1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1311 



spatula is smaller, while the hairs show greater 

 length. The worker-bee has a complicated sys- 

 tem of wax-secreting discs under the honey-plates 

 of its abdomen; in the queen these are absent, 

 nor can the most elementary trace of them be dis- 

 covered. In their nerve-systems the two show 

 difference, the queen possessing only four abdom- 

 inal ganglia, while the worker has five. The 

 queen's sting is curved, and longer than the 

 worker's; the sting of the worker-bee is perfectly 

 straight. On theii hind legs the workers have a 

 curious contrivance which bee-keepers have 

 named the pollen-basket. It is a hollowing of 

 the thigh, the cavity being surrounded with stiff 

 hairs; and within this the pollen is packed and 

 carried home to the hive. In the queen, both the 

 cavity and hairs are absent. Her color, also, is 

 generally different from that of the worker bee, 

 her legs in particular being a much redder 

 brown. 



"Here is a problem for our great biologists — 

 a problem, however, at which the plain eveiy-day 

 man may well flinch; for we seem to have come 

 face to face with new principles of organic life — 

 facts incompatible with the accepted ideas of the 

 inevitable relation of cause and effect. The ir- 

 restible tendency at this stage is to hark back — to 

 repeat the experiment of the transposed eggs, and 

 see whether no vital, initial circumstance has 

 been overlooked. But iha result is always the 

 same. Nor can the most careful microscopical 

 dissection of the eggs themselves reveal any dif- 

 ferences. In this mystery of the structural vari- 

 ance between queen and worker, it would seem 

 that we are forced to accept one of these alterna- 

 tives: Either the egg contains two distinct germs 

 of life, one developing only under the stress of 

 hard times; the other, only the call to luxury; or 

 we must go back to mediasval notions, and be- 

 lieve that the worker-bees give or withhold some 

 vital principle of their own during nurturing op- 

 erations; or we must give up the problem and de- 

 cide that creation works on lines very different 

 from those on which we have hitherto grounded 

 our faith." 



Here the author does a distinct service to bee- 

 keeping by calling attention to a weak point in 

 our knowledge of bee-life. Why can't we solve 

 the riddle.? Dickel and Kuckuck, in Europe, are 

 trying their hand at it. Our theory of partheno- 

 genesis is defective. Who will give us a better 

 one.'' The parthenogenesis of the bee is different 

 from that of most other insects and animals, and 

 for that reason we can not apply to the regular 

 biologists for an answer to our questions. 



I make these citations to show the author is a 

 deep student of bee-life. We want more writers 

 like him. We want men who can get us out of 

 the rut and keep us out. 



On p. 125 the author commits one error in sup- 

 posing no one has seen a queen lay in a queen- 

 cell. She certainly does, and has been seen do- 

 ing it. If he wants certain proof that a queen 

 will lay in queen-cells, let him get a copy of Mr 

 Pratt's book, " Forcing the Breeding Queen to 

 Lay in Cell Cups." He can try the experiment 

 himself. 



Our author hazards a guess that bees may have 

 senses we do not possess. For example, he sur- 

 mises they can transmit thoughts without the aid 

 of speech by means of their antennae; or they 



may go further, and transmit thoughts through 

 space by means of a sort of wireless telegraphy. 

 It seems reasonable. 



I think the quotations given will show "The 

 Lore of the Honey-bee" is an eminently readable 

 and instructive book. It is about the same size 

 as Mieterlinck's book, "The Life of the Bee," 

 and is on the sanae general plan. Mr. Edwardes 

 has an advantage over Materlinck in making 

 statements true to fact, while the other is often 

 imaginary. The Belgian, however, makes up 

 the difference when we come to consider the ele- 

 gance of diction and subtlety of expression; in 

 fact, no man living quite equals him in fine writ- 

 ing and pure eloquence. Both books are worth 

 owning if one likes good reading. There are 

 several very fine half-tones in "The Lore of the 

 Honey-bee." The printing is excellent. It 

 would have been better to have a nicer binding, 

 in keeping with the rest; but that is a small mat- 

 ter. The publishers are Methuen Sc Co. 



BEE-KEEPING AMONG 

 THE ROCKIES. 



By Wesley Foster. 



HONEY PRICES. 



Producers on the western slope in Colorado 

 have sold comb honey in single-tier cases at 

 $2.25 to $2.50. This is somewhat below the 

 price secured on the eastern side of the moun- 

 tains, on account of the higher freight rates, and 

 because the honey was not graded according to 

 the new rules, which allow for a No. 1 licrht- 

 amber grade, the quality of most of that honey. 



Several producers have sold to dealers and buy- 

 ers at $2.30 to $2.60, but this honey was not 

 graded strictly according to the new rules, but 

 was good weight. Honey graded and packed 

 according to the new rules sold from $2.60 to 

 $2.80 per case in double-tier cases. White ex- 

 tracted can be had at 7 to 7 ^ f. o. b. cars in 

 several places in Colorado. None of my honey 

 has been sold for less than $3.15 for No. 1 white, 

 and most of my No. 2 has been at $3.00 per case, 

 put up in double-tier shipping-cases of 24 lbs. 

 each. 



* 



HONEY fXHIBIT AT THE COLORADO INTER-STATE 

 FAIR. 



The exhibit at the Colorado Inter-State Fair, 

 held in Denver, Sept. 7 to 12, was very good, for 

 the size of the honey industry. There were few 

 exhibitors, but they made up for this in the size 

 and quality of the exhibit. The prizes were lib- 

 eral, and paid the exhibitors well for the time 

 and expense, besides advertising their goods in a 

 very elTective way. Bees in observatory hives 

 drew the crowds, as did the demonstrations with 

 live bees each afternoon by Pres. Collins, of the 

 State Association. Mr. Collins' talks were very 

 instructive and interesting, and he took a prize 

 too, as a partial reward for his time. The real 

 reward, however, will come in the added con- 

 sumption of honey, which he strongly urged. 



The ventilating-holes in the bottom of an ob- 

 servatory hive soon fill up with dead bees, and 



