December 27, 1864. ] 



JOURNAL OE HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



525 



she belonged. The solution was certainly prompt, but could 

 scarcely be deemed satisfactory, since in little more than a 

 second the unfortunate queen lay in the agonies of death, 

 having been instantly stung by the strange worker to which 

 she had been so inconsiderately introduced. Here, then, 

 was another blow to my faith in the infallibility of Huber, 

 who declares that "the workers at no time will attempt to 

 employ their stings against a stranger queen." 



In process of time I became aware that queen bees were 

 really liable to hostile attacks by their own workers, such 

 attacks assuming the form of rigorous imprisonment in a 

 dense cluster of their rebellious children ; and at length I 

 witnessed several instances which I have already related, 

 and in which these incarcerations terminated fatally in the 

 case of young and perfectly fertile queens. 



Although I had ascertained that princesses were very 

 liable to these attacks on their return from their wedding 

 flights, I was long under the impression that in their case 

 a fatal termination was not to be dreaded, and even went 

 the length of imagining that a brief period of imprisonm ent 

 might possibly be beneficial. 



-Revenons a nos moutons. "Where was I when I digressed ? 

 O, saying that I had fancied that a fatal termination of a re- 

 gicidal attack on a princess was not to be dreaded. But before 

 relating the facts which have this season awakened me from 

 my dream of security, permit me a few words in reference 

 to the hypothesis submitted by your esteemed Lanarkshire 

 correspondent, and which hypothesis these facts will, I fancy, 

 go far to disprove. It may be remembered that the idea 

 that regicidal attacks might be initiated by stranger bees 

 has been already promulgated m these pages by that careful 

 and accurate observer "R. S.,"* and as coming from such 

 a quarter it is undoubtedly well worthy attention. Still, I 

 am bound to say that, so far as my observation extends, I 

 have never met with an instance in which I could trace a 

 regicidal attack to the presence of stranger bees. When 

 these are introduced in large numbers, as in uniting stocks 

 in autumn, the risk is undoubtedly great, and the queen 

 not unfrequently falls a victim to the involuntary invasion ; 

 but so far as my experience extends, mere robber bees neither 

 molest nor pay the slightest attention to the native queen. 

 In those instances which I have witnessed she has passed 

 totally unregarded, the marauders appearing too intent on 

 plunder to take the least notice of her. In some cases it 

 may, of course, be different: I can only speak of what I 

 have myself seen. 



But to return to the experience which completely upset 

 all my preconceived notions with regard to what I had 

 supposed to be the innocuous if not actually beneficial im- 

 prisonment of youthful queens. On the 20th of last June, 

 when honey was so plentiful that no bee would dream of 

 pilfering from others what she could so readily collect for 

 herself, I opened a small nucleus-box, and found the young 

 queen absent. During my examination she returned with 

 evident signs of impregnation, and was instantly seized and 

 imprisoned in a dense knot of workers. Having released 

 her from her persecutors, I closed the box and let her fly. 

 She returned to the hive's mouth, where she was instantly 

 seized by one of the sentinels, but broke away from it and 

 flew off again. The same thing was repeated once or twice, 

 but ultimately she eluded the guard and slipped into the 

 hive. As the day advanced I inferred from the restless 

 demeanour of the workers that she was again in durance ; 

 and as on examining the hive in the evening this proved to 

 be the case, I thought I would err on the side of caution by 

 ensconcing her in a queen-cage within the hive itself until 

 the next day, when on her release she was well received, and 

 remained without further molestation. Subsequent events 

 make it probable that she owed her life to my precaution. 



Later in the summer I missed a young queen, and ulti- 

 mately discovered her lifeless on the ground immediately in 

 front of her hive, and m that shrunken and distorted con- 

 dition which marks the hapless victim of a regicidal attack. 

 I could not by the closest examination discover any sign of 

 impregnation; but I had little doubt of her having been 

 destroyed on her return from an excursion, whilst her demise 

 was at any rate a fatal blow to my pretty theory of bene- 

 ficial imprisonment. I had not long to wait for something 

 even more conclusive. 



* Tide Journai, of Horticulture, Vol. VX, page 67. 



At this time I possessed a young Italian princess, with 

 which I was absolutely in love. She was not remarkably 

 large, but in colour, grace, and symmetry I have rarely 

 beheld her equal. "Whether within the hive or on the wing 

 she was equally lithe and agile, and she was accordingly 

 watched with an admiring interest accorded to but few of 

 the inhabitants of my apiary. One day I was somewhat 

 startled at finding in her hive that horrible little knot of 

 workers, with whose appearance I am unfortunately but too 

 familiar. Warned by the misfortune which I have just 

 related, I determined to leave nothing to chance, and having 

 thus caught them in flagrante delicto, I congratulated myself 

 on being, as I supposed, in time to save my especial little 

 pet from the fate which had only a few days before over- 

 taken her unfortunate sister. Judge, then, of my mortifica- 

 tion on gently dispersing the cluster at finding its nucleus 

 to consist only of the poor shrivelled and distorted carcase 

 of my so recently beautiful queen ! On examination I had 

 the additional mortification of finding conclusive evidence 

 of a successful wedding trip, so that it became apparent 

 that my hopes had indeed been blasted in the very moment 

 of their fruition. 



In neither of the instances above related can I discern 

 anything to countenance the hypothesis, that regicidal 

 attacks are initiated by robbers. It is true, that in the 

 first case the hive was open at the commencement, but not 

 only was no plundering perceptible, but, as stated before, 

 I do not believe there was such a thing as a robber bee at 

 that season of plenty ; and even setting this aside it will 

 scarcely be maintained that the sentinels at the entrance 

 by whom the queen was afterwards repeatedly assaulted 

 belonged to the marauding fraternity. In the other case I 

 can only say, that I could discover no appearance of an 

 attack by robber bees, and that I am satisfied that none had 

 taken place. — A Devonshire Bee-keepee. 



SWAEMING- versus DEPRIVING. 



My experience does not all coincide with that of your 

 correspondent "J. E. B.," who at page 444 seems to imply 

 that allowing stock-hives to swarm increases their honey 

 store ; the inverse of this rule holds good with us. Surely 

 the queens of the storified hives must have been worn out 

 by age, or there was something radically wrong with the 

 management of these hives, when such an invidious com- 

 parison could be drawn. 



Acting on the principle that union is strength, both of 

 population and honey store, the escape of a swarm from a 

 depriving-hive, despite the best efforts to avert it, is looked 

 upon as a great misfortune by us northeners, and it is at once 

 returned, should it stubbornly refuse to remain, even though 

 royal cells be destroyed. The queen herself is often sacri- 

 ficed, so as to keep up the population; but if the swarm is 

 hived another prime one is as soon as possible procured and, 

 added to the emigrants, with the view of combining a suffi- 

 cient force for the getting up or completing supers. 



No better proof of the success of the " conservative prin- 

 ciple " need be looked for than the interesting report of that 

 thoroughly practical conservative bee-master Mr. S. Bevan 

 Fox, " My Apiary in 1864," published in a recent Number. 



I made an involuntary convert to the depriving system 

 this year as follows : — A most enthusiastic bee-keeper in this 

 quarter, of the old swarming school, who usually spares 

 neither time, trouble, nor sugar, to have the honour of 

 hiving the earliest swarm in the district, was left behind 

 this season, and chancing to meet me was lamenting over 

 his bad luck. He told me he had kept a swarm in one 

 Stewarton octagon box purposely to have an unusually early 

 swarm; the bees had been long "lying out," but somehow 

 or other would not come off. He was not a little surprised 

 on my telling him that his anxiety to effect his desire was 

 in all probability the cause of its frustration. It was more 

 than likely that the queen, in the small area of available 

 comb in a single Stewarton had not room sufficient to 

 unburden herself of her eggs, so as to fit her to be in a 

 condition to fly off with the longed-for swarm. In addition, 

 he was a considerable loser by allowing his bees to hang 

 out idle during the then capital honey-gathering season. 

 Beaten as he was, he thought he could not do better than 



