•598 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUBE. 



Dec. 



BEES DYING SUDDENLY. 



Your postal was received, in regard to my bees dy- 

 ing. About the time I received it, they had stopped 

 a little, and in five days it was all over. I looked in 

 the hives, all of them, and they have plenty— every 

 one being full, and some working in the sections. 

 After they quit dying, they were one inch deep in 

 front of the hives for a distance of t! feet out, being 

 both young and old bees. I cleaned them up and 

 carried them away, and swept the yard, and now I 

 see nothing wrong. As for the Spider-plant seed I 

 got of you, I got 13 plants, and they bloomed and 

 were doing well when a heavy frost killed the last 

 one of them. I watched them every day while in 

 bloom, and saw the drop of honey very plainly. I 

 will get some more seed of you next year. I got 

 only 3 Simpsons. D. F. C. Hambly. 



Spanish Ranch, Plumas Co., Cal. 



I am inclined to think, friend II., that it 

 was something your bees gathered that 

 caused the mortality. After the plant had 

 ceased blooming, they stopped dying, as you 

 mention. I presume you are sure it was not 

 a case of poisoning, like the one mentioned 

 in the Nov. No. V When bees begin to die 

 in that way, I would feed them heavily with 

 granulated-sugar syrup. 



Bees have not done much here this summer. Lin- 

 den and clover were failures. Bees did not get any 

 more than enough to live on until the middle of 

 August, when strong stocks gal tiered some surplus. 

 1 got 425. lbs of comb honey from IT hives. 



J. H. MORBISSON. 



Warsaw, Hancock Co., 111., Oct. 18, 1880. 



CAN BEES CONVERT WORKER EGGS INTO DRONES? 



I have recently had an item of experience bearing 

 directly on that point. I mentioned, last week, the 

 loss of queens in their flight. One has returned, and 

 is laying. The other swarm, to which I gave two 

 frames of brood in all stages, have sealed several 

 queen-cells and built out one-fifth (by estimate) of 

 the remaining cells for drones, and have them seal- 

 ed. Most of them protrude about }-i inch. The hive 

 from which 1 took the frames had no drone brood, 

 and has none yet. Appearances indicate that even 

 bees think and reason and forecast to a greater ex- 

 tent than some are willing to admit. These bees 

 raised a queen, and lost her through scarcity of 

 drones. Realizing this, apparently, they are now 

 providing drones in order to avoid a recurrence of 

 the calamity; and the probability is, that the eggs 

 from which they are being raised were fructified. 

 Is the foregoing conclusive evidence, that bees can 

 raise drones at will from worker eggs? 



Georgiana, Fla., Aug. 19, '80. Frank A. White. 



Aug. 25.— Some of the drones are hatching from 

 the cells built on worker brood. If the bees had 

 proved to be workers, as I thought it possible, 

 thouerh not probable, the foregoing "item" would 

 have proven that bees as well as men are liable to 

 fail in carrying out their plans. As it is, how can 

 any one say, " 'tis but chance," when it is so mani- 

 festly the accomplishment of a part of the law of 

 their existence, which law, though not yet fully un- 

 derstood by man, was given by a Being as far above 

 man in knowledge and wisdom and power, as man is 

 above the most insignificant of creatures on the face 

 of the earth? F. A. W. 



I at once wrote our friend, that I thought 

 he must be mistaken, and asked him to be 

 sure to tell us if the eggs were in worker 

 cells ; if in drone, of course they were laid 

 as drone eggs in the first place. Here is his 

 reply : — 



The entire frame in question was worker cells. 

 The hive from which it was taken had but few 

 drone-cells, and they contained no eggs. The queen 

 was not crowded, for only enough honey was com- 

 ing in to keep up brood-rearing. There were no 

 eggs in drone-cells in any of the bives, five in num- 

 ber. Father, mother, and I, estimated that about 

 one-fifth of the cells in said frame were drawn out 

 for drones, the capped excrescence protruding fully 

 }4 inch beyond those capped as workers. Many 

 of them hatched before the queens, some after. It 

 did look "knobby" ! It is the only frame I have seen 

 treated in that way. I am inclined to the opinion, 

 theory to the contrary notwithstanding-, that bees 

 have full control of the sex produced from an im- 

 pregnated egg. I think all intelligent apiarists con- 

 cede that they can control two of the sexes. We 

 know that an omnipotent God lias given them this 

 power, and it seems to me probable that it is extend- 

 ed to the remaining sex. 



The experience referred to above has set me to 

 thinking on this subject, and in order to draw out 

 the truth, if possible, I will ask a few questions: — 



Does the anatomy of a queen show an ovary where 

 eggs can not be impregnated, and one where they 

 can? Can a drone from a fertile worker's egg im- 

 pregnate a queen? Can the drone of a "drone-lay- 

 ing queen" impregnate a queen? 



If any one has already investigated this subject in 

 all its bearings, microscopically and experimentally, 

 I should like to be informed, as I have not the facili- 

 ties for either examination or experiment. 

 Georgiana, Fla., Oct. 9, 1880. Frank A. White. 

 I think, friend W., that the eggs in the 

 ovaries of the queen are all alike, — unim- 

 pregnated. The impregnation takes place 

 as the egg is laid, while passing the mouth 

 of the "spermatheca. Berlepsch decided, 

 from a single experiment, that drones from 

 a virgin queen are capable of fertilizing 

 queens ; but, although several of our read- 

 ers have at different times kept virgin drone- 

 laying queens for the purpose of having 

 young queens fertilized very early in the 

 spring, I believe no one is very sure that 

 these drones served the purpose. I have 

 always supposed it impossible for bees to 

 produce drones from worker eggs ; and, in 

 fact, eggs have been cut out of worker cells 

 and skillfully placed in drone comb, and rice 

 versa, but they always hatched out drones or 

 workers, just as if they had not been moved. 

 Your case is a little different, however, 

 friend AV r ., but still, not unlike the very com- 

 mon experiment of placing a frame of' work- 

 er eggs in a queenless colony for the pur- 

 pose of getting queen-cells. So far as I 

 know, these always hatch out worker bees, 

 and I must still think that your comb would 

 have batched drones in worker cells all the 

 same, if the comb had been left in the orig- 

 inal hive, where the eggs were laid. It is 

 notunfrequent to find a queen that suddenly, 

 as it were, lays quite a patch of drone -eggs 

 in worker cells, and this, too. at a season 

 when drones are not needed. 



