Insects, 159 



thrown out of the hive : upon this I examined the hive, when I per- 

 ceived that the three queen-cells had been destroyed. I was not for- 

 tunate enough to discover the living queen, she having secreted herself 

 amongst the interstices of the comb. On the 13th, about noon, I had 

 the gratification of seeing a queen bee on the wing; after flying about 

 for a few minutes she entered the hive. There was no drone on the 

 wing at the time, nor had I previously seen any make their appear- 

 ance from my hives, nor could I afterwards learn that those of my 

 neighbours, within some distance, had at that early period shown any 

 drones. The following day, at noon, her Majesty again came forth, 

 and was absent for some time : I observed her to go in and out of the 

 hive several times, the working bees paying her no attention. I did 

 not examine the hive until the 27th, when I had the satisfaction of 

 finding brood in various stages : some of the cells were sealed up, but 

 I was rather surprised to observe that several of the worker-cells con- 

 tained drone brood intermixed promiscuously. In due course of time 

 the young bees were hatched, and amongst them were several small 

 drones, only a trifle larger than the workers. On the ISth of June a 

 swarm unfortunately selected the roof of a house for their domicile, 

 and in attempting to dislodge them from this situation, the queen bee 

 received so much injury, as to cause her death on the following day ; 

 1 therefore added this swarm to the stock that had raised their queen. 

 The increased numbers enabled them to progress rapidly, so much so 

 that on the 10th of August 1 took a cape of delicious honey, weighing 

 12j lbs. ; and in the following October this stock weighed 35 lbs., in- 

 cluding the hive. This proved an ample supply of honey for their 

 winter's consumption, for on the 13th of the present month (March) it 

 weighed 232- lbs., 11 J lbs. having been consumed during a period of 

 six months. The hive is now in good health, and very strong in bees. 

 In the early part of the spring of 1839 one of my hives sustained the 

 loss of their queen, which they endeavoured to replace, there being at 

 the time plenty of eggs &c. in the hive, by converting a common into a 

 royal cell ; and they eventually succeeded in hatching a queen, just 

 fourteen days after they had sustained their loss, but she was so weak 

 that she did not live more than a day or two : this weakness I suspect 

 was owing to the absence of a sufficient supply of royal jelly at that 

 early period of the year. I had several times tried this experiment, 

 but could not before succeed. I remain, Dear Sir, 



Yours very truly, 



J. D. Salmon. 

 To the Editor of * The Zoologist.' 



