OCTOBER 15. 1915 



835 



Dr. C. C. Miller 



ITEAY STKAW! 



larengo, 10. 



" Honey is not apt to be used 

 MS ranch in extremely hot weath- 

 or." p. 786. Is not that ehietiy 

 because honey is a heat-forming 

 food, and so, like fats, is craved 

 less in hot weatb.er'?" 



Ukace Allen, p. 791, spealcs of a meet 

 of seven beekeepers, and says it was a good 

 meeting. Evoi in a meeting of a hundred, 

 it's the few of the right sort that make it 

 good. One of the best beekeepers' meetings 

 1 ever attended was last labor day, with an 

 assembly of three ! 



J. E. Crane, I'm much interested in 

 seeing that you replace old or inferior 

 queens with vii-gins or queen-cells, p. 748. 

 Now the thing I'm anxious to know is how 

 many of these swarm out. I have an as- 

 sistant who nearly has a fit every time I 

 talk of putting a virgin or a cell in a full 

 colony — says they'll swarm and go off. 



J. Ii. Byer, p. 794, 3^ou express surprise 

 that so good authorities have not heard the 

 queens calling except on comb. If you call 

 Editor Root and myself authorities, we both 

 agree that a queen often pipes outside a 

 hive, only he tliinks the virgin says the same 

 thing outside tlie cell that she said in it, and 

 I don't. [See answer to another Straw on 

 this question. — Ed.] 



While it is true that bees nearly al- 

 ways work on the same kind of flower on 

 the same trip, and, indeed, in many eases 

 throughout their whole lives, yet I have seen 

 (I think never more than twice) a bee going 

 back and forth to flowers not related. I 

 don't know whj- — possibly because forage 

 was so scarce that she Avas glad to visit any 

 and every flower she could find. [It is the 

 exception that proves the rule. — Ed.] 



" The Mineral Constituents of Honey," 

 p. 797, is worthy of widest publication. I 

 doubt if one beekeeper in a hundred real- 

 izes the importance of minerals in honey. 

 Take iron alone. For years physicians have 

 been always seeking foi' some better form 

 in whidi to administer it, yet here it is in 

 the best form in the most delightful vehicle, 

 and yet for the most part ignored. I be- 

 lieve Tm a stronger man for the mineral 

 elements I get in honey. And as a rule bees 

 fed on honey have more vigor than those 

 fed on sugar, since sugar is utterly lacking 

 in the important mineral constituents. 



Mr. Editor, you ask, p. 790, " Is it not 

 l)robable that the piping is made by a 



hatched queen, and the quahking by another 

 one in a cell as a cliallengef " Certainly; 

 only it is believed Diat tlie challenge is giv- 

 en by the one that pipes. You may be 

 interested in seeing this matter discussed by 

 the Haron of l>erlepsch in American Bee 

 Journal for 1861, p. 201. He found that 

 the mature young queen (even if only one 

 in a hive) always quahks for a time in her 

 cell, before she emerges and pipes. He 

 gives some very interesting observations, 

 and says: "From these observations it is 

 evident that young queens teet [pipe] and 

 qnahk from sheer jealousy; and that every, 

 queen, before emerging, quahks for a time, 

 /) assure herself that no rival is at large in 

 the hive. Not till after her reiterated calls 

 have remained unanswered does she feel 

 herself safe, and release lierself by severing 

 the cap of the cell." You then ask, in 

 substance, whether quahking is not the same 

 as piping, only that the one that quahks is 

 in the f.ell. Most emphatically, no. What- 

 ever difference there may be from imprison- 

 ment in cell, tliere is one distinct difference 

 that cannot be accounted for in that way 

 — a difference that it doesn't need a musi- 

 cian to detect, as J. L. Byer seems to think. 

 In piping, the first tone is long drawn out, 

 several times as long as the last, each tone 

 i'ro)a first to last becoming shorter and 

 shorter. In quahking the tones are all short 

 and all of the same length. If a queen 

 should be shut in a cell and should pipe, 

 the first note would still be several times as 

 long as the last, would it not? And in tliat 

 respect it's utterly different from quahking. 

 [We fail to see yet why piping and quahk- 

 ing cannot be made by the same organs and 

 in the same way. AVhile the notes are more 

 prolonged in one case than in the other, is 

 there any reason for it except that the wax- 

 en cells are nearly air-tight? and, more- 

 over, bear in mind this: The noise, what- 

 ever it is, is made by the wings. We have 

 seen queens pipe in queen-cages in our 

 ollice. The wings make a tremulous motion, 

 very plain to be seen. When the young 

 queen is in the cell she probabh' does not 

 have room enough to vibrate her Avings as 

 freely as she does when outside. She does 

 the best she can; but her elforts in her 

 narrovv quarters of necessity result in a 

 different sound. If you ever saw a queen 

 pipe (and every queen-breeder has seen 

 them do it hundreds of times) you will have 

 noticed the vibratoi'y movement of the 

 wings close to the thorax. — Ed.] 



