1882 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



237 



second-hand challenge rolls. The result 

 was, that this mill at once made the nicest 

 fdn. we have ever had; it came from the 

 rolls the easiest, and it would make strips 

 for comb honey, of the thinnest base of any 

 thing that ever went out of our establish- 

 ment. The reason of this latter is, that tJie 

 wax Hows, as it were, away from these round- 

 ed surfaces, in a way it could not get out of 

 the way, of flat plates. Away bade in the 

 old volumes of Gleanings, if I am not mis- 

 taken, I suggested that if we could get some 

 lead shot of the right size, and solder them 

 to a plate, we should have just what we 

 want for a plate for making fdn. Well, now 

 it transpires that we are about to go back to 

 this old idea. Have the rolls so struck that 

 the surface looks not unlike shot. Roll them 

 together with moderate pressure, and the 

 spheres will flatten each other where they 

 touch, and these faces thus made will be a 

 perfect fit. These spheres let go of the wax, 

 and put all surplus Avax into the walls, as 

 friend Ileddon has so vehemently advised. 

 Perhaps a dozen others have advised pretty 

 strongly the same thing. It is simple enough , 

 when we take a look at it, and the difliculties 

 of making fdn. with deep cells, and a thin 

 soap-bubble base, are very much lessened. 

 Mrs. Dunham's mills always came pretty 

 near this ; and had she, in her application 

 for a patent, claimed this point, it would 

 seem there might have been some reason for 

 claiming a new invention. As she has not 

 made any claim on this, I will, if she will 

 accept of it, give her SlOO for having partial- 

 ly developed this great improvement. Now, 

 friend Ileddon, if you will have your new 

 die-books made on this plan, you will give 

 the Given press a very great start ; and if all 

 makers of fdn. mills will nse this hollow 

 punch, they will save once going over the 

 rolls, making the labor of making considera- 

 bly less, and confer a lasting boon on all who 

 use the rolls. So great is the improvement, 

 in fact, that I would not use a mill of the old 

 kind a day, if I could help it. Send it to the 

 man who made it and have it punched over. 

 The free samples we send you are of the im- 

 proved kind, and they, when compared with 

 any make of old fdn., will show at once the 

 difference. Do not accept any fdn. mill, of 

 any kind, of any maker, until he makes the 

 corners of the cells rounded, in the way 1 

 have mentioned. 



This fdn. is not only worked out by the 

 bees quicker, but it will stay in the wired 

 frames better for shipment, because those 

 braced side-walls support it. I might add, 

 that, to have fdn. stay well for long ship- 

 ments, the sheets sho uld be of pretty good 

 thickness, say 5 feet to the pound. With 

 these new tnills, the rolls never need adjust- 

 ing differently, only as they wear; for the 

 bases of the cells are thin any way, and if 

 the dipped sheets are made thicker, it gives 



a heavier fdn. by putting the extra wax into 

 the walls, so the mills are always ready to 

 make either thick or thin fdn., according to 

 tbe width and thickness Oc the sheets of wax 

 that are init through them. By using dip- 

 ping sheets of the width of your section 

 boxes, and dipping once in wax pretty warm, 

 you can get fdn. 10 or 12 feet to the pound 

 with very little trouble ; but still, as friend 

 Ileddon suggests, I am inclined to think fdn., 

 even for starters, is more prolitable with 

 enough wax in the walls to make it weigh 

 about 8 square feet to the pound. 



STSRILIi: EGGS. 



TRAKSLATED FROM THE " BIENEN - ZUCHTER," BY 

 W. P. ROOT. 



^jnpR- MEYEK, of Dietinpren, Lorraine, writes: 

 Mjfi " Last year I observed a curious fact in my 



' apiary. A young queen laid a mass of eggs 



that never hatched. What do you think of this 

 fact? " 



The queen in question had laid sterile eggs. Hap- 

 pily, such cases arc very rare. It has been observed 

 among queens which, after their first laying, pro- 

 duced onlj^ such eggs, and also among those that 

 have passed through a sulHcienlly long period of 

 fecundity, sterile eggs have been produced to the 

 end of life. This fact is attributed to an organic 

 defect in the oviuries of the queen. 



Very learned naturalists, such as Messrs. Siebold, 

 Claus, and Dr. Leuckart, have furnished the solu- 

 tion to this question. They dissected some queens 

 thus defective, and proved that their oviducts had 

 suffered an alteration, and that a fatty substance 

 had formed in the elements, known to science as 

 vitellogenous cells. 



It was at first believed that sterility of the eggs is 

 one cause of non-fecundation, as this has taken place 

 among other insects, and even among fowls when 

 they have not been fecundated. But it has been 

 sulKciently proved that a young unfertilized queen 

 c ommeuces, at the end of 40 or 5'J days, to lay eggs 

 which develop perfectly into Inrvie, nymphs, and 

 drones. It is to the celebrated apiculturist Dzierzon 

 that we are indebted for this important discovery, 

 called parthenn-gfuesis. It has likewise been dem- 

 onstrated, that a queen from which the vitalizing 

 fluid has been exhausted after three or four years of 

 fertility, has continued to lay eggs which produced 

 drones. 



One may easily believe, that a colony having a 

 queen laying sterile eggs is on the rapid road to ruin. 

 Also in straw hives the bees have perished in like 

 manner, without their owners being able to account 

 for the cause which led to their ruin. What a price- 

 less advantage over such a state of things does the 

 hive with moval)le frames afford us! Nothing there 

 escapes the eye of the intelligent apiculturist. The 

 habits of the queen, as well as her defects, can be 

 easily controlled. 



Our readers will recollect that such queens 

 have been mentioned in our back volumes, 

 several times. We have had perhaps half a 

 dozen such, in the past ten years. After a 

 few days, the eggs have a shriveled-up look, 

 and in this way we detect the trouble before 

 the colony runs down badly. 



