Savannah morning news., 1886-06-19
THE LITTLE BUSY BEE,
Capt. Jerry slade Tells Much About
the Queen.

Everybody in Columbus, and a great
many people outside OF Columbus, know
that Capt. Jerry j. Slade is one of the best
educators for boys in the land. He i,
about as we'll posted on the majority Of
subjects as almost any man that can be-
st srtsd. The Enquirer-Sun long ago re
cognized this fact. but not until yesterday
morning did we have any idea that he
knew so much about bees. nor, in fact. did
we know there was so much to be known
about them.
THE QUEEN BEE
furnishes an interesting study. Speaking
about the queen bee yesterday, Capt.
Sade said.
II wish you could have been out to nv
house this morning; | would have shown
you something that would have been en-.
jOyed."
what was that ?' we asked.
"You are aware, perhaps, that the bee
hives are so arranged that the queens
movements can be easily watched, Well,
just before | started into the city this
morning ! saw hive OF bees preparing to
swarm. l went TO the hive, and securing
the queen clipped her wings so that she
could not fly. The swarm came out and
settled near by, the queen being the last
TO leave the old home. She then came out
on the starting board, but could not leave.
For several minutes messenger bees were
dispatched to and from the queen to the
swarm, and at last the entire swarm re-
turned to the hive"
'DId the other bees understand?"
81 am confident they did. | am quite
certain the queen bee sent message that
she could not come and ordered the re-
turn of the other bees"
Show can you tell which is the queen ?'
''Sbe is easily distinguished by the
length of her body, shOrtness of wing,
together with a certain smoothness and
sleek look of her body. She is about one
third longer than the working bee, and
has fierce and ugly sting, but will not
use it upon any one who handles her; she
is as safe to handle as June bug"
TO CHECK swARMING.
SIT would be a good idea then to clip
The queens wings to prevent the bees
from swarmingT' suggested the reporter
''Certainly so. The swarm will, when
they get ready to leave, 20 out and clus-
ter, but as soon as they discover that the
queen is detained, messengers and car
riers go to and from the cluster to the
queen and instantly all hands come flock
ing back and go into the nive perfectly
cOntented. Only the queen has an ugly
piece of work to do on going back. She
instantly sets to work to having the
young queen cells opened, and she stings
the young queen to death. This is the
only use she ever makes OF her sting"
HIvING THE BEES.
"This introduces a new way to hive the
bees, does it not, Captain"
alt does. A bee keeper can take ad-
vantage of this swarming and by putting
the Clifford queen in a new hive on the
old stand can give swarm a new home,
thing they were looking for, and at the
same time he can remove the old hive
with its contents of young bees with gum
cells to another stand and so swarming is
done, and that with no trouble. There
need be no more alarm about bees sw arm
ing if the movable form OF hives are used.
A little smoke quiets the bee and sets him
to eating honey at once. At that pleasant
business he is peaceable and will not be
reused to resentfulness unless the hand
ling is done nervously and too hurriedly."
"Fhat is decidedly preferable to the old
way?"
ooh, yes. Tin pans and kettles, plows,
water, dust, and the old appliances to
bring the fleeing swarm to a cluster may
be relegated to the past. Only clip the
queens wing. but be sure she is laying
before her wing is clipped, or she will al
ways remain infertile, for she must al
ways meet the drOne on the wing.
HOW THEY MAKE QUEENS.
"How do the regular working bees get
their queens?"
''It the queen isIlost by any accident, she
may be replaced in few days by placing
in the queenless hive a frame of comb
with eggs that would hatch out workers
in the cells, and the workers will take one
of these eggs and cut about five cells into
one, round this egg, and, as soon as the
egg on the third day matches into grub,
they nurse this grub with extra food of a
peculiar kind, causing the grub to take
on extra growth. In about nine days
they seal up this large, half-grown bee.
They. to make sure OF no failure, make
often as many as a dozen of these queen
cells. The first one OF these that matches
out with the aid of the workers goes
round TO the other queen cells and pulls
out the occupant and destroys her, as but
one can be queen"
TWO THOUSAND YEARS OLD.
'Is this Clipping Of the queens wing a
new inyention?'
81 thought so until this morning. sup
posing ii TO be an invention OF the modern
bee keeper, and evidence of the progress
OF the age, practiced it. with sort of
pride or my country. But what was my
osity one OF those difficult books OF Virgil.
his Georges, so difficult few schools even
read them, TO lind that the old Latin poet
knew all about 1t two thousand years
ago. And lest any one may be lncredu-
lous about the fact refer him to fourth
Gehrgic, 103 to 10S lines, close transla-
tion of which is as follows:
"tBut when the rowing swarms fly about
and sport in the air, disdain their hives
ana leave their inhabitants cold, you will
restrain their unsettled minds from their
vain play. Nor is there great difficulty in
reslraining them; do you but clip the
wings of their kings-'tu regIbus alas
eripe'-nOt one will dare while they the
ktng) stay behind to fly aloft, or pluck up
the standard from the camp
Il only feel little compensated for my
discontinue" said Capt. Slade, ain find
Ing out that ! know they are queen bees
and the old poet thought they were kings.
Let no one console himself that be knows
il ALL"
THE MOTHER OR SISTER OF ALL.
Coming back 10 the queen bee, is she
hot closely related 10 the other beesY'
''She is the mother or sister OF all the
working bees, and the workers are all te-
males but are iniertiie. At maturity the
queen weds once, and then hcr business
Is TO lay eggs-her sisters to work. Each
pursues her ayocauOn to her deaih--the
queen living from two TO three years and
lhe working bees hardly rs many months.
lhey wear out their wings with work and
tnen crawl away from the hive and die