THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



309 



Explaiiatorj-.— The figures bekoiie the 

 names indicate the number of years that the 

 person has kept bees. Those aftkr, show 

 the number of colonies the writer had in the 

 previous springs and fall, or fall and spring, 

 as the time of the year nuiy reciuire. 



This mark indicates that the apiarist is 

 located near the center of the State named; 

 5 north of the center; 9 south; O* east; 

 +0 west; and thisd northeast; xi northwest: 

 o- southeast; and P southwest of the center 

 of the State mentioned. 



For the American Bee JournaL 



Siipersetoig of Queens, etc. 



G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



The question is asked, "How do 

 bees kuow when to supersede a 

 queen ?" and as the time of such 

 superseding of queens is near at hand, 

 perliaps a few words on the subject 

 may not be uninteresting. 



After a careful watching of all cases 

 of supersedure of queens which have 

 come under my notice, I am led to 

 believe that the bees, as a rule, super- 

 sede a queen on account of her ceas- 

 ing to be as prolific as she has been 

 heretofore, and especially is this the 

 case where the attempt is made to 

 replace the old queen previous to 

 swarming, or immediately after the 

 prime swarm has sought a new abode, 

 say during the first two weeks after 

 the swarm has been hived. 



In all of the cases of supersedure 

 which happened at the times above 

 mentioned, the queens were failing, 

 and soon died, nearly always before 

 the young queen began laying, so that 

 I had positive evidence that the'few- 

 ness of eggs laid by the queen was 

 the real cause of her being replaced 

 by another from her brood. Later in 

 the season, however, the evidence 

 that the bees know at r.ll times what 

 they are about, is not so great ; thus 

 we have exceptions to some of the 

 rules regarding the workings of our 

 pets. 



During the latter part of August, 

 in 1.S72, 1 found that the bees were 

 bent on superseding one of my very 

 choicest queens ; so as fast as they got 

 the queen-cells capped I removed 

 them. While cutting out these cells 

 one day, having a friend with me who 

 kept bees, we found a nice young 

 queen which had hatched from an 

 unobserved cell, at the sight of which 

 he said he would give rae $2 for the 

 old queen and take his chances on 

 her. As he was an apiarist of con- 

 siderable experience, I thought he 

 knew what he was about, especially 

 as I had explained the wliole matter 

 to him; sol let hira have her. He 

 took her home, succeeded in safely 

 introducing her, and to the surprise 

 of both of us, she lived and did good 

 work for two years, he rearing scores 



of queens from her. This proved to 

 me that the bees made mistakes some- 

 times. 



Another case coming under my 

 observation, showed a still worse 

 blunder on the part of the bees. In 

 the fall of 1880, as I was preparing my 

 bees for winter, I found two queens 

 in a hive, the mother having her wing 

 clipped. They were left to see what 

 the result would be. In the spring 

 both were there and soon had the hive 

 full of brood. One day Prof. Boyn- 

 ton (who exposed the " Cardiff giant " 

 fraud), called on me and I showed 

 him tlie two queens, both on the same 

 comb, which seemed to be a great 

 curiosity to him. After he returned 

 home he sent me a high price for the 

 colony, as he wished to study into the 

 matter, but when I went to prepare 

 them for shipment, I could find only 

 the old queen in the hive. After a 

 short search in front of the hive I 

 found the young one where the bees 

 had drawn her out. Tiie old one 

 failed fast, and was only able to lead 

 out a swarm (from the brood of the 

 two) before she died. These are the 

 only two exceptions to the rule, which 

 I have found. 



BEES DYING ON THE SNOW. 



Another asks, "Is there any way to 

 prevent bees from coming out of their 

 hives and dying by tlie hundreds on 

 the snow V" In answer to this I will 

 give my plan to prevent such loss, 

 but first I wish to say that there are 

 two causes for bees acting thus ; one 

 of which is bee-diarrhea, and the 

 other the direct rays of the sun in and 

 about the entrance. If the former is 

 the cause, the bees might as well die 

 on the snow as anywhere, for die they 

 will ; but if the latter, the cause 

 should be removed by shading the 

 hive. 



As the sunshine is apt to entice all 

 bees out more or less, I always, at the 

 beginning of winter, lean up a wide 

 board, nearly as long as the hive is 

 wide, in front of the entrance, which 

 not only keeps tlie sun from enticing 

 the bees out when it is too cold for 

 them to tly, but shields the bees from 

 the cold vrinds which would otherwise 

 blow directly in at the entrance. 

 Whenever a light snow falls I sweep 

 the snow up over this board and still 

 higher up on the hive, which gives 

 additional protection. As this takes 

 but a few moments I consider that I 

 am well paid for doing it. 



There is one point wherein some are 

 deceived regarding dead bees on the 

 snow. Bees can rise as safely from 

 melting snow as from bare ground, if 

 the air is only warm enough. The 

 degree of warmth required I find to 

 be 4.5" in the shade, providing it is 

 still, with the sun shining ; yet with 

 even a warmer temperature the snow 

 will often appear covered with dead 

 bees. A little careful watching will 

 show that these dead bees are those 

 brought from the hive and dropped 

 by the other bees while they are 

 "house-cleaning;" this house-clean- 

 ing is always going on when the 

 weather will permit of a flight. 

 Again, 100 bees will make more show 

 on the snow than as many thousand 



would on bare ground. For this rea- 

 son we are often alarmed when there 

 is no occasion for it. 

 15orodino,0 N. Y. 



rcjr the American Bee J<)umal. 



Are Bees TaxaMe ProBerty ? 



T. U. ISLAIU. 



I should like the above query an- 

 swered in the columns of the Bee 

 Journal. So far as I know, bees 

 have never been taxed in this locality, 

 but I have been informed by an 

 officer of the town in which I reside 

 that my bees will be assessed this 

 year. \ am willing to concede the 

 right to tax hives and other fixtures 

 of that kind, as well as merchantable 

 honey on hand at the time the assess- 

 ment was made ; but in my judgment 

 colonies of bees are not taxable any 

 more than are dogs. They might put 

 bees on the same plane as dogs, and 

 require bee-keepers to take out 

 licenses (when the legislature enacts 

 such a law), but it seems to me that 

 our tenure of property in bees is so 

 uncertain that it would be difficult to 

 assess them. I may have .50 colonies 

 on May 1, when the assessment is 

 made, and lose half of them before 

 clover comes ; I may put them in in 

 the fall and lose % of them before 

 spring (as I did two years ago) ; or my 

 colonies may come out so light as to 

 be valueless, while my neighbor may 

 have his in good condition, but the 

 average assessor would value all alike. 



I should like to know the practice 

 in other States in this matter, and if 

 there is a lawyer among our brother- 

 hood I should like a legal opinion 

 upon the matter as early as can be 

 convenient. I believe it to be a mat- 

 ter of interest to all bee-keepers. 



From what I hear at this date bee- 

 keepers have lost heavily in this and 

 adjoining counties the past winter. 

 My bees came out in good condition. 

 I lost (i colonies out of (SO put into the 

 cellar. 



Neenah,©* Wis. 



[Your query will be duly submitted 

 and answered in the CJuery Depart- 

 ment in due course.— Ed.] 



For the American Bee Jourxial. 



Temperature Inside of tlie HiTes, 



WM. F. KANZLER. 



In preparing my bees for winter last 

 autumn, I arranged an average colony 

 so that every day I could read on a 

 thermometer placed at the inside of 

 the hive, tlie degrees of either heat or 

 cold ; for I do not believe in guessing, 

 and I am not so full of vanity as to 

 think that I know the temperature or 

 dampness of the inside without the 

 use of a thermometer or hygrometer. 



To do this so that I should not jar 

 the hive and molest the bees in cold 

 weather, I procured an elbow-shaped 

 thermometer, the shorter part of 

 which is 5 inches long and bent in a 

 right angle ; then I cut a }^-inch hole 



