1V)01 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



979 



soon take full possession. A hive placed 

 near it, with a crack in the bottom, is sure 

 to be invaded. The bees have a vexatious 

 time with their octopus. I mentioned the 

 case to other bee-men, but they treated it 

 as nothing- new, for they had all experienc- 

 ed the same thing", and a simple remedj' is 

 a tig-ht bottom-board. 



[The cause that bring;s about the cessa- 

 tionof swarming'inCentralCalifornia isvery 

 difl'erent from that which operates in Texas 

 and Arizona. In the former, the bees stop 

 swarminif because starvation stares them 

 in the face: in the latter, the very opposite 

 extreme — an onrush of honey — checks in- 

 crease. 



All through the line of my travels I heard 

 comphiints about alfalfa-blossoms blig^hting" 

 at certain seasons and in certain localities. 

 I remember distinctly my conversation with 

 the Rambler at his cabin home on this 

 point during" the past summer; but at that 

 time I think he had not fully settled in his 

 own mind what was the cause. If it is in- 

 deed too much irrigation, then bee-keepers 

 ought to contrive some way, if they have a 

 grain of influence, to get their ranchmen 

 neighbors to use less water. I should be 

 inclined to believe that the verj^ thing that 

 brings about the blight of the blossoms 

 would also operate to aftect the quality and 

 quantity of the hay. This is a matter for 

 experiment stations to take up providing 

 they have not already done so. In the 

 mean time I should be glad to hear from 

 any in the alfalfa regions, and have them 

 give their experience and observations. — 

 Ed.] 



DRONES AND QUEENS. 



"Good morning, Mr. Doolittle. Did }^ou 

 ever read any of Mr. Kirby's writings?" 



" Yes, I think so. He was quite a prom- 

 inent man years ago, and thought by some 

 to be quite an authority about matters per- 

 taining to bee culture at that time." 



" An old gentleman visited me a few days 

 ago, and he said Kirby claimed that the 

 drones assisted quite largely in the produc- 

 tion of royal jelly, which he believed ; and 

 that good queens could not be produced un- 

 less there were plenty of drones in the hive 

 where queens were being reared. I tried 

 to make the old gentleman think that he 

 was mistaken, but it was of no use : so I 

 have come to see you to see what you think 

 of the claim." 



" This is only the unearthing of the old 

 theory which Kirby and others believed in 

 forty to fifty years ago." 



" Why do you call it a theory ? " 



"Because all of my experience goes to 



prove that the drones are of no use whatever 

 except to fertilize the queens, with the pos- 

 sibilit}' of adding their mite to the warmth 

 necessary during cool nights for the de- 

 velopment of the brood, and possibly in 

 helping to maintain the desired heat for 

 comb-building." 



"But suppose a colony is very anxious 

 for drones. Do you not suppose they would 

 be more contented if they had such ? " 



"Undoubtedly, if a colony which was 

 anxiovis for drones could be kept actually 

 di'oneless, both in the brood and mature 

 drone shape, drones would aid toward con- 

 tentment ; but I have never known a case of 

 a colonjr desiring drones but that they 

 would manage to raise some in some corner 

 of the hive. So I reason that such a thing 

 as keeping a colony, desiring drones, abso- 

 lutely droneless, is pretty nearly, if not 

 quite, a myth." 



" But what was your experience going to 

 prove — that Kirby's claims were only theo- 

 ry ? " 



" When this theory was being resurrect- 

 ed, soine 25 years ago, I had a number of 

 queens superseded earl}^ in May, before 

 there were any drones in the apiary, and 

 they were as good queens as I had ever 

 reared. Now, if the drones assist in the 

 preparation of royal jelly these queens 

 should have been inferior, to say the least, 

 to those reared when drones were plentiful. 

 Is not this right ? " 



" It would look that way, certainly." 



"Again, I have many times had queens 

 reared in March and April, when there 

 would be no drone brood in the hive, or any 

 in any hive in the whole apiary ; and after 

 a month or more, when drones had emerged 

 and were flying-, had them fertilized and 

 become fair queens. However, queens rear- 

 ed in a season when no honey or pollen is 

 being gathered, and at a time when regular 

 feeding can not be done, are usually inferi- 

 or to those reared when honey and pollen 

 are plentiful." 



" But the old gentleman told me that if I 

 would remove a queen from a colony having 

 plenty of drones I would see a profusion of 

 queen-cells dotting- the combs, which I 

 could not secure at a time when there were 

 but few drones in the hive." 



" This is another of the old ideas, and 

 soinething I have proved as fallacious. In 

 August, 1873, I think it was (I could tell by 

 referring to my diarj'), I had the largest 

 lot of queen-cells built by the removal of a 

 queen which I ever had. The number, as 

 I recollect it, was 163, yet this hive was de- 

 void of drones at the time, having killed 

 them after the basswood-honey flow was 

 over." 



" Were these cells all good ones, and did 

 they produce all good queens ? " 



" Of course, all did not give good queens ; 

 but the number of as good queens as can 

 be reared this way was in proportion to the 

 cells built. If my memory serves me right, 

 queens were reared from this colony on ac- 

 count of the queen showing no disposition 



