IW>From: Ian Watson <[log in to unmask]>
  >Date:         Tue, 3 Sep 1996 13:11:07 -0400
  >Subject:      Re: Fascinating Facts about bees
 
IW>On Mon, 2 Sep 1996, Allen Dick wrote:
 
  >Gee.....I thought this list was about sharing information and helping each
  >other.....not shooting holes in other people's posts......sheesh!
 
 
  Hi Ian, I don't think Allen or anyone else was trying to put you down.
There is one thing we all learn in time about e-mail and that is to
read it if you can without any passion, as there is really no way to
tell if the poster is trying to be an horse's rear or it's just his
style of using the king's English. And always remember one man can not
make a fool of another, it's up to each of us to do that job for
ourselves.
 
  You may have know the correct details of all the bee facts you posted,
but many of us have seen later or different detail and would want to
correct the record. We all do it, as we experience the real world of
beekeeping, its a human condition. No one was yanking on your chain,
and you should not feel defensive when someone expresses a different
opinion.
 
  Almost 50 years ago when I knew it all, my first science project was
to rear a couple of queens, hatch them in the science lab and put them
together under a glass to watch them fight it out as every book on the
subject to this day say's is the Bee Scientific LAW.
 
  Everything went according to the best written knowledge, the day
came for them to hatch, they came into the light of day happy, healthy
virgin queens with me the proud foster parent.
 
The WHOLE WORLD had gathered to watch the duel to the death.
 
  I removed the two prized virgin queens from the nursery cages and
placed them under the glass and stood back in a hushed room full of
amazed classmates, friends, and teachers to watch the bloody royal
battle........!!!
 
I got a A-, but for sure these two queens were my first experience with
gay bees or gay's of any kind as all they wanted to do is make love and
never made any attempt to harm each other and nothing I then could do
changed that.
 
  Well since then I have learned a lot of the tricks of the trade and
now know how to age the queens and even cheat a little and bring in a
ringer from a different bank with a different hive oder or a different
age queen, or if all else fails to add a little sting hormone to the
mix.
 
  So if asked I would say that when a hive has more then one queen they
normally will fight it out and one will be left to rule. But even this
is not true today in the field and it is not uncommon to find hives with
two or more queens and yes I have seen hives with two queens laying good
patterns of brood on separate sides of the same frame. I have also
learned the difference between bee science (BS) and real science, and I
would not bet my life on bee science as most of the stated rules,
published facts, and even real works of scientific composition are more
the journalist's art then science. If it was the same in medicine,
chemistry, or engineering we would have all died long ago from some
plague, chemical, or in the office or store so many work in when the
first puff of wind blew the building down on our heads. Must beekeeping
science is based on opinion that more times then not does not turn out
to be the truth, if not all the bees in the US would bee dead or in the
attack mode killing tens of thousands as they move across natural
barriers that even man can't cross. But then bees can fly 35 miles
per hours and on one fill up have no problem making 15 miles on a few
hundredths of an once of fuel, or can they or do they?
 
BTW Queens do sting, they have a stinger without barbs so they can sock
it too you repeated times and it hurts on tender tissue such as the
inside of the mouth. QUEENS SHOULD NEVER BE CARRIED INSIDE THE MOUTH!
And especially eight of ten young mated queens at a time, as they do
sting and it hurts and it's hard to spit out those $5 bills and risk
harming them or having them fly back to the nucs and having to catch
them next go around. I won't bore all again with the details of how I
came to do such unsophisticated bee tests, but it was not for science, had
more to do with the fun of being a commercial beekeeper in a commercial
beekeeping community, a hot late spring afternoon and helping an old
friend catch queens. Maybe those queens beekeepers find once in awhile
with what looks like bites taken out of them are from other old bee
breeders who carry their extra queens around in their mouths? But for
sure queen bees normally do not sting people, and even many bee breeders
have never been stung by a queen bee, but they can sting. Same as the
so called stingless bees such as the leaf cutters..but that's another
story, the "killer leaf cutter bees" that I will save for another
time.
 
                             ttul OLd Drone
 
 
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(w)Opinions are not necessarily facts. Use at own risk.
 
---
 ~ QMPro 1.53 ~ "Where there is honey, there are beekeepers"