February, 1913 



American Hee Journal 



laws of inheritance, it may be well to 

 state that the offspring of a cross be- 

 tween two pure strains are always uni- 

 form and generally present an appear- 

 ance half way between the two parents. 

 The offspring of the first cross are 

 designated as the " Fi " generation. 

 Mate members of the " Fi " together, 

 and the offspring " F2 " are as varied 

 as can be imagined; some are like one 

 of the original pair, some are like the 

 other, and others are like nothing in 

 particular. 



If, now, we consider a few hypotheti- 

 cal cases of queens mated more than 

 once, we will get a little idea of the 

 possible results to be looked for in 

 actual experience. Take for example 

 a thoroughbred Italian queen first 

 mated with a drone of the same stock, 

 and next with a pure black drone. Her 

 offspring will be found as follows: 

 Part of them will be typical of a pure 

 Italian stock, and part of them will be 

 typical of a pure Italian mated to a 

 pure black; /. c, all one, or all '2band- 

 ed, or possibly all :!-banded, but quite 

 dark, the type of one or two bands, or 

 of three dark bands being determined 

 by the type of the Italian used. For 

 instance, a pure golden mated to a 

 pure black — or a pure Banat or Carnio- 

 lan for that matter — gives uniform 3- 

 banded leather-colored " Italians." 



If a queen of the same pure Italian 

 stock be first mated to a similar drone, 

 and second to a drone of mixed stock, 

 the results are quite different. Part of 

 the offspring — not always half, by any 

 means — will be of the typical pure 

 stock, and the rest will be all sorts 

 from " near Italians " to " near blacks," 

 or whatever the alien blood was. 



As to the cause of the plural mating 

 of queens, the following hypothesis is 

 submitted. A queen-bee, like most 

 animals, has a period of "heat." Before 

 it appears, she shows no inclination to 

 fly or mate, and after the period — 

 which may last 2(1 days — is over she 

 never mates. While the period lasts 

 she may mate one or more times; how 

 many times I do not know, but I do 

 know of several instances where they 

 mated three times. This repeated 

 mating of some individuals differs in 

 no wise from individuals of higher ani- 

 mals. Some individuals will allow the 

 approach of the male but once, while 

 others may mate several times before 

 repulsing the advances of the male. 

 And so far as Icnown, the behavior has 

 no relation to the virility of the male. 



Providence, R. I. 



^^^^ • ^ 



The Use of Lime in Bee-Cellars 



BY A. F. BUNNEY. 



Returning from the Des Moines con- 

 vention, the writer got into a discus- 

 sion with a couple of friends regarding 

 the use of lime in cellars in which bees 

 are kept during the winter. I contended 

 that «/';-,5/«/cfrf lime ceases to take up 

 moisture as soon as the chemical ac- 

 tion is finished, and that if a cellar is 

 well ventilated as it should be, lime is 



almost useless, as even freshly-burnt 

 lime takes up moisture but slowly, 

 owing to the slaked lime which covers 

 the unslaked portion. 



One of the gentlemen I talked with 

 uses the air-slaked lime for no other 

 purpose than to take up moisture, put- 

 ting it in supers, over the frames, and 

 on cloth. It merely serves as a pretty 

 good packing material. 



Desiring to fortify my position, I 

 wrote to Parke, Davis & Company, one 

 of the largest firms of manufucturing 

 chemists in the world, and the chief 

 chemist replied as follows : 



"Your letter of Dec. 14, addressed to 

 Parke, Davis & Company, making some 

 inquiries regarding the absorption of 

 moisture by lime, has been referred to 

 the writer, who happens to be inci- 

 dentally a very enthusiastic amateur 

 bee-keeper. 



"As I have quite a library of bee- 

 books, and also read the current jour- 

 nals on bee-keeping, I recognized at 

 once the source of this question. It 

 has been a matter of some interest 

 and occasionally of some amusement, 

 to read the articles which appear in 

 bee-journals from time to time regard- 

 ing the use of lime in preventing damp- 

 ness in wintering cellars. 



" Ordinary unslaked or burnt lime is 

 practically anhydrous, or contains only 

 a very low percentage of moisture. As 

 soon as moisture comes in contact 

 with it, it is absorbed with great avid- 

 ity, thus forming the hydrated oxide of 

 lime, and the hard lumps crumble into 

 a powder. 



" A hundred pounds of first-class 

 freshly-burnt lime will absorb many 

 gallons of moisture either from the 

 atmosphere or from the floor of the 

 cellar. As long as the lime is not sat- 

 isfied, it will continue to absorb mois- 

 ture if any is present. But as soon as 

 the lime is saturated with moisture and 

 converted into powder, it will not ab- 

 sorb any more water. Of course it 

 also has a tendency to absorb carbonic 

 acid gas, and if enough of this is pres- 

 ent the hydrated oxide of lime will 

 eventually be converted into calcium 

 carbonate or lime-stone. This is the 

 chemistry which underlies the harden- 

 ing of mortar and its conversion into a 

 hard cement which holds bricks to- 

 gether. 



"Turning now to the practical end 

 of this question, there is no doubt if 

 the hard, freshly burnt pieces of lime 

 are scattered through a bee-cellar, that 

 they will continue to absorb moisture 

 until they are converted into powder. 

 The more moisture it absorbs the more 

 slowly will the process take place and 

 the less efficient the lime becomes. 

 When it is converted into powder it is 

 of no use as an absorbent. This an- 

 swers yourquestion as regards renewal. 

 A man cannot simply place a bushel, or 

 a barrel, of burnt lime in a cellar and 

 expect that it will keep it dry for an in- 

 definite length of time. To be used 

 effectually it should be scattered over 

 the floor or placed around in different 

 parts of the cellar in shallow trays, and 



as soon as it is converted into powder- 

 ed form it should be thrown out and 

 new lime distributed. 



"One hundred pounds of lime, such 

 as is purchased from the lime-kilns 

 and shipped, contains from 10 to 2.5 

 percent of impurities, consisting of 

 clay, magnesia, iron and other foreign 

 substances, so that it will not absorb 

 over 24 pints of water and (12^ pounds 

 of carbonic acid. 



" Even these results are somewhat 

 surprising, and the inexperienced bee- 

 keeper would undoubtedly feel in- 

 clined to say at once, ' Here is a most 

 effective and cheap method of remov- 

 ing all dampness and carbonic acid 

 gas from my cellar.' The effectiveness 

 of lime for this purpose, if properly dis- 

 tributed as above indicated throughout 

 various parts of the cellar in shallow 

 tsays, cannot be gainsaid. We must, 

 however, reduce our estimate when 

 looked at from a practical view-point ; 

 for the reason that freshly-burnt lime 

 will absorb water very readily when 

 first exposed, but its avidity for water, 

 and its rate of absorption decreases 

 steadily as the process proceeds. It 

 would require many months for 100 

 pounds of lime to absorb all the mois- 

 ture of carbonic acid gas necessary to 

 satisfy its chemical affinity, and the 

 process would finally become so slow 

 as to be absolutely useless for all prac- 

 tical purposes. 



"Just when it reaches the limit of 

 practical and available absorptive 

 power of either water or gas, is largely 

 a matter of theory or guess work, and 

 would depend upon conditions in the 

 cellar itself. Very excessive moisture 

 from continued seepage from the floor 

 or walls would quickly use up the avail- 

 able power of 100 pounds of lime. On 

 the other hand it has, I think, been 

 fairly demonstrated that a reasonable 

 amount of moisture in the bee-cellar is 

 not in any way objectionable, and in 

 this case particularly, if it were some- 

 what crowded, the principal value of 

 the exposure of lime would result in 

 the removal of the carbonic acid gas, 

 which is well known to bee-keepers 

 to constitute a disturbing factor, per- 

 haps even more deleterious in its effects 

 upon bees than moisture. 



"Summing up the entire matter, I 

 would suggest that the use of lime in 

 bee-cellars can do no harm, and would 

 probably be very useful and satisfac- 

 tory provided it is properly exposed in 

 sufficiently large quantities, and that 

 the supply is renewed as soon as the 

 greater portion of the hard, stony 

 lumps or particles are converted into 

 a powder. It might be well to remem- 

 ber in this connection also that this 

 lime will continue to absorb carbonic 

 acid gas long after it has lost the 

 power of absorbing moisture. In fact, 

 powdered lime rendered distinctly 

 moist is better for the absorption of 

 carbonic acid gas than the dry lime. 



" Perhaps also a note of warning 

 may not be amiss for some of the fra- 

 ternity who desire to use lime. It is 

 well known that lime, when reduced to 



30 MILLION t 

 SECTIONS o 



100000 

 HIVES 



IS 



THE ANNUAL OUTPUT OF 

 THE LEWIS 



Send for Annual Cntnlog nhich ^vill tell 



_ you who in your nearest Distributer. 



FACTORY G. B. Lewis Company. AVatertown, Wis. 



