412 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



1. Yes, but her eggs all produce 

 drones. 2. The way the querist put 

 this question, I hardly understand him. 

 If he means the bees from the above 

 queen, there is none; but if he means 

 the bees that formed the colony before 

 her, I will say that there is no real 

 worker bee that even has the power of 

 becoming fertilized ; but a queenless 

 colony often contains worker bees that 

 lay eggs, but produce drones also. — Mbs. 

 Jennie Atchley. 



1. She may, and she may not. If 

 nothing happens to her, and she is per- 

 mitted to remain undisturbed in the 

 hive, she will lay eggs that will produce 

 dones only. 2. Worker bees never be- 

 come " fertilized," but from some strange 

 freak in their nature, a few of them, 

 under favorable conditions, will deposit 

 a few eggs which will hatch out drones. 

 These laying workers only come under 

 observation in case of queenlessness. It 

 would be hard to prove that laying 

 workers ever take part in laying eggs 

 in a hive that has a queen, whether she 

 (the queen) has been fertilized or not. — 

 G. W. Demaree. 



1. Generally an unfertile queen will 

 lay eggs if she has not been injured in 

 any way. All her eggs will produce 

 drones only. 2. Worker bees are in- 

 capable of being fertilized. Sexually 

 they are undeveloped. Any eggs they 

 may lay will produce only drones.— The 

 Editor. 



Our Book— Bees and Honey. 



A new (the eighth) edition of the well- 

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 Profit," thoroughly revised and largely re- 

 written, is sent to us by Thos. G. Newman, 

 the author, Chicago. It is a duodecimo 

 volume of 250 pages, adorned with a great 

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 living and dead), and neatly bound in cloth. 

 The price is $1.— Country Oentleman. 



"When 'Writing' a letter be sure 

 to sign it. Too often we get letters 

 with the name of the post-office, but no 

 County or State. One such came 

 recently, and we looked into the Postal 

 Guide and found there were places by 

 that name in 13 States. Bo sure to 

 stamp your letter, or it may go to the 

 (lead letter office, in Washington, D, C. 



Topics u\ Interest. 



Cellar (lasses— Minnesota Con?entlon. 



c. theilmann. 



Mr. Doolittle and others claim that 

 ventilation in a bee^cellar is not needed ; 

 that he has no ventilation in his cellar, 

 and his bees winter successfully. I have 

 no reason to doubt that his bees go 

 through the Winter, but it seems to me 

 that they would winter better, and the 

 combs in the hives would be in better 

 condition in the Spring, if the water 

 which is dripping — yes, running in 

 streams down on the inside of the flag- 

 stones with which he has covered his 

 bee-cellar, was carried off either by ven- 

 tilation or otherwise, and not have 

 everything wet and moldy in the Spring. 



Every bee-keeper who has any ex- 

 perience in cellar wintering of bees, 

 knows that there is something wrong 

 under such conditions, which are not in 

 conformity with the good health and 

 welfare of the bees and combs, or, for 

 that matter, most animal life, mankind 

 not excepted. If Mr. Doolittle's theory 

 be true, why should we speak and write 

 so much in favor of ventilating our 

 houses, and spend many dollars for good 

 ventilation ? What do we ventilate for, 

 if not for health ? Will not some of our 

 scientific men answer these questions, 

 and give us full information in the 

 American Bee Journal ? 



I could give a number of reasons why 

 most of the bee-cellars should have ven- 

 tilators, but for this time I will speak of 

 only one, as it is rather interesting, and 

 one of which I have never heard or read, 

 except what I wrote a few years ago on 

 "The Creation of Gasses Under Certain 

 Conditions." 



Since I wrote about these gasses, there 

 have been a few slight attacks only, but 

 on Jan. 22 they wore more condensed 

 in my bee-cellar than ever heretofore. 



I arrived home from the convention 

 with Mr. Howe, at 11 p.m. on B"'eb. 21. 

 The next morning we went to the bee-a 

 yard to sec how things looked. We en- 

 tered the first door and shut it behind 

 us, lighted a candle and entered the sec- 

 ond door, which was also shut after us. 

 The candle at once became dim and went 

 out, while we tried to enter the third 

 door in the cellar. We went back and 

 lighted the candle again, and got inside of 

 th(! cellar, but the light went out. With 

 the third trial we had no better success ; 



