems pretty hard to tell. Possibly 

 being nearer to the brood-nest, or 

 farther from it, may make a difference ; 

 but there is an interesting field here for 

 investigation. 



Drawing^ Out Foundation for Combs. 



I have a quantity of frames and sec- 

 tions filled with foundation ready to be 

 worked by the bees. Would it be pos- 

 sible to put a few colonies to work this 

 foundation into nice combs without 

 storing honey or pollen in the cells, and 

 remove these same frames of comb, to 

 be filled with honey by other colonies in 

 my apiary ? Could it be done ? If so, 

 how can I do it ? Michael. 



Answer. — No, you cannot get bees to 

 build comb, either with or without foun- 

 dation, unless they have a chance to 

 store something in the comb. They will 

 draw it out a little way before storing 

 anything in it, and you can get them to 

 do that, if you wish, by simply putting 

 the foundation where they will be obliged 

 to cluster on it. Of course this must be 

 at a time when bees are storing. The 

 Oatmans used to credit a good deal of 

 their success in getting large crops to 

 the fact that full sheets of foundation in 

 brood-combs were given in the brood- 

 nest just long enough to be drawn out 

 into shallow cells, then cut in pieces 

 and put in sections. 



T'lie Illinoii^ Honey Exhibit, at 



the World's Fair is now being put in place 

 by Bros. Jas. A. Stone and J. M. Ham- 

 baugh, who called at the Bee Journal 

 office last Saturday. They are anxious that 

 Illinois shall have a fine exhibit, and desire 

 those who have honey, or anything else in 

 the apiarian line that they think will be 

 suitable for exhibiting, to write them at 

 once, so that arrangements may be made to 

 have it sent to the World's Fair. Address, 

 Messrs. Stone & Hambaugh. care of W. I. 

 Buchanan, Chief Agricultural Department, 

 World's Fair, Jackson Park, Chicago, Ills. 



