326 ANNUAL. REPORT, OF THE Off. Doc. 



ROUND TABLE ON BEE-KEEPING, RESUMED. 



MR. BARCLAY: The first question is, "Do you advise clipping 

 th« queen?" 



The way to answer that is, that it depends upon what you want to 

 clip her for. If you expect to be present soon after the swarn re- 

 turns, which is the result when the queen is clipped, I believe clip- 

 ping is the best thing; but if you want to hive your swarms and do 

 not want to have them come back, do not clip. 



The next question is, "Whether a drone hatched from a fertile 

 worker egg is capable of fertilizing the queen?" 



Well, that question is asked from a misunderstanding, I think. 

 A drone hatches from an unfertilized egg, from which all drones 

 must come, whether the egg is laid by a virgin queen or a fertile 

 queen, or a worker, which I have not discussed, that drone is con- 

 sidered to be as capable of fertilizing a queen as any other drone. 



QUESTION: "Isn't it a fact that the workers put the egg into the 

 queen's cell cup?" 



MR. BARCLAY: I think not. It may be in some cases, but, as a 

 rule, in what are known as free constructed cells, cups made for 

 forming the superstructure, the queen lays directly in the cell cup. 



QUESTION: "Can keepers or any one actually see the queen lay in 

 the queen's cell?" 



AIR. BARCLAY: I think so. 



QUESTION: "Where do the bees collect wax?" 



MR. BARCLAY: Bees do not collect wax; wax is a product pure 

 and simple of the honey-bee. The wax is secreted in glands on the 

 inside of the abdomen of the worker and comes out between the 

 scales of the abdomen as little light scales. The bees, when they 

 are making wax, consume a quantity of honey that is lying in along 

 — clinging together by the feet, and in that way the wax in a few 

 hours will begin to ooze out, as it were, between the scales of the 

 abdomen and then is removed by the feet and manipulated by the 

 mandibles of the bee. 



PROF. SURFACE: How many pounds of honey to one pound of 

 wax? 



MR. BARCLAY: It seems that bees during certain conditions 

 can manufacture wax much cheaper than at other times. By experi- 

 ment, we can't say any more definitely than from ten to twenty 

 pounds; ten to seventeen, perhaps, we had better say. 



