1874 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



19 



of Injects etc. and Professor in the Academy of Sci- 

 ences, Salem, M iss. and perhaps there is not a nat- 

 uralist who is acquainted with the anatomy of the bee 

 that will take any other position. 



You emphasize the word "Practically." Now, I quit 

 the barbarous practice of dropping the queens wings, 

 several vears ago, because I discovered that they 

 were notso proline as those with wings. As a rule 

 they will, many of them, live just as long; In fact, one 

 of the oldest queens I ever had, had no wings. She 

 lived until the sixth year but never had a populous 

 colony, and many of h'er offspring were without wings, 

 On the contrary a queen that lays, up to her full ca- 

 pacity, will not live long. After one full seasons lay- 

 ing she becomes almost worthless. When thedafinite 

 number of egg germs in her ovaries are exhausted 

 she dies from exhaustion, as does the worker bee 

 when it has expended its vitality in labor, and I think 

 it likely that when we get to understand perfectly, 

 how to'mmage bees; and when queens are bred up 

 to their full vigor, that a queen will not live longer 

 than a worker. Yours truly, 



D. L. Adaiu, 

 Hawesville, Ky. Jan. 7th, 1874. 



We welcome the above as being strait for- 

 ward aud manly with the exception of the re- 

 mark that we ever considered or thought of 

 calling friend Adair a fool, or in fact any one 

 else, or of using any similar term, in all our 

 writing on Bee-culture ; nor can we for an in- 

 stant believe that any of our readers have so 

 understood it. We have considered many the- 

 ories like the above "sheer folly" and in ex- 

 treme cases think it best to so pronounce them 

 to prevent if possible the host of novices from 

 accepting and acting on assertions easily 

 shown to be grievous errors. 



Mr. A. in his present remarks is mild in com- 

 parison with the paper referred to ; that he 

 started out with established facts, in part at 

 least, and that he is somewhat contradictory, 

 those may see who care to go over the matter. 



We declined publishing the paper then, and 

 do now on the ground that very few people in- 

 deed are capable of deciding what is truth and 

 what is error in the Microscopic World. And 

 we would also question the propriety of the 

 Rural New Yorker and other papers submitting 

 to their readers such an article, when mankind 

 is so prone to take up and disseminate error, 

 most especially the "twaddle" that has passed 

 as true science for years past concerning the 

 "wonderful revelations of the Microscope." 



Such of our readers as would know our 

 grounds for calling Adair's paper "folly" we 

 would refer to "Carpenter on the Microscope," 

 pages 570 and 574. We extract in substance 

 as follows, the italics of which are our own : 



''The wing of the bee, is composed of an extension of 

 the external membranous layer of the body, — over a 

 framework formed by prolongations of the inner hor- 

 ny layer ; within which prolongation of the inner hor- 

 n v laver,— trachae are to be found,— around which are 

 found channels, through which blood circulates, du- 

 ring the growth of the wing and a short time after its 

 completion. Each of the nerves of the wing contains 

 a trachae, or air tube,— which branches ofi from the 

 tracheal system of the body ; and it is in a space 

 around the trachea that the hlood may be seen to 

 move,— when the hard framework of the nerve itself, 

 is not too opaque. This circulation may be seen read- 

 ily in the wings of bees, while young and growing,— 

 shut up motionless in their cases; lor this condition 

 of apparent torpor is one of great activity of the nu- 

 tritive system ;— those organs, especially, which are 

 peculiar to the perfect insect,— being then in a state 

 of rapid growth, and having a vigorous circulation of 

 blood through them ; but this movement soon ceases 

 and the wings dry up." 



Are we not right in concluding that by the 

 time the queen has reached the age at which 

 she usually lays eggs, she has no further use 

 for her wings than for flight, for their circula- 



tory system has then dried up as Carpenter 

 has it, and the clipping them then, affects her 

 about the same as does the cutting of our hair 

 or ringer nails. 



So much for the Microscope : Now should 

 practical Bee-keepers agree, after trying Queens 

 clipped and undipped side by side for a num- 

 ber of years, that they could see no difference 

 in fertility, are we not excusable in terming 

 the paper as we did. So far as eminent Natu- 

 ralists and Entomolgists are concerned we 

 have only to say it will be the worse for ihtm 

 if they endorse the paper in question and its 

 winding up especially. 



A°;asssiz has given us one illustration of the 

 "stubborn folly" of some, who stand high be- 

 fore the world, that will not soon be forgotten 

 in Bee-culture. Again should one Apiarist of 

 limited experience in extracting, make a state- 

 ment directly at variance with one hundred or 

 more who had large experience, aud who all 

 agreed in their statements, what term should 

 be applied to such a course ? 



In both of the above cases much mischief 

 might be done to beginners were not the mat- 

 ter corrected at once. 



Who has not seen one of their rousing 

 swarms of bees sailing away to the woods, and 

 stood helplessly thinking they wgald give their 

 best five dollar bill if just one "little tip" of 

 one of that queens wings was off? 



And in latter days, how many novices have 

 wished they only knew for certain, whether 

 'twould hurt the brood to throw all that mass 

 of honey around and among it out, that the 

 queen might further extend her domain? 



The truth is we are afraid of Adair ; for 

 years back he has made at times such tremen- 

 duous jumps at conclusions that we dare not 

 trust him, aud in fact true to nature he makes 

 one in his article above before finishing viz : 



His queen without wings produced offspring 

 also wingless during the first generation. Dar- 

 win in his works protests that a million of 

 years would be far too short a time for such 

 and such results, but our friend would have 

 accidents to the mother producing wingless 

 workers in six short years or less ? We have 

 all seen wingless workers of course, but an ex- 

 amination of the combs, not the queen, usually 

 solves the difficulty. 



In regard to the two story hives and pro- 

 miscuous changing of the combs, we have no 

 doubt but that our friend is in the right and 

 we heartily thank him for his suggestions. 

 We have more than once noted the disorgani- 

 zation of a colony by spreading combs too fast, 

 and also the shock that was given them when 

 giving them the whole upper story at once, es- 

 pecially if cool weather intervened. Rest as- 

 sured friend Adair that however severely we 

 may criticise, we shall never forget the valua- 

 ble hints you have thrown out here .and there, 

 and shall certainly never think of calling you 

 the harsh names you accuse us of having used. 

 In concluding we will say that we have a way 

 of measuring a Bee-keeper by the tons of 

 honey he has produced, and number of colo- 

 nies he can manage successfully. Nothing 

 else will do as a* substitute, and we are as well 

 aware as any one else that our place is not 

 very high up on the ladder, but we hope "we're 

 growin'. " 



