Sept. 3, 1903. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



567 



ing. For the first 10 years, when engaged in bee-keepitifj, 

 I used to lose heavily, often losing as high as SO percent. 

 Since adopting the chaff-hive for out-door vfintering my 

 losses have been small, and might have been lessened still 

 more by carefully looking after my bees. This is not say- 

 ing that by wintering in chaff I have struck the best 

 method, but that it is a safe way, giving uniformly good re- 

 sults. My strongest colonies are usually those which were 

 well packed. The paper-covered colonies have not quite 

 come up to them. 



QUEEN-REARING — IKEDING QUEENS. 



Mr. Miller has also investigated the matter of queen- 

 rearing. He undoubtedly rears fine queens, and he has con- 

 cluded that the Alley method is the best. In his whys and 

 wherefores I fail to find convincing proof that the course 

 he or Mr. Allej' pursues is any better, or nearer to Nature's 

 ways, trhan the course some others pursue. What can it 

 matter what kind of cells we use, if we accomplish the same 

 result, namely, have the young royal larv;e fed abundantly 

 from start to finish, etc.? Is it not a matter of opinion 

 rather than of superiority of method ? I think the time will 

 hardly ever come when a method will be found by which 

 Nature can be outdone in the matter of queen-rearing. 



Speaking of a queen-bee being fed by workers, Mr. 

 Miller says : "When a queen is free to roam at will, she can 

 get such food as she needs." Isthis any more than opin- 

 ion ? Perhaps she is able to help herself to such food as 

 she wants, but does she? That is the point. It is true that 

 one may see a queen dip into cells of honey sometimes, but 

 this is not yet proof that she does help herself to all she 

 needs, though undoubtedly it is within her reach. Why is 

 it we so frequently notice the queen-bee, when at liberty in 

 her hive, being fed by the workers ? 



EXCREMENTS OF BEES. 



Mr. Miller also resurrects the old bone of contention. 

 Are the excrements of bees liquid or solid ? I guess he is 

 right, claiming authorities, to say that they are liquid. He, 

 himself, has come to conclusion that feces, when voided by 

 healthy bees, are dry. I doubt Mr. Miller means just what 

 he says. I don't believe a bee could void dry matter any more 

 than any other living being of the same or higher order. 

 Would thej' not suffer from constipation in a most intensi- 

 fied degree ? Caterpillars void, perhaps, as dry matter as 

 any living thing, as far as we ordinary mortals can ob- 

 serve. We find their excrements sometimes of beautiful 

 shape, apparently as being shaped under hydraulic pressure. 

 We might call them dry, although they contain some moist- 

 ure. But the feces of bees are not nearly as dry as these. 

 They are somewhat soft and pliable, although thread-like. 

 They do not break up, but naturally they soon become so dry 

 as to become hard, when they may be broken up in little 

 pellets. 



Mr. Miller admits that the bees sometimes void watery 

 excrements, and he lays it to the taking of watery honey, 

 which is an opinion. There are probably other causes. For 

 example, y>7;j'/// will produce the same effect, not only in 

 bees, but also in other and more highly organized beings, 

 even humans. It would seem that during the honey season, 

 when conditions are as favorable for bees as they can well 

 be, they ought always to discharge their excrements in the 

 normal, healthy shape — dry — but they don't. Even at this 

 time we sometimes notice watery excrements. 



!_. After bees have been confined a long time, as during 

 the winter, their intestines usually become loaded, and the 

 contents are frequently so watery as to be termed liquid. 

 This condition, according to Mr. Miller and some others on 

 this and the other side of the great pond, is pronounced a dis- 

 eased one. But I hold again that it is a matter of opinion. 

 For practical results the diseased condition really does not 

 begin until the bees, while their confinement lasts, become 

 unable to hold their excrements any longer, and discharge 

 them in this liquid form inside of the hive. Is it not a fact 

 that as soon as a colony can have a good, cleansing flight, 

 and get relief by voiding their excrements, although they 

 may be liquid, that colony may be termed healthy, and will 

 develop normally afterward, if conditions otherwise are 

 right ? 



AI,I, HAVE HOBBIES— EXPERIMENTING. 



It is not my intention to go over the list of all Mr. Miller 

 has said in the past. I only want to pick out a few things 

 to show that even as well-informed men as he have their 

 hobbies like others of us who are not so well educated. I 

 appreciate fully what he has said. He is deserving of credit 

 for trying to bring out the truth as it relates to the honey- 

 bee and its management. 



I agree with Mr. Miller, it is not safe to rely implicitly 

 on text-books. We must go to the Bee and learn of her, and 

 not take everything for unmistakable fact we find printed. 

 It is my opinion that it is not only misleading, but really 

 wrong, to proclaim this or that theory as true when really 

 we have no proof. For example, " What reason have we to 

 say that the queen-bee lays eggs in the worker-cells which 

 she has knowingly fertilized with sperma from her sperma- 

 theca, and other eggs not so fertilized into the larger cells 

 commonly called drone-cells? " What we do know is this; 

 "Eggs found in worker-cells usually develop into work- 

 ers; eggs found in drone-cells usually develop into drones." 

 It has not been proven beyond contradiction that a queen- 

 bee lays arty non-fertilized eggs, and thai she does so at will 

 is nothing more than assertion. That it is proclaimed as 

 fact tends to hinder others from making further investiga- 

 tions. Is it so humiliating to admit that we don't know? 

 The thinking mind rebels against the very idea of parthe- 

 nogenesis. As such an eminent man as Prof. Leuckart has 

 said: " To say that an unfertilized egg produces life is 

 only admitting that we have no full conception of the 

 things; in short, that we don't know enough." Scientific 

 men have failed to find evidence that eggs taken from drone- 

 cells were fertilized. This is admitted. 



Mr. Miller says : " Let us go to the bee and learn of 

 her." The American bee-keepers are leading the world in 

 practical bee-keeping; they will also turn their attention to 

 the scientific part of it and become a factor of importance 

 here, also. I suggest to our scientific friends who can de- 

 vote their time to matters of this kind, to make the follow- 

 ing experiment : 



Select a late after-swarm and hive it on all drone comb. 

 Drone-comb foundation will not answer, as the bees will 

 not build drone-comb from it, as I have tested. After the 

 queen has become fertile, make frequent examinations, and 

 when a uniform stand of brood in all ages has been secured 

 — it will be worker-brood in drone-cells — remove the queen 

 and note what will happen ; particularly see whether any 

 drones are being reared. Try the same experiment a num- 

 ber of times ; also, early in the spring, say in March, before 

 the drones are being reared by the best of colonies. The ob- 

 ject is to prove whether or not drones are reared from what 

 is termed unfertilized or fertilized eggs. 



A second experiment would be this : Obtain perfectly 

 fresh eggs from drone cells laid by a queen under normal 

 conditions. To accomplish this, I suggest taking a drone- 

 comb from an extracting super, one which has in part been 

 left free from honey, evidently for the purpose of having it 

 filled with eggs by the queen, but being hindered by the 

 queen-excluder has not been able to reach this part of the 

 hive. Such combs are frequently found, and are all ready 

 for the reception of eggs, and will be quickly occupied. In- 

 sert this comb in the middle of the brood-nest of a colony 

 desirous to rear drones. It may take but a few minutes be- 

 fore the queen will busy herself upon it. Remove the comb 

 as soon as a few eggs have been deposited, and before the 

 bees have had an opportunity to visit the cells containing 

 them. 



If fortunate enough to obtain these untouched eggs, 

 cut out the pieces of comb and give to a hopelessly queen- 

 less colony having no brood of any kind, for the purpose of 

 rearing queens. The object of this experiment is to see 

 whether the so-called unfertilized eggs will produce a queen. 

 This experiment should be repeatedly made, as we may not 

 be successful in obtaining absolutely fresh eggs. It re- 

 quires a great deal more care in its execution than the other 

 experiment. It should be borne in mind that after an egg, 

 either in a queen-cell or drone-cell, has once been subjected 

 to incubation, it cannot be made over into anything else. A 

 worker-larva three days old may be built up into a queen ; 

 not so a queen-larva, if ever so young, could be made over 

 into a worker. Its destiny has been shaped from the mo- 

 ment the first worker-bee visiting it left the cell serving it 

 as its cradle. 



By such and similar experiments some of the knotty 

 questions may be settled without having to depend upon 

 the microscope. It does not require a college education to 

 make these experiments, but if such men as Prof. Cook, for 

 instance, would make them, their conclusions would have 

 more weight with the fraternity. Ontario Co., N. Y. 



Queenle Jeanette is the title of a pretty song in sheet 

 music size, written by J. C. Walletuneyer, a musical bee- 

 keeper. The regular price is 40 cents, tmt to close out the 

 copies we have left, we will mail them at 20 cents each, as 

 long as they last. 



