814 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 15 



so I gave her a soft job for 1901. [You are 

 doing- with your breeder just the very thing 

 that we are doing with our best queen. — 

 Ed.] 



What you say on page 778 in that last 

 Straw, Mr. Editor, squints in the direction 

 of saying that every shoe must be made on 

 the same last. I protest most earnestly 

 against being obliged to take something I 

 don t want, just because it is more conven- 

 ient for the manufacturers. Charge what 

 you will for the extra trouble of making 

 more than one kind, but give those of us 

 who want it and are willing to pay for it a 

 cover that will not leak, warp, or twist, 

 and that will be warmer in winter and 

 cooler in suminer than a single-board cover. 

 [I might have added that the Root Co. pro- 

 poses, in spite of the universal preference of 

 the dealers for the Excelsior single-thick- 

 ness cover, to furnish, on option, two dou- 

 ble-board covers, one a gable and the other 

 a siinon-pure Dr. C. C. Miller double-lid 

 cover with paper. There, now, don't you 

 dare say the Root Co. is trying to make 

 everj' shoe fit the same last. But we feel 

 that we are compelled to make a poorer 

 cover, in our judgment, "regular," until 

 we can convince the trade that the double 

 air-spaced one is better. It is simplj' a 

 matter of education and time. — Ed.] 



" I HAVE SEEN queens that were balled 

 and were stung to death inside of a minute, " ' 

 says the editor, p. 790. Did you ever know 

 such a speedy death when you let the ball 

 entireU' alone, Mr. Editor? I never did. 

 But holding a smoker close to the ball, and 

 blowing hot smoke upon it, will prove in- 

 stant death to the queen, and so may punch- 

 ing at the ball to try to get the queen out 

 by force. [I can not remember that a queen 

 was ever killed inside of one minute when 

 the ball was left alone ; but the one-minute 

 execution referred to was bv' Cyprians. 

 These bees, instead of buzzing around one's 

 face, will make a shot straight from the 

 comb, delivering the sting in one's face at 

 the instant of contact; and, as nearlj^ as I 

 can remember, when they ball the queen 

 they are inclined to make short work of her 

 also. But, say — I did not recommend hold- 

 ing the smoker close to the ball of bees. I 

 used the term "blowing light whiffs" of 

 smoke on the ball. Our neighbor, Mr. Har- 

 rington, once had a queen, however, that 

 would fight her way through any ball of 

 bees we ever saw. For the sake of experi- 

 ment he dropped her repeatedly into a num- 

 ber of different queenless colonies. If the 

 bees commenced to beill her she would fight 

 like a little tiger. In a day or two after- 

 ward we would find her reigning supreme, 

 without let or hindrance. — Ed.] 



I ASK, page 785, whether we ought not to 

 take 15 days instead of 16 as the time from 

 the laying of the &(^^ to the emerging of the 

 queen. And then that exasperating editor 

 says, "You are relying for your data on 

 one experiment only," when I had just 

 said, " In full colonies I have had mauj', 



many incidental proofs that 15 days was 

 the limit." Besides, do v^ou think a man 

 like Cowan would brush aside all the tra- 

 ditions of the fathers, iind announce a new 

 time-limit with nothing but data secured 

 from a single experiment on which to base 

 his belief ? Aroynt thee ! [Yes, you may 

 be right: but I am not going to "aroynt" 

 just 5'et, for you say you had inany inciden- 

 tal proofs — italics mine. When we come to 

 split hairs, or get down to the exact day, 

 should not the proof be something more than 

 incidental? Should it not be cle:!r and 

 positive? I admjt the statement of Mr. T. 

 W. Cowan, supposing it to have been based 

 on many experiments, goes a long way; 

 and for the time being, unless I get better 

 proof, the next edition of the ABC will have 

 the figures 15 instead of 16. — Ed.] 



You ASK, Mr. Editor, p. 778, how I know^ 

 that the father of the drone's sister does not 

 exert some potent influence on the drone 

 himself. I may answer that Dzierzon, who 

 at 90 is still vigorous in intellect, has al- 

 wav's held that the drone is of the same 

 blood as his mother. I do not think, how- 

 ever, that the drone with which a queen 

 mates is entirely without influence upon 

 her male progenj^ If my memorj'^ is not 

 at fault, there are cases on record in which 

 a white woman bore a child to a negro, and 

 afterward to a white man, and the second 

 child showed distinct traces of negro blood. 

 But I think the influence is so exceptional 

 or so slight, that, in actual practice, we 

 may say that a drone is not affected by the 

 drone with which his mother mated. [An- 

 other fact, taken in this connection, is some- 

 what interesting. I have been told that, if 

 a rooster of a Black Langshan, Black Mi- 

 norca, or anj' pure-blooded black stock, 

 gets into a pen of pure White Leghorn hens, 

 or any other white stock, even for one day, 

 that sittings of eggs from these hens will 

 for inany inonths afterward show chickens 

 with black feathers, showing that the male 

 of one variety can exert an influence long 

 afterward, even though other males have 

 been among the fowls for months. Not- 

 withstanding Dzierzon has contributed to 

 the world one of the most interesting facts 

 in nature, neither he nor anj' other great 

 man is always infallible; so I should be 

 inclined to take the view that a drone was 

 at least part brother to his worker sisters 

 of the same mother. — Ed.] 



"Breed from the best" has been the 

 watchword with myself as well as others. 

 F. B. Simpson, in Rez'iciv, sa3's we're off. 

 Given 5 queens from the same mother, which 

 5 queens uniformly yield about 10 lbs. more 

 than the average, and another 5 from an- 

 other mother, which 5 zigzag all around 

 from 35 below to 90 above the average, and 

 he will breed from the first 5 rather than 

 from the one that runs 90 above the average. 

 Now if F. B. will tell us, as I'm afraid he 

 will, that all intelligent breeders of note 

 agree with him, I'll promptly 'bout face 

 and stand in line with him; but if he's only 



