1890 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



559 



themselves are not exactly typical Italians, eggs are often laid when the bees are building 



yet the cluster itself, the position of the comb, in worker-cells so shallow that there can be 



wings, and the manner in which they are no compression, and impregnated eggs are laid in 



hanging together, to say the least, is real queen-cells. which are still more roomy than drone- 



and lifelike. I wish to call particular atten- cells. Cheshire ridicules Quinby's idea as "« ^^"I'l 



tion to the bee on the extreme end of the 

 broken twig on which the bees are cluster- 

 ing. Every bee-keeper will recognize some- 

 thing ia that little individual, strikingly 

 natural. The bees on the wing are not as 

 true to nature as they might be in some 

 cases, but they are very good. It does not 

 take a great stretch of the imagination to 

 think of this as a third SM^arm, possibly hav- 

 ing a virgin queen somewhere in the outer 

 edges of the cluster. Naturally enough, 

 they have clustered on the end of a little 

 twig of a tree so highly prized by the bee- 

 keeper ; namely, basswood— or, as some of 

 our friends term it, the linden. Not more 

 natural or more true to nature is the cluster 

 of bees, than the basswood leaves. See ! 

 Here and there is a leaf with torn edges. 

 How natural I Yes, and just a little beneath 

 the cluster is a basswood blossom. These 

 facts would show that the engraver had 

 some idea of the eternal fitness of things 



a bold 

 guess made long ago by an American apiarist of 

 just repute, though but little acquainted with sci- 

 entific matters." But Cheshire does not very dis- 

 tinctly state what he does believe. Indeed, it is a 

 little difficult to tell just what is believed by the 

 authors of our bee-works, for most of them speak 

 in a rather vague way. A. I. Root, an author not 

 given to vagueness, says in his ABC: "lean not 

 but conclude that the queen knows when an egg 

 will produce a drone, and knows just what 'wires 

 to pull ' to have every egg laid in a drone-cell pro- 

 duce a drone. I think it very likely the workers 

 have something to do with this matter, but I have 

 never been able to make out by what means they 

 signify to the queen that some eggs in drone-cells 

 or even in queen-cells would be desirable." 



Dzierzon says: "We must, in any case, assume 

 that the queen possesses the instinctive power to 

 lay fertilized eggs in small cells and unfertilized 

 eggs in large cells," while his English translator, 

 C. N. Abbott, advances the suggestion that inter- 



when he made a little swarm come out and nal pressure has something to do with it, and "that 



alight on a basswood limb just when such a 

 swarm might be expected— that is, when 

 basswood was evidently in its height, as in- 

 dicated by the blossom shown a little below, 

 at the left of the cluster. 



The swarm was so small as to be unnotic- 

 ed by the apiarist ; but his wife has seen it, 

 and, tugging him by the arm, points to the 

 twig twenty or thirty feet, perhaps, above 

 the ground. The swarming-device is handy, 

 and his assistant has ready at hand one of 

 the indispensables of the apiarist — a ladder. 

 The little swarm is not worth much, but 

 then they are evidently pure Italians, and 

 he will make a nucleus of them. Off in the 

 distance is a well-kept apiary ; and at the 

 right, a beautiful home. Whether these are 

 all adjuncts of one establishment, our si- 

 lent engraver will not tell us. 



By way of explanation we may as well say 

 that our artist having run across a beautiful 

 print, evidently the handiwork of a German 

 engraver, forwarded the same to us. We 

 were so struck with its natural, lifelike ap- 

 pearance, that we returned it to him with 

 instructions to engrave it as faithfully as he 

 could. The original artist was evidently a 

 bee-keeper, for how could he have made the 

 cluster and the basswood leaves so lifelike 

 if he were not? Our engraver who repro- 

 duced it, with some slight suggestions from 

 ourselves, is also a bee-keeper, and the en- 

 graving attests how well the work was done. 



VOLITION OF 



THE QUEEN 

 LAYING. 



DR. MILLER 



ARGUES FOR 

 THEORY. 



iTHi.vK it was Quinby, supported by Wagner, 

 who advanced the idea that a queen lays worker 

 eggs in worker-cells because of the mechanical 

 compression in the smaller cell; and in the larger 

 drone-cell, there being no compression, the egg is 

 left unimpregnated. But the reply was made, that 



the accumulation of eggs in the ovaries enlarges 

 them and causes sufficient pressure to secure their 

 fertilization as they pass the spermatheca." The 

 revised Langstroth, while rejecting the compres- 

 sion theory, says: "Yet it is very difficult to ad- 

 mit that the queen is endowed with a faculty that 

 no other animal possesses, that of knowing and de- 

 ciding the sex of her progeny beforehand. It ■ 

 seems to us that she must be guided by her in- 

 stinct." 



Prof. Cook is not vague at all, but distinctly gives 

 his belief that the queen controls the whole matter 

 by an act of the will. He strongly fortifies his posi- 

 tion by saying, " The Birou of Berlepsch has fully 

 decided the matter. He has shown that old drone- 

 cells are as small as new worker cells, and yet each 

 harbors its own brood." Prof. Cook further argues: 

 " What gives added force to this view is the fact 

 that other bees, wasps, and ants, exercise the same 

 volition, and can have no aid from cell-pressure, as 

 all the eggs are laid in receptacles of the same 



In the face of all that has been said on the other 

 side, it may seem presumptuous to attempt any de- 

 fense of the old theory of Wagner and Quinby, that 

 compression of the queen's abdomen decides the 

 sex of the egg as it is laid in the cell. Still, I sup- 

 pose I may raise the question whether it has not as 

 much show of reason as any later theory. The 

 sweeping objection to the compression theory is, 

 that impregnated eggs are laid in worker-cells 

 when the cell is barely commenced, " so that pres- 

 sure can not be exerted," says Cheshire-" in which 

 ' no compression can take place," says Dadant- 

 " where there could be no pressure," says Cook. Is 

 there not an entire misapprehension here? Surely 

 COMPRESSION Wagner and Quinby could not have meant that the 

 diameter of the worker cell was less than the diam- 

 eter of the queens abdomen, and that the abdomen 

 had to be compressed each time into smaller di- 

 mensions to allow it to enter the cell. Is it not rea- 

 sonable that the difl'erent position that must be 

 taken in the smaller cell causes compressiony Did 

 you never notice the small boy who has been ia- 



IN EGG- 



