82 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Worker Bees in Drone Cells ! 



Mr. Editor :— Early iu July I put tbree 

 frames of di one comb itUo a hive nine Indies 

 deep by five inches wide and twelve inches 

 from front to rear. I also put in two pounds of 

 bees and a very handsome queen, iind gave 

 them plenty of feed all the time, to make the 

 queen lny, if I could. In a few days I exami- 

 ned them, and found an egg in nearly every 

 cell. About the time for the drones to make 

 their appaaiaace, I looked at them, to see how 

 they were getting along, and was greatly sur- 

 piised to Iind, instead'of drones, worker bees 

 hatching from those drone cells. Not over 

 fifiy sealed drones could be found in the hive. 



I let them work, and they slill continue to 

 rear worker bees in drone cells np to this day. 

 The cells are sealed over even with the surface 

 of the comb. Now I had supposed that, if eggs 

 were deposited in drone cells, no hing out 

 drones would hatch from them. At any rate, I 

 shall not allow my bees to cheat me again in 

 this way. I know how to fix them the next 

 time. 



Now, Mr. Editor, this experiment is some- 

 thing new to me ; and T never saw anything of 

 the kind noticed iu luint. Even our good 

 friend Gallup never said anything about this 

 thing, and I do not believe that he evt-r dream- 

 ed of anyihinir of the kind. If any of the rea- 

 ders of the Bjse Journal ever saw anything 

 similar, I wish they a\ ould report. 



H. Alley. 



Wenham, Mass. 



|[t^"The case stated above by Mr. Alley, is of 

 very rare occurrence, but not unprecedented. 

 Gundehich, iu his supplementary treatise of 

 18r)2, says that, on the 10th of August, 1851, he 

 introduced a small driven swarm into a glass 

 hive containing only a single comb, twelve 

 inches square, composed of drone cells exclu- 

 sively. The old colony from which tl\is swarm 

 was taken had been ftd plentifully for a week 

 previous, to keep the queen in egg-laying mood, 

 as Mr. G. was curious to ascertain how she 

 would act on finding hersell:' restricted to a 

 comb containing no worker cells. She seemed 

 reluctant, in these circumstances, to resume 

 laying, and did not do so until August 15, or 

 after an ioterval of five days. On the 23d, the 

 larvae were sealed ; and Mr. G. now became 

 anxious to see whether the product would not 

 \>c uncommonly large, loorkerst, &% the cells had 

 been closed with flat covers — the bees being 

 evidently conscious that workers, and not 

 drones, were being developed from the eggs. 

 Compelled to leave home on the 5th of Septem- 

 ber, whvn none of the young had yet emerged, 

 he opened a number of the cells, and found 

 mature workers in them ; and, in two instances, 

 the inmates had already begun to cut their way 

 out through the covers. These workers weie 

 examined very carefully, and not the slighest 

 difft-rence could be discerned between them and 

 those reared in worker cells— they were not in 

 any respect larger than ordinary workers. 



Commenting on this case, in February, 1853, 

 the Baron of Berlepsch suggests that, the deter- 

 mination of sex being the voluntary act of the 

 queen, she can, if so disposed, lay worker eggs 

 in drone cells, Avorkers beintr still the product; 

 but that drone eggs are laid by a normal queen 

 only lohen the colony coiitemplates sicarming or 

 designs to discard the old queen and rear a suc- 

 cessor— nahhev of which Mr. G 's small colony 

 can be supposed to have intended, and hence 

 no drone eggs were laid or drones produ- 

 ced. — Ed. 



[For the American Bee Journal. 



Wintering Bees on Chicken Meat! 



A New Thikg Under the Sun ! 



Mr. Editor :— Perhaps I am wrong in 

 thinking or writing as above, as possibly the 

 matter is not new to others ; but to me it is 

 new, and it maj^ not be without interest to some 

 of your readers, who, like myself, never heard 

 of such a thing before. For aught I know, a 

 goodly number will saj', when they read this 

 article, just as I said when I first heard of it — 

 " Pshaw, tlial's all bosh! I don't believe one 

 word of it!" But, dear reader, just try it the 

 coming winter, and then report through the 

 Bee Journal. 



But, " what is it ?" methinks I hear you ask. 

 Well, that is just what I am going to tell you. 



Some time last spring there was at our house 

 a young man from Hungary, (and he came 

 hungry, and tired too; but that is jiot what I atn 

 going to tell you). He seemed to be quite intelli- 

 geut; coulJ speak several different languages ; 

 and was a very pleasant and agreeable talker. 

 At home, in Hungary, he was a lawyer, and 

 came to this country, as be stated, to learn the 

 English language and observe American ways 

 and customs. While walking about in our 

 yard, 



Turning this way, turn'ng that, 

 All the premises to explore, 



he caught sight of my apiary, and coming into 

 the house, asked what those things were, scat- 

 tered around in the yard ? I told him they 

 were my bees in Langslroth hives. He made 

 quite ?ifoh at the idea of keeping bees in such 

 looking flings/ Then he went on to tell about the 

 kind of hive used in his country. He said his 

 father kept a great many bees, "hut not in such 

 shallow unshapely things ;" they were long and 

 deep. He told also, among a great many other 

 matters, how they kept their bees through the 

 w'inter ; and that is just what I am going to re- 

 late to your readers for their edification. 



He said — and I quote his words, as nearly as 

 I can remember them — "As soon in the fall as 

 it is cold enougii to keep the bees at home, we 

 kill a chicken and cook it whole. Then we dip 

 it in honey, and hanir it by the legs in the hive 

 among the bees. We close the hive, leaving 

 room for ventilation ; and let it remain thus, on 

 the stammer stand, during the winter. In the 



