1882 



GLEANIKGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



173 



to mind the fact that the samples of buck- 

 wheat sent in to us vary greatly, some of it 

 being as you say, quite fair. With 1000 

 acres in the range of an apiary, no wonder 

 that great yields of honey are obtained. The 

 best yield of buckwheat honey we ever had 

 was something like 3 lbs. in a day, and it 

 was all from a. two-acre lield, two miles or 

 more awav. 



SEX OF EGGS. 



™ 



drones from worker eggs. Can any one else 

 give us any new facts on this queer matter ? 



A TRIP TO JEFFERSON, WISCONSIN. 



ARE WE SURE IT IS NOT TJNDEIl THE CONTROL OF 

 THE WORKERS? 



^J^-,,.■1H1S is a subject that I do not understand, and 

 I think that wc are all more or less in the dark 

 in roj^ard to it. The letter of K. Edward, on p. 

 125, March Gleanings, calls to my mind a strang-e 

 freak of — what must I say? — the instinct, or reason 

 of bees. Last August, during the drought, my bees 

 removed all of the drones from my apiary; and as 

 there were no other bees within two miles of me, I 

 concluded to stop queen-raising for the season. In- 

 a few days one of my friends called for three queens. 

 I furnished them; then I gave the nuclei brood 

 from a choice queen, and thought that I would have 

 a good chance to raise some drone-layers. Not very 

 desirable property, though I would have tolerated 

 one at this time. In due time they hatched some 

 tine-looking queens. Affcr they were live or six 

 days old they would liy out almost every day (you 

 may suppose that I watched them closely). About 

 the third day, one of them failed to return. I went 

 to a hive that had a fine young queen, and found a 

 frame of new comb, or, rather, fdn. filled with eggs, 

 just beginning to hatch. I cut a piece of comb 3 

 iuches square from the center of this, and inserted 

 it in one of the combs of the queenless nuclei. They 

 immediately started five or six queen-cells in the 

 center of the above square of comb; and in about 

 six days after, the queen-cells were sealed, and I dis- 

 covered a row of cells clear around; this piece of 

 comb on both sides was enlarged and capped over 

 like drone-cells. I thought at the time that they 

 were queen-cells oa a small scale, and that the 

 queen would have a good time tearing them down. 

 Before the queens hatched, I opened one of those 

 queer queen-cells, as I thousrht. On examination, I 

 pronounced them drones. The next move was to re. 

 move the other two virgin queens that had appar- 

 ently given up the idea of becoming fertilized, and 

 gave them the extra queen-cells. In due time the 

 young queen hatched, and also the drones; in about 

 15 days my young queens were laying. I have two of 

 themyet— as fine queens as I have; the other one I 

 sold to a friend. The above accidental experiment 

 convinces me that bees can and do hatch drones 

 from worker eg;?s. How they do it, I have not the 

 least idea. Perhaps some friend will insist that the 

 comb contained drone eggs. Hardly possible; for 

 as soon as I found out what was going on in that nu- 

 cleus, I examined the comb that I removed the eggs 

 from, and found a solid sheet of sealed worker 

 brood, except the hole where I removed the piece, 

 and that was just as I left it. S. H. Lane. 



Whitestown, Ind., March 17, 1882. 



Many thanks, friend !.<. Your experi- 

 ment, as you give it, seems to be one of the 

 most conclusive we have ever had, to the ef- 

 fect that bees can, by some means, get 



ny ONE op THE "BLASTED HOPERS." 



cnAPTEB ir. 



jH^Y" next call was at the home of Mr. George 

 '■JM. Grrimm, who was found busily engaged pre- 

 ~" paring some bees for shipment, but who 

 found time to extend to mean invitation to take 

 dinner with him; and as it was now nearly noon, 

 and an intimation was given me that perhnps he 

 could supply my wants in regard to bees, I was not 

 slow to accept. After a preliminary talk as to the 

 strength of the colonies, etc., he named $7.50 each as 

 the price he would take for 20 cidonics in an apiary 

 some six miles from homo. To these fli^ures I did 

 not object; so after dinner we drove over to look at 

 them. His little tin mouth-smoker (the same as 

 used by his father when I made him a visit ten j-ears 

 before) was filled with tobacco, and the 75 colonics 

 composing this apiary were soon examined, and 

 those marked that I wished to take. When the ex- 

 amination was completed, he remarked that they 

 were not as strong as he expected to find them, and 

 perhaps not quite equal to his representation, and 

 under the circumstances he would charge me but 

 seven dollars apiece. This, of course, I did not object 

 to, but considered it very fair in Mr. Grimm; and 

 this I believe he has the namo of being, in all his 

 transactions. There had been a slight shower of 

 rain, as if for my bcneflt, for it drove all the bees 

 home; so we at once proceeded to fasten them in 

 the hives. 



As he uses the notched triangular piece across the 

 bottom of the hives, the lower part of the frames 

 is always secure; and by driving two clout nails in 

 the projections of the top-bars, the top of the frames 

 was also made secure. Next the honey-board, with 

 three one-inch holes covered with screen, was fas- 

 tened with two screws; then a wire screen nailed 

 over the portico, and they were ready for moving. 

 This apiary was in an orchard, on a side hill facing 

 the north, to which latter fact he attributed their 

 weak condition. I had the best of them, and they 

 had brood in from three to six combs, averaging, 

 perhaps, four and a half. An examination was 

 made of the cellar in which these' bees were win- 

 tered. It proved to be an ordinary stone cellar un- 

 der the farmhouse, with one window and one door. 

 There was no other means of ventilation, if you ex- 

 cept a section of pump-log, with about IJi-inch bore, 

 inserted in the wall. As these bees can not, of 

 course, have the personal supervision of their owner 

 during the winter season, 1 suggested to Mr. G. that 

 perhaps the word luck was about the size of it. I 

 think he did not wholly agree with me; but be this 

 as it may, I am unable to explain (and he did not) 

 why his bees wintered and his neighbors' bees died. 

 Even his uncle, with greater experience, and that 

 with hundreds of colonics, too, lost heavily, I heard; 

 this, too, in the same town, and probably the same 

 flora from which to gather the honey. But, to re- 

 sume: The next morning, by break of day, I started 

 homeward, stopping often to give the bees water 

 through the screens; and as the sun became warm, 

 water was freely thrown over the hives to keep 



