AUGUST 1, 191^ 



537 



f ;*•«-. ^' \ 



i 4 



Fig. 1. — Geo. Fetzer's work-shop and house apiary. 



two to three per cent. Years ago it used to 

 be much heavier; and after reading the 

 " egg-giving controversy " I remembered 

 that I used to give each nucleus or colony 

 a comb of eggs and brood, not to induce the 

 cjueen to lay sooner, but to see by the pres- 

 ence or absence of queen-cells Avhether the 

 queen had been lost in mating when exam- 

 ining the nuclei for laying queens on the 

 tenth or eleventh day. Well, this test prov- 

 ed a failure because 1 would often And cells 

 started, and th.e virgin queen being chased 

 about on the combs by the bees or balled. 

 It did not occur to me at the time that the 

 giving of brood might be the cause of the 

 treatment of the Cjueen. I merely aban- 

 doned the plan as unreliable. 



After reading page 796, Dec. 15. 1912, I 

 decided to make another test. I had ten 

 queens which had hatched a week before. 

 Eight of them I found were already fer- 

 tilized, but two had not mated. Into both 

 of tliese hives I jjut a comb of eggs and 

 larvae from which every bee had been 

 brushed. Twenty-four hours later I found 

 that one queen had disappeared, and that 

 the other was being balled. I dispersed the 

 ball of bees with smoke and removed the 

 comb of brood, and four days later that 

 queen was laying. Of course one swallow 

 docs not make a summer; but at the same 



time this is the only case of Ijalling a virgin 

 out of 150 this season, and the only way 

 in which I can reconcile it with the expe- 

 rience with the nuclei, old queens, and the 

 virgins on combs of eggs and brood above 

 the excluder but from the same hive, is that 

 it is not the iDresenee of eggs but the addi- 

 tion of eggs and larvae with the odor of an- 

 other colonj' which causes the trouble. But 

 if one of the Millers tells me that the odor 

 is conveyed just the same by a comb con- 

 taining only older and sealed brood, a^d 

 which does not cause trouble, then I'll with- 

 draw that theory in favor of a more feasi- 

 ble one he may bring forth. 



Tooborac. Victoria, Aus., Feb. 28. 



BEEKEEPING IN A CITY OF 60,000 POPULATION 



BY GEORGE REX, JR. 



The subject of my sketch is George Fet- 

 zer, who lives in the city of AUentown, 

 Lehigh Co., Pa. He is about 60 years of 

 age, a retired florist, and at present is in- 

 terested in real estate; and out of pure love 

 for the little honey-gatherers he is a devot- 

 ed beekeejaer. having about 30 colonies on 

 several city lots, less than 50 feet from a 

 street, and only a short distance from an 

 allev witli rows of houses only a few hun- 



