1882 



(JLEANIKGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



427 



FACTS AND FALIiACIKS IX APICILTURE. 



M'AS Mr. Koot a clearlj' <lefincd notion of what he 

 believes? Does he think that, if Messrs. Doo- 

 ■ — little, Hoddon, and Cook should think that 

 two parallel lines would meet, if prolonpcd far 

 enough, it would be reasonable to conclude that the 

 chances of their being riglit are just as go(>il as ours 

 (his and Leonard's^ who knotv that they never 

 meet? Of the nature of the above are the following: 



QUEEN-BHEEDERS' CONVENIENT THEORIES. 



The most injurious fallacy that has prevailed in 

 the minds of apiarians is the "Dzierzon Theory." 

 How little truth there is in that unscientific conjec- 

 ture, coined by Berlcpsoh, has already been shown 

 in the back numbers of Gleanings. It mightily les- 

 sened the toll of breeding pure queens, and was, un- 

 doubtedly, invented for that purpose. It did not, 

 however, cover sufflcient ground to make the busi- 

 ness one of convenience, therefore the following 

 theories were added: "The queen bee never mates 

 wUh the drone while in the hive, but always during 

 flight; and she never leaves the hive after meeting 

 with the drone, except with a swarm." This never 

 leaving the hive except with a swarm, nearly pre- 

 cludes her frommating the second time; and, as the 

 swarming impulse is then the one uppermost in her 

 mind, why should she take up another issue at such 

 a time? Reasoning thus, the queen-breeder conjec- 

 tured that she never mates but once, and thereby 

 made the business convenient and lucrative. 



PRACTICAL TESTS OF THESE THEORIES. 



Does the queen ever mate the drone, except in 

 flight? Manj' wingless virgin queens have boon 

 known to lay eggs from which worker bees hatched: 

 if this theory is true, that she never mates the drone 

 e.vcept in flight, in such case it necessarily follows 

 that the workers or drone changes the sex of the 

 egg after it is laid, or its production is agamic. 



DO WORKERS OR DRONES CHANGE THE SEX OF EGGS? 



In February, 1883, we had a beautiful Italian queen 

 that we had purchased of Mr. Viallon the spring be- 

 fore. At that time she had worker brood in several 

 combs, but no drone. In March we notiecd, here 

 and there, mixed among the worker brood, a length- 

 ened cell containing a drone. Later, they became 

 more abundant. By the middle of April fully one- 

 half of her ofl'spring were drones of small size, and 

 the others three-banded workers. In May the ma- 

 jority were drones, and, having purchased a hive of 

 black bees which wo transferred on the 27th, we fas- 

 tened the brood into frames and hung them in the 

 hive. Worker bees had been needed in the hive; 

 and if the power to change the sex of the egg exist- 

 ed with the drone or with the worker, undoubtedly 

 it would have been made use of. The black brood 

 hatched, but the queen's eggs finally produced 

 drones only, ahd we pinched her head, and supplied 

 the hive with Drood to raise a queen. In this in- 

 stance, neither black bees nor Italian workers or 

 drones were able to keep up the worker strength of 

 the hive, though the queen laid an abundance of 

 eggs. This queen, though but a year old, and active, 

 had lost the powertransmitted to her, to fertilize the 

 drone egg by mating the drone befoie; and though 

 in the midst of drones, and, as I shall show hereaft- 

 er, probably in the habit of flying from the hive, 

 failed entirely to acquire it; and as the virgin queen, 

 which, if she mates at all, does so in the first month 

 of her life, never mated the second time, as the 

 fertilizing fluid from one or more drones was ex- 



hausted in one year, may we not infer that several 

 fertilizations are necessary for the continuous use- 

 fulness, from year to j'ear, of a queen? 



UO FERTILE C}UEENS LEAVE THEIR HIVES? 



Last winter, on examining ourbees we frequently 

 found stocks withtut queens. Most of these had 

 been supplied with youngqueens in thesummer and 

 fall, and had been prosperous colonies. We con- 

 cluded that some disease was killing them while in 

 the hive. Having one day found a queen with a few 

 of her workers on the front of the hive, and reflect- 

 ing upon the cause of her being there, the thought 

 struck us, that after all it might be that fertile 

 queens leave their hive at pleasure, notwithstand- 

 ing the restrictions fhey arc placed under by 

 queen-breeders. As we reasoned on the subject, 

 the Idea that the act of mating with a male should 

 erase from a virgin queen all her natural instincts, 

 most especially that of cleanliness, appeared absurd 

 f;nd ridiculous. Who would bi lieve such stuff if 

 told of any other animal? We become convinced, 

 that though the maternal instincts might at times 

 suppress those of a virgin queen, yet they would re- 

 vive again as the pressure of motherly duties re- 

 laxed. The thought, that the queen found on tiie 

 front of the hive had just returned from a cleansing 

 flight, struck us with the force of conviction. The 

 day was warm; and, to test the matter, we took an 

 opera-glass, and getting in line with the front of a 

 row of hives watched to see if anj' queens left them; 

 and if they did, to determine, if possible, the cause 

 of their leaving. We had not remained long when 

 we saw a queen on the alighting-board of one of the 

 hives near by, running aroimd among the bees that 

 were basking in the sunshine. Keeping the glass 

 ranged upon her, we watched her actions with the 

 closest scrutiny. Gradually passing frf)m among' 

 the bees she elevated her wings several times, and 

 then flew fi'om the entrance-board, and, making 

 small circles in the air as she raised herself above 

 surrounding objects (which appeared to be a labori- 

 ous job on account of the distended condition of 

 her body), she gradually gained speed, and, taking a 

 more direct course, moved off toward the south- 

 west. After flying several rods, and voiding her ex- 

 crement, her flight became more rapid; and as she 

 rose still higher, the sun shining on her wings enabled 

 us to trace her flight for several minutes. Some min- 

 utes later she returned and entered her hive. Hav- 

 ing witnessed the flight of queens from their hives 

 since then, lam prepared to assert that the maternal 

 instincts of the fertile queen bee do not erase, but 

 only suspend, the natural instincts of the virgin 

 state. 



Fully satisHed that partheno-genesis is true, and 

 that the queen mates with the drone, if ever, curing 

 the first month of her life; that she, in some cases, 

 breeds nearly pure bees for a time, and then impure 

 ones for the rest of her life; that, when wingless, 

 she sometimes mates with the drone, and that she 

 leaves the hive at pleasure, it is easy enough to see, 

 in my own mind, why results never accord fully 

 with the theories of the queen-breeder. These, prob- 

 ably, arc the facts: The wingless queen mates with 

 the drone in the hive. The diversity in the brood of 

 the queen is due to superfetation and the circula- 

 tion of the fluids. The return of the queen, once 

 fertile, to the condition of a drone-layer, is the re- 

 sult of the exhaustion of the fertilizing fluid; while 

 the notion, that the worker bees change the sex of 

 the egg, exists only in the mind of its originators, as 



