18S2 



OLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUUE. 



841 



understand it. Neither do I. But were it not for 

 the fact that the bees can not raise a queen (as old 

 bee-men say) from an v^g lai I in a drone-cell, I 

 would be willing to admit that all bee-eggs are of 

 one sex. The bees take a worker egg and raise a 

 queen, and we know that they do frequently raise 

 drones in worker-eells. If the bees can raise a well- 

 developed female from a worker egg (and all bee- 

 men agree that they can and do), why not raise a 

 male also from the same sort of an egg? It seems 

 to me that the one is just as reasonable as the other. 

 May No., page 333, Mr. II. C. Taylor seems to start 

 up a new theory about drones. He may or may not 

 be correct, but I doubt a part of it, as I think the 

 queen does lay some of the drone-eggs. Did you 

 ever see a queen laying in a drone-cell? I never have. 



SOUR HONEY. 



On page 316, Mr. C. C. Holmes wants to know if 

 any one can tell him if honey will sour in the comb. 

 I have sour honey nearly every fall, but it does not 

 smell like rotten eggs. It simply Emells like sour 

 honey. 

 water; do bees care for it, fresh and pure? 



I never trouble myself about watering my bees in 

 winter or summer. There are but few days at a 

 time in winter when our bees can not fly and get 

 plenty of water, as there is always plenty in reach 

 of them, except in a very dry time in the fall, and 

 then our bees trouble us a good deal, for it often 

 happens at such times that we have some difiieulty 

 in getting a drink from the well-bucket, as hundreds 

 of bees are ready to take the first sip, when drawn 

 from the well. Some people seem to think that 

 bees prefer stagnant water, but I know ours are 

 very fond of fresh water right from the well. 

 "BEE stories;" a full colony from one queen 



AND "TWO" BEES. 



Not all told yet. I have a neighbor, about 300 yds. 

 off, who tells some strange stories. He tells of one 

 man in Kentucky, where he came from, who raised 

 up a colony of bees from a queen and two worker 

 bees. He says, also, that he once captured n runa- 

 way swarm, and in hiving thetn the queen was hurt 

 in some way, and in two or three days he found her 

 dead, at the mouth of the hive, and the bees settled 

 on her. Not being able to supply them with a living 

 queen, he tied a small thread to the dead one, and 

 hung her in the hive. The bees returned to the hive 

 and went to work all right till they cut the thread, 

 and again brought out the remains, and the bees all 

 followed. As often as the bees brought her out, he 

 replaced her (or what was left of her) till there was 

 nothing left of her but her head; still the bees 

 worked all right as long as he could keep the head 

 among them; but when that was lost, they soon 

 quit work and died out. This man is keeping a few 

 stands, but says he does not care to take any bee 

 journal, as he already knows enough about bees. 



BALLINO QUEENS. 



Well, now for my story. May 10th I had a large 

 swarm issue with a young queen which was laying, 

 and had a wing amputated. Yesterday I opened the 

 hive and began to look for the queen, and, to my 

 surprise, I found no fresh eggs, and did not find any 

 queen. But as I was about to give up, and conclude 

 they had no queen, I saw a ball of bees on one cor- 

 ner of a frame, and I raked them off on the ground. 

 On dissecting the ball I found the queen, which was 

 not dond, but died before night. I caged her and 

 put her into a queenless nucleus. Now, why did 

 the bees serve tbe queen jn tljis yray? She was 



young (about two months old), and quite prolific. It 

 is something new and strange to me. 



THE DRONE QUESTION 



seems to be taking a good deal of your space, and 

 not very edifying. Why not conclude, as I have 

 suggested above, that all bee-eggs are alike when 

 deposited in the cell, and let the matter rest until 

 some one knows to the contrary? 

 Cedartown, Ga., June 3, 1883. J. M. Harris, 39. 



Surely you and friend Miller are mistaken 

 about bare-headed bees, friend II. I have 

 seen them in the very stocks that g<ive me 

 the largest results in honey ; and if their 

 queens were worthless, where are your good 

 ones V— Buckwheat seems to thrive only oc- 

 casionally, unless in localities especially 

 adapted to it, and I am a little inclined to 

 think it does better in a moderately cool cli- 

 mate, although it is, at the same time, very 

 sensitive to frost. — You would advise drop- 

 ping the drone question, because it takes a 

 great deal of space, and is not very edifying. 

 Very good ; but here you yourself have start- 

 ed a new issue by pointing cur attention to 

 the fact that a queen can not be raised from 

 an egg laid in a drone-cell. We all knew 

 that, but Ave did not think, before, how it 

 demolishes, or seems to, the truth we thought 

 we were getting at on pages 290 and 2i)l, 

 June No. ; viz., that the bees have the pow- 

 er of making any worker -egg produce a 

 drone, no matter whether in a drone or 

 worker cell ; and friend Peters seemed to 

 give proof that eggs laid in drone-cells can 

 be made to produce workers ; but your fact 

 seems to indicate that they can not get a 

 queen from eggs laid by the queen in drone- 

 cells. Or is it that, after they have once 

 hxed an egg for a drone, they have no power 

 to''unhx"it again? I think I shall have 

 to say I don't know, as you do. Neighbor 

 Clark was just in, and 1 read to him that 

 part of your letter about the man who built 

 up a colony with a queen and two bees. He 

 thinks that is bringing it down to a very line 

 point. Neighbor C. is a queer genius. Eve- 

 ry time he comes in he soberly declares he 

 wants to sell out and give up the bee busi- 

 ness, as it takes so much of his attention 

 from his farm, and he has been selling out 

 for the past two years. He concluded the 

 best way to get rid of them would be to sell 

 them to me l)y the pound, and although he 

 had only about a dozen to dispose of a year 

 ago, I paid him for queens, and bees by the 

 pound, during last summer, over §200, and 

 he has about a dozen colonies to sell yet. 

 He just now brought in two nice queens he 

 wished to sell so as to "close out," and I 

 suspect he has got hold of that process of 

 building up strong colonies from a queen 

 and " two bees." 



It may be a pretty hard matter to explain 

 w'hy bees sometimes ball their own queen, as 

 in the case you have narrated. I have many 

 times suggested it was because bees had got 

 in by mistake, that belonged to some other 

 hive too near them. During a dearth of 

 honey we often have such work, and it seems 

 hard to account for it on other grounds than 

 that the whole hive had got into an abnor- 

 mal and demoralized condition through rob- 

 bing, lack of stores, or something of the 

 kind. 



