Facts Abont Queen Bees.

Otago Witness, Issue 1813, 20 August 1886, Page 8

Facts Abont Queen Bees.

I wonder if others have queens faint away and come to again, as some of ours have done. Last summer, in looking for a queen we could not find her in the hive; but when about closing up I saw her lying quitely on the alighting board her up in my hand, and she appeared dead —no life at all. My first thought was of tossing her away ; but the next thought was to drop her in the hive among the bees. I did so, and in a week I examined the hive and she was lying all right, but showed signs of a little weakness. She was a young queen, fertile only' ten days or so, but she has not kept her hive so well filled with brood as some others, and now she is but one year old. I think I shall give the colony amora vigorous queen. _ About five years ago' on looking through a hive for a queen j could not find her. I looked on the bottom board, and there she was apparently dead. 1 took her up in my hand, and, as I wanted to save a dead queen to show to visitors, I told the attendant to lay her on a big box a rod away, until I went into the house. What was my astonishment, when, on going for my dead queen, to find her surrounded with two or three dozen of her own bees (I suppose), all doing homage, to her, their heads mostly all turned toward her, and caressingher with their antennas. I put her back in the hive and she was, to all appearance, a healthy quoen for a year or more. Again in swarming-time my wife caught a queen in a cage with a few bees, and laid them in the sun, intending to take care of her soon, but forgot her for two hours or so; when found she was apparently dead. I placed her in a hive and she revived and lived to do good service. One fall after uniting several nuclei, we forgot, a queen and a few bees we had hunted out and did not care to save, but disliked to kill her, so we put her in a cage and laid it on the ground, intending to put her on top of 'brood-frames in some colony, thinking possibly we might find a hive queenless. She lay out all that night; we had a hard white frost, and next morning I found that she and all the bees would shake round in the cage as if dead. I put the cage on top of a colony of bees fora day or so, and on going to it all were as lively, apparently, as if nothing had happened.—Corr. Gleanings in .Bee Culture.