76 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



After an experience of over 25 years, I can 

 not consider any argument along this insur- 

 ance line as aught but fallacious. 



Again, suppose that a queen can average 

 5,000 eggs daily for a certain period. What 

 is the price or worth of those eggs ? Does 

 the sum and substance of bee-keeping de- 

 pend on keeping all queens employed at egg- 

 laying to their fullest capacity ? Bees, when 

 they come on the stage of action at just the 

 right time, are very valuable : bat eggs are 

 of no value, only as they tend in the direc- 

 tion of producing these valuable bees. Aye, 

 they tend toward a positive disadvantage, 

 and to take away the value we already have, 

 only as they are looking toward the end of 

 producing the required bees in the field at 

 the time of the honey harvest. Here is a 

 point often lost sight of by the large hive ad- 

 vocates. As I said before, eggs cost practi- 

 cally nothing ; but as soon as the bees begin 

 to perfect them toward bees, then they begin 

 to cost ; and if this perfecting is going on to 

 any great extent at a time when the perfect- 

 ed product is placed on the stage of action 

 either before or after their presence in large 

 numbers are needed, we not only have the 

 cost of their perfecting to pay for, but the 

 cost of their consuming, after being perfect- 

 ed, as well. This consuming part, we always 

 have to pay for ; but we willingly do it at 

 any time when the production of the indi- 

 vidual bee is greater than its consumption. 

 But I can see no object in doing this at any 

 other time, simply that the laying capacity 

 of any queen may be gratified. A hive that 

 is large enough to gratify the greatest aspi- 

 rations of every prolific queen, at the times 

 of these greatest aspirations, will have too 

 much capital lying idle in it the largest share 

 of the year, and be a bungling hive at that. 

 From all past experience I think that 2,400 

 eggs per day would be a good maximum 

 average for any queen. Rain, cold, or other 

 disturbing influences often retard the activ- 

 ity in the hive and of the queen, and thus it 

 happens that at times the best of queens of- 

 ten do not lay more than 1,000 eggs in a day, 

 while, with the right conditions, she may 

 multiply this number by four, and still have 

 plenty of room in a hive which will give an 

 average of only 2,400 daily. Then, again, as 

 two and one-seventh generations of bees can 

 be brought on the stage of action to where 

 one steps off, we find that, in a hive giving 

 an average of 2,400 bees daily, we can have 

 in that hive, if properly managed, 108,000 

 bees on the stage of action right in the hon- 

 ey harvest, when their productive power is 

 the greatest ; and at such a time such a num- 

 ber of bees are a host to roll honey into the 

 sections with the combs all filled with brood 

 below : and this rolling of honey into the 

 sections, means the rolling of money into the 

 bee-keeper's till. Experience has shown 

 these men who are advocating an eight, 

 frame L. hive that such is the best, as this 

 keeps the frames full of brood, and puts 

 honey into the sections. However, all our 

 questioner (or any one else) has to do is to 

 use part ten-frame and part eight-frame 

 hives in their apiary, when a little time will 

 satisfy them which is best." 



A Condensed View of Current 

 Bee Writings. 



E. E. HASTY. 



¥ILLIE ATCHLEY'S experiment in fer- 

 tilizing queens by fertile worker drones, 

 I would not have ignored it this long had it 

 not got skipped in my reading somehow. 

 The result he attained was to a certain ex- 

 tent unpalatable to me ; but I am not that 

 sort of fellow to go into the " conspiracy of 

 silence " business just because a thing don't 

 go my way. But readers may " look a little 

 out '■' for my prejudices in favor of that kind 

 of queen. The one I have (or think I have) 

 is doing extra well. M'Arthur has not yet 

 reported on the honey gathering qualities of 

 his, I believe. Either a whim of mine, or 

 the analogy of certain other insect species, 

 where parthenogenetic males take their 

 places regularly in keeping up the race, 

 makes me suspect that the fertile worker 

 drone is a device of nature's to effect some 

 sort of rejuvenation of the bee, which ordi- 

 nary generation does not effect — need a 

 grain of fertile worker salt once in ten or 

 twenty generations, else a tendency to " run 

 out." 



Now this much being said, Willie must ex- 

 pect " butcher-knives," even if he is a pretty 

 nice boy. He does not give us the details of 

 the experiment, hardly any of them. " Hon- 

 est Injun," how far was it to the nearest spot 

 where ordinary drones might have been ? 

 Was not drouth and honey famine prevail- 

 ing at the time ? Wasn't it too late in the 

 season for any queen to show up with cer- 

 tainty her real quality ? Are there not quite 

 a sprinkle of cases where a queen lays an 

 excess of drone eggs at first, and becomes a 

 serviceable <|ueen later on ? Was not the 

 chosen locality entirely barren of flowers ? 

 In that case, if they smelled posies on the 

 breezes, they would fly seven or eight miles. 

 Who knows but wandering drones might go 

 home with them ? 



In place of giving us the details of the ex- 

 periment, to judge for ourselves about, Wil- 

 lie fills the most of his really interesting 

 article with theory^following what is now 

 (I believe) an abandoned theory. It used to 

 be held that a drone i)roduced all the multi- 

 tudinous thousands of spermatic particles 

 needed, and transferred them to the queen, 

 who kept tliem for use in a spermatheca. 

 But dissection of eggs showed excess of par- 



