520 



GLEAKIKGS IK BEE CULTlTRiE. 



Oct. 



the desired compression, and part of her eggs devel- 

 op in drones; 1. When, after an exertion of im- 

 pregnating several thousand eggs per day for some 

 weeks, the muscles of a queen are tired, she is unable 

 to lay any more worker eggs, and she lays drone 

 eggs in worker-cells. This laying of drone eggs in 

 worker-cells never takes place in the Deginning of 

 the season, unless the queen is sick or worthless. 

 Some queens lay worker eggs only, for years, when 

 they are in hives where there are no drone-cells; 8. 

 Worker bees don't knew the sex of the eggs. This 

 proposition is proved by the fact, that a colony hav- 

 ing laying workers tries to have queens from drone 

 eggs ; 9. When a colony is Iqueenless, some work- 

 ers, which have partly developed ovaries, can lay 

 eggs. But these eggs, being unimpregnated, hatch 

 In drones. 



Part of the above theory (Nos. 4,5, 6, and 7), is 

 mine. Suppose it to be true, then, it is impossible 

 to admit that the workers of a colony change the 

 sex of the eggs, since they don't know whether they 

 will be male or female; and for what purpose would 

 such change be eifected? To raise drones which 

 would not be fit for the function before at least 10 

 days after they are needed. 



But, to return to the question, were not these 

 drone eggs, which have taken the place of the work- 

 er eggs, the product of some laying worker which 

 selected this place on accovint of the care given to 

 this spot by the nursing bees? Chas. Dadant. 



Hamilton, Hancock Co., 111., Sept., 1883. 



Friend D., I can't tell why you ask me to 

 be manly enough to publish the former part 

 of your article, as you do, unless you imag- 

 ine I have been bribed by free passes (or 

 something of the kind) to speak well of the 

 railroad companies. I am glad to be able to 

 say, I have never been offered a free pass in 

 my life ; and if I were to have the offer of 

 one I should, I hope, never accept of it. 

 When any party is severely condemned and 

 censured, as have been the railroads, I try to 

 take a look on both sides. In the point be- 

 fore us, I do not see how the railroad compa- 

 nies could well undertake to guarantee rap- 

 id transit of small packages, because, to car- 

 ry goods at the low rates they do, they must 

 make a sort of wholesale business of it ; and 

 to hurry along each small bundle, as do the 

 express companies, would cost them more 

 than they get for them. It may be best to 

 drive men to their duty sometimes, but it 

 hardly seems to me the plan you suggest is 

 in the line of the spirit of a free and Chris- 

 tian people. — Neither have I faith in the 

 kind of miracles you suggest, my friend; nor 

 do I see how a miracle is required for the 

 workers to change worker into drone eggs. 

 If they can, by reaching into the mycropyle 

 apparatus, or by some similar means, ae- 

 stroy the spermatozoa, the egg would then 

 be in precisely the condition of a drone egg. 

 This, of course, is only theory ; but the fact 

 that worker eggs are changed to drone eggs 

 is, I should think, pretty conclusively shown 

 by the facts given. Your suggestion, that 

 it may be the work of a fertile worker, has 

 already been refuted by giving Italian eggs 

 to a colony of black bees. Italian drones 

 were hatched. Had it been a fertile worker, 

 she must have been a black bee. I am glad 

 of your nine propositions, for they will serve 



to bring out thought ; but I do not feel sure 

 of any one of them unless it is the ninth and 

 last; still, they may be true. The theory is 

 certainly novel, but I am very much inclined 

 to think the queen knows when she is laying 

 drone eggs. JS^ow, have we not a Berlepsch 

 to stand up and prove, by careful experi- 

 ments, the " Dadant Theory," as here given? 

 — Friend D., please don't ever insinuate any 

 more that I may be bribed by railroads, or 

 any other party or parties. 



GLEAWmC S m BEE CULTURE. 



EDITOR AND FUBLISHEB, 



MEDINA, O. 



TERmS: $1.C0 PER YEAR, POST-PAID. 



FOR CLUBBTNO RATES, SEE FIRST PAGE 

 OF BEADING MATTER. 



]VE£:x3X3\r.A., OGrp. i, losa. 



There is none other name under heaven given 

 among men, whereby we must be saved.— Acts 4:12. 



Our subscribers now number 5376 stron" 



We are still short of the Jan. and Feb. Nos. of this 

 year, and will give 15 cts. each for them. If any one 

 wants to buy them of us, we shall have to charge 

 30 cents. 



An unusual demand has sprung up this season for 

 imported queens, and we have had two very success- 

 ful shipments this past month. The last contained 

 fifty, 43 of which were alive. We shall receive fifty 

 more during the present month. 



On the 11th of Sept. we sent some one of our cus- 

 tomers a dollar queen, whose progeny, now that they 

 are hatched out, show with unusual distinctness the 

 white rings and down which characterize the so- 

 called albinos. Who is the lucky man? 



The Los Angeles Evening Tdegram says the bees- 

 wax crop of Los Angeles County will be worth this 

 year more than the gold crop of the county, and that 

 is no small item. They quote beeswax at 30 c, but 

 it seems to me it is worth more than that, to ship 

 here. 



Jf friend Hutchinson will please take his new saw- 

 table to the photographer's and have a photograph 

 of it made, with himself standing on the box, just as 

 he runs it, we will try to have it engraved for our 

 next journal. It would be a nice winter's job mak- 

 ing such a foot-power saw, for many of our friends. 



So much attention is now being given to the drone 

 question and the Dzierzon theory, we have made ar- 

 rangements to send out a copy of the little book 

 with each one of our ABC books. Those who have 

 one of the ABC books already, can haAe the Dzier- 

 zon theory for 10 cents, or 13 by mail. 



A FRIEND suggests that " Doolittle is mistaken in 

 regard to the law requiring a double wire screen on 

 queen-cages. The First Asst. P. M. G., in his letter 

 to the Hon. Edwin Willetts, suggested that queen- 

 cages should be covered with a double wire cloth, 

 but nothing of the kind can be found in the Posta 

 Guide." 



