THE? SMERICKN BEE JQURNSI,. 



325 



Queries f Replies, 



Characleri$(ic«i of Bees Trans- 

 mitted by the Queen. 



Written for the AmerUxin Bee Journal 



Querj- 632.— 1. What is the difference In 

 ireneral characteristics between hybrid bees 

 produced by a cross between an Italian queen 

 and a brown German drone, and those pro- 

 duced by a cross between a brown German 

 queen and an Italian drone? 2. What char- 

 acteristics do you expect the queen lo trans- 

 mit to the workers, and in what will they re- 

 semble the drone ?— Illinois. 



I will let expert (jueen-rearers an- 

 swer this. — C. H. DiBBERN. 



1. As they average, very little if 

 any. 2. About ecjual from each par- 

 ent. G. M. DOOHTTLE. 



1. If j'ou believe that prepotency is 

 on the male side, you can answer your 

 own question. — A. B. Mason. 



1. I cannot say, as I think that I 

 have only had the first-mentioned kind. 

 They were cross, but good workers. 2. 

 Let the " other fellow " answer this. — 

 Mrs. L. Harrison. 



1. I have had no experience with the 

 progeny of Italian drones and black 

 queens, 2. I refer you to Prof, Cook. 

 — R. L. Taylor. 



1. The bees of the first cross, in my 

 experience, are the best hone3--gath- 

 erers. Their general characteristics 

 are nearly tlie same. — W. M. Barnuji. 



1. There is no difterence. What is 

 the difference between a child of a 

 white father and negro mother, and 

 one from a negro father and white 

 mother ? 2. No possible rule can be 

 given. Sometimes the male is pre- 

 potent ; at other times the female. — A. 

 J. Cook. 



Friend " Illinois," unless some of 

 the others know more about it than I 

 do, you have come to the wrong place 

 for information. — C. C. Miller. 



1. I give it up. I do not know. 2. 

 A queen whose workers are extra 

 honey-gatherers, is apt to have daugh- 

 ters whose workers are extra honey- 

 gatherers also. The drones transmit 

 color, and (probably) strength of 

 wing, and power to smell. — Mahala 

 B. Chaddock. 



1. The progeny of an Italian queen 

 mated with a black drone, have always 

 seemed to be more irascible than those 

 vice versa. 2. Fiom the mother, the 

 markings predominate: from the drone, 

 the disposition, if any observations are 

 correct. — J. M. Hambacgh. 



1. As a rule, the former are vicious, 

 and the latter fairly gentle. 2. Excep- 

 tions will occur to any rules that may 

 be laid down in the matter of heredit}'. 



But tlie rule is, thai the queens trans- 

 mit to the worker i)rogeny anj' pecu- 

 liarity in the conib-htiilding faculty ; 

 that is, the manner of building and 

 capping the eomlis. They also trans- 

 mit size, and to the queen progeny, 

 fecundity. The drones transmit tlie 

 woi-king quality, tiiuper, color, and 

 size to the drone pidgenj', which does 

 not aiipear until tlic second generation. 

 — G. L. Tinker. 



"Illinois'" please excuse me. I liave 

 never studied along this line critically. 

 If the bees produce much honey, and 

 are reasonably docile, I do not inquire 

 who their grand-parents were. — J. M. 

 Shuck. 



1. I presume that there may b(^ as 

 much difference as there is between a 

 mule 1))' a cross between a jenny and 

 a stallion, and one from a jack and a 

 mare. I have heard it maintained that 

 there is a difference, but I do not 

 know. 2. If the queen is pure, she 

 ought to transmit nil the characteris- 

 tics possessed Ijy the workers of her 

 race. — Eugene Secok. 



1. The black drone with an Italian 

 queen makes cross bees ; while the 

 Italian drgne and black queen are 

 more gentle. That is mj' experience. 

 2. You can place but little dependence 

 upon what the bees will be and do, 

 until you get them. — H. D. Cutting. 



1. Crosses between Italian queens 

 and black drones (I do not know anj- 

 thing about '■'brown German drones") 

 are usually crosser. more pugnacious, 

 and better hone3-gatherers than the 

 cross of a black queen and an Italian 

 drone. 2. Tlie most prominent char- 

 acteristics are transmitted by the 

 queen. — J. P. H. BitOWN. 



1. Who can tell ? There are no 

 characteristics that I know of, by 

 which any cross can be known. 2. 

 Who can answer this ? I confess that 

 I cannot, in fact, Cros.ses are so 

 liable to sport that no positive deduc- 

 tions can be made. — J. E, Pond. 



1. In appearance, half-pure bees 

 (there are no hybrids) resemble the 

 queen more than the drone. A pure 

 Italian queen that has mated with 

 German or black drones, will produce 

 bees that will nearly all be more or 

 less j'ellow. A black queen and Ital- 

 ian drone will produce mostly black 

 bees ; only a U'w will have yellow 

 bands. 2. The jirogenj' of a black 

 queen and an Italian drone are more 

 gentle than the opposite cross. — M. 

 Mahin. 



1. I found, many years ago, when 

 handling the tieiy Cyprians, that the 

 queen transmits family traits so far as 

 general appearance is concerned with 

 the greatest regularitj' ; while the 

 drone (coward as he is erroneously be- 

 lieved to be) transmits temperament. 



Thus, the drones of a tiery raei^ of 

 bees, when coupled with queens of a 

 gentle race, give fierj' prngeny. This 

 answers the second part of the queiy, 

 also. — G. W. Dkmaree. 



It depends upon circumstances and 

 conditions — there is no rule to judge 

 b}'. Generallj- the latter cross are 

 much more docile. — The Editor. 



CORRESPMBESCE. 



brood-rearing. 



The Proper Temperature Inside 

 of the Brood-\^c§t. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 

 BV G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



As the season for brood-rearing is at 

 hand, something regarding the degrees 

 of heat maintained inside of the cluster 

 of bees wliich are rearing brooil, may 

 not be amiss ; especially as I see, by 

 what I read, that but few have a cor- 

 rect idea of what warmth the bees keep 

 the larva!, eggs, etc., during the time 

 when they are rearing their young. 



While Nature has so ordained that a 

 good colony of bees can form a "liv- 

 ing hive," as it were, so as to generate 

 heat enough for brood-rearing inside 

 of a cru.st or wall of living bees, still, 

 in early spring weather, the capacity 

 (jf a hive to retain warmth, the same 

 coming in close contact with the bees, 

 has much to do with prolific brood- 

 rearing, and the getting of our bees in 

 time for the harvest. The more heat 

 we can retain in the hive, the more 

 honey we can save ; for all are aware 

 that the fuel which the bees have to 

 " burn," so as to raise the tempera- 

 ture of the duster to where they de- 

 sire it, is honey. 



Again, the more fuel (honey) the 

 bees burn, the quicker their life wears 

 away, for it takes an effort even on the 

 part of the bee, to keep the furnace 

 (the bee) filled with fuel as fast as it 

 is consumed. Hence we see the im- 

 portant bearing that a good, warm 

 lii\ehasin advancing our interests in 

 early spring weather. 



Why do I say in early spring 

 weather ? Because, that at this sea- 

 son of the year, the temperature out- 

 side of the hive is very much lower 

 than that which is required by tli(! 

 bees to rear brood. If, as I saw in 

 print not long ago, bees could rear 

 brood with a temperature of only 55-' 

 to ()(P, then there would not be so 

 much need of a warm hive ; for we 

 have many sjiring days wherein the 

 mercury goes as high, and even higher 

 than that. If those figures were cor- 



