1878. 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



871 



hatch out, and tlien their "little dijffierences" 

 are adjusted afterward, either by swarniiiig, 

 or by the usual "hand to hand'' conflict "un- 

 til deatli." I once looked for a queen, and 

 not flnding her, concluded she Avas lost. 

 Another cell was inserted, and in due time 

 hatched out. I was much siu-prised to hud 

 my new queen laying when only one day 

 old, but a little further looking revealed the 

 two, both on the same comb. Many losses 

 in introducing (lueens have resulted from 

 two (jiieens being in the hive, the owner be- 

 ing sure his hive was queenless, because he 

 had removed one. 



yUKENS' VOICES. 



When a colony swarms natiu'ally, the 

 young queens of tlie after swarms have a 

 queer way of calling to each other, wlien 

 about to hatch out, I supjjose, or when they 

 have their cell doors open, and are afraid to 

 emerge. The note they utter is more like 

 '"zeep, zeep, zeep," than anything else I can 

 spell, and their tones are so different that it 

 is really amusing to hear them call. It is 

 common to hear them where there are two 

 queens in the same liive, in a lighting mood, 

 or stirred by jealousy ; and I often hear this 

 call when simply ])assing by the hives in 

 swarming season. Tlie queen sometimes 

 utters this call at other times, though not 

 often. AVhen a young queen is being intro- 

 duced she will frequently utter a similar 

 note of alarm, and some of our friends have 

 called it "squealing.'''' The bees are almost 

 always stirred by these notes of the queen, 

 and they will often turn and run after her 

 and cling around her like a ball, Avlien they 

 would have paid no attention to her had she 

 not uttered this well known note. After 

 you have once heard it, you will recognize it 

 ever afterward. Queens, when placed near 

 together in cages, will often call and ans- 

 wer each other, in tones that we have si'ip- 

 posed might be challenges to mortal combat. 



Some queens received this summer, from 

 J. P. Henderson, of Murfreesboro, Tenn., 

 called so IcuuUy when placed on our table, 

 that they could be heard clear across a long 

 room. One voice would be on a high shrill 

 key, and another, a deep bass, while others 

 Avere intermediate. On watching closely a 

 tremulous movement of the wings was no- 

 ticed, while the queen was uttering the 

 note, from which I infer that the sound is 

 produced by the wings, in a manner similar 

 to that in which katydids and locusts pro- 

 duce their peculiar notes. The fact that a 

 queen may be prevented from "squealing'' 



while being introduced, by daubing her 

 wings with honey, is also conclusive that 

 the sound is produced by the wings. That 

 these sounds from the queen have the power 

 of controlling certain movements of the 

 bees, I am well aware, but I do not know 

 just how or to what extent this influence 

 works. 



VIIUJIN CiUEENS. 



The newly hatched queen is termed a vir- 

 gin queen to distinguish her from (jueens 

 that have been fertilized by the drone and 

 are laying. Virgin queens, when first 

 hatched, are sometimes nearly as large as a 

 fertile (pieen, but they gradually decrease in 

 size, and when three or four days old they 

 often look so small and insigniticant, tliat a 

 novice is disgusted with their appearance, 

 and if he is hasty, pronounces them good 

 for nothing. For the flrst week of their 

 lives, they crawl about much as an ordinary 

 young worker does, and it is often very difll- 

 cult, if not almost impossible to And them, 

 unless an amount of time is taken, that is 

 more than a busy apiarist can well afford to 

 spare. In queen hearing, I have advised 

 not to look for them, but to insert a small 

 piece of comb containing larva?, and if no 

 cells are started, to decide that the queen is 

 present, without looking. This piece of lar- 

 vse answers a three-fold purpose. It tells at 

 a glance, whether the queen is in the hive 

 all right or not, for the very moment she is 

 lost, they will start more queen cells on it ; 

 it enables the bees to start another queen, 

 in case the queen is lost by any accident in 

 her wedding flight, Avhich is frequently the 

 case, and lastly, it serves as a sort of nucleus 

 to hold the bees togetlier, and to keep them 

 from going out with the queen on her wed- 

 ding trip, which they are much disposed to 

 to do, if in a small nucleus, containing no 

 brood. Unsealed brood in a hive is a great 

 safeguard against accidents of all sorts, and 

 I have often started a young queen to lay- 

 ing, by simply giving the bees some eggs 

 and unsealed brood. Whether it caused her 

 to rouse up and take lier wedding flight, or 

 whether she had taken it, but was for some 

 reason idle, I cannot say; but this I know, 

 that young queens that do not lay at two 

 weeks of age will often commence, when 

 eggs and larvte, are given to their colonies. 

 It may be that the sight of eggs and larva; 

 suggests to them the next step in affairs, or 

 it may induce the workers to feed them, as 

 they do a laying queen, an unusual quantity 

 of food. 



