1882 



GLEANINGS LN BEE CULTURE. 



27o 



FRIEND AVIL.TSE ON YELIiO^V BEES, 



ETC. 



MOTIVE FOR WRITING FOB BEE JOtTRNALS. — THOSE 

 YELLOW BEE8.— bee-hunters; THEIU KNOWL- 

 EDGE OF THE HABITS OF THE HONEY-BEE.— 

 TRUTH VERSUS THEORY. 



W.ITH me, the main motive io writing for the 

 bee journals is to assist in eliminating cer- 

 ^ - tain false theories that have crept into the 

 science of apiculture, and to aid in reaching the 

 truth. We ought to bequeath to the rising genera- 

 tion a fixed standard of management by which they 

 can be guided, and upon which they can rely. This 

 standard should be based upon facts reached by 

 actual experiments; and when these facts are prov- 

 ed, they should be accepted as such by the fraternity. 



THOSE YELLOW BEES. 



Many are aware that there were yellow honey- 

 bees, native to this country, before the introduction 

 of the Italian bee. To obtain written statements of 

 this fact, however, becomes more difficult as the 

 blood of the Italian becomes more extensively dis- 

 seminated, and as the old settlers die off and move 

 away. Had I entertained a thought that Mr. Capps 

 could have mistaken wasps or hornets for honey- 

 bees, I should not have sent his statement. 



BEE-HUNTERS; THEIR KNOWLEDGE OF THE HABITS 

 OF BEES; SENDING OUT SPIES IN SWARM- 

 ING TIME. 



The tact of the frontier bee-hunters, and the 

 knowledge of the habits of the honey-bee that they 

 had acquired before the introduction of the frame 

 hive, would astonish the bee-keeping fraternity 

 of the older parts of the world. In 1863, a Missourian 

 who could not read, who had acquired all his knowl- 

 edge of bees by hearsay and close observation, spent 

 the Sabbath with us visiting. We then had near the 

 house several hives of those yellow bees mentioned 

 above. A swarm issued from one and alighted on a 

 small tree near by. Mr. Bay inquired if I had been 

 accustomed to handling bees. I replied that I had 

 been familiar with them all my life, and had han- 

 dled them a great deal. 



"Then," said Mr. Bay, "you are aware that a 

 swarm, soon after clustering, sends out spies to 

 hunt a tree, and will go to it if not hived ? " I re- 

 plied that I knew they would leave, and had heard 

 that they sent bees to hunt a tree before they left, 

 but never had seen the bees go. 



" I have," said ho. " I have seen them go and re- 

 turn, and the swarm leave soon after their return. 

 If you will watch you will see the spies when they 

 go. It will not be long. Whether the bees cluster 

 a great while or leave soon, depends upon the 

 trouble the bees sent out have in finding a suitable 

 tree." 



We sat down and watched the swarm. In a short 

 time a dozen bees or more left the cluster suddenly, 

 as if driven by some impulse, and scattered in every 

 direction. 



" Do you see them going ? " said Mr. Bay, as they 

 left the cluster. I assented, and he continued: "The 

 swarm will not leave until these bees return. Let 

 us watch and see them return, and then, if you do 

 not wish to risk them longer, we will hive them." 



We watched the swarm several hours, and at 

 length saw some of the bees return singly, and 

 alight on the cluster. 



"Their spies have nearly all come back," said Mr. 



Bay, and we must hive them or you may lose them. 

 We may be able to stop.them after they start, if you 

 wish to watch them longer." 



I concluded to see them through to the end, and 

 then hive them if we could. Soon, as if acting under 

 orders, a dozen or more workers left the cluster all 

 at a time, and all flew in the same direction, slacken- 

 ing their speed as they advanced, for the bees in 

 the cluster to have time to catch up with them. 



"Those are their spies," said Mr. Bay, "leading 

 for the tree, and we shall now have work to save the 

 bees." 



These bees had not flown thirty feet before those 

 in the cluster began to leave it and follow them. We 

 lost the bees; but I learned a lesson more satis- 

 factory to know than to have a swarm of bees. 

 Would Mr. Bay have mistaken wasps or hornets for 

 honej--bees ? The visible manifestations of the Om- 

 nipotent, dwelling within the honey-bee, are too 

 strongly marked in its instinctive habits for such a 

 mistake to occur. Would such men say, " I claim 

 there is no svich thing as a one or two banded honey- 

 bee?" They are too accurate in their observations to 

 be caught making such statements. 



TRUTH VERSUS THEORY, AND PARTHENOGENESIS. 



In the winter of 1848 and '49, Louis Agassiz deliver- 

 ed a course of lectures in Boston. In his tenth lec- 

 ture he said: "One unexpected result has already 

 been ascertained; namely, that cells are properly 

 the organs of living beings; that all functions are 

 influenced by life, by the independent life of isolat- 

 ed cells." Mr. Lionel Beale says: "A cell consists 

 of a mass of protoplasm, with a portion of formed 

 matter around it. There is no tissue through which 

 these soft living particles, or small portion of living 

 matter detached from them, may not make their 

 way. This formless living matter (protoplasm) 

 moves forward and burrows, as it were, into the 

 nutricient pabulum, some of which it takes up as 

 it moves on. It is not pushed from behind, but it 

 moves forward of its own accord." (See Matter and 

 Life, pp. 225 and 242.) Cook says the spermatheca 

 receives the male fluid in copulation; that sperm- 

 cells, mingled with viscid secretions, form the sem- 

 inal fluid, and that the queen mates with the drone 

 but once. 



These three authors teach the following facts: 

 That the male seminal fluid is maintained in service- 

 able condition, while retained in the spermatheca. 

 This could not be done except through contact with 

 the circulating fluids of the queen's body. This cir- 

 culation could not exist unless the male seminal 

 fluid became, to all intents and purposes, a part of 

 the queen. The seminal fluid, then, after copula- 

 tion, becomes, by catalytic action, or inoculation, or 

 both, a part of the queen. This seminal fluid, or the 

 cells of which it is partly composed, are possessed of 

 independent action, being able to penetrate any 

 tissue wilh which they come in contact, and exert 

 their individual influence on what they come in eon- 

 tact with. If these authors tell the truth, it is im- 

 possible for a queen-bee to mate with a drone with- 

 out its producing a constitutional change upon her- 

 self, and all her offspring partaking of that change. 

 A foreign element is incorporated into her body, 

 that, of its own accord, can penetrate any part of it, 

 or the male or female egg. 



Dzierzon discovered that partheno-genesis existed 

 as one of the laws of reproduction among bees. Ber- 

 Icpsch drew the inference, that because the produc- 



