. American bee journal. Bee culture; Bees. 310 American IBae Journal Angry Bees BY ELVIN M. COLE. PROBABLY most beekeepers have noticed how savage a nucleus often is when in possession of queen- cells; I don't know if this is true of baby nuclei, but in the strong 2 and 3 frame nuclei in which are hatched the few queens I rear they are sometimes almost unmanageable with any amount of smoke. Mr. G. M. Doolittle mentions this on page 48, in "Scientific Queen-Rearing," but I do not recall ever seeing it men- tioned that these same bees become as gentle as usual when the cells have hatch
. American bee journal. Bee culture; Bees. 310 American IBae Journal Angry Bees BY ELVIN M. COLE. PROBABLY most beekeepers have noticed how savage a nucleus often is when in possession of queen- cells; I don't know if this is true of baby nuclei, but in the strong 2 and 3 frame nuclei in which are hatched the few queens I rear they are sometimes almost unmanageable with any amount of smoke. Mr. G. M. Doolittle mentions this on page 48, in "Scientific Queen-Rearing," but I do not recall ever seeing it men- tioned that these same bees become as gentle as usual when the cells have hatched; and this explains, I believe, the remarkable change sometimes no- ticed in the temper of cross bees when requeened from gentle stock. Miss Emma M. Wilson gives an in- stance of this in the Bee Journal of February, 1914, page 47: "The colony was already queenless, a new queen of best stock was given, and the temper of that colony began to improve imme- diatelv, not even waiting for the new generation of ; It hardly seems possible that the new queen could in- fluence the temper of the colony ex- cept as her bees hatched and replaced the original stoek. I believe such col- onies are trying to supersede their queen, and when the cells hatch, or they are supplied with a good queen their temper improves. Here is my reason for thinking so : On June 1, last year, I received a queen by mail; a fairly strong colony was de- queened, the new queen clipped and "smoked" in. A few days later, wish- ing to use some of her brood, I opened the hive and the bees came at me with such vindictiveness that they nearly drove me to cover. Their fury re- minded me of some of my nuclei with queen-cells, and I concluded that they had cells and were superseding the queen; an examination proved this to be the case. I kept the cells cut out of this colony for more than two months, the bees continuing so ill-tempered all this time that I came to dread opening the hive. The queen w
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, booksubjectbees, bookyear1861
