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JOUHNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. [ February 7, 1865. 



quired no small amount of forethought and esperienco to 

 allot a silver cup in classes of all Hamburarh breeds competing, 

 and, consequently, to the best pen. The Golden-spangled 

 irere the recipients of this much-coveted honour. We do 

 not recollect ever seeing a better show of Polands, and the 

 Game Bantams were as worthy of especial remark. The 

 " selling class " was a downright success, many capital pens 

 being entered at exceedingly moderate prices, whilst buyers 

 ■were almost struggling to secure the most favourable speci- 

 mens. The entry for this one class only was fifty pens. 



Eouen Ducks were good, and the remainder of the Duck 

 tribe were huddled indiscriminately together, forming, how- 

 ever, a beautiful class. Mr. John Jennison, of Belle Vue 

 Zoological Gardens, Manchester, exhibited" some exquisite 

 specimens of Carolina Ducks, and the common Teal; Ayles- 

 bury Ducks, Buenos Ayrean, and a multitude of "cross- 

 breeds," making a praiseworthy competition. Next year, 

 ■we are told many of the classes of the Bradford Show will 

 be sub-divided, and this meeting's present success justifies 

 so doing. 



The Pigeons were excellent, and attracted a very lai'ge 

 amount of public favom-, whilst a Dog Show attached to the 

 Exhibition was filled to overflowing. Though late in 

 beginning we do not hesitate to say, the Bradford Com- 

 mittee have now secured a standing for their local show 

 unprecedented as a first success, and it must in such hands 

 continue to increase in its prosperity. 



We published the names of the Judges, and the list of 

 prize-takers last week. 



A NEW CHAPTER LN" THE NATUEAL HISTORY 

 OF THE BEE. 



BEE COMMOTIONS AND QTTEEN ENCASEMENTS. 

 (Coiitludcd from page 104.) 

 Thied question. Let us now consider the effects of in- 

 troducing a queen into a queenless hive. Under this head I 

 need scarcely bring forward oases in illustration. The foct 

 is, there is no uniform rule that I know of, and the practical 

 apiarian wUl find not a little dissimilaritj' of conduct on the 

 part of the bees in such a case. We know it was Huber's 

 opinion, that " if before substituting the stranger queen 

 twenty-four hours elapse, she will be ■well received, and 

 reign from the moment of her introduction into the hive." 

 Greatly as I admire that distinguished and pre-eminent 

 apiarian for his unrivalled knowledge of the bee, and for the 

 general accuracy of his observations and experiments, I 

 confess I have not found my experience on ■this point to 

 coincide invariably with his ; indeed, I am constrained in 

 some important particulars to differ from his views as ex- 

 pressed in his letters, " On the combats of queens," and 

 " Reception of a stranger queen." The German naturalists, 

 Schirach and Riem, held diametrically opposite views from 

 Huber on this subject. They thought it was the office of 

 the common bees to settle the question as to the choice of 

 queens, and to kill supernumerary ones ; while we know 

 that Huber maintained that not only virgin queens engaged 

 in single combat, but that fertile queens also when placed 

 together in one hive decided the question of ascendancy as 

 between themselves after the same fashion — in short, " that 

 the bees in no case ever sting a queen." We also know thn t 

 the celebrated French naturalist, M. de Reaumur did not 

 agree with Huber on some of these points, more especially 

 in regard to the reception a stranger queen meets with, 

 when introduced into a hive having a queen. M. de Reaumur 

 affirmed that bees " having a queen they are satisfied with, 

 are, nevertheless, disposed to give the "best possible re- 

 ception to any female seeking refuge among them." In 

 combating an experiment of M. de Reaumur, in which he had 

 been successful in presenting a stranger queen to some four 

 or five hundred bees which he had expelled from their native 

 hive, Huber remarks — " To render such an experiment con- 

 clnsive, it must be made in a populous hive; and on re- 

 moring the native queen the stranger must be immediately 

 substituted in her place. Hod this been done, I am quite 

 persuaded ttiat M. de Reaumur would have s !en the bees 

 imprison the usurper, confine her at least twelve or fifteen 

 honrs among thein, and frequently suffocate her. No va- 



riation has oocun-ed in my experiments regarding this fact." 

 Here, then, we have very conflicting opinions entertained on 

 this subject by these eminent men. Of course, great natu- 

 ralists must bo allowed to dilfer in opinion on some points, 

 as great doctors do, but here the discrepancies are too wide, 

 I think, to be the result of careful study and observation. 



It is not my intention here to discuss this question at 

 large, though my own views are decided enough. We must 

 always bear in mind, that in operating upon bees, we fre- 

 quently place them in an unnatural position, a position 

 which, more or less, affects their instinct and dispositions, 

 so that we cannot always calculate with certainty what the 

 results in any particular case may be. Huber himself has 

 admitted, that on one occasion a queen was stung in re- 

 moving her from the centre of a cluster, but he thought it 

 arose from pure accideut and irritation caused by himself, 

 and " that had he not interfered they would have been con- 

 tent with confining the queen, and she would not have 

 perished." 



My own opinion is, that in the great majority of cases in 

 which the queen falls a victim to imprisonment, she is not 

 stun'T, but succumbs through lengthened captivity, to 

 inanition, privation of air, and ill usage. The truth is, a 

 queen cannot be stung when densely surrounded by bees : 

 hence I see in the very encasement itself, a wise provision 

 of nature to prevent such a result. It is in this way often 

 converted from a proceeding, which at the fii'st seems 

 threatening and hostile, into one which ultimately becomes 

 her very safety. For it is certain that in cases where the 

 bees are so inclined, the queen emerges from a somewhat 

 protracted confinement without the smallest injury ; but if 

 otherwise inclined the captivity is one of unsparing death. 

 Hence when a queen is on any occasion encased, and it is 

 desirable to release her, the utmost caution must be ob- 

 served in doing so, for it may happen that just as you are 

 in the act of divesting her of the last bee that encircles 

 her, that remaining little ■vixen may in an instant, when 

 all hindrances are removed, curve its body, and inflict a 

 mortal wound. Caution and dexterity, therefore, are equally 

 necessary in preventing such a contingency. 



Bees are admitted by all to be creatures easily irritated, 

 and highly pugnacious ; but most apiarians, I think, err in 

 viewing the queen as a mere passive instrument, having no 

 likings or dislikings in whatever position you may be pleased 

 to place her. Her dispositions, are, in fact, entu'ely ignored. 

 This is a popular error, I think. Who can tell but the con- 

 duct of the bee may very often be guided by the dispositions 

 of the queen ? So that when a queen is introduced on any 

 occasion to strange bees, her own want of submission may 

 tend to a mode of dealing which might not otherwise be 

 necessary. The lower animals are very quick in discovering 

 in others of their species the different dispositions which 

 affect their conduct towards each other, and when strangers 

 meet amity or hostility may be the result, according as 

 these dispositions betray themselves. Hence, therefore, 

 at different times, I may introduce a queen to the same 

 hive with different results. I was much amused during the 

 past summer at the pluck and pugnacity of a young queen 

 just begun to be fertile. She was removed from a unicomb- 

 hive for the purpose of being presented to a hive which had 

 failed to rear a queen for themselves. After being confined 

 in a little wire cage she was taken out and a single worker 

 bee of the hive in question was presented to her. The bee 

 examined the queen all round with its .antenniu, too curioupJy 

 it may be, for pugnacious dispositions wore evidently aroused 

 in the royal breast, she being the first to attack, avd a con- 

 flict resulted in which the queen, however, only came off 

 second best. They were separated before auy injury was 

 inflicted on cither side. ^ 



I said I differed from Huber in regard to results following 

 the presentation of a stranger queen to a hive deprived of 

 its own queen. True, it is safer in presenting a queen in 

 such a case to allow twenty-four or thirty-four hours to 

 elapse before doing so, and for this very obvious reason, 

 that the bees will by that time have given over all hopes of 

 finding their own sovereign ; but the rule does not hold 

 good invariably. I have found a queenless hive sometimes 

 reject and kill a queen offered to it in such circumstances, 

 even weeks after the loss ; and, on the other hand, I have 

 presented a queen successfully to a hive immediately after 



I 



