1. Stay in the hive, as a rule. 2. Some, but in a very discouraged
way.--J. H. LARRABEE.
1. They would be likely to scatter around. 2. It is doubtful if they
would.--J. M. HAMBAUGH.
1. I think they would leave, as I have seen swarms do in early spring
that had no queen.--JAS. A. STONE.
They would stay and work until they died of old age. then the worms
would destroy the combs.--E. FRANCE.
1. They will stay in the hive. 2. They will store honey, but will be
robbed in a short time.--H. D. CUTTING.
I have never tried this, and can only guess what would happen. Better
try it, and report results in the BEE JOURNAL.--C. H. DIBBERN.
1. They would not all abandon the hive unless they were robbed or had
no honey. 2. They would not be apt to store much honey.--G. L. TINKER.
1. Yes, they would stay at home. 2. Yes, if there was nectar to be
gathered, but they would soon dwindle out in the working season.--MRS.
J. N. HEATER.
1. They would stay. 2. I was not aware that bees quit their “job,” and
went into mourning for a queen. Mine don’t--they keep at work.--A. B.
MASON.
1. They would stay in the hive. 2. They would go to work, but not in
the brisk condition that they would if the conditions were normal.--J.
P. H. BROWN.
1. They would stay in the hive. 2. They would store honey tolerably
well, and that without devoting even two or three days to mourning.--R.
L. TAYLOR.
1. They would stick to the hive. 2. No, they are hopelessly queenless,
and seem to be wholly discouraged. Such a colony will do practically no
work.--A. J. COOK.
Bees without a queen, or the means of rearing one, are discouraged, and
manifest little interest in life, knowing by instinct that their “time
is short.”--MRS. L. HARRISON.
1. Much would depend; they might not, sometimes they do one thing, and
sometimes the other. 2. I have known them to do so; ordinarily I do not
think they would.--J. E. POND.
1. Sometimes they would, and sometimes they wouldn’t. 2. If they staid,
they would use their opportunities for storing, without waiting two or
three days to mourn.--C. C. MILLER.
1. I am sure I cannot tell. I can see no reason why any one should
treat a colony of bees in this way. 2. I do not think they would. Try
it, and then you will know.--EMERSON T. ABBOTT.
1. They would stay in the hive, but would do little work, and would
rapidly dwindle away. 2. They would get along much better if allowed
some brood, or even a single queen-cell.--J. A. GREEN.
1. They would run all over the hive and fly around, looking for their
queen, or “scatter around,” as you put it. 2. Yes, to a certain extent,
but not as much as they would have done had the queen been left with
them.--G. M. DOOLITTLE.
1. They would likely stay, especially if they were Italians. 2. Yes,
some. All colonies would not act alike. Some will not store much honey
even with a young queen in prospect, until they get her; others will
work well while rearing a queen.--S. I. FREEBORN.
1. They would probably stay. 2. I know a case of this kind. A bee-tree
was cut in the early summer, the bees were put into a hive, but the
queen was killed. The dead queen was suspended in the hive against the
cover. The bees filled the hive one-third full of comb and honey.--M.
MAHIN.
1. Some irritable bees will swarm out, but they usually return and
assume the same attitude of other queenless bees. 2. Yes, they store
honey, but probably with not as much vim as with a laying queen, but
usually they store more honey, as none is used in brood-rearing. But
somehow I never did gain much by caging queens during a harvest.--MRS.
JENNIE ATCHLEY.
When treated in this way they show great excitement for several days,
but they will generally submit to the inevitable, and in some cases
they will store honey rapidly--if nectar is abundant--and in other
cases they will do but little good. But if you will give them a bit of
comb containing young larvæ to build queen-cells, they will work all
right.--G. W. DEMAREE.
“=The Honey-Bee=: Its Natural History, Anatomy and Physiology,” is the
title of the book written by Thos. Wm. Cowan, editor of the _British
Bee Journal_. It is bound in cloth, beautifully illustrated, and very
interesting. Price, $1.00, postpaid; or we club it with the BEE JOURNAL
one year for $1.65. We have only three of these books left.
[Illustration: CONTRIBUTIONS]
Mailing Queen-Bees Long Distances.
_Written for the American Bee Journal_