638 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



flower, goldenrod, and myrtle come in, and 

 there is the greatest profusion of them. 

 Does not tliis look like a beekeepers' para- 

 dise? 



There are fifty plants in this list; but 

 they ought to be separated into the differ- 

 ent varieties, in a number of cases, to give 

 one a correct idea of what a multitude of 

 sources of nectar this favored region has. 

 Surplus was already being gathered the 

 first of February, 1915. Why, drones 

 flying on the St. John's, and we who are 

 miles south of it had no sign yet of drones 

 in our hives! The orange and the grape- 

 fruit were starting to fill the air with their 

 delicious fragrance. I saw the first bloom 

 Jan. 31. Our bees must hurry if they get in 

 good condition for that bloom. Saw pal- 

 metto usually comes in about April 1. I 

 was told that already there were blossoms 

 on some of those plants. 



HONKV ILANTS POUND ALONG THE ST. JOHN'S 

 lilVER, FLORIDA. 



*Orange, Basswood, 



*Grape£ruit, Pennjrojal, 



*Gallberry, Toueh-me-not, 



■^Saw palmetto. All-root, 



*Sniartweed, Hucklelierry, 



*Mint, Buck-apple, 



*Partridge pea. Yellow daisy, 



*Goldenrod, 4 varieties, Persimmon, 



*Wild sunflower. Prickly ash, 

 *Spanish needle (blooms Live oak, 



almost all tlie year) ; Water oak, 



*Tupelo, Bay, 



* Swamp laurel, Woodbine, 



*Myrtle (several kind^, Cliinkapin, 



two of which yield hea- Hickory, 



vily in spring and fall. Black haw. 



Maple, Me-xican clover. 



Willow, Mexican pinkvine, 



Rattan, Watermelon, 



Yellow jessamine. Cucumber, 



Cherry, Water hyacinth. 



Aster, several kinds, Sheep burr, 



Swamji dogwood. Sumac, 



Locust, Titi, 



Yellow poplar, Griipe. wild (good honey- 

 Red shank, plant in Florida). 

 Sweet fennel, 



Bradentovvn. Fla. 



IMPROVING ON NATURE 



BY G. DE C. CURTIS 



I hived a swarm that had a virgin queen 

 xVpril 16 ; and when I examined them about 

 a week later the queen appeared to have 

 been fertilized, but was not laying. I no- 

 ticed at the tip of her abdomen a small 

 grayish -white deposit that looked like a bit 

 of dried mucilage. Several days later (April 

 19) I looked in again, and there was still 

 no brood. While I held the frame in my 

 hand the queen went through the motions of 

 trying to lay an egg. The bees stood around 

 her expectantly; and when she moved on 

 without depositing anything they followed 

 her in a disappointed sort of way. 



I decided on an operation. Holding her 

 by the wings I pulled the adhering matter 

 away with a pair of tweezers. It was stuck 

 so firmly that her abdomen stretched out 

 with the strain until I feared something 

 would break; but when I looked into the 

 hive again next day she seemed to be in 

 good condition, and had laid a nice i^atch 

 of eggs. Could it have been that the organ 

 of the drone had not been removed, for 

 some reason, until it had become so dried up 

 that removal v\'as impossible? 



On the same day I saw a virgin hatch 

 tail foremost from a cell in a queen-cell 

 protector. I had examined the cell two days 

 before, fearing that it had become chilled. 

 I had made a liny hole in the end of it, and, 

 looking in, I saw the queen's black eyes 

 shining, and a slight movement, so I put it 

 back in the liive. Next day the bees had 

 completely sealed over the hole I had made. 



When I looked, on the day after that, the 

 virgin was very much alive and trying to 

 get out, but the hole seemed to be too small 

 — perhaps the bees had sealed up the end 

 too effectively. A number of workers seem- 

 ed to be very much interested in the case — - 

 perhaps they were feeding her. 



By the time 1 had carefully brushed them 

 away tlte virgin had turned around in her 

 cell, so that the tip of her abdomen pro- 

 jected from the hole. She might have been 

 eating the royal jelly at the base of the cell. 

 I took the cell out of the protector, and then 

 with my queen- clipping scissors I carefully 

 enlai'ged tlie hole in the cell; and when I 

 had done so she backed out. The activity 

 she showed as soon as released was like 

 that of a virgin which has been held back 

 in her cell by the bees beyond her hatching- 

 time when bad weather or some other cause 

 had prevented her swarming. 



Foster, Cal. 



[Tt may be that the queen did turn 

 around while in the cell; but is it not more 

 likely that she had hatched and then had 

 gone into the cell again, head first, for the 

 royal jelly and the " hinged door " (the cap 

 of the cell) had closed after her? A num- 

 ber of such instances have been reported. 

 The bees, seemingly unaware of the true 

 state of affairs, wax the cell shut again, 

 thereby making a prisoner of tlie queen. 



Is it possible for a virgin queen to turn 

 around, end for end, while in the cell?— 

 Ed.I 



