any skedaddling even of small nuclei in large sized hives. (27)
Important very. Examined my old dirty, mouldy combs given in an
upper story on the 9th to good stocks of bees, would not know them, even
the mouldy bee bread eaten out. This is the way of keeping old combs late
in the season, spiders will soon cease to be on guard. They only at any
time keep the millers off, but bees keep the comb sweet and clean. 
For important improvement in frames see Fi. (12th) 69 to 88 degrees. Sun hotter
than any day yet, atmosphere so clear, under the tree with a free circulation of
air 94 degrees while in my window 88 degrees. Thunder shower in the PM, passed around
us. Sun stroke. Queen in a cage died after a few minutes exposure
to the sun, bees in front of hives died from heat. Opening hives bees seemed almost
to have deserted combs. Important Dissections. From time to time I
have found [inserted: young] queens apparently perfect in all respects, of usual laying size,
well attended by bees which have not laid an egg. Had two such which
came off with the famous swarm August 19th when I secured 17 queens. Most of these
queens were given to nuclei and became fertile in a short time. Two had every
appearance of being fertile but never laid an egg in the nuclei. September 4th. 
I gave them to strong colonies deprived of their queen. Examined them from
time to time but not an egg laid. Yesterday one so full of eggs that
in handling her they dropped from her, still not an egg in cells. Today
dissected them. Each had been fecundated. Each had the fully
developed ovaries of [crossed out: very] fertile queens, one unusually large and crowded
with eggs. Can only account for their not laying in cells by some aberration
of instinct, or after my way of expressing it, they were silly queens, halfwitted. 
The dropping of eggs by one shows that there was no physical malformation. 
Sliding forward of frames. Some short topped frames in [crossed out: illegible] [inserted: hives] on a strong slant
this warm weather slide forward so as to drop one end off the rabbet. Of course
a properly constructed frame cannot drop in this way, but this shows why bees
are so anxious to build comb outside (on the back of frames) when too strong a
slant is given, they are aware that the frame is not secure. Color of queens,
does not seem fixed until after fecundation. Cannot by same treatment which
deprives young queens of their color effect any change in workers or drones. 
Black bees. The black bees are a perfect pest in their attempts to rob,
following me all about the apiary and pitching in whenever I open a hive, very
few Italians do this. I once thought that the black bee which is called a thief