1882 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULT U HE. 



223 



DBo:vr:^ from fertile ^vorkers. 



ARE TIIEY CAPABLE OF THE FKRTILIZATION OF 

 QUEENS ? 



'N yo\ir replj' to Mr. K.Edwards, of Montrose, 

 Scotland, on " The Sex of Ejigs of Queens," in 

 March No., p. 120, you say, "It is a matter of 

 great doubt whether eg'gs from fertile workers ever 

 produce drones equal to the task of fertilization." 



During the summer of 18^0, Dr. A. P. Coulter, a 

 neighbor of mine, and fellow bee-keeper, ordered 

 two queens of you — one a Holy-Land, the other a 

 Cyprian. I took the Cyprian queen and introduced 

 her to a strong colony of bees. She proved to be a 

 very prolific queen, and when I put them into winter 

 quarters in the following winter she had her hive 

 full of bees and plenty of stores. Those who had 

 bees will certainly remember the winter of 1880 and 

 '81 for a long time to come. The severity of the 

 cold, the length of the winter, and the destruction 

 of bees, will not soon be foi gotten. Our bees did 

 not get to fly out from the last of October until the 

 middle of February but once (something unusual in 

 Southern Illinois). On the 15th of Feb. they had a 

 good tly, and, being an.xious tO see how the "new 

 kind of bees " were standing the cold, I opened the 

 chaff hive that was the home of my Cyprians, and 

 when I lifted the quilt, drones that were bred in 

 worker cells boiled out of the hive. My eyes opened 

 wide, I tell you. " There, my Cyprian queen is dead, 

 and the bees have raised another queen, and she 

 could not meet the drone, and she has gone to breed- 

 ing drones," was what I thought. 



1 went through the hive and looked for the queen, 

 and looked again and again, but could not find her. 

 I found drone brood in all stages, but no queen. I 

 closed the hive and went after Dr. Coulter to come 

 and help me find her. We went through the hive 

 time and again, but found no queen. In a few days 

 we looked again, and shook the bees all off from the 

 combs in front of the hive, but could see nothing 

 like a queen. The doctor then pronounced it a 

 "case of fertile worker." I put in brood from an- 

 other hive, suitable for rearing queens, and closed 

 the hive. The weather turned cold for two weeks. 

 I examined again, and found that they had con- 

 structed queen-cells, but had torn them down ; plen- 

 ty of eggs and drone brood, but no queen. I had a 

 hive of pure Italians standing a rod away from the 

 Cyprians. They were very beautiful bees. In look- 

 ing at the entrance of this hive, I found the queen 

 lying dead. On opening the hive I found some 

 queen-cells sealed over. I determined to test this 

 very question whether drones bred by fertile work- 

 ers could fertilize queens or not. The doctor and I 

 examined all of our hives, but could find no drone 

 brood. They were not in condition to breed drones. 

 The conditions were favorable, in every respect, if 

 I could raise a young queen, to test this matter. In 

 a week I had a tine young Italian queen hatched. 

 On warm days the air was full of these little Cyp- 

 rian drones. This was nearly the middle of March, 

 1881. in ten days my young queen began to lay. 

 The doctor and I watched tho brood closely until it 

 was sealed, to see whether it was drone brood or not. 

 It proved to be worker brood. We watched closely 

 to see the result of my experiment. Finally the 

 young bees began to show themselves. There was 

 the cross plainly to be seen. Some had the peculiar 

 markings of the Cyprian, while others were marked 



like the Italians. In one particular they all resem- 

 bled the Cyprians —they were easily shaken off tho 

 comb. They were very quiet and gnod-natured. 

 They could hardly be teased enough to make them 

 sting. The3' were not very energcjtic; while my 

 Italians were busy, they were loafing about the hive. 



I am satisfied, from the time of the year and 

 from the condition of all the bees in the vicinity, 

 that this queen was fertilized by one of these little 

 Cyprian drones, whose mother was a fertile worker. 

 The Cyprian and Holy-Land bees seem to produce 

 more fertile workers than the Italians do. Dr. 

 Coulter's Holy-Land queen died this winter. Her 

 hive has one or more fertile workers in it. At any 

 rate, there are hundreds of worker drones in it. 



For my part, I have had enough of both Holy-Land 

 and Cyprian bf»es, and propose to stick to the Ital- 

 ians for a while longer. William Little. 



Marissa, St. Clair Co., Ills., March 7, 1883. 



Many thanks, friend L. Although it is 

 barely possible there was a colony some- 

 where in your vicinity, capable of having 

 natural drones at the season you mention, I 

 think the probabilities are all on the other 

 side, and that tliose small drones do at least 

 sometimes fertilize queens. The next point 

 to be considered is, Are the worker progeny 

 equal to ordinary worker beesV If I catch 

 aright the drift of your remarks, I should 

 opine you think them not. You surely do 

 not mean to say the Cyprians, reared from 

 your original Cyprian "queen, were lacking 

 ill industry, do youV 



OVER-STOCKING. 



DOES IT PAY TO KEEP 100 COLONIES IN ONE API.VRY? 



^|lf|x IFFERENT bee-keepers have given various 

 f\i?j j opinions with regard to the number of colo- 

 nics which can to the best advantage be kept 

 in one place. I think I have a good location. It is a 

 first-rate dairy region, and has different altitudes 

 that help to prolong the time that honey can be 

 gathered from the same species of flowers. Thus, 

 when flowers begin to bloom in the spring, I find 

 them at work in the valley, or near the river, where 

 the soil is sandy, the country protected from cold 

 winds to a great extent, and, consequently, vegeta- 

 tion is earlier. In a few days they are at work on 

 the next elevation, upon which my apiary is situat- 

 ed, in a sunshiny glen well protected from every 

 wind, being about midwaj' between the different ele- 

 vations of land. As the season advances they work 

 higher, until at last they finish upon Tug Hill, a place 

 of so much elevation that corn can not be success- 

 fully grown. I believe that, with every species of 

 flowers, the season is prolonged considerably by the 

 different altitudes at which my bees work; and as 

 the soil is all of average fertility, I call this a good 

 location. I have for a number of years kept 100 old 

 colonies; that is, after the losses of winter and 

 spring are past, I aim to have that number, and 

 have succeeded for several years. I try to take the 

 best of care of them, and do every thing at the pro- 

 per time; yet I find that apiaries of from 20 to 30 

 hives, in localities that I do not regard as good as 

 mine, will do far better; that they will fill their 

 hives with brood, and begin work in sections sooner 

 in the spring; will make more honey; and last, but 

 not least (and here I And the most difference of all), 



