BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
While a young queen is being introduced she frequently utters a note of alarm, a zeep, zeep, etc. 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, when they would have paid no attention to her had she not uttered this well-known note. When you have once heard it you will recognize it ever afterward. Queens, when placed near together in cages, will often call and answer each other, in tones that we have supposed might be challenges to mortal combat.
Some queens received one summer from W. P. Henderson, of Murfreesboro, Tenn., called so loudly 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 were intermediate. On watching closely a tremulons movement of the wings was noticed while the queen was uttering the note, and one might infer from this that the sound is produced by the wings, but this is probably not the case. Some one, we think, reported having heard a queen squeal, both of whose wings had been entirely clipped off. That these sounds from the queen have the power of controlling certain movements of the bees we are well aware, but we do not know just how nor to what extent this influence works.
## Viii **Queens**
The newly hatched queen is termed a virgin simply to distinguish her from queens that have been fertilized by the drone and are laying. Virgin queens, when first hatched, are sometimes nearly as large as a fertile queen, but they gradually decrease in size, until when three or four days old they often look so small and insignificant that a novice is disgusted with their appearance, and if he is hasty pronunces them good for nothing. For the first week of their lives they crawl about much as an ordinary young worker does, and it is often very difficult, if not almost impossible, to find them, unless an amount of time is taken that is more than a busy apriarst can well afford to spare. We advise not to look for them, but to insert a frame having some unsealed larvae just hatched from the egg; then if no cells are started, you can decide the queen is there without looking further. This plan answers a threefold 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 on her wedding-flight, which is frequently the ease; and, lastly, it serves as a sort of nucleus to hold the bees together and to keep them from going out with the queen on her wedding-trip, which they are much disposed 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 we have often started a young queen to laying by simply giving the bees some eggs and unsealed brood. Whether it caused her to rouse up and take her wedding-flight, or whether she had taken it, but was for some reason idle, we can not say; but this we know, that young queens that do not lay at two weeks of age will often commence, when eggs and larvae are given to their colonies. It may be that the sight of eggs and larvae 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.
## VI **Quens**
Our books seem to disagree considerably on this point, and we are afraid many of the book-makers find it easier to copy from the sayings of others than to try practical experiments. Some go so far as to say that the queen goes out to meet the drones the day after leaving the cell. Others fix the wedding-flight from two to ten days after birth. It is quite likely that some difference arises from the fact that queens often stay in the cell a day or two after they are strong enough to leave it.* Sometimes a queen will be found walking about the combs when she is so young as to be almost white; we have often seen beginners rejoice at their beautiful yellow queens, saying that they were yellow all over, without a bit of black on them; but when looked at again, they would be found to be as dark as the generality of queens. At other times when they come out of the cell they will look, both in color and size, as if they might be three or four days old. The queens in our apiary generally begin to crawl about the entrance of the hive, possibly looking out now and then, when 5 or 6 days old. The next day, supposing of course we have fine weather, they will generally go out and try their wings a little. These flights are usually taken in the warmest part of the afternoon. We know of no prettier or more interesting sight to the apiarst than the first flight of a queen. Perhaps a few hours before he had looked at her, and been disappointed at her small and insignificant appearance; but now, as she ventures out cantionsly on the alighting - board, with her wings slightly raised, her tapering body
elongated and amazingly increased in size, he looks in wonder, scarcely believing she can be the same insect. She runs this way and that, something as does a young bee, only apparently much more excited at the prospect of souring aloft in the soft summer air. Finally she tremblingly spreads those long silky wings, and with a graceful movement that we can not remember to have seen equaled anywhere in the whole scope of animated nature, she swings from her feet, while her long body sways pedulously as she hovers about the entrance of the hive. A worker-bee hovers also about the entrance and carefully takes its points when trying its wings for the first time; but it, seeming to feel instinctively that it is of more value to the colony than many, many workers, the young queen with the most scrupulous exactness notes every minute point and feature of the exterior of her abode, often alighting and taking wing again and again, to make sure she knows all about it. When we saw one for the first time go through all these maneuvres, we became impatient and felt like saying,--
"There! there! young lady; you certainly know where you live now; do you suppose a fellow can stay here all the afternoon, neglecting his business, just to see you start off on your first journey in life?"
By and by she ventures to circle a little way from home, always verging back soon, but being gone longer and longer each time. She sometimes goes back into the hive satisfied, without going out of sight at all; but in this case she will be sure to take a longer flight next day or a half-hour later in the same day. During these seasons she seems to be so intent on the idea she has in her little head that she forgets all about surrounding things, and, instead of being frightened as usual at your opening the hive, she will pay no attention to you; but if you lift up the comb she is on she will take her flight from that as well as from anywhere else. We have caught them in the hand at such times, Without their being frightened at all; but as soon as they were allowed to go, they were off as if nothing had happened. After she is satisfied that she will know the place, she ventures out boldly; and from the fact of her cireling right up in the air, we have, until lately, supposed that fertilization took place above the ken of human eyesight. This has been shown to be a mistake.
After a successful flight she returns with the organs of the drone remaining attached to her body. See DIONes. This is a white substance, and is frequently so large as to be plainly seen while she is on the wing. We should think a queen is usually gone half an hour, but we have seen them return fertilized after an absence of not more than 10 or 15 minutes. This accomplished, she goes quietly into the hive. The bees are much inclined to chase after her, and they sometimes pull at the protruding substance as if they would drag it away. That they do so, we think is pretty well proven.
Until recently it was generally believed that the queen met the drone only once, notwithstanding the fact that Francis Huber, in his book, " New Observations," published in 1814, made the statement that queens might or might not take more than one wedding-flight before beginning to lay. But this seems to have been overlooked until 1904, when considerable proof was adduced to show that the same queen _before_ laying(not after) might not only take several wedding-flights, but come back on different occasions with sure evidence of having met a drone.
While it seems to be pretty well proven that the queen may take more than one marriage-flight _prior_ to her laying, it is very much doubted whether she ever takes a second flight to meet the drone _after_ laying, although there are some facts that seem to point that way. Against the belief that the queen meets the drone after once beginning to lay is the fact that she may receive on one of her marriage-flights enough spermatozoa--more than enough, in fact--to supply her for all the eggs she can ever lay, even though she lives to be five or six years old. The number of spermatozoa has been variously estimated at from two to twenty million, which she receives at one mating. Even if we accept the lesser figure, a good queen can scarcely lay more than two hundred thousand eggs in a season, even in a southern climate; and she then would have to live ten years, which she never does, to use up all the spermatozoa she receives at her one muting.
For further particulars on this subject of mating, see DIONes.
The next day after a succesful mating you will, as a general rule, find the queen depositing eggs. The average age at which queens begin laying is about nine days; we generally wait ten days from the date of hatching, and are then pretty sure of finding them ready to send off. Between impregnation and the tune the first egg is said a remarkable change takes place. \(\Delta\)Iter the queen has been out and fertilized, her appearance is much the same as before. She runs and hides when the hive is opened, and looks so small and insignificant that one would not think of calling her a fertile queen. A few hours before the first egg is laid, however, her body increases remarkably in size, and, if an Italian, becomes lighter in color; and, instead of running about as before, she walks slowly and sedately, and seems to have given up all her youthful freaks, and come down to the sober business of life in supplying the cells with eggs.
how old a queen may be and still become fertilized.
As we have said before, our queens usually begin to lay when 8 or 10 days old, on the average; but during a dearth of pasturage, or when drones are scarce, they may fail to lay until three weeks old. The longest period we have ever known to elapse between the birth of a queen and her laying workers, was 25 days. We would destroy all queens that do not lay at the age of 20 days, when the season, flow of honey, flight of drones, etc., are all right. There is one important exception to this. Many times queens will not lay in the fall at all, unless a flow of honey is produced either by natural or artificial means. Queens introduced in the fall often will not lay at all until the ensuing spring. unless the colony is fed-regularly every day for a week or ten days. Also young queens that are fertilized late in the season will often show no indications of being fertilized until the colony is fed as we have indicated. A lot of young queens that we thought might be fertilized but did not lay, were once wintered over, just to try the experiment; and although they went into winter quarters looking very small, like virgin queens, they nearly all proved fine layers in the spring.
done-laving queens.
If a queen is not fertilized in two weeks from the time she hatches, she will often commence laying without being fertilized at all. She is then what we call a drone-laying queen. Usually her eggs are not deposited in the regular order of a fertile queen, neither are there as many of them; but by these marks we are able only to guess that she may not be all right, and so keep her until some of the brood is capped, when the extra height of the capplings, as we have explained under Dionnes, will tell the story. At times, however, the eggs are deposited so regularly that we are deceived, and the queen may be sold for a fertile queen, when she is only a worthless drone-layer; but this we always discover after the brood is capped, and send our customer another queen. Such a case occurs, perhaps, once in a thousand. Whether these drone-layers are just as good to furnish supplies of drones for the apiary as the drones reared from a fertile queen, is a point, we believe, not fully decided; but if you care foran opinion, we should say if the queen lays the eggs in drone comb, and the drones are large, line, and healthy, we believe them to be just as good. We should not want to use drones reared from fertile workers, nor drones reared in worker-cells, as those from drone-laying queens sometimes are.
The majority of honey-producers practice what is known as clipping; that is, two wings on one side are cropped off, leaving merely the stumps of what were once wings. The object, of course, is to prevent swarms from going off by making it impossible for the queen to follow.
As soon as a swarm issues, it will generally circle about in the air for a few minutes, until, discovering the absence of the queen, it will return to the old hive, where it will find her, probably, hopping about near the entrance. If the apiarist happens to be on hand he changes hives while the bees are in the air, and when they return they enter their new quarters with the queen. See Swarning. Where he is not present, nor any one else to take care of them, no harm is done, for the bees with the queen simply go back.
If one does not practice clipping he is quite sure to be bothered with swarms clustering in difficult and inaccessible places, and going off, to say nothing of the general annoyance to neighbors and to himself in recovering and finally bringing back the absorbers.
Some, instead of clipping, prefer to use entrance-guards or Alley traps (see Dionnbs), which prevent all possibility of any valuable queens getting lost in the grass, and save the marring of her symmetrical appearance. But outside of any sentimental reason, if we may call it such, the use of entrance-guards often saves an hour or two of hunting for the queen (for the purpose of clipping), especially if the bees are black or hybrid, or the colony is very populous. It takes but a moment to put on the entrance-guards, while it may, perhaps, on an average take five or (eu minutes to find a queen and chip her wings, taking colonies as they run.
But entrance-quarks are objected to because they obstruct more or less the passage of bees to and from the hive; and this, in the height of the season, it is argued, cuts down somewhat the actual amount of honey secured. We hardly think there is much in this; still we are willing to admit it may possibly make an appreciable difference.
There are very few who believe or profess to believe that clipping is injurious to the queen. The fact that queens after being clipped seem to do good service for two or kind of scissrs if these are not obtainable) clip off the _too reigns_ on one side, leaving anywhere from it to \(\prime\)e of an inch, and being careful not to cut too close. This acomplished, drop her gently between two frames of brood; but in no case let her fall more than an inch; for a queen during the height of the egg-laying season is liable to be injured if handled roughly. Some prefer, after picking up the queen, to grasp her by the legs as shown at 2; but this is liable to pull one or more legs off unless done just right,and we therefore recommend plan 3.
Now, before you attempt any one of these plans, if you have had no experience you should first practice on drones. If these are not to be found, try picking up worker bees by the wings until you become reasonably expert; but don't attempt to put a worker between the thumb and finger of the other hand,as you will run a good chance of being stung. For this part of the work get drones if possible. Then, when you can do both operations well, try a queen. Even then we advise the attempt to run one of not much value, as it is a nice piece of work to do it well.
Sometimes in an outyard, when a pair of scissors is not to be had, we use the sharp blade of a penknife. This is passed under the two wings in such a way as to cause them to bear directly upon the edge of the blade. The thumb is now pressed down upon the wings over the blade, and then drawn back and forth se saw fashion, perhaps two or three times. If the knife is sharp, the wings will be severed with two or three strokes. If it is dull, the queen should be laid on her back, still holding her between the thumb and finger of the left hand so that her wings will bear directly upon a hive-cover or any other piece of board or wood. The edge of the knife should be brought to bear upon the wings, when a slight pressure will cause the blade to pass through the wings into the cover.
During these operations be careful to handle a queen only by the wings or the thorax. This way avoids all danger of hurting her in the least, providing you are not _too_ clumsy. But always be careful not to press the abdomen of any queen.
A very simple device, and something any one can make, is shown in the illustration on page 367. It consists of a piece of section stuff \(\sharp\) inch thick, whittled out as shown.
QUEEENS.
The two ends of the prong are split, and a light rubber band secured in the manner indicated.
This band must be stretched just tight enough so that, when the implement straddles a bee, the rubber band will hold it securely. For the purpose of determining just when the right amount of tension is secured, try it on common bees as they walk across on the combs. If it fails to hold one of them the band should be stretched a little tighter; and if not then sufficient, a heavier band should be used. After having perfected it on ordinary bees, use it on a queen-bee, and clip her wings in the manner shown.
This is the invention of Mr. R. D. Willis, of Montrose, Col.; and after having tested the same we find that the implement works very satisfactorily.
In handling, the fingers sometimes taint the queens and cause bees to ball them after they have been clipped. This little device would obviate any trouble of that kind.
There are some bee-keepers, among whom may be mentioned Friedman Greiner, of New York, who prefer to clip the queen without picking her up of the comb. One edge of the frame is reset on the hive, as shown on the preceding page, while the free band with a pair of fine-pointed scissors quickly clips the wings of her majesty as she stops for a moment on the comb.
Practice first on drones or workers before essaying the act on a queen. It is inedful to work quickly and with considerable precision. Clumsy movements will be liable to cripple a queen seriously. It would be better to pick her up and follow any other method described.
How queens lay two kinds of eggs.
That queens lay two kinds of eggs we think few are inclined to dispute, since the experiments with the microscope have decided the matter so clearly, as given under Drones. Suppose a young queen goes out to meet the drones so late in the fall or so early in the spring that there are none; what is the consequence? Well, sometimes she will never lay at all; but frequently she commences to lay when 3 or 4 weeks old, and her eggs produce only drones. In fact, she can produce no other eggs, having never been fertilized. How shall we distinguish such queens from fertile ones? We can not decide positively concerning them, by any means we know now, until their brood is ready to seal up; then we will know by the round, raised capping of the brood, like bullets laid on a board, as we explained under Drones. We can give a pretty good guess by noticing the way in which she lays the eggs; if they are few and scattering, and sometimes, or often, in drone-cells, coupled with the fact that she did not commence laying until two weeks or more old, we had better not send her off as an untested queen until some of her brood is sealed over. A young queen, if properly fertilized, never, or very rarely, lays an egg in a drone-cell; and when she commences to lay, she fills cell after cell in regular order, as men hoe a field of corn; her work also has a neat and finished appearance that says at once to the expert, "I am all right."
Now, friends, do not think us contradictory when we tell you that a young queen in rare cases does begin with all, or nearly all, drone- eggs, but, after a while, lays entirely worker-eggs as regularly as one could wish.* We do not know why this is: perhaps she has not yet got used to the "machinery." Once more, you must bear with us in telling you that any queen, the best one you ever saw, is liable, any day of her life, to begin laying drone eggs altogether, or in part. We wish you to remember this, that you may be more charitable toward each other in your dealings. A nice laying young queen, taken from a live, and shipped to a distance, may prove to be a drone-layer shortly after or immediately after she is received. Such things are not very common, but they do occur. In an airy queen, a virgin queen. Microscopic examination has shown an entire absence of spermatozoa in at least one or two instances where queens of this kind were killed and dissected. Similar experiments given by Dzierzon, show that the spermatozou may be injured beyond recovery by chilling the queen, and yet the queen herself be resuget. When a queen proves a drone-layer before the purehaser can receive any benefit from her, we think another should be sent. Of course, we can not give a rule for settling all such matters, but we would most earnestly advise that all try to do as we would be done by, and every one be _ready_ to bear a little more than due share of such losses as may come up.
Well, qneens not only turn suddenly to drone-layers, but they sometimes produce about an equal number of each kind of eggs. In all these cases, where the queen lays drone-eggs when she evidently intended to lay worker-eggs, they are in worker-cells; also the number of eggs laid usually rapidly decreases. The bees, as well as queen, evidently begin to think that something is wrong; queen-cells are soon started, and after the young queen is hatched she becomes fertile, and begins to help her mother. All hands evidently think that any kind of queen is better than none, hence a queen is seldom dragged out of the hive, as a worker-bee is, because she is ailing.
Very early in the spring, late in the fall, or at any time when forage is not abundant, a queen will pass right by drone-cells, taking no notice of them. We have often tried to get eggs in drone-cells by feeding, and can not but conclude that the queen knows what an egg will produce, and just what "wires to pull" to have every egg laid in a drone-cell produce a drone. We think it very likely the workers have something to do with this matter, but we have never been able to make out by what means they signify to the queen that some eggs in drone-cells, or even queen - cells, would be desirable. There seems to be a constant understanding in the hive as to what is going to be done next, and consequently there is no clashing. We wish, friends, the human family could understand each other as well. In our apiary there seems to be, in strong stocks, a kind of understanding that eggs shall be laid in drone-cells about the last of March, and we have drones, therefore, some time in April, ready for the first queens that may, by any accident, make their appearance. Those who insist that there is only one kind of eggs can satisfy themselves very easily by taking an egg from either a drone or worker cell and placing it in the bottom of a cell of the other kind. They will get a drone in a worker-cell, or a worker in a drone-cell. Again : If you give a young laying queen a hive supplied only with drone combs, she will rear worker brood in these drone-cells, and the mouth of the cells will be contracted with wax,us mentioned under Honey-comb.