598 



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Why Queen.Cells do Xot Hatch. 



Written ior the A merican Bee Journal 



Query 574.— My bees came out of winter 

 quarters In very good condition, with the ex- 

 ception of one colony that starved to death, 

 and another that was queenless. I have had 

 3 very good swarms, the first on June 9. To 

 the queenless colony I gave a comb of eggs 

 and brood, and they made two queen-cells, 

 but neither ot them hatched. From the colo- 

 nies that swarmed first, I took a comb and 

 adhering bees containing a nice, sealed queen- 

 cell : but it never hatched. I have given them 

 another comb containing two queen-cells ; 

 they have now had time to hatch, but I have 

 not examined them, what do you suppose is 

 the reason that queen-cells do not hatch 

 there? I have kept them well supplied with 

 bees from other colonies.— Iowa. 



Candidly, I do not know.— G. M. 



DOOLITTLE. 



The most probable cause of the 

 trouble was that the brood got chilled. 

 —J. P. H. Brown. 



I can offer no explanation that would 

 be of use.— A. J. Cook. 



I do not know ; perhaps they got 

 chilled.— C. H. Dibbern. 



I think there was not a sufficient 

 number of bees to keep the cells warm. 

 — R. L. Taylor. 



It is impossible to give a correct an- 

 swer without knowing all the circum- 

 stances.— P. L. VlALLON. 



Laying workers probably infested the 

 hive, which are at times very hard to 

 dethrone.- J. M. IIambaugh. 



Why do you not see if the last cells 

 have a queen or not y If not, break up 

 the colony and unite it with others. — 

 H. D. Cutting, 



You leave too many things in the 

 dark. Did the queens die in the cells V 

 Did the bees destroy the cells ? I can 

 give no opinion in the absence of fuller 

 information.— M. Mahin. 



I cannot say, unless they got chilled. 

 The position of queen-cells is usually 

 the coldest part of the hive, and unless 

 the weather is warm, or the colony 

 strong, that may often happen in such 

 cool summers as this.— Eugene Secor. 



From the data given, I am unable to 

 answer. There are so many reasons 

 that might be given, none of which 

 might be right, that it is useless to at- 

 tempt to make a reply .—J. E. Pond. 



Possibly they were chilled, but I have 

 found dead grubs in queen-cells when 

 I thouglit they had hardly been chilled, 

 and I did not know the cause of death, 

 — C. C. Miller. 



Such colonies are often infested with 

 laying workers, and the young queens 

 are destroyed on their return from 

 their bridal tour. Are you positive 

 that the queens died in the cells V — 

 Mrs. L, Harrison. 



There are various reasons why queen- 

 cells do not hatch. Not knowing more 

 of the conditions, I cannot answer in 

 your case. There is no certainty of 

 any queen-cell hatching; that is' the 

 reason why all those who used to ad- 

 vocate clipping all the queen-cells but 



one to prevent after-swarming, were 

 writing a great deal more than they 

 practically understood.- James Hed- 



DON. 



Possibly the queen-cells were not 

 handled carefully. I think that many 

 queens, .iust after the cells have been 

 sealed, may be entirely destroyed by 

 shaking the frames, as we do when 

 clearing them of bees. In this case the 

 queen brood must either have been de- 

 fective or destroyed by bad handling.— 

 J. M. Shuck. 



No reason can be given why the cells 

 did not hatch if the bees did not aban- 

 don them, and leave them to be chilled 

 and destroyed by a too low tempera- 

 ture. I am inclined to think that the 

 cells hatched, and the young queens 

 were destroyed by the bees. Bees that 

 have been queenless a long time are 

 liable to act as though they had laying 

 workers among them, whether you see 

 any signs of these pests or not. This 

 peculiar abnormality among bees is 

 the prevailing cause of the loss of 

 young queens at the time, and be- 

 fore their wedding flight.— G. W. 

 Demaree. 



In the absence of fuller details, it 

 would be almost impossible to state the 

 cause for the queen-cells not hatching. 

 They may have been chilled, or laying 

 workers might have interfered, or some- 

 thing else may have been the cause. — 

 The Editor. 



Bees Stins^ing: the Capping of 

 Cell§. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



Query 575.— I notice that Mr. L. B. Clifton, 

 in the Situlhfin Farm, gives it as his idea that 

 bees, after filling their cells with honey and 

 capping them, insert their sting in the center 

 and deposit some formic acid to protect the 

 honey from fermenting. Now my idea was, 

 that they left it uncapped until all the water 

 evaporated, thereby keeping it from ferment- 

 ing. What is your idea y I want to hear from 

 older bee-men than I am. I ask this for in- 

 formation.- Georgia. 



I more than doubt Mr. Clifton's 



theory.— M. Mahin. 



« 



Stinging the honey ia all " bosh."— R. 

 L. Taylor. 



I think your idea is as good as any.— 

 H. D. Cutting. 



In my opinion, the sting performs no 

 part in ripening honey.— G. M. Doo- 

 little. 



My opinion is the same as your own. 

 — ,T. M. IIambaugh. 



I have heard this assertion years ago, 

 but I have failed vet to see anything ot 

 the kind.— P. L. Viallon. 



I do not believe that formic acid is 

 deposited in it. If that is so, why does 

 extracted honey that has never been 

 capped not ferment when evaporated 

 arliticially ?— Mrs. L. Harrison. 



I think that the formic acid theory, 

 put in the honey by the bees using 

 their sting, is a grand humbug. Your 

 idea is the better of the two. — Eugene 

 Secor. 



We think that Mr. L. B. Clifton is 

 fond of wild theories. They do not 



always leave it until evaporated, and 

 that is why some honey bursts the 

 cappings.— Dadant & Son. 



I do not know, but I am somewhat 

 skeptical about bees ever using their 

 stings for any other purpose than as 

 weapons of war.— C. C. Miller. 



We have no proof that bees insert 

 their sting and deposit formic acid in 

 the honey, although there is some 

 formic acid present in nearly all honey. 

 —J. P. H.Brown. 



The above idea is all theory, and to 

 my mind utter nonsense ; at any rate, 

 it is all guess-work, and almost any 

 Yankee could guess better.— J. E. Pond. 



I do not believe in the formic acid 

 idea. I believe that the only use the 

 bee makes of its sting is for defense. 

 Bees do not generally cap the cells till 

 the honey is sufficiently evaporated to 

 keep.— C. II. Dibbern. 



Well, I am quite an old bee-man, and 

 have put in most of my time studying 

 apicultural queries that came rather 

 closer to my dollar-and-cent success, so 

 I will not try to give instruction about 

 what I do not understand. — James 

 Heddon. 



I think that idea is a myth. There 

 is formic acid in the honey, which is 

 doubtless the result of digestion. How 

 do the stingless bees of hot climates 

 acidulate their honey V- A. J. Cook. 



My " idea " is, that I never saw it 

 done, and that I do not believe it is 

 done. At our county horticultural 

 meeting last week, a bee-keeper made 

 the same statement, and also that the 

 bees did the capping " with their 

 stingers." I think that he never sub- 

 scribed for a bee-periodical. If formic 

 acid has to be put into honey to pre- 

 vent its fermenting, when is it put in 

 honey that is extracted before being 

 capped?— A. B.Mason. 



I believe it has been established that 

 there is formic acid in honey. I in- 

 cline to the believe that the acid 

 formed in honey is developed and in- 

 corporated with the honey in the honey- 

 stomach, and tends to preserve the 

 nectar till it ripens, rather than to pre- 

 serve it after it has been evaporated 

 and sealed.— J. M. Shuck. 



When Mr. Clifton writes in that way 

 he is simply repeating one of the many 

 "scientific pleasantries" with which 

 our bee -literature abounds. There is 

 not a shadow of truth about it. Honey 

 contains more or less of formic acid', 

 but it gets there by absorption from 

 the effluvium rising from the heated 

 cluster of bees. Perhaps this is a wise 

 provision of nature— certninly it is the 

 most natural process by which such an 

 end could be accomplished.— G. W. 

 Demaree. 



Formic acid is found in the honey, 

 no matter whether it is capped by the 

 bees or extracted before being capped 

 —therefore the " theory " advocated by 

 Mr. Clifton is without foundation. He 

 is not the author of the theory, how- 

 ever. Our friend, the Rev. W. F. 

 Clarke, is its sponsor, and if he finds it 

 possible to further defend it, we should 

 like to hear the arguments.— The Edi- 

 tor. 



