276 



August, 1916. 



American Hee Journal 



store of food; that is, so far as this 

 discussion is concerned she knows be- 

 forehand the sex of the egg she is about 

 to lay. Not infrequently the same tunnel 

 or burrow is used for several seasons 

 by species of Osmia. Here the female 

 bee has no power to alter the succes- 

 sion of the cells, and she invariably 

 lays female eggs in the larger cells and 

 male eggs in the smaller cells. If, for 

 example, the mason bee has at her dis- 

 posal five cells, three large and two 

 small, in the large cells she puts females 

 and in the small cells males. It is thus 

 impossible, says Fabre, that there 

 should be an invariable succession of 

 the eggs. 



Fabre induced many mason bees to 

 make use of glass tubes, instead of 

 hollow reeds and brambles, in which 

 the method of procedure could be more 

 easily followe I. When the glass tubes 

 were of normal size each series of 

 cells, whether complete or incomplete, 

 began with females and ended with 

 males. Sometimes females were more 

 abundant, at other times males ; if the 

 tube was reduced to the exact length 

 of two cells the bottom one was a 

 female, the upper a male. If the mother 

 Osmia can lay an egg of either sex, as 

 she pleases, the question arises, may it 

 not be possibleto induce her to reverse 

 the usual order and lay male eggs first. 

 For this purpose Fabre employed two 

 glass tubes of very different diameters 

 set end to end. The black tubes or 

 cylinders were too small to contain 

 female cells, and if used at all must 

 contain males. Now what happened? 

 The mothers laid male eggs in the 

 small rear tubes, the exact converse of 

 their way of proceeding under normal 

 conditions. When they came to the 

 larger front tubes they at once laid 

 female eggs topping off with males as 

 usual. 



The nests of a species of Chalico- 

 doma, are round balls of mud varying 

 from the size of a walnut to that of an 

 apple. A part of the cells are deep, a 

 part shallow. The female of Osmia 

 tridentata often uses them, laying fe- 

 males in the deep cells and males in 

 the shallow ones. Fabre scraped off 

 the mud from the outside of one these 

 nests so that it contained 12 shallow 

 cells and 2 deep cells. In all the former 

 the mother Osmia laid male eggs, and 

 in the latter female. The following 

 year the experiment was repeated with 

 a nest of 1.5 cells ; but this time all the 

 cells were scraped down until they 

 were shallow. Every cell was occupied 

 by males, all the offspring of one 

 mother. " He would indeed be difficult 

 to please," says Fabre, " who would not 

 bow before the results of these two 

 experiments." 



A single additional experiment may 

 be briefly described. Fabre also gave 

 his species of Osmia empty shells of 

 the garden snail so plugged with mud 

 in the widest part that there was hardly 

 space for any except male cells. One 

 of these snail-shells contained 25 males 

 and only one female. It is obvious, 

 says Fabre, that the Osmia is able to 

 reverse the order of her laying and 

 start with more or less long series of 

 males before producing females. 



" So as to be able to give each larva 

 the amount of space and food that suits 

 it according as it is male or female, the 

 mother can choose the se.x of the egg 



which she is about to lay. To meet 

 the conditions of building, which is 

 often the work of another or else a 

 natural retreat that admits of little or 

 no alteration, she lays either a male 

 egg or a female egg as she pleases. 

 The distribution of the se.xes depends 

 upon herself. Should circumstances 

 require it, the order of the laying can 

 be reversed and begin with males; 

 lastly, the entire laying can contain 

 only one sex." 



(An extended description of Fabre's 

 observations will befound in "Bramble 

 Bees.") 



Waldoboro, Maine. 



The Sectional Hive 



BY F. GREINER. 



IT is not to be wondered at that the 

 readers of our bee journals receive 

 the impression that the sectional 

 hive has gone out of use, for we do not 

 find anything written on the subject in 

 recent years. I do not know whether 

 I am the only beekeeper who uses 

 them at this time, but I think there are 

 a few, some quite extensive beekeepers, 

 who use nothing else. However, the 

 fact cannot be denied that this style of 

 hive has not gained in popularity. 



The original sectional hive was called 

 the Heddon hive from its inventor. 

 Our lamented friend. Hutchinson 

 favored it at one time. A few of us in 

 New York State tried it but discarded 

 it as not practical. I was among them ; 



ling frames singly. These hives were 

 not built with that intention ; they were 

 built with the idea of handling the 

 frames in full sets. It is a matter of 

 handling hives, not frames. If your 

 management is such that you cannot 

 avoid handling frames you will never 

 like a closed-end tight-fitting sectional 

 frame hive. In the eastern portion of 

 New York State we have beekeepers of 

 note who use a sectional hive with 

 loose hanging frames. It is liked very 

 much by these honey producers ; they 

 certainly make a success of it; I have 

 a few such hives in use, but I prefer the 

 closed-end style Hand or Heddon pat- 

 tern. 



When our management demands the 

 manipulation of brood-frames singly, 

 the larger the frames the better and 

 quicker we will get along with our 

 work. The frames of the sectional 

 hives are not intended to be manipu- 

 lated singly; they must of necessity be 

 very shallow, so that we can tell what 

 they contain by taking a look at them 

 from the top or bottom. The shallower 

 they are, the easier we can drive or 

 shake the bees out. There are no hid- 

 ing places between and around the 

 frames except the straight long bee- 

 spaces between the combs, and those 

 are easily cleared of bees when neces- 

 sary. 



It may not be so easy to find the 

 queens in this type of a hive, but we do 

 not have to see the queens every time 

 we visit our bees. During the spring 

 months «re have no difficulty to hunt 



OLD STYLE EKE HIVES 



I was glad when the colony in this hive 

 died and I did not have to bother with 

 it any longer. We had almost forgot- 

 ten the Heddon reversible sectional 

 hive when Mr. Hand came out with his 

 shallow brood-chambers with their 

 close fitting closed end frames. As the 

 second inventor explained the manage- 

 ment of these hives, also Mr. Taylor a 

 similar hive, we became convinced that 

 the trouble was with us and not with 

 the hive, and we made another attempt 

 using these hives in our yards. We 

 were not only successful this time but 

 it afforded us pleasure. 



We built more and more of them, 

 and today I have half of my bees in 

 these little sectional brood-chambers, 

 and I am satisfied that I can run more 

 colonies when they are in sectional 

 hives than when in standard hives. In 

 order to get along at all with them one 

 must get away from the idea of hand- 



out queens, later in the season we 

 simply don't. 



The bee-spaces between the shallow 

 brood-chambers may be considered an 

 objectionable feature, but they are not; 

 they are an advantage in several ways; 

 you will find it so when you get to 

 using the hive. 



Naples, N. Y. 



[Sectional hives, before the time of 

 movable frames, were known under the 

 names of " ekes," " nadirs," or in French 

 as "hausses." Hamet, in his " Cours 

 d'Apiculture," 1859, recommends those 

 hives above all others. They consisted 

 of shallow stories, all alike, with slats 

 at the top to which the combs were at- 

 tached. In cases of necessity, the combs 

 could be loosened from the ends and 

 lifted out. Dzierzon's movable-comb 



