590 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



season with but few failures after I found out tlie difference in drones. I carefully 

 p-asp the thorax of the queen between tlic thumb and fuiger of the left hand and 

 witli the right I pick up the drone which I have selected and press tlie thorax and. 

 abdomen of tlie ch-one until the generative organs are expelled, using as many as I 

 need until I find one in wliich the color and consistency of the fluid suits me. 

 Sometimes only a few of the right kind can be found m as many as one hundred. I 

 place a few drops of the male fluid upon the vulva of the queen, which is eagerly 

 received, using one, and only one, drone for each queen. I have fertilized queens by 

 this method tiiat were not a day old, and. others more than fifteen days old, and after 

 clipping their wings introduced them to then- colonies, and they began layuig in from 

 six to eight days and were satisfactorily prolific. As nearly as I could tell, those 

 fertilized early were more prolific than those treated after they were ten days old, 

 but the right condition of the drone is very essential. It is very difficult to get drones 

 ripe enough before the first half of May and after the first half of August, but during 

 Jime and July this method may be operated with gi-atifying results. Queens ferti- 

 lized by this method and du-ectly introduced into a queenless colony are rarely ever 

 molested by the bees. I chpped the wings of the first twenty or twenty-five queens 

 I succeeded in fertilizing by this method, and findmg the method worked to my sat- 

 isfaction and with but few failm-es, I clipped no more wings." 



The experience here detailed, as far as it relates to the procreativeness of drones, is 

 in agreement with the facts vvitliin my own observation already set forth. The 

 claim that a very large number of queens were successfully fertfiized as set forth, 

 and that, too, with but few failiires in the whole number attempted, is lacking in 

 the element of absolute certainty and completeness of detail which would entitle it 

 to acceptance as of any scientific value. Mr. Baldwm assured me that "there could 

 have been no mistake about it;" but in order to efliectuaUy guard against all possi- 

 bUity of the test laeuig abortive, all the queens claimed to have been artificially fe- 

 cimdated should have had their wings thoroughly cUpped before they were liberated. 

 But the fact that the repeated successes were realized when the young queens were 

 clipped upon bemg taken from the nursery cage, never having had opportunity to 

 bear then- weight upon their Avings, is an encouraging step m advance towards the 

 solution of the most difficult problem in practical bee-keeping. Another season, 

 with the presence of favorable conditions, will determine the practicability and value 

 of this method. 



FERTILIZATION IN CONFrNEMENT. 



Realizing that natural methods nearly always possess advantages over artificial 

 methods, I determmed if possible to gain control of reproduction by the fertiliza- 

 tion of queens in confinement. That some inexpensive and practicable method 

 might be devised by wliich the natural mating of queens in confinement could be 

 secured has very long been hoped for by all progressive apiarists. Very many at- 

 tempts, in a variety of ways, some of which involved the outlay of considerable 

 sums of money, have been made, but difiiculties apparently insurmountable have 

 been encountered. 



I removed the queens from 6 colonies which I had had confined in the house 

 for experuuenting with bees and fruit-, a liolise 10 feet by 16 feet, 8 feet higli, partly 

 covered on the sides with wire-cloth, a wire-covered sash in the gable, and large 

 screen wire-covered doors in each end. These were strong colonies, which had 

 been confined in this house for thirty days and had learned the location of theu* 

 hives, and from these the bees flew daily in gi'eat numbers, returning frequently to 

 their hives. Into these 6 colonies I introduced virgin queens hatched from cells 

 which I had placed in wire cages. Into each colony the virgm queen was placed 

 without being removed from the cage in which she was hatched. In due time they 

 were accepted and liberated. Tlie day these queens were five days old I liberated 

 about ten drones near to the entrance of each of these hives. These drones were 

 brought from liives in the apiary, and upon being liberated most of them persisted 

 in flying against the wire-covered sides and windows in the gable, and few ever en- 

 tered the hives. Here again there was frigidity or disability apparent among the 

 drones. When tlie young queens flew from the liive seeking a mate they mingled 

 among the drones, crawling over them and caressing them with then* antennae, 

 meeting with no response. These cjueens, with one exception, seemed to have no 

 difliculty in gettmg the location of tlieir respective hives. The result of this trial 

 was, one queen of the six was fertilized, and after she had laid eggs M-ith regu- 

 larity in two-thirds of the cells on both sides of one frame, after cUpping the 

 queen's wings, I removed this frame, with the queen and adhering bees, to a nucleus 

 in the yard, and from the eggs laid in confinement worker bees hatched in due 

 time, and the queen continued to lay as long as the nucleus was fed, there being 

 notliing in the fields for the bees to gather. All the eggs laid by this queen were 



