ALBERT R. MANN
LIBRARY

New YorRK STATE COLLEGES
OF
AGRICULTURE AND HOME ECONOMICS

AT

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EVERETT FRANKLIN PHILLIPS

BEEKEEPING LIBRARY

 

 

 

 

 
Ree, University Library

ini
QUEENIE

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN
ITALIAN QUEEN BEE
 

 

 

 

My Master Shows Queenie to His Little Daughter
QUEENIE

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN
ITALIAN QUEEN BEE

BY
T. CHALMERS POTTER

ILLUSTRATED

NEW YORK
MOFFAT, YARD AND COMPANY

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(@ &STf

Copyright 1911, by
Morrat, YARD AND COMPANY
New York

 

All Rights Reserved

Published, February, 1911
FOREWORD

Scarcely an incident in this monograph is
founded on other than scientific knowledge
of the habits of Honev-Bees, and the prac-
tical use made of them by professional or
amateur <piarists.

The Autobiography of an Italian Queen
Bee is the effort to put into language what
one naturally thinks has transpired, judg-
ing by what one knows is being repeated
year after year in a colony of Honey Bees.
It has grown out of a real fondness for
working among bees, and observation of
their wondrous ways for thirty vears. It
is not mere imagery. Much has been en-
acted before the eyes of Bee-Keepers and is
already depicted in photographs. We have
all but their words.

Reported conversations between the
three Orders of bees in a colony, as noted

5
6 FOREWORD

here, will have assent from scientific stu-
dents of Apiculture, as well as the inter-
ested lover of his bees who manipulates
them for pleasure, recreational diversion, or
for their honey returns.

Any slight license, in order to weld the
facts together in both an understanding
and entertaining form, will be relished
equally by those who know most about
Honey-Bees, and those who know least but
are also taken with the curious and awe-
inspiring things that occur in the realm of
Great Nature.

Ty Ae Ps
Feb. 1911.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

My Master Shows Queenie to His Little

Daughter . : ‘ ‘ . Frontispiece

FACING PAGE

Portion of a Brood Comb with Queen Cells . 14

Our Object Lesson on Faith . : é - 26
The Whole Multitude Had Missed Her in a Very

Few Moments : ‘ : . - 40

Maid, Queenie and Chap : G. ae - 50

Prince Melapis Looked Love . ; : - 60
In the Rear of the University . , . - 66

Tip End of University Queen Nursery . - 7%
PART ONE
QUEENIE

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN ITALIAN
QUEEN BEE

I

My birth; youth; wonderful first experiences. My
formal and my pet name. My mother; my palace;
my food.

HIS is the name by which my inti-

mate friends have known me, and I
can not say that I dislike it, for although
I am of good size I must confess that it
sounds rather loving, as if I were still
young, pretty, a pet, and much humored
and honored. My full name, however, is
Regina Melapis. I think it is high sound-
ing and almost too long, but what is one
to do about a name when one has no share
in deciding what it shall be? I had none
whatever. I have heard on excellent au-
thority that most fathers and mothers agree

9
10 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN

between themselves respecting names for
their children, but my father died before I
was born, and my mother informed me I
must have the name she had always borne
herself. In fact I now know, as the Hon-
orable Teddy Roosevelt says, that down in
East Africa there is what is known as a
bull Hartebeest, and another as a cow
Hartebeest, and that each has no other
truly descriptive name to always designate
whether it was born boy or girl Hariebeest,
and that this is also true in a wide sense
everywhere. Some people are called men
and some are termed women, are they not?
Besides, it is against all laws and all fash-
ions for men to call themselves women, or
for women to call themselves men. I am
sure that some of these go by the name of
males and others females, which I think
comes to the same thing, except that when
you talk that way you are dividing them all
into two great distinct classes because of
their sex. But the singular fact in the lives
of my mothers and grandmothers all the
ITALIAN QUEEN BEE 12

way back for hundreds of years, is that our
fathers all died before we were born, and
that a strange man gave us our name. It
has never been changed, and you will find
our racial communal name as well as some
plain hints about our habits and work in the
Bible, that greatest and best of all books,
which carries us back farther than written
history of any kind in this world goes. I
said my name was high sounding and long,
but I think it is pretty and without affecta-
tion. Besides, it is grand; for as you must
know it is really Latin, and that is one of
the most beautiful of all the languages in
which people have ever spoken one to an-
other. Moreover I happen to know that
those who speak or ever learn French,
Italian, Spanish, or Portuguese and their
kindred dialects, are using modifications of
that musical Latin language. Of course
you are aware that the valuable coins of
England have stamped on them the name
of Edward VII, and that the little word
“Rex” is just after it, because “Rex” is the
12 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN

Latin for King. Very soon now they will
have George V, with “Rex” following it.
When Queen Victoria lived, and coins were
minted, they as well as the great State docu-
ments were stamped with the words Victoria
“Regina,” or else “Reg.,” an abbreviation of
the former which means Queen. They thus
perpetuate this ancient and elegant lan-
guage which their predecessors spoke, wrote,
and also used on their money. For these
reasons, although the name “Queenie” is my
familiar appellation, Regina Melapis is my
great Latin name, and my mother and I
were named by none of your illiterate, ill-
natured, stilletto-flourishing men like those
of the Black Hand, and who perhaps stab
somebody if he does not give up his posses-
sions to them, but by scholars, nature lovers
and scientific men who understood the Latin
language as it had been used by the savants
and quality people of the sunny, beautifully
hilled and blue laked land of Italy. For, I
am now going to let out my secret to you.
T am a Queen Bee. I mean I am a Queen
ITALIAN QUEEN BEE 13

of those races that are denominated Honey
Bees because they gather honey from the
flowers, store it in that dainty white comb
so spotless outside, and pure inside the cells,
that it is known to be the purest, cleanest,
and most wholesome of all natural sweets
for people to eat.
' “Mel” means honey and “Apis” means
bee. So now you understand all about my
name Regina Melapis, and that it signifies
Honey Bee Queen.

The man who named me by my truly
scientific and grand name was of middle
height, had black hair that curled a trifle,
and he had a big fierce mustache, but he was
kind natured, very gentle, and his voice was
full of melody to me from the time I first
heard it. He was a graduate of the Uni-
versity of Padua, and I have heard him say
he disliked to hear Latin spoken of as a
dead language. I also think that is scarcely
a proper way to talk, when it is lively
enough to fill all those other national lan-
guages that I spoke about with such
14 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN

sprightly words and phrases. Then, too,
doctors everywhere write “Mel” on their
prescription blanks when they wish a drug-
gist to mix honey with the rest of the medi-
cine in a bottle. Besides, many terms used
by courts and lawyers are Latin, and written
in their books and briefs, and are spoken
by diplomats and judges in court rooms and
elsewhere, as if they were parts of the lan-
guage of 1911. A United States dollar has
the Latin words “E Pluribus Unum” upon
it. Each queen of Italian honey bees is
still formally denominated Regina Melapis
in Italy, as her kind always was. So Latin
is not as dead as some may think.

The first thought I ever had in this busy
world was when I realized that I was snugly
shut up in a little six sided cell of wax, with
my head quite near the wax capping of the
cell, my feet and wings compactly but
comfortably hugging my body, the other
end of my body just touching the base of
this cell. This small home in which, com-
 

 

In One

Portion of a Brood Comb with Queen Cells.

of These I Was Born
ITALIAN QUEEN BEE 15

ing to consciousness, I found myself, was
only three-eighths of an inch wide and not
much longer. But I kept growing from a
speck one-sixteenth of an inch in length,
that first looked like a wee piece of a white
grain of rice, or a little clip of white thread,
into a larva, then a pupa, and afterwards
showed a developing head, two long and two
short wings, and six legs, beside some cun-
ning antenne, or feelers, that would always
help me know “where I was at.” The nurse
bees of our colony had to make my home
a little larger all the while. Accordingly
they kept building on beeswax very cutely,
artistically making diminutive elevations
and recesses all over the outside until my
cell was larger and longer than any of the
others in the hive, being about seven-eighths
of an inch in length. It was tapered some-
what at the end where some of my feet
were, and, with all the turrets and fancy
indentations, was as elegant in its way as is
Buckingham Palace in which good Queen
‘Alexandra has been so magnificently housed.
16 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN

My cell, always spoken of as the Queen Cell
by my loving Italian Master, looked for all
the world like a hanging peanut shell, only
the color of it was somewhat darker, between
that of taffy and chocolate. But I have
since found out that our cells are sometimes
almost black when they are left on the combs
of a hive by the bees for a long time, and
used as the birthplace of other queens.
Well, up to this period I had never yet
had any consciousness of being hungry, any
more than an unborn baby has. Kind Na-
ture, which is the same as saying a great
and good Creator, had arranged that I
should be supplied with all I needed in the
way of food, that I might grow, be happy
when I came to myself, and fulfill some
divine design, which I think He has for
every beast, bird, insect or man. However,
since that era in my cell life I have dis-
covered that a portion of the individuals of
our colony of bees, termed Nurse Bees, who
are the very young ones, put what is called
Royal Jelly in the bottom of my cell im-
ITALIAN QUEEN BEE 17%

mediately before my mother queen had laid
the tiny white egg down there, or perhaps
just afterwards. She and our people knew
a queen was to be raised there, because that
particular, rich, sex-aiding nourishment is
never deposited in any other cell to such an
extent, nor permitted during the whole
period of incubation as it is with those eggs
that are to be matured into Queens. This is
a scientific mystery, wonderful to contem-
plate, but Royal Jelly is known to be far
richer and there is more of it than of that
upon which my less illustrious relatives in
the hive are reared. I fairly floated upon
and in this tiny shut-in lake of nutriment.
But at the time I spoke about, when I

seemed to know I had the power to do think-
ing, I did feel hungry, as if I needed and

would enjoy some food I had not yet had.
Besides, I felt strong, quite suddenly, in
only a very few hours. I moved all I
could, and stretched my legs, and drew my
wings back and forth as I could. I knew
that I could hear, a consciousness I had
18 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN

never had before. ‘The wax of my cell was
porous so that a trifle of air, sound and light
were possible. I kept doubling up, and
then thrusting up my antenne against the
closed door of my cell. Such a commotion
seemed to be going on over my head, like
I have since heard when raindrops patter
down on the cover of my colony’s hive. A
kind of shuffling, scratching and hurried
stamping of feet, as when my master’s Uni-
versity pupils poured over the walk not far
distant on their way to their classes. And
I subsequently found that he was a Pro-
fessor of Natural Philosophy and taught
some classes in experimental Apiculture.

Now, therefore, craving food, and aware
of rapidly increasing powers, I cried out
with the only voice and language that I
could muster, saying “Cheep, Cheep,
Cheep,* ee-e-e.” I was terrified to find that

*It is an exact reproduction into English sound of what
is known among Apiarists as “The Piping of the Queen,”
heard when one places an ear against the hive when swarm-
ing is soon to occur, and occasionally at other times. On
ITALIAN QUEEN BEE 19

the shuffling of myriad feet above my head
ceased almost instantly and a coarse, rasp-
ing voice said “Bosh, Bosh,” and then a very
pleasant lady’s voice recited what I under-
stood to be: “Wait a little and we will let
you out.” Forthwith there was a scraping
and gnawing, and vigorous hacking at the
capping of my cell, which finally grew so
thin that I could plainly discern some
figures moving about and over it. At this
I used my own mandibles, and, as no ob-
jection appeared to be made, I thrust lustily
away, and very soon my feelers and nose
began to get through, and then another
lady’s very sweet voice ventured: “Wel-
come, indeed; we are so pleased to have you.
How comely you are! Maids, come quick.
See what a pretty face she has, and such
beautiful hair!” I could not comprehend

the contrary the cry “Hock, Hock,” is one of distress or
defiance, uttered by a Virgin Queen not yet out of her cell,
or when she is liberated from her cell, and sometimes ut-
tered when two queens are at liberty in the colony when a
battle between them may be impending. This latter sound,
“Hock, Hock,” is commonly denominated the “Qualking of
Queens.”
20 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN

what that meant, for vanity had not ripened
in me yet, tho’ I soon found that decided
pleasure in myself was growing fast.
After this very flattering reception there
quickly followed a great buzzing of wings
and a general rush my way. Then I heard
a voice of authority and snappy decision
say: “Seal her up! Quick! She is only
fourteen days old and the swarm must not
leave for two days yet!” At once several
headsful of mandibles were pushing gently
but forcibly against my own, and I was
obliged to get clear back into my cell, which
was not entirely closed up again, but whose
capping hung by a hinge on one side.
However, it was impossible for me to get
out, since four or five pairs of feet were
holding the lid down, and a stream of pop-
ulation was passing back and forth as if on
busy errands. Then I shouted again with
all my breath: “Cheep, Cheep, Cheep,
ee-e-e,” and behold some winning-toned per-
son replied: ‘Why, yes, of course we will;
Maids, it is time she had a Queen’s first
ITALIAN QUEEN BEE 21

meal.” And with that a pink little rod
came through under the lid! I put out my
tongue and the points of both touched, and
I began to draw nectar from the honey sac
of one of the nurse bees. How good it did
taste! Precisely what I needed, sweet and
luscious, with the delicacy of clover blossoms
themselves! After that full meal I actually
felt like a grown young lady, strong and
conscious of my looks, and, as well as I
could, I began to dress my hair which grew
over the sides of my temples and down
around my throat. Just then some individ-
uals got off the cell lid, and a tall magnifi-
cent looking and beautifully gowned lady
came and pushed her head and arms under,
and lifted it enough so that she could caress
me! This touched me greatly but I have
since found out that the spirit of the colony
would not likely have permitted this in case
she had been my sister instead of my
mother. I looked out at her and perceived
that her hair, arms, face and elongated body ,
were precisely like mine. She was leather
22 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN

colored, which is our true one if we are high-
bred, had three yellow bands across her
back, and her body lengthened out so grace-
fully over the adjoining cells that my re-
sponsive admiration scarcely knew bounds.
Stroking me affectionately, she softly began
to ery, if I say it in English, “Queen, Queen,
Queenie, ee-e-e! That is your name and
you are my daughter. I dearly love and
am proud of you, but the spirit of the hive
knows but one punishment for every in-
fringement of its instinctive rules, and that
is death. You will be of age in two days
and the law is that then, or about then, your
mother must lead out a swarm of most of
the adult individuals of this colony. Should
I not do so, they will supercede by killing
me, and if I, or you, or any of the others
offend against the swarm-impulse and you
should come out of your cell before I have
led out the swarm to a new home, then I
must myself sting you to death, or command
that you be smothered to death, lest the
beneficent designs of gracious Nature be
ITALIAN QUEEN BEE 23

contravened. This is all I can say. You
will live to see how righteous, benevolent,
and promotive of happiness and profit for
us and our Masters our colony laws all are.
Good-by, my sweet young daughter. Re-
member your name. The rest you must
find out for yourself, and it will all come
readily, since the involuntary promptings of
instinct arrive without observation, as our
bodies grow without our seeing or knowing
it. Touch my tongue. There; once more
good-by. Queen, Queen, Queenie, ee-e-e.”
And she was gone! I did not sorrow.
Some way that was not in my nature. I
was just full of wonder, and strange ex-
pectation about some great destiny! But
I then knew that what I thought was
“Cheep, Cheep-e,’ was really “Queen,
Queenie,” and, being just a young lady, I
liked the last best and thought of myself
that way ever afterwards. It all seemed a
very strange charge to me, but I did not
seriously question, and soon fell to having
only a slight curiosity about it, for I pre-
24 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN

sume the good Creator has ordained that
each division of Nature shall quickly become
familiar and contented with its own rules
and penalties.

After two days of quiet resignation to
my enforced position in my cell, growing
stronger, and wishing to brush my hair and
stretch my legs and wings better than I
could when thus confined, I was conscious
that there was an ominous silence all through
our hive. The lid was being pressed down
tighter all the time with more weight upon
it. Through the lid, which some appeared
to be scraping thinner again, I saw feet,
feet, and feet. It was very warm, too.
The temperature stood steadily at ninety-
eight or ninety-nine degrees Fahrenheit.
Everybody seemed to have come indoors.
Few were going out. Those who did go
were Maids, whom the spirit of the colony
said should never marry, but live and die
the happiest of working and laughing
people. Nobody paid any attention to them
ITALIAN QUEEN BEE 25

for they were just learning to go about
some, and test their powers of gathering and
enduring the journey home with what they
had found of nectar, pollen, or water. I
was yet to realize what would become of all
our people who had started early in the
morning for the harvest field in case any-
thing happened before they returned with
their loads. All of a sudden, on my six-
teenth day, two days after my strangely lov-
ing mother had both petted and warned me
about breaking any of Nature’s laws for
Honey Bees which the Creator of all had
inexorably established, I was surprised to
hear my mother’s voice again. But oh! how
changed! The same words as before, that
is, speaking my name, but a good deal more
added. For, after first hearing my name
‘in a very loving but rather regretful tone,
she changed the pitch of her voice. It now
sounded as if she were wrought up to the
highest degree of enthusiasm and conscious
sovereignty. What she said was like a
military or triumphant address to soldiers
26 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN

when going into battle, or some stirring ex-
hortation to undertake a crusade, or enter
upon a pilgrimage. I thought I could
hardly wait until it was all finished. An
ecstasy possessed me, and I wished I could
bound out of my cell and take part in what
I was sure was going on. What she said,
written into English, was this: “Hail!
Hail! The day has come! All colonists to
wing! The air, the glorious air. Come,
come! Away we go! To wing, to wing!
Sentinels, lead the way! Let everyone
praise Providence through the spirit of the
hive! To wing! Instant wing! Cheep,
Cheep, Cheep, ee-e-ef”

This militant utterance finished, I trem-
blingly awaited the result, scarcely appre-
hending what it all could mean. But hardly
had my mother’s excited royal voice ceased
to ring throughout the hive, before a vast
multitude of fifty thousand of my fellow be-
ings began to go pell-mell towards the en-
trance of the hive. Only the few that held
down the hinged lid of my cell seemed to
 

 

 

 

 

Our Object Lesson on Faith

Fifty Thousand of My Mother’s Family Are Preaching
It Before Your Eyes
ITALIAN QUEEN BEE 27

brace themselves to obey some exhortation
toremain. Tumbling, boiling, racing, buzz-
ing, hurrying over each others’ bodies, that
mass simply poured itself out, even spilling
itself in writhing fashion on the ground in
front, in the impetuous impulse to obey the
Creator’s command through the leadership
of my mother. As rapidly as these thou-
sands reached the door of the hive, or fell
on the ground below, they took wing. Zig-
zagging, circling back and forth, darting in
bee-lines here and there as if wild, angry,
exultant, or in bewildered, hopeless confu-
sion, two hundred thousand wings were
making a strange music in the air just above
the hive, that I could distinctly hear, still
confined to my cell as I was. Frequently
a buzzing at the entrance and scratching
feet told of the return of some who had been
warned to come back and keep watch over
our brood of forty thousand young Chaps
and Maids, who were in all stages of de-
velopment in their cells scattered through
ten frames of comb in the brood nest, many
28 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN

thousands of whom, being my departed
mother’s last deposited eggs, would not ma-
ture for twenty-one and thirty-six days, the
Maids and Chaps respectively. Sometimes
I heard “Bosh, Bosh,’ again. Then the
noise of that vast aggregation outside in the
air grew fainter, and fainter, until I could
discern no more of it, and my intuition told
me that the swarm had settled on some small
tree, perhaps only about twenty feet dis-
tant from the old hive. As I have learned
about some other people who migrated from
one land to another after having secured
food, utensils and valuables to provision
themselves for their journey, so now our bee
people did this same thing on a miniature
scale, and with just as much certainty of
success in their trustful undertaking. For,
every individual Maid had carried a honey
sack completely filled with honey, for the
emergency of secreting wax for new honey-
combs, and of awaiting, maybe, the pleasure
of some kindly disposed man or woman who
would supply the swarm a new hive with
ITALIAN QUEEN BEE 29

ten old frames of comb, or else ten starters,
or ten full sheets of beeswax comb founda-
tion as bases for new combs. And where
was my mother, the leading exponent of this
spirit of the hive? Was she in the center of
that great pear-shaped bunch of bees, larger
than a big ham, hanging from that branch?
How quiet they are. How they have
trusted Providence for their future! The
Creator gives to all their meat in due season.
PART TWO
QUEENIE
II

I become Mistress of a Colony of Bees of my own.
My reception and exalted position. The Address
of Welcome. Prince Melapis. The Chaps and
the Maids. The three Orders. “Hock, Hock,” I
am defied. I meet and vanquish a rival Queen. I
have no moral nature.

SHORT time after this, I seemed to
A feel our home moving somewhat, as
if it were being shoved along the hive-stand,
and scraping on something rough. This
only lasted a moment, however, and I won-
dered what was the matter. Suddenly I
heard a great stampede and fluffing of
wings, and at first thought my mother and
her swarm were coming back to our home,
but I soon made up my mind that the up-
roar was at the entrance of a new hive a
few inches away from ours.

I heard tramping of feet, and voices near,
and finally my Master’s wife and little
33
34 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN

daughter came, and I heard the former
say, “Have you found her?” To this he re-
plied that he had not, but I still heard and
felt his steps on the grass, and finally he
said with considerable exultation in his tone:
“Here she is, the beauty! Look at her
before I let her run in.” To this the
lady added with much delight: “Queenie,
Queenie, are you not pretty! Papa, will
she sting?’ He then imparted the informa-
tion that a Queen of Honey Bees was armed
with a sting, shaped like a curved carving
knife, but that she used her weapon only
on a rival Queen, never on a human. Now,
the facts were that my Master took no risks
about absconding swarms in case of his ab-
sence when they emerged, and their final
departure for some hollow forest tree, and
that my mother’s wings had been shorn on
one side of her shoulders so that she could
not fly. A little trial and she would sink
to the ground! She was not in that bunch
of bees at all! She was down in the grass
only a yard distant. The whole multitude
ITALIAN QUEEN BEE 35

had missed her in a very few moments and
in consternation returned to the old spot,
where they found my Master had placed a
new hive, ours having been moved a short
distance to one side as I have intimated.
Into that they poured, as anxiously as they
had gone out before, and apparently in the
greatest haste. My mother was put at the
entrance and allowed to crawl from my
Master’s fingers in and up among her old
colonists, but in brand new quarters, with
small starters of comb foundation fastened
to the top bars of the brood frames, instead
of the old combs full of eggs, bees and
honey, which were now in my possession.
Thus they were obliged to build completely
new comb before she could have any cells
in which to lay eggs, and the returning field-
workers would be obliged to put all the
honey they gathered for the present into the
pound section boxes in the super or honey
crate that formerly was on my hive, but
now placed over on hers. This would in-
sure a fine harvest of surplus honey for my.
36 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN

Master, but retard the hatching of bees to
such an extent that my mother would not
be at all likely to lead out another swarm
that season. And they did complete over
one hundred pounds of luscious comb honey
that summer, in sections holding about one
pound each.

Meanwhile, I wondered why I had been
left with so few bees. But some from the
fields, absent when the swarm went out, al-
lured by the old colony scent, since each
one has its own, came into the old familiarly
scented entrance and so upon the old combs
again. Presently I became assured that
with myriads of young bees hatching out at
the rate of three thousand a day, we should
soon be populous again. The sun shone
bright and warm, as it does to glorious per-
fection in Ltaly, and the old hive was warm
enough. Not one egg or larva chilled or
died. Ina few days I was the adored royal
head of a rapidly increasing colony, and was
as full of youthful spirits and hopes as
ITALIAN QUEEN BEE 37.

any highly bred young lady could possibly
be.

Now then, it did not remain so tranquil
very long. We must be rightly named
“busy bees,” for with us there is perpetu-
ally something doing that is worth while,
either outside or inside the hive, or both.
That is, of course, excepting when we take
our rest and sleep in winter, as other people
take theirs, tho’ perhaps not at the same
time or in the same way. So, in a little
while I could discern much walking about,
which grew more distinct until, tho’ I knew
that swarm must have been a large one,
I felt certain that there was a good rem-
nant of individuals to perpetuate the inter-
ests of my colony. As already suggested,
I ascertained that a few thousands had, as
adult workers, been absent in the fields,
gathering nectar from clover blossoms.
These were now returning home heavily
laden, and all work went on as before ex-
cept that, for the time being, there were not
as many harvesters. Quite often I heard
38 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN

something like a great hoarse flapping of
wings down at the entrance, and as it came
up it sounded to me like someone rat-
tling bones that had leather strips bound
to them to deaden the noise as they struck
each other. The tread of some people’s
feet appeared heavy, as if they had burdock
burrs on the soles of them, and again I heard
that fearsome, imperious “Bosh, Bosh,’ and
was frightened. But in a little while I
heard my relatives talking again about re-
leasing me, saying that although several
days sometimes elapsed after a swarm had
issued before a new Queen was ready to
emerge, I was mature, self-reliant, beauti-
ful to look upon, and the sooner I was placed
in charge the better for the welfare of the
colony, considerably reduced in numbers as
it now was. After some further whisper-
ing, and standing stock still on the lid of my
cell, as Professors on the University campus
silently stand sometimes while they are
meditating the settlement of some momen-
tous interest, and yet wait for somebody to
ITALIAN QUEEN BEE 39

lead, they all moved off a short distance
away on the comb. I took this as a chal-
lenge to my strength and self-confidence,
and so anxious was I to get out that straight-
way I made bold to push up against the lid,
which slowly rose upon its hinge, and I
crawled out upon the plateau of adjoin-
ing brood cells. At once everyone turned
about to face and reverently salute me.
Then one of the Maids slowly walked for-
ward and most deferentially drawing her
head down upon the surface of the comb
and smoothing back her hair with her an-
tenne, lengthily greeted me thus: “Most
fair and gracious Majesty, your august
Mother, our late honored Sovereign, obey-
ing an instinctive inspiration from the Al-
mighty Creator of all things great and
small, has left this home to found another
like it, that our colony may contribute its
share in obeying the law to be fruitful and
multiply, replenish the earth, make glad the
heart of man, and aid in the completion of
the wonderful designs of the All Wise.
40 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN

Her late august Majesty spoke to you in
the night seasons, and caressed you in our
presence, affectionately witnessing before us
to your Serene Highness as her successor.
She acquainted you with your name, and
told you of the mysterious vital disposition
of our race. We have obeyed her to her very
latest charge, not alone for fear of penalty,
but also because we revere the spirit of the
colony, which to us is the spontaneous, un-
spoken, but authoritative voice of the Al-
mighty. We now salute you as our Royal
Highness, whose beauty equals that of any
exalted Princess of our kind, whose grace
shall ever increase, whose sway is supreme
over all this colony, and whose will it shall
be our happy duty to obey both in letter
and in spirit as long as we shall live. Ador-
able and gentle Sovereign, be you the mother
of thousands of millions, and may your chil-
dren possess the gate of them that ever
vilify or dispute you! Fellow Colonists,
salute and pay homage to our henceforth
glorious Majesty, the sovereign Queen of
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Whole Multitude Had Missed Her in a Very Few
Moments, and in Consternation Returned to the Old

Spot
ITALIAN QUEEN BEE 41

this line-bred colony of Italian Honey
Bees!”

As if by concerted inspiration there was,
forthwith, a great commotion, made by bow-
ing, scraping, shaking of bodies, buzzing
of wings, and a blended confusion of utter-
ances, above the din of which I discerned
“Bosh, Bosh,’ and “Hock, Hock,’ and
“Queen, Queenie, ee-e-e.’ This subsiding
decorously, in due time, all sped gallantly
to me, and some began to give me their
tongues that I might delight myself in draw-
ing fresh nectar from their honey sacs.
Others fell to stroking my hair, grooming my
body, unhooking and rehooking my upper
and nether wings, smoothing the fur of the
yellow bands on my back, rubbing down my
legs and feet, and patting my head with
their antenne. This done, and while I
was meditating upon my new and exalted
heritage and responsibility, silently deciding
what I should do first, I heard an individual
“Bosh, Bosh,’ and a ponderous stamping
42 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN

of feet, and a heavy set, imperious, magnifi-
cent youthful specimen of my order came
stalking towards me, with a stately carriage
of his frame that charmed me. He had a
large and fine looking head, with three great
bright eyes in the center of his forehead that
looked as large as I have since thought my
Master’s shirt studs were, whereas my own
three principal eyes were at the very crown
of my head, protected by tufts of hair
through which I could look at him as co-
quettishly as I pleased, and, because they
were thus hidden, I did not feel as much
abashed as I otherwise would have been.
Then, also, he had two gorgeous oval cres-
cents, as if dainty shad roe had grown
gracefully up his cheeks and they met in a
pretty groove at the top of his head, which
thus made an imposing “part” there, as fine
as Lord Dundreary’s. These plump cres-
cents were packed full of the brightest and
most expressive eyes, hundreds of them.
He had short and somewhat delicate man-
dibles, not even as large as mine, as if he
ITALIAN QUEEN BEE 48

had never been born to servitude or defense,
but to be waited upon as princes are, and
they were quite ambushed by a silky mus-
tache and goatee which were as illustrious
in grooming and aspect as those of a high
caste Chinese Mandarin. He urged some
Maids aside rather unceremoniously, but I
could not think him impolite, for I now be-
lieve I naturally doted upon a becoming
conceit and brusqueness in one whose phys-
ical construction and mien bespoke hand-
some masculinity as well as impressive
strength of character. As this noble being
neared me I admired -him instantly as if I
had been born to do so, and inquired of a
Maid who and what this grand personage
might be. “His name is Chap,” said she.
“He is a Prince of Melapis, a line-bred
Italian Drone. We call them all Chaps.
We are Maids. We had over a thousand
Chaps before the swarm issued, but at pres-
ent there are only a few who were too young
to go with the rest. We shall very soon
have more. By to-morrow, perhaps hun-
44 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN

dreds shall have hatched from those humped
cells over there. See?”

This information gave me the clue to a
release from my quiet embarrassment of at-
tentions, and immediately I moved towards
the big table-land of Drone cells. If you
believe it, every fellow colonist made gallant
way for me, some going backward, some
forward, some with a sidewise, hesitating
gait, all heads practically turned towards
me. I may as well say that some people
are fulsome about our colony etiquette,
speaking excessively of the way in which
we treat our Sovereign in every colony, but
I never have been. denied some token of
special notice from one or more near me
as I went my rounds from cell to cell, and
I have interpreted it as a combination of
adoration for my sex and wonderment be-
cause I could do what no one else among
all our thousands could possibly do.

When I reached the elevated area of
Drone cells, it was as if I had to crawl over
a lot of jelly glasses turned upside down.
ITALIAN QUEEN BEE 45

I explored them solicitously. The tops of
some of these arched cells were being thinned
by scraping within and without, and some
were loose like my own had once been, hold-
ing only by the hinge. From under these
lids the feelers of hundreds of Chaps were
being thrust out, and some had all their
thorax above the crest. I immensely ad-
mired them as far as I could see their bodies
and discern their manners, and wee little
voices were trying to say “Bosh, Bosh,”
from now on faster and faster all the while.
As I leisurely crept around in my curiosity
to explore those combs of hatching brood,
I found more and more adult Maids who
had returned from the fields, besides some
who had just made their first trip out and
back, and both were pumping nectar from
their honey sacs into cells that were either
partly filled or empty. I saw literally thou-
sands of capped over cells out of which hosts
of Maids were trying to emerge, just as the
Chaps were doing, and thousands also that
had new little white eggs in them recently
46 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN

left there by my mother, besides larve in
all stages of development.

It was at this period of my youthful
maturity, when I was able to do good think-
ing, that I got hold of three colony facts,
and I must tell you about them, for they
greatly aid in figuring out the spirit of our
hive, besides kindling praises of the heart
over the mysteries and surpassing wonders
of intricate Nature, which indeed work bet-
ter than all the machinery of the great clock
on the cathedral of Milan, with never a
chime or a cuckoo to ask demonstrative at-
tention. One is, that however handsome
the Chaps, that is to say the Drones are, it
is more wonderful still that they are the
only purely male bees, and that they are
the direct sires of all Queens and Maids,
indirectly so of other Drones, since Maids
may possibly lay eggs, but their eggs will
only beget Drones. The colony and the
race would become extinct without Queens
and Drones, although the Maids, from the
ITALIAN QUEEN BEE 4

standpoint of workers, are the most impor-
tant personages of our order. To be sires
is the sole object of the Chaps’ creation.
The second fact is, that the very great ma-
jority of all the thousands of bees hatched
in our colony are the Maids, that is the
Worker bees, and they are what my Master
calls imperfect females, so that they never
are married, but give themselves entirely to
the nursing of young bees, gathering honey,
and supplying the chief share of the neces-
sary warmth of the colony, which as I in-
timated before, must be at blood heat or
over, at least among the brood combs when
a brood is being reared. I have already af-
firmed my belief that a benevolent Creator
made us, and purposed our peculiar kind
of colony inspiration, as He has created all
beings and things and foreordained their de-
sign. But I also believe that by searching
no one has found Him out completely,
known His mind nor been His counselor,
for there are hosts of secret things and these
all belong to Him. One of the mysterious
48 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN

things about these Maids is, that very occa-
sionally they think to help their Queen lay
eggs in the height of the hatching season,
when numbers and heat are very essential;
or else in some desperate desire to be wise
above all colony law, they think to provide
it with a Queen when its sovereign has been
overtaken by some accident and is lost, or
dead. But not one egg ever hatches into
either a Worker or a Queen, since all are
unfertile. Only Drones and our colony
would be doomed! The third fact is, that
just as the Chaps or Drones are the only
pure male bees, the Queen is the only pure
female. She alone can marry. She alone
can lay eggs that are fertile, so that from
eggs she does deposit in the cells the colony
may develop Workers, Drones, or Queens,
according as she has impregnated them
when laid, and as the colony purpose de-
mands at the time by giving or withholding
certain kinds of food, such as Chyle and
Royal Jelly, and also building three sizes
ITALIAN QUEEN BEE 49

of cells to suit each size, shape, and kind
of bee, as the case may be.

Well, as I was thus wandering about,
seriously considering all that was fast en-
tering my vigorous young mind, what should
I suddenly hear but that queer noise that I
had distinguished only once before, namely
“Hock! Hockr’ It seemed _ strangely
harsh, and as it was repeated every now and
then, I detected from what direction it came,
and took my way towards that part of the
hive. As I went up and down or across
the brood frames, attended by my escort of
Maids and Chaps, who leisurely followed me
wherever I went, that sound grew louder
and more severe in its note. I saw ominous
glances on the faces of my attendants, as if
they thought it lay with me what was to be
done. I first grew apprehensive, and then
very angry. My passion came spontane-
ously and I was conscious of no wrong im-
pulses. It was simply ordained nature. I
50 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN

rushed forward until I was at the door of
the cell from which issued that ugly sound.
It was partly opened, but some Maids were
holding it so that its occupant could not
escape. I instantly saw that another Queen
Bee was in there! There could be no mis-
take. It was a regulation Queen cell, simi-
lar to the one in which I had been born.
Her voice was one of daring! It sounded
impudent, and to me was odious in the ex-
treme. My indignation knew no bounds.
I was first on the scene, an extended address
of royal welcome had been delivered to me
and I had already taken possession of the
colony palace. I reasoned that if I had
died in my cell there might be very good ex-
‘cuse for having another Queen in readiness.
Precaution had doubtless been taken in view
of some possible accident to me, and I saw
the point to this measure. But now my
course was clear. I should and would toler-
ate no rival. I gave the order to tear her
cell down and to fall upon her. With mad-
ness that only an affronted Queen can in-
dey) atusNY pre

 
 
ITALIAN QUEEN BEE 51

dulge toward a rival, I myself rushed upon
her exposed thorax as the walls of her cell
gave way, bent my body for a supreme
effort and sent my curved sting into her
vitals. She trembled, arrogantly cried
“Hock, Hock!’ and then straightened out
dead. As I beheld her thus, I felt no com-
punction. With surprising complacency
and deliberation the Maids all about on the
near combs tugged away, until the following
morning she had been drawn out of the cell,
her body unmutilated in any way, dragged
down and dropped over the edge of the
alighting board, and dumped on the grass
for a toad to harpoon or for the ants to de-
vour. For we are painstaking about our
habitation, and scrupulous about cleanliness
and the public health. In case of death
within doors, the chilling of any brood which
in time might be offensive, the capture of
a moth miller or moth worm, a leaf, twig,
or any bit of refuse being blown into our
quarters—we at once set about to remove
them, and they will be found on the ground
52 AN ITALIAN QUEEN BEE

below our front door, and indeed many such
things disappear as by magic, being carried
yards, even long distances away, if they are
not too bulky or heavy. Now, in this whole
case I was satisfied. I believed I had car-
ried out the benign and wise adaptation of
nature. Although I had slain her, I be-
lieved she had no capacity to suffer bodily
pain. I could not discern that I had any
myself, nor learn that any of our race had.
We could be killed without suffering, simi-
‘larly as many small insects and some of the
lower forms of life are known to have no
power to suffer. I was now a Sovereign in-
deed. I mused for eight days and then a
new and remarkable sensation took posses-
sion of me. It came about this way:
PART THREE
QUEENIE
III

I fall in love. Honey-Bee sophistry and gallantries.
I copy Queen Victoria and Queen Wilhelmina. My
engagement. My marriage, and wedding journey
to the clouds and back in seven minutes. My hand-
some Prince dies. My Master is tempted. I am
sold.

HAT handsome and courtly Prince

Melapis, that particular prince among
a regiment of Chaps that was soon in evi-
dence in our colony, but upon whom my
maiden eyes had already passed judgment
as to what masculine illustriousness, dig-
nity, fine appearance and alluring charac-
teristics in the Italian Honey Bee world
were, began to have an indescribable attrac-
tion for me. I tried not to be unladylike
or presumptive, but I could do no otherwise
than betray my adoration of him above all
the other Chaps of the colony. In short,
I wished to marry him alone and deliber-

; 55
56 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN

ately, and as I thought circumspectly, set
about to plan for my wedding in accordance
with customs that obtain among solitary
Princesses unattached at the time of their
accession to Royal prerogatives. I had
heard my Master tell his wife that he won-
dered with whom I would mate, and I was
well aware of my privilege of selecting a
husband, it not being expected of such as
I was that I could first be approached on
the subject of marriage. So, when I saw
love beaming from the multitudinous eyes
of this elegant Prince, too polite to do other-
wise than to gallantly venture courtship
sophistries as we walked along on the combs,
I was not taken by surprise when he heart-
feltly said: “Your Majesty, yours is a
magnificent dominion. Honored and happy
will the Consort be who shares with you its
administration!’ Made ready for what my
only reply could be by all that had agitated
my mind of late, and knowing well what my
subjects expected of me, I put on my bold-
est look, and although conscious that I was
ITALIAN QUEEN BEE 57.

trembling, said, out of a genuinely joyous
heart: “Sir Prince, it is all at your service.
I wish to share it with no one but your Ex-
cellency. If you thus agree to forward
forthwith the spirit of the colony, I shall
wed you this very afternoon. And we shall
fly to the clouds on our honeymoon jour-
ney.” Several of my attendants had dis-
creetly fallen to the rear, out of hearing of
this almost inaudible exchange of lovers’
language, but my principal Maid-in-waiting
stood just back of me smoothing the furry
rings of my yellow gown, with an assumed
indifference to all that was transpiring, not
even indicating any emotion when Prince
Melapis strode triumphantly forward to kiss
my face, stroke my hair, fondle my head with
his mandibles, and finally to draw his great
mustache tenderly across my cheeks.

We were quietly married in the presence
of my retinue of Maids-in-waiting, and,
carrying out a secret compact lest the colony
should miss me, we leisurely went down to
the entrance of the hive, from which I in-
58 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN

differently flew first to try my double wings,
and to mark the location of our hive. I
took pains to observe, however, that my
Master’s eyes were upon me, and very rest-
lessly, too. Also that he had his watch in
his hand as if he had very soon to catch a
train, but what I wondered at was that he
kept glancing back and forth between me
and his timepiece. I went only a few feet
distant, repeating this several times, in cir-
cuits a little larger each time, and all un-
heeded as I thought by the throngs of Maids
and Chaps hurriedly passing to and fro
upon their errands, or gamboling about in
front of our home with a joyous humming
of their wings. When finally persuaded
that no one was paying any special atten-
tion to us, I returned to the Prince’s side
on the alighting step, where he patiently
awaited my coming, suffused myself with
all the colony odor I had the racial poten-
tiality to emit, and speedily sailed aloft in
ever widening circles, closely followed by
my royal fiancé. Fiercely I soared away,
ITALIAN QUEEN BEE 59

higher and higher, for a while distancing my
companion, because I was going upward
with all my might, while he was feigning un-
concern over my departure, and yet steadily
continuing in my direction. My lavish
waste of the colony scent came near undoing
‘all our honeymoon plans, I think; for, be-
fore the Prince had overtaken me I looked
back to see where he was, and beheld with
consternation hundreds of Chaps furiously
pursuing us. The Creator has endowed us
with not only many eyes, but fixed in them
a magnifying power, so that we are able to
clearly distinguish objects at great distances,
besides also placing a multitude of olfactory
nerves in our antenne, so that we may not
only readily find flowers afar off, but each
other as well. Drone bees can fly with
greater rapidity than either Queens or
Workers, and urged to all his strength by
the vision of that aggregate of Chaps, his
rivals, some of whom appeared to be of a
different color and belonged to another
apiary than ours, and excited by his affec-
60 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN

tion for me, as well as by the colony scent
wafted to him in my wake, Prince Melapis
flew like the wind, soon caught and bore me
in his strong arms higher and still higher,
until at last we were above the regions of the
air where the common bird enemies of
Honey Bees are. Since Queen Bees seldom
live longer than four years, Drones not
longer than six months, the Workers not
more than two months during the honey-
storing season, time periods with our race
are very brief. In less than four minutes,
having gone to the fringe of the summer
clouds at the rate of a mile a minute, our
strength was exhausted and we allowed our-
selves to slowly descend towards the earth,
parachute fashion, my Prince spreading his
wings indolently, to catch the air and pre-
vent our downward journey being too
rapid. This travel without effort was sooth-
ing, especially since the legion of Chaps had
disappeared, and not a King Bird, Martin,
or Passerine had been seen or heard. But
the first thing I knew, we had reached the
UMOD MOTIAT AW Jo ssuNY AdIN oy} poyqoowg ATUL[LYpPUO N
Sunre \-ul-spreyy ATK JO ouK 2MHPAy ‘SeAG aor-peyg Worry SIFY Worx
aroqT payooT sidupayy aourtg

 

 

 

 
ITALIAN QUEEN BEE 61

ground and sunken down into the meshes of
clover and grass in a pasture at one side of
the University grounds. The shock of sud-
denly lodging thus, aroused me to medita-
ting over our distance from home, which
* indeed was not far, but I was at once terri-
fied by observing a Mediterranean Thrush
on the fence a few rods away. Now, when
this bird turned his head ominously in our
direction, and his black bead eyes seemed
to be upon us, and I saw what a long sharp
bill he had, my instinct told me he was no
friend to Honey Bees, and that we must
instantly escape to the shelter of home. In
desperation I freed myself from the arms of
my strong and handsome Prince, who was
strangely still, and seemed cold and unable
to move. Telling him of danger and to
make all possible haste to reach the hive, I
disengaged myself from the strands of grass,
sped in a bee-line, and in a few seconds was
on the alighting step of our hive. My Mas-
ter and his wife both saw me arrive, and his
hand went instantly into a pocket after his
62 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN

watch. “She has been mated,” he calmly
said. “Where is her Mate?’ she asked.
“Dead! But busied with her new duties of
motherhood she will neither know nor
mourn. The instinct of the hive saves them
from grief, and promotes the joyful con-
tinuance and welfare of the colony life.
She has been absent just seven minutes.”

Almost immediately after my safe ar-
rival, that is, within four or five hours, my
nature urged me to begin my life work of
laying eggs, and to haste to make up for
the period which had elapsed in the hive
since my mother’s last eggs were deposited,
during which time none had been laid.
Cells were being rapidly emptied by emer-
ging bees at the rate of about three thousand
a day. Thus I fell to replacing these at
practically the same daily rate. My method
was to travel from cell to cell. A glance
into one told whether an egg had already
been deposited there. In case not, I
grasped one edge of the cell with my fore
ITALIAN QUEEN BEE _ 68

'~ \telegs, drew my long body under me until it
was the shape of a sickle, thrust my abdomen
down into it, and, by a marvelous provision
of my nature, dexterously glued a tiny egg
to the bottom of that cell, similarly as the
botfly has been endowed with ability to thus
secure her eggs to a horse’s hair. But our
fastening is not so tenacious as that, since
it need not be, but is sufficiently so, as that
if our hive were blown over or upset by
some accident, ‘not one egg would be dis-
lodged.

Now, after I fad been thus diligent for
several days filling up the gaps in the brood
nest, I heard my Master telling his wife,
who was frequently his associate and. an in-
terested spectator at the apiary,. that, “he
did dislike to part with me at any. price.”
She replied that she thought the price was
fine, compared with that for which many
other Queens were marketed, which I then
learned was from one to five dollars, accord-
ing to the particular strain of their extrac-
tion, size, beauty, and the reputation of the
64 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN

apiarist. ‘Where did you say the order for
her came from?” “From that big concern
in America, termed ‘Home of the Honey
Bees.’ Money is not the special object, it
seems. They wish quality, and will pay for
it. I suppose I really will send her, but I
must wait until I can guarantee her a
Tested Queen, whose progeny show line-
bred marks of three yellow bands. Yes, I
will accept Mr. Air’s offer of twenty-five
dollars for her. It is more than I can get
here, and I shall be pleased to exhibit to that
firm what my strain of Italian Honey Bees
shows in color, size, hardiness, gentleness,
and honey-gathering proclivities. I will
write them to-day that she will be mailed
as soon as I can declare the purity of her
bees. You know they will be seen on the
twenty-first day after the one on which she
began to lay.”

I listened to all this wonderingly. I was
accustomed to hearing about being pretty
from the standpoint of the breeder of
Italian Honey Bee Queens, could see my
ITALIAN QUEEN BEE 65

own tell-tale bands of yellow over my back,
knew that the instinct for diligence was ap-
parent all about me, as well as that my Mas-
ter’s little girl could point me out on an
exposed comb any day, and that her little
face and arms were never stung. He him-
self loved to withdraw my comb from the
hive and watch me as I moved along from
cell to cell, laying eggs before his eyes. In
our long, aristocratic propagation in his
apiary, vicious and defective characteristics
had, by selection been practically bred out of
us, as well as others bred in. I guess this to
be the reason that famous Air Company
wished a Queen like me to head their great
apiary, which furnishes to Bee Keepers
the world over upwards of three thousand
Italian Honey Bee Queens every year.

It was on the twenty-first day after my
first eggs had been deposited, when my own
bees were emerging at the rate of five or six
every minute, and it had been found that
there was no admixture of blood in my,
progeny except the finest Italian, derived
66 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN

from their sire, the grand Prince Melapis,
and from myself, descended through genera-
tions of pure Italian Queens and Drones,
that my Master’s little girl once more
pointed me out to him whose eyes were al-
ready upon me, saying excitedly, “Here she
is, papa. Poor little Queenie, to have to
travel so far and be shut up in a mail bag!
Will she smother, or get homesick, or sea
sick? Papa, don’t send poor Queenie
away!’ But when he informed her I
needed very little air, would be snug and
safe in the great mail pouches, had no na-
ture to be homesick and could not be rocked
into sea sickness, she said she was sorry
never to see me again, but would be content
if my Master was, and finally bid me
gocod-by in a very sweet way. Forthwith,
he picked me up with the thumb and first
finger of his left hand, drew from his pocket
a pair of dainty scissors, such as he fre-
quently used for this purpose, clipped off
the most of my wings on one side, and tucked
 

 

 

 

In the Rear of the University

Not Far from the Apiary—The Fence Whereon
Perched the Mediterranean Thrush
ITALIAN QUEEN BEE 67

me head foremost into a small aperture, the
opening into the end of a Queen Cage.
This consisted of a solid block of light wood,
having three circular machine-cut holes
bored into its flat surface, for all the world
like ships’ portholes, close up against each
other, a diminutive door leading from each
to the other, so that one bee at a time could
go through from one compartment to an-
other, thus traveling the whole length of the
mailing cage. The whole top surface had
wire cloth tacked over it. Into one end-sec-
tion was bored a tiny air hole, covered over
with screen wire cloth, and along one side
was a sawed slot for a like purpose, but too
narrow for any bee to go through. The
compartment at the opposite end was almost
filled with candy, made of honey and confec-
tioners’ sugar, kneaded together until about
the consistency of putty. It makes satis-
factory food for us, keeps a long time with-
out getting hard, does not run, and can
neither smear the occupants of the cage, nor
68 ‘AN ITALIAN QUEEN BEE

the mail or mail bags. A bit of pasteboard
is tacked over the outside opening into this
candy-provisioned end. You will soon un-
derstand how useful this piece of pasteboard
is.
PART IV.
QUEENIE
IV

I am put into a Queen Cage. Ten companions are
provided. I cross the ocean to America. I am
“introduced,” and acquire’ a new Colony-scent.
My new American Masters. My Colony’s honey
in one year. American apiarian strategy. I be-
come the “mother of thousands of millions.” My
farewell counsel to agriculturists, orchardists, na-
ture lovers and everybody else.

HE weather was warm and my master
fii decided he would put ten Worker
bees with me in the cage, whose body heat
would serve to maintain us in comfort, and
who would feed me after they had first
sipped the honey into their sacs and could
pass it to me from their tongues. Had it
been cooler weather, he would have caged
as many as twenty to go with me. This is
the way he did: While a Worker had her
head in a cell, pumping honey into it from
her honey sac, he grasped her by the wings

a1
72 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN

and thorax skillfully, and tucked her into
the entrance, putting his thumb over it while
he did likewise with another, until he had
all I needed for company and attentions on
my voyage. Then, with wee wire nails he
tacked a thin veneer lid over the wire cloth.
We were secure, had sufficient air, were
warm enough, and were out of the sight of
curious mail distributors. Printed on this
lid, in conspicuous black letters, was this:

QUEEN BEE: DELIVER QUICK.

In a space just below for the address and
destination, was written this:. The Air
Company, Medina, Ohio, U. S, A.

In less than two weeks after my Master
gave me to the Post Office authorities in
Italy, the land of my birth, I was handed
out from the Post Office window in America,
with other mail from various quarters at
home and abroad. For my new Masters
did not only a great business in rearing
Honey Bee Queens, but the most extensive
ITALIAN QUEEN BEE 73

one in the world in Bee Keepers’ Supplies,
including vast quantities of both comb and
extracted honey, as well as one hundred tons
of pure beeswax every year, out of which
to make comb-foundation, a full description
of which does not naturally come in this out-
line of my life experiences as an Italian
Queen Bee. I can only say it is almost as
thin as paper, the hexagonal bases of cells
printed on or into sheets of it, by dies, after
it has been run through great steel rolls.
We simply draw this out into full sized
cells, whose walls are thin as onion skin.
Thus, the wax furnished us, we waste no
time in secreting the amount of beeswax
necessary for brood or honey comb, and our
energies may be forcefully given entirely to
storing honey. In the honey harvesting in-
dustry, this is as great a strategem to get us
to do our best as is any labor saving device
among human workers. Aided in this man-
ner, a good colony of Italian Bees will store
from thirty to two hundred pound-sections
of comb honey each summer, according to
V4 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN

the excellence of the bees, the season, the
location, and the care given them.

I had to be “introduced” to the colony in
America, which had been made ready for
me by removing its Queen, and leaving it
queenless for forty-eight hours: Discovery
of their loss, helplessness, would facili-
tate their willingness to accept me. But
caution had to be observed, and so this is
what they did: I and my companions, in
the cage, were suspended in the hive be-
tween two of the brood frames, spread some-
what to make room for it, the design being
that, confined there, we should acquire the
colony scent. If this well understood pre-
caution had not been taken, we should all
have been instantly stung to death as ene-
mies. But left thus for forty-eight hours,
my Masters then opened the hive, saw that
the colonists were by this time peacefully
overspreading the cage, and looking into it
as if ready to welcome the Sovereign they
well enough discerned was so near to them
ITALIAN QUEEN BEE 15

but could not get to them. They then took
out the tacks that held down the pasteboard
slip outside, over the honey candy, removed
it, put the cage back as before and shut
up the colony. The pasteboard gone, the
Maids at once began to eat out the candy to
get through into a compartment and liber-
ate me, and they finished the task in a very
few hours. The tiniest hole at first, through
which came a pink little thread of a tongue!
I knew it meant a friendly kiss and a sip
of honey fresh from the flowers, and I gave
and took both. Soon a head and then a
body through, greetings were extended, and
such gratitude that they had a Queen again,
that I was right away at home, and set
about my business of laying eggs. During
the interregnum, the Maids had started
many Queen Cells, to make sure in due time
to replace my predecessor. These I myself
soon tore down, as mistress, with much the
same spirit I showed in the old land when
I found a Virgin Queen about to emerge
from a cell after I had been proclaimed. |
76 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN

My new Masters observed me closely,
opening my hive occasionally to be certain
of my presence, ascertain if I were a vigor-
ous layer, if my bees were gentle, if we
were producing honey rapidly, and capping
it in a superior manner. They knew their
business as well as we knew ours. When
my colony became so populous that my in-
stinct suggested to me the propriety of
soon leading out a swarm, as my royal
mother had done in Italy, the Maids began
upon Queen Cells. This was evidence of
what my purposes were, and my Masters
determined to frustrate them and oblige us
to use the spirit of the colony in a direction
more to their advantage, similarly as peo-
ple harness horses to get loads hauled, use
mill wheels to secure the power of water,
or as directors manage the energies of
laborers so that more and better work may
be accomplished than if they followed less
effective methods. So then, they cut out
these Queen Cells, gave us additional room
by putting more honey sections over our
ITALIAN QUEEN BEE V7

brood nest, and during a hot spell they
helped us to comfort, and contentment
with our quarters, by putting little blocks
under our brood nest to raise it up two
inches from the bottom board and permit
abundance of fresh air to reach us. Every
week or so, as we had partly finished a
super of thirty-two sections of honey, they
raised it up and put another under it, until
we thus had six supers over us, in all of
which we were storing the most delicious
comb honey. Finally, the first one, now
at the top, was found completed. They re-
moved it, and I heard them talking about
it, saying it was beautiful to behold, almost
too pretty to sell at any price. One by one
the topmost super was taken off, equally
finished, but as the honey season waned,
they put on no more, lest we should have
too many boxes to fill and finish to perfec-
tion. They thus adroitly had gotten us to
do our best in honey storing and could ad-
vertise our known qualities if they chose.
If they had allowed us to reduce our work-
78 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN

ing force by swarming, we could not have
harvested for them what we did. We had
filled and capped six supers of thirty-two
sections each, which made one hundred and
ninety-two pounds in one-pound sections.
This, I overheard them say, was doing first
rate, but have since learned that, although
this quantity is above an average yield of
one colony, even when Italian Bees are
manipulated by experts, there are many lo-
calities where the climate and flora permit
of colonies securing more, and considerably
more if they are regulated for the produc-
tion of extracted honey, in which case we
are suffered to spend no time, nor waste any
nectar, in secreting wax, except the very
small quantity utilized in capping honey.
For, when extracted instead of comb honey
is the object, previously built combs are
continuously furnished us, and all we have
to do is to store and seal our product. Our
combs are then removed, the capping shaved
off with a specially shaped knife which has
been dipped in hot water, the frames set
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ITALIAN QUEEN BEE 719

into a revolving machine fitted with wire
baskets to hold them, and the honey is
thrown out of the cells against the sides,
runs down and through a faucet into cases
in which it is kept for sale, and the emptied
combs are put right back into our hive to be
filled again.

My autobiography, thus given, is that of
the rearing and ordinary experiences of
Honey Bee Queens, raised in comparatively
small numbers in full colonies. My history,
as I am controlled by my Masters in
America, is such that I am made to wonder-
fully increase my powers of furnishing
them Queens for sale to Bee Keepers all
over the world. By this method I am liter-
ally “the mother of thousands of millions.”
For, instead of superintending the develop-
ment of one Queen Cell at a time, or a small
number of such managed colonies of an
apiary, thousands of my eggs are trans-
ferred with little wooden spoons from our
cells into artificial wax or wooden cells
80 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN

made to imitate the bases of natural Queen
Cells, fastened deftly upon a bar; Royal
Jelly is spooned up and added, and then
these bars of artificial cells are carried and
placed in hives whose Queens have been pur-
posely removed. Then our people, under
the impetus of an instinct to refurnish them-
selves with a Queen, build out these cells,
nurse each occupant, and finally shut the
door against all intrusion until nature shall
complete the work. When thus capped, my
Masters either take them all away, distribu-
ting them among little boxes containing only
a few hundreds of bees each, until we are
hatched out, have been married and are lay-
ing, or else they protect each cell with a
cunning guard of wire cloth, within which
we are all hatched, and then distributed
among baby-nuclei to be cared for until
mated and laying. When thus laying, we
are termed and sold as Untested Queens.
When kept for twenty-one or more days,
until our children show the requisite number
of orthodox yellow bands on their backs, we
ITALIAN QUEEN. BEE 81

are known to be purely mated and are ready
for market as Tested Italian Queens.

I am proud of my blood, my staying
qualities and my price. But my American
managers, by using the latest methods of
these clever times, raise so many Queens of
my steadfast Italian type, that they now
sell worthy descendants of Queenie for one
dollar each. And their households, number-
ing from thirty to sixty thousands each, are
doing more in their searches for nectar to
pollenize and render fruitful the orchards
and the garden fruits, besides corn, shrubs,
vegetables and grasses of different kinds,
than many even intelligent people have any
idea of. Remember this when you see them
on an apple, plum, or clover blossom, and
lay the laws of mercy and prudence down
to that farmer or gardener, so thoughtless
of his own wallet and palate, as to spray his
trees or blooming small fruits while they are
in blossom, and thus poison us by millions.

And remember, too, that while the
gracious Creator has bestowed upon my
82 AN ITALIAN QUEEN BEE

Workers a weapon for their defense, they
will seldom sting unless you pinch, fight,
or misuse them. Treat us well, and we will
secure you more and better flowers, fruits,
field and garden things, please your appe-
tite with the sugary, delightsome honey, be-
sides giving you an insight into one of the
most interrogative diversions of wondrous
nature.

Good-by. Cheep, Cheepe, eeé-e-e.

THE END
 

4