i.3t; 



GLEANINGS IN JiEE CULTURE. 



Mak. 



soon. This frame is peculiar, in being about 

 111 inches wide by 14 deep, outside measure. 

 The extreme lengtii of top-bar is 18 inches, 

 and is a heavy V-shaped conib-i^niide. made of 

 one piece of wood. This conili-miide is leal- 

 ly a three-cornered piece of wood about i inch ] 

 on the side, and forms slioulders to which the ! 

 end-bars are nailed. The distance from shoul- 

 der to shoulder is 1U4 inches, so 10* inches 

 is the width of the frame inside. The end- 

 bars are i inch thick, and exactly 14 inches 

 long. The bottom-bar is exactly 12 inches 

 long, and has projecting points.'which are 

 almost a necessity for a frame so deep. These 

 l)oints strike the "sides of the hive when put- 

 ting a frame in i)lace. preventing bees from 

 being crushed. This bottom-bar is set edge- 

 wise, and is very light, being only i inch by 

 a little less than }. Eelo\v is what friend 

 Jones says in regard to it. Now, the follow- 

 ing letter was not intended for publication ; 

 but it is so rare that we get any thing from 

 friend Jones I am sure he will excuse me. 



Ftieiid Root :—F\ease accept our thanks for your 

 kind offer, which is duly appreciated. I will have a 

 frame built to size sent you. In marked catalogue 

 which we forward you, you will find inside meas- 

 urements of frame. There are now a great many 

 thousand of these hives in use throughout Canada; 

 in fact, I believe more of them than all others put 

 together. There are hundreds manufacturing them 

 besides myself. Out of orders received last year 

 for 37 different sizes, 95 per cent of the whole 

 amount sold was our size. We have no axes to 

 grind in the frame or hive business, and would as 

 soon make one kind as another, and adopt, could I 

 secure better results; but after a tx-ial of 14 years 

 by the side of the shallow frames, the results were 

 so much better that I could no longer resist the 

 temptation of using them exclusively. When Mr. 

 Langstroth visited me, accompanied by Judge An- 

 drews, it would have done you good to see bow 

 readily father Langstroth could handle my frame, 

 and he was so delighted with them that he asked 

 me to construct him some hives that he might give 

 them a trial; but they were never shipped him, on 

 account of his sickness soon after. 



You will observe that the bottom-bar projecting 

 prevents the frame from touching the side of the 

 hive in manipulation. This allows of greater rapid- 

 ity in handling. One frame is laid on side or stood 

 on end; no bees can be mashed, as the projections 

 keep the frame bee-space above board. 



If you do not issue your new book before the first 

 or middle of April, I can give you some new im- 

 provements to put in it, in connection with bee cul- 

 ture—things of very great importance in wintering 

 bees, the production of comb honey, improvement 

 in sections, and a number of other valuable things 

 which would perhaps add a little to its interest. 



Some years ago I thought of making metal cor- 

 ners, and made a great number of devices, some of 

 which I believe are not equaled yet. Although I 

 did not take to the metal corners favoi-ably, yet 

 since revei-sible frames are receiving some atten- 

 tion, I believe that some of the simpler ones would 

 be hard to beat. If you send us one of your latest 

 improved, and should it not be superior to mine, I 

 will then forward you a sample for jour inspection, 

 to manufacture, of course, should you desire to do 

 P<), and no hundred-dollar charge cither. 



BeetoiJ, Ont., Jr'cb, lO, JSSii, D, A, Jones. 



We send you a sample of our latest revers- 

 ible frame," friend J., and I should be ex- 

 tremely happy to have suggestions from you 

 before our next edition of the A B C goes to 

 press. And by the way. friend J., we shall 

 feel a little more free to trespass on vour 

 kind liberality if you would take some pay, 

 in some shape or other, for the l)enetits von 

 are continually conferring upon us. 



FERTILIZING QUEENS. 



•. COOK DISCUSSKS THE PROBABII 



yUKEN BEING FEKTILIZEI) BEFOH 



EMERGES FHOM THE CEI-L. 



ITIES OF 

 •: .SHE 



E.VR MK. EDITOR:— You ask my opinif)n about 

 fertilization of queens after reading Mr. K. 

 Cheshire's article in the Britisli Bee Journal. 

 I reply, that it is not at all changed. I have 

 discussed this subject in a paper sent to New 

 Orleans, to be read at the International Congress; 

 but as I had not then seen the article in question, I 

 will add a few words. Mr. Cheshire remarks truly, 

 that the sperm-cells are quite mature before the 

 drone-bee assumes the imago stage. If any one ex- 

 amine critically the repi-oductive or generative or- 

 gans of the mature drone he will find that the testa- 

 cies, or testes, are much smaller than they are in the 

 pupa, or nymph. The reason for this is, that the 

 sperm-cells have wandered, or migrated, having 

 passed through the generative duct to the seminal 

 sack, the Vcaicuhe scminales. In this migration, 

 mucous is added, and the cells are bunched, or 

 massed, preparatory to coition. Thus massed they 

 are passed down Into the external organ, which, by 

 a sort of turning wrong side out in copulation, de- 

 posits them in the oviduct of the queen, which 

 clasps and forces them into the spermatheca. 



Mr. Cheshire says that the sperm-cells are already 

 active in the larva. He does not say whether in the 

 mature or in the partially developed larva. I did 

 not suppose they were active at all in the larva, but 

 have found them so in the pui)a. If they are active 

 in the larva it must be when the latter is fully ma- 

 tured. That they are so at all, seems strange and 

 exceptional. If they are active there can be little 

 question but they are functionally perfect. The ac- 

 tivity of the spermatoa in all animals seems to be 

 the test of vitality. 



In the impregnation of the queen, millions of 

 these sperra-cells are to be passed up the oviduct, 

 and passed into the spermatheca. For this to be 

 accomplished, the cells must be massed and forced, 

 under the orgasm of the queen, along the oviduct, 

 into the spermatheca. It is possible— hardly proba- 

 ble—that a few of these might wander along the 

 channel, and find this destination in the ease sug- 

 gested, were the sperm-cells free, and the queen de- 

 veloped and ready for impregnation. All animals, 

 insects included, have an age of so-called pubertj-, 

 before which sexual instinct is absent, and impreg- 

 nation impossible. I know in insects this is often 

 early. I have seen butterflies in copuloso soon after 

 the female had emerged from the chrysalis, that 

 her wings had not got dried. We know, however, 

 that the (jueen leaves the cell days before the or- 

 gasm ai)pears. To suppose, then, that putting an 

 immature— in fact, a larval insect— into a cell where 

 a queen is yet inchoate, and to suppose impregna- 

 to occur, is, it appears to me, expecting more, 



