. 290 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



rop, 1st prize on extracted basswood 

 honey ; 2d prize, to F. L. Snyder for the 

 same. First prize on white clover, ex- 

 tracted, H. H. Brown. 



The Committee on Nomination of Offi- 

 cers reported as follows: President, C. A. 

 Hatch ; 1st Vice-President, T. E. Tur- 

 ner ; 2d Vice-President, J. J. Oechsner ; 

 Recording Secretary, H. Lathrop, of 

 Browntown, Green county ; Correspond- 

 ing Secretary, Dr. J. W. Vance, of Madi- 

 son ; Treasurer, M. J. Plumb— and the 

 nominations were confirmed. 



The following resolutions were re- 

 ported and adopted : 



1. That we cordially approve of the 

 work of the Bee-Keepers' Union, as 

 shown by its past history, and rejoice in 

 the hope that its field of labor will be so 

 enlarged and extended as to enforce the 

 laws against the adulterations of honey, 

 large quantities of which are now placed 

 upon the markets, greatly to the disad- 

 vantage of honest honey-producers. And 

 be it further resolved that it is the duty 

 of all bee-keepers to join the Union for 

 the furtherance of that end. 



2. That this Association send one dele- 

 gate to the next American Bee-Keepers' 

 Convention, and pay $10 toward his 

 expenses. 



Betectins Qneenlessness. 



DR. C. C. MILLER. 



The answers to Query 733, and the 

 article on page 15, that they have called 

 forth, show that a reconsideration is 

 needed of a question that many had con- 

 sidered settled. When so careful an ob- 

 server as Mr. Doolittle makes a state- 

 ment, it is not wise to be hasty in ques- 

 tioning it, but it is safe to ask exactly 

 how that statement is to be understood. 



On the face of it, it looks as though 

 Mr. Doolittle meant to be understood as 

 saying, "if a queen be taken away from 

 one part of a divided colony, and there 

 still remains the means of raising a 

 queen, in no case will any actions of the 

 bees outside the hive indicate their 

 qneenlessness." 



This may be true, but it is certainly 

 contrary to tradition, and contrary to 

 some pretty good authority. The re- 

 vised Langstroth, speaking of a case 

 where a queen is carefully removed, and 

 the bees after some time find out their 

 queenlessness, says:. "At such times, 

 instead of calmly conversing, by touch- 

 ing each other's antann;©, they may be 

 seen violently striking them together, 

 and, by the most impassioned demon- 



strations, manifesting their agony and 

 despair." Is it likely such violent dem- 

 onstrations will take place in the hive 

 without any appearance of it outside ? 

 The very next sentence helps us out on 

 that, saying: "We once removed the 

 queen of a small colony, the bees of 

 which took wing and filled the air, in 

 search of her." 



How about the testimony of the 13 

 out of .17 respondents to the question ? 

 At least 6 of them are positive and cir- 

 cumstantial in their evidence. Are these 

 6 and the rest of the 13 blindly follow- 

 ing tradition, without ever having made 

 any observations of their own ? Even 

 if they were quite willing to do so, are 

 not the occasions for observation so fre- 

 quent, that their attention would be 

 given either to verify Or refute the tra- 

 dition ? If 4 say they never saw any of 

 the evidence under discussion, does that 

 prove that the other 13 never did? 



At the time of making my reply, if I 

 had answered more fully, I should have 

 said, " I think that in all cases where a 

 queen is removed from a colony in the 

 working season, when the bees find out 

 their queenlessness, there will be demon- 

 strations of anxiety more or less marked, 

 and, usually, close observation will de- 

 tect something of the kind on the outside 

 of the hive. These demonstrations may 

 not be of long continuance, but will 

 occur at intervals. 



To make any kind of sure work in 

 deciding, it might, and usually would, 

 be necessary to watch very closely, and 

 for a long time. I have had hundreds 

 of such cases of queenlessness, and have 

 seldom seen anything in the actions of 

 the bees, either outside or inside, to 

 show that they recognized it before the 

 starting of queen-cells. Still, if I had 

 given my entire attention to any one 

 case for a sufficient length of time, I 

 think I would have seen signs of queen- 

 lessness. One without experience, how- 

 ever, might have difficulty in recognizing 

 the signs, when seen." You will see that 

 my reply on page 677 is in consonance 

 with this view. I there said, "By 

 watching closely enough, you may see 

 signs of discontent and excitement in the 

 queenless part. I should prefer to wait 

 and see which started queen-cells, or 

 was without eggs." Other replies were 

 much in the same line. 



Mr. Doolittle's position causes me 

 some doubt as to the correctness of mine. 

 If he means just what appears on the 

 surface, then I, and no doubt others, 

 will consider the whole thing the com- 

 ing season. 

 Marengo, Ills, 



