189^. 



fBE AMERICAN ^EE-KEEPER. 



119 



have never knovsMi a queen to be killed 

 when bees were thus mixed up at any 

 season of the year, and much less now, 

 providing the queen was one that be- 

 longed to one of the colonies to be 

 united. I also often make new colo- 

 nies by taking a frame of brood, bees 

 and all, from several hives and set- 

 ting them all in an empty hive, letting 

 a strange queen run in amongst them 

 as soon as the frames are arranged, 

 and I have never yet lost a queen, pro- 

 viding she was one taken from a hive 

 in my own apiary; but a queen which 

 has been shipped some distance will 

 sometimes be killed if she is thus let 

 among the bees. The same holds true 

 regarding a queen which has been long 

 caged in my own apiary. Why this is 

 I do not know, unless it is that the 

 queen, which is not ready to lay eggs 

 at once, runs about more, not attending 

 to her business, till the bees become 

 dissatisfied with her. It is a fact worth 

 "pasting in your hat' that only strong 

 colonies will store honey to the best 

 advantage, and all colonies set apart 

 for surplus honey should be strong just 

 when the honey harvest is on, and even 

 did I not manipulate colonies exactly 

 as above, I would unite all colonies on 

 this or some similar p^an, which were 

 not strong enough to take advantage 

 of the honey harvest when it arrived; 

 keeping an eye on the flora producing 

 my crop, and doing the uniting from 

 five to eight da,ys before the harvest 

 would be likely to begin. 



Of course, where bees are the thing 

 wanted, the little colonies would build 

 up to good strong colonies by fall and 

 go into winter with abundant stores to 

 carry them through, should the fall 

 flow of honey prove anything like good. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



The Australian Bee Bulletin for April 

 sa3's: "H. E. Hill is now the editor of 

 the American Bee Journal." The simi- 

 larity of names is doubtless responsible 

 for the antipodal confusion. But we 

 can stand it if Brother York can. 



Under date of June 4, J. B. Case, of 

 Florida, writes: "We are having quite 

 a honey flow lately. Best colonies may 

 fill two ten-frame supers." Good for 

 Volusia county! 



Our readers may note that Mr. Doo- 

 little is about the only man in this 

 state who has had time to write us a 

 letter for publication this month. But 

 we are glad they are busy. We will 

 probably have some big reports for 

 next month. 



Dr. A. B. Mason, secretary of the 

 United States Bee-Keepers' Union, 

 wrote to the American Bee Journal 

 May 30. that he, as secretary of the 

 Union, recently effected a settlement 

 with a large city honey dealer for over 

 three tons of honey that had been 

 shipped to him last fall by a member 

 of the Union. It's so easy when one 

 belongs to the Union. It's the Union's 

 business to shoulder these difficulties 

 for its members. 



A theory long held by C. Theilmann, 

 of Minnesota, is that the sex of bees is 

 determined not by the will of the queen 

 as generally accepted, but by different 

 nourishment administered by the nurse 

 bees to the young larva, in a similar 

 manner to the transformation that is 

 effected by them in developing a queen 

 from an egg that would under other 

 treatment produce an ordinary worker. 

 In support of his position Mr. Theil- 

 mann, in the American Bee Journal, 

 directs attention to recent discoveries 

 reported to have been made by Prof. 

 Schenk, of Vienna, to be given to the 

 world by the Scientific Academy, and 

 by which it will be demonstrated to an 

 incredulous world that by proper nour- 

 ishment to the female in the higher 

 order of animals, the professor can and 

 does regulate the sexes at will. This be- 

 ing the case, Mr. Theilmann asks, "what 

 would hinder the bees producing their 

 sexes at will, by the same means, also?" 



