April, 191 [. 



Amgrican IBee Jonrn^^ 



them gathering pollen and honey rapidly 

 and of good quality. On my last trip, 

 about the 24th of February, which was 

 probably the coldest day of this winter, 

 being down to 65 between showers, I ex- 

 amined the bees and found them gather- 

 ing pollen and honey fast, with queen- 

 cdls capped over ready for swarming. 

 Trees and shrubs of many varieties were 

 in bloom just as I had fourtd it at other 

 times of the year. According to the state- 

 ments of the o^vners they had taken more 

 honey from their bees throughout the 

 year than I have ever been able to get in 

 the United States. What surprised me 

 most was in opening the hives when the 

 weather was the most unfavorable of any 

 time that could have been selected, I Jift- 

 ed them frame by frame without smoker, 

 veil or gloves, and the bees showed no 

 signs of resenting it, — even stood in front 

 of the hives, and great numbers were 

 awaiting me to get out of the way so that 

 they could go in. They were well-marked 

 three-banded, leather-colored Italians. I 

 never saw such gentle bees before. 



B. A. Hadsell. 



Bees Wintered Well 



Bees have wintered well here. I had 

 a few wobble out in the warm winter, but 

 my loss is only 5 colonies. So far I have 

 160 colonies. Last year was a year by 

 itself. We got no surplus honey until 

 August. The first alfalfa had no nectar, 

 but the sweet clover and second crop al- 

 falfa did pretty well, and the bees stored 

 honey until October. So they all went into 

 winter quarters pretty well supplied in 

 stores ; they have had flights every day 

 all winter, except about two weeks. We 

 have good prospects for an early spring. 

 We depend mainly upon alfalfa and sweet 

 clover for honey, but -we have a little 

 sage. Rocky Mountain bee-plant, and a 

 great deal of fruit-bloom. 



E. C. Wright. 



Montrose. Colo., March 17. 



Do Bees Carry Eggs? 



I have noticed this question under dis- 

 cussion for some time, and gave it only 

 a casual glance for the reason that if the 

 bees carry eggs to a. more convenient 

 place for the construction of a queen-cell 

 according to their notion, why, good and 

 well. If they do not, good and well, also. 

 It is not a matter of dollars and cents to 

 me in either case, so far as I know, for 

 if my bees become queenless and have no 

 egg from which they can rear a queen 

 they die. They cannot go, as I know of, 

 to some other hive and steai an egg, — at 

 least, 1 have never caught my bees per- 

 forming such tricks. 



This question was brought to my atten- 

 tion in the March issue of the American 

 Bee Journal in the editorial page, in 

 which Mr. W. Abram, of Australia, says 

 that the egg is glued to the bottom of the 

 cell, which is true, and when once re- 

 moved the bees have no way of sticking 

 it back again into any other cell. Just 

 here I wonder if Mr. Abram ever studied 

 adhesion, or capillary attraction, or run 

 across anything like that in his physics 

 while at school! The question is easily 

 settled, for a very small amount of honey 

 or chyle at the base of the cell will hold 

 the egg very securely, or little larva, as 

 to that matter. 



I am very much of the opinion that the 

 bees often move either the egg or the 

 larva to a more convenient place, for 

 time and again have I seen evidence to 

 this effect in rearing queens. All practical 

 bee-keepers who have ever reared queens 

 know full well how bees love to construct 

 cells along the rough or jagged edges of 

 combs, or at the botitom of the frame. It 

 is at these places Chat I have evideitce in 



great abundance to believe that the bees 

 move either the egg or the larva, and pref- 

 erably the lajtter. 



On the 15th of this month (March) I 

 dequeened 13 colonies of bees to con- 

 struct queen-cells for me, and went back 

 the 17th — 48 hours later — to graft the cells 

 started bv- the bees. There were two in- 

 stances, or 2 hives, that showed that lar- 

 vae had been moved. One was at the bot- 

 tom of a frame, the other at the jagged 

 end of a frame of comb. In both cases 

 the queen had left off laying about one 

 inch between the egg radius and where 

 the cells were located. In each case there 

 were nearly a dozen cells started very 

 close together. As they were one inch 

 from the egg-line I did not expect to find 

 any cell with a larva in it, but to my sur- 

 prise I found one cell with a tiny larva, 

 and well fed ; all the rest were empty. 

 This was hive No. i. 



Hive No. 2 was just a little more ad- 

 vanced with its cells, and the bottom of 

 the comb above the bottom-bar of the 

 frame, as the bees never quite built to 

 the bottom-bar, — the queen stopped off 

 laying about one inch above the bottom of 

 the comb on both sides. I did not expect 

 to find a thing in these stumps of cells, 

 but to my astonishment I found a larva 

 in one that was just about a day old, and 

 well fed. I am very much of the opinion 

 that the bees meant to rear two other 

 cells that were fed. but had no egg or larva 

 in them. I grafted the cells and forgot 

 about the matter. 



Now these cells that were fed would 

 hold either Mr. Abram's egg, or larva, 

 for they surely very cleverly held the 

 larva that I put in them. I have seen this 

 many times in my queen-rearing experi- 

 ence, but never as much as gave it a pass- 

 ing notice. The queen could have laid 

 these eggs just where I found thejn, but 

 hardly just at this time when they have 

 no notion of swarming. 



It is very evident to me that either 

 the queen lays eggs in the queen-cells, or 

 that the bees move them there, for last 

 spring I found dozens of them in queen- 

 cells during a swarming epidemic that I 

 had never had the like in ten years. 



T. P. Robinson. 



Bartlett, Tex., March 19. 



Over 50 Years a Bee-Keeper 



I took the Americ.\n Bee Journal in 

 1 86 1, when Mr. Wagner was the Editor, 

 and from it I got the Italian bee-fever, and 

 ordered a queen from Rev. L. L. Lang- 

 stroth to the tune of $10.00, which proved 

 a good in'\'estment. I have added new 

 blood occasionally since. Last year I got 

 over a ton ot 4'A section honey — mostly 

 white — from 17 colonies, spring count. 

 They are in lo-frame old-style Langstroth 

 hives, several of which weighed 80 pounds 

 without covers when I put them in the 

 cellar, about the middle of Nov., 1910. 

 '1 hey are not doing so well as last win- 

 ter — more dead outside of the hives, 

 owing, I think, to the number in the room. 



A. K. HONSINGER. 



St. Albans. Vt., March 4. 



Bees Did Fairly Well Last Season 



I have 20 colonies of bees, and they are 

 all in a thriving condition. I have not 

 lost a colony this winter ; it has been a 

 very mild one with the exception of a 

 few real cold snaps. 



'My bees did fairly welJ last year. I 

 sold almost all of my honey for 20 cents 

 per pound. If this is a good year, I am 

 expecting my bees to do a good business. 

 I think the American Bee Journal is a 

 fine paper. It has been a great help to 

 me. I don't seehow bee-keeping can be 

 done without it. J. K. Barron. 



Springfield, Ark., March 2. 



Coutrolliugr Mating of Queens.— 



We have received the following from 

 Mr. C. O. Smith, which will answer a 

 question asked by " New Mexico," in 

 " Dr. Miller's Answers :" 



A circular letter which 1 sent out in Feo- 

 ruary met with such a hearty response from 

 my sister and brother bee-keepers, that I 

 have decided to execute the plans mentioned 

 therein; and which I have formulated for 

 the purpose of iniprovingr the honey-bee. 

 Although I asked for only a short answer, 

 nearly all of the replies were filled with 

 helpful hints, sound advice, and good wishes. 

 Many of the writers expressed a willingness 

 to assist me in my efforts, by offering to take 

 one or more queens, at cost, to try out along 

 side of their own stock. As this will be a 

 far better test than to try them all in one 

 locality. I feel very grateful to them for their 

 generositv. 



I have spent 3 years looking for a superior 

 strain of Italians, from which to select a 

 breeder, for the purpose of building up my 

 apiaries to a high degree of efticieney. In 

 the spring of loio I found a queen that had 

 all the qualities I was seeking; but I was 

 unable to buy her. as her owner. Mr. Peter 

 Duff, refused to sell her at any price. But 

 he has generously offered, however, to per- 

 mit me. this season, to manipulate hei" col- 

 ony in any way that I choose, for the purpose 

 of securing her progeny for breeding pur- 

 poses. 



This Queen was selected by Mr. George W. 

 York as a breeder, for Mr. Duff, in the year 

 1005. Mr. Duff used her as a breeder one 

 season, and then decided that it did not pay 

 him to rear queens, so her colony has been 

 used for the production of honey ever since. 

 Mr. Duff buys a great many queens to re- 

 queen his colonies, and he says queens of 

 her class would be cheaper at Sio each, for 

 the production of honey, than the average 

 queen is at 60 cents each. I selected and 

 purchased 3 of her daughters— one 3 years 

 old. one 2 years old. and one a year old. The 

 colonies of these queens show all of the 

 good qualities of the old queen, except gen- 

 tleness and uniformity of markings; but 

 both of these defects undoubtedly came 

 from the drones with which they mated. 

 The strength of the old queen's colonies, 

 each spring, for so many years, shows the 

 longevity of her bees. 



In the fall of iQog. II5 colonies went into 

 winter quarters on the summer stands, and 

 the next spring, although the old queen was 

 6 years old. her colonv was the strongest in 

 the apiary, with those of her daughters rank- 

 ing next. 



Mr. Duff had in his apiary queens from 

 several different queen-breeders, also some 

 imported queens, so it is impossible to 

 know much about the drones that mated 

 with the daughters of the old breeder. How- 

 ever, the drones of these daughters will be 

 sired by the same drone that sired the work- 

 ers of the old queen, and by the laws of 

 heredity they should transmit all of their 

 good qualities to their progeny. 



I have secured the services of 3 people to 

 assist me in my work. One is an entomolo- 

 gist, one a microscopist. and the other an 

 authority on heredity. Whether or not the 

 services of a microscopist will be of value 

 in selecting drones or queens for breeding 

 purposes will have to be determined by 

 trial. If he can determine, with the aid of a 

 high-power microscope, a difference in the 

 virility of drones produced by different 

 queens, then his services will be of consid- 

 erablevalue. 



Some very careful experiments inheredity 

 are being made at theUniversity of Chicago, 

 They now have the 40th generation of mice, 

 with about soooindividuals. andan historical 

 record of all of the parents to which to re- 

 fer in cases of variation; and as their start 

 was made with a pure breed, under the 

 direction of one of the world's greatest biolo- 

 gists, the proper lines of breeding have been 

 quite well established. As the laboratory 

 in which these experiments are being con- 

 ducted is situated only a few blocks from 

 my home apiary. I expect to profit largely 

 by frequent use of it. 



My plan for mating is easily and quickly 

 described. I shall have 4 walls about 40 feet 

 high, making an enclosure, within which 1 

 shall place the hives containing the virgin 

 queens. These hives will be placed on the 

 ground, the hives containing the drones will 

 be placed on scaffolding above the ground, 

 which will compel the queens to fly up 

 among the drones when they go out to take 

 their wedding-flight. As I control allot the 

 drones within a radius of about .s miles, 

 there will be very little chance for any im- 

 pure matings. This method of compelling 



