236 



July, 1916. 



American ^ee Journal | 



their efforts to rear drone-brood by 

 hook or by crook. Indeed, some insist 

 that they go so far as to change worker- 

 comb into drone-comb. To do this, 

 however, by gnawing the worker-cells 

 down to the septum, and then upon the 

 unchanged septum to build cells of the 

 larger diameter, is a physical impossi- 

 bility. For if the septum be a plane, 

 and the walls of the cells perpendicular 

 to it, then those walls must be parallel 

 to each other, and the cells no wider 

 at mouth than at bottom. The only 

 exception to this is when the septum 

 is not a plane, but is curved. In that 

 case the bees not only can, but they 

 must, build cells wider at the mouth 

 than at the bottom. But in order that 

 the cells be enlarged enough to serve 

 as drone cells, the septum must be 

 very much curved. Such cases are 

 very rare, and the accident of such 

 curving can hardly allow the bees the 

 credit of design in changing from 

 worker-cells to drone-cells. In fact, 

 there really is no chayigc, for even if 

 the bees should gnaw the cells down to 

 the base, they would only build again 

 just what was there before. 



Moreover, if it were possible for the 

 bees to change worker-comb to drone- 

 comb, examples of it should be com- 

 mon, considering the efforts the bees 

 at times make to have drone-brood ; 

 yet plenty of beekeepers of many years 

 experience and observation say they 

 have never observed such a case. 

 When drone brood is desired, and no 

 drone-comb is found in the brood-nest, 

 the beekeeper not infrequently finds a 

 patch of drone brood outside the 

 brood-nest, if drone-comb happens to 

 be there. When the brood-chamber is 

 entirely filled with worker-comb, and a 

 super of sections is on the hive, if it 

 happens that a section is not entirely 

 filled with worker-foundation, the bees 

 are quite sure to fill the vacancy with 

 drone-comb, and the queen will come 

 up and lay eggs in it ; and if she is 

 prevented from going up by an ex- 

 cluder, the bees will often refrain from 

 storing honey in the drone-cells, leav- 

 ing them vacant for the expected com- 

 ing of the queen. Why all this round- 

 about work ? If bees can change 

 worker comli to drone-comb, why not 

 take the simpler plan of changing a 

 sufficient amount and having it right 

 where it is wanted, in the center of the 

 brood nest ? 



But l>ees can and do change drone- 

 comb to worker- comb. Left totheirown 

 devices the bees of a swarm build more 

 or less drone-comb. But after a young 

 queen has been reared in the hive and 

 begun laying, drones are neither needed 

 nor wanted, and a large patch of drone- 

 comb in the middle of the brood-nest 

 seems to be only in the way. Why not 

 rear worker brood in it.' But the 

 queen either will not or cannot lay 

 worker-eggs in drone-cells. So the bees 

 proceed to change the drone-cells to 

 worker-cells, at least so far as to 

 make the mouths of the cells of 

 worker size, which seems to answer 

 every purpose. Sometimes a beginner, 

 or even one not a beginner, is puzzled 

 to know what it means that so often 

 he meets with patches of what appear 

 to be drone-cells with very thick mar- 

 gins. The margins are not so thick as 

 they appear, but the ceils are partly 

 sealed over so as to reduce the mouth 

 to the proper siz§ for worker-brood. 



From these cells will emerge in due 

 time young workers that are normal in 

 every respect. The change of drone to 

 worker-comb is much more common 

 than the unobservant beekeeper is 

 likely to think. 

 Marengo. 111. 



No. 



18.— The Honey-Producing 

 Plants 



BY FRANK C. PELLETT. 

 (Phoh'£ra1>hs hv the author.) 



THE wild cherries are widely distrib- 

 uted over the North American 

 continent, and beekeepers who live 

 in timbered sections may expect to find 

 one or more species within reach. The 

 photographs shown herewith. Figs. 83, 

 84, are of the wild black cherry, Prunus 

 serotina, which is a large tree with red- 

 dish brown branches and oblong taper 

 pointed leaves. This tree is common 

 in the woods from Newfoundland, 

 Ontario and Manitoba, south to Florida 

 and Arizona. There is a smaller tree 

 with very similar flowers, the choke 

 cherry, P. virginiana, to be found over 

 much the same territory, while the 

 western choke cherry, or western 

 wild cherry, P. demissa, ranges from 

 Dakota, Kansas and New Mexico west 

 to California and British Columbia. 



The larger tree, P. serotina, is also 

 said to occur in Mexico, Peru and 

 Columbia. There is also a varietal 

 form known as the mountain black 

 cherry found in southwestern Virginia, 

 Georgia and Alabama. It is found on 

 the open rocky summits of the higher 

 altitudes. This form is a tree 25 to 35 

 feetlhigh with very rough bark and 

 drooping branches. The wild red 

 cherry or pigeon cherry, P. Petinsyb'a- 

 nica, is common in the northeastern 

 States and secretes nectar freely. 



Both leaves and seeds of all these 

 forms are poisonous, although the fruit 

 is edible. There seem to be well au- 

 thenticated cases of poisoning of cattle 



Fig. 84._Single Flower Cluster of Wild 

 Cherry 



from eating the leaves, and of children 

 dying from swallowing the seeds. Prof. 

 Pammel, in his book of poisonous 

 plants, gives an extended description of 

 the chemical action in such cases. The 

 poisonous property of all species of 

 cherry leaves, according to authorities 

 quoted there, is due to prussic acid. 

 The poison does not exist as such in 

 the growing plant, but by the action of 

 moisture and a vegetableferment which 

 exists in the plant a complicated chemi- 

 cal reaction takes place when the leaves 

 are separated from the stem. Wild 

 cherry bark is used to some extent in 

 medicine. 



Wild cherries are not often reported 



FIG. 83.-BLOSSOMS AND LEAVES OF WILD BLACK CHERRY 



