GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 15 



to rear drones, as she r?re1y laid egg-s in 

 drone comb before the middle of June." 



" The old g-entleman further said that, 

 if a queenless colony of black bees was sup- 

 plied with eggs from an extra choice pure 

 Italian queen, the offspring- would not be 

 pure, on account of their being- contaminat- 

 ed with the royal jelly produced throug-h 

 the black drones and nurses. What do j'ou 

 think of this matter ? " 



" Fallacious as any of the rest." 



" Whj' do you say that ? " 



" The first Italian queen that ever came 

 into these parts was an extra g-ood one. In 

 fact. I have had very few queens that would 

 so nearly duplicate themselves in their 

 queen progeny as this one would. As she 

 came late in July, not a drone was reared 

 from her brood that season, nor was there 

 a single Italian drone or queen in all this 

 section of countr3'^ when she came. She was 

 introduced into a colony of black bees, as 

 there were no others to introduce her to ; 

 and as soon as the larvae from the black 

 queen were all sealed, she was taken out 

 and introduced to another colonjs when the 

 former colony went to work rearing queens. 

 Thus she was changed until queens were 

 obtained for the whole apiary of about 25 

 colonies. These queens mated with black 

 drones, of course, as well as to be raised 

 by black bees. Now, according to what 

 we have alwaj's been taught, these queens, 

 having all mated with black drones, should 

 have produced hybrid workers, or bees, a 

 part of which should have been black, to 

 say nothing about their being nursed by 

 black bees, and fed royal jell}' in which 

 there was an element coming from the black 

 drone, according to what the old gentleman 

 would have us think." 



" Yes. And did you not find it so ? " 



" No. Not one of those queens ever pro- 

 duced a black bee." 



" That is strange." 



" Yes, and I thought so at the time ; but 

 since then we have had other instances 

 where queens were so thoroughly bred along 

 the Italian side that their daughters never 

 gave a black bee, though they met pure 

 black drones. But when the daughters of 

 these queens came to produce bees, then it 

 was that part of the bees emerging from the 

 cells were black. I used to think the theo- 

 ry of black nurses imparting impurit}' to 

 the royal larv« was invented to palm off 

 poorly marked Italian stock. But as we 

 have heard so little about this matter of 

 late, I have not touched it before in some 

 time. ' ' 



" What is royal jelljs or what is it com- 

 posed of ? " 



"As to what ro3'al jell}' is composed of, 

 I do not feel competent to tell, not being a 

 chemist. But all of my experience goes to 

 prove that the drones have nothing whatever 

 to do with it." 



" Well, what is your idea then ? " 

 " Ideas are of little value by the side of 

 facts ; still, I will tell you what I think, 

 and perhaps some one will tell us in the 



near future how far these ideas are out of 

 the way. My idea is that royal jelly is the 

 same food as that given to the worker larva 

 during- the first 48 to 60 hours of its exis- 

 tence, and that it is the abundance of the 

 supply that is kept up from the time the lar- 

 va hatches till the cell is sealed that chang- 

 es the egg laid for a worker into a queen. 

 It is also my opinion that said food is com- 

 posed of honey, pollen, and water, taken 

 into the stomachs of the nurse-bees and 

 formed into chyme, when it is fed to the lar- 

 va. But I must leave you now, as I have 

 an article due for the American Bee Journal, 

 which must be written yet to-day." 





J. H. MARTIN, ALIAS "THE RAMBLER," IN 

 CUBA. 



Mr. Martin, whom we sent from Calif_)r- 

 nia to Cuba to write up bee-keeping in tliat 

 island, famous for its honey, arrived there 

 safe and sound. He writes us he is so well 

 pleased with the country that he will so- 

 journ there for a while. He will continue 

 making the production of honey his busi- 

 ness, and during his spare time he will 

 make tours over the island, taking along 

 his camera and gathering material for his 

 Rambles. This series of articles will be 

 unusually interesting, and will begin soon. 



NOMINATIONS. 



A short time ago I nominated Mr. Wm. 

 Rohrig, of Tempe, Arizona, and Mr. Harry 

 E. Hill, of Fort Pierce, Fla., as possible 

 members of the Board of Directors of the 

 National Bee-keepers' Association. The 

 latter, it will be remembered, is editor of 

 the American Bee-keeper. While he ap- 

 preciates the honor thus conferred, he says 

 he deeply regrets the use of his name in 

 this connection; that the Americati Bee- 

 keeper prefers remaining outside, with the 

 assurance that it will earnestly co-operate 

 with the Association in every move which 

 it recognizes as beneficial to the fraternity. 

 He prefers, then, not to have his name ap- 

 pear as a candidate. Mr. Rohrig feels 

 that he is not competent to fill the position; 

 and that, if he thought his name would be 

 seriously considered, he would £isk to have 

 some other name put in its place. 



I can guarantee that either or both of the 

 men would fill the office very acceptably ; 

 but I do not wish to push their names for- 

 ward if they do not wish to be considered. 



slanders on the honey business. 



Ever since the alleged interview with 



Commissioner Jones, in which the latter is 



made to say in effect that all fancy and No. 



1 comb honey is adulterated because it has 



