THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



the impregnation, and she Tvill only produce 

 mixed woukers or hybrids. 



In the December Bee Jottrnal, 1869, page 

 126, Mr. Rosenstiel refers to Mr. Thomas's new 

 theory given in the June number. I read Mr. 

 Thomas's article, and thought it just agreed with 

 my experience. Mr. Dzierzon is spoken of as 

 being the first to discover the true system or the- 

 ory concerning the propagation of the honeybee. 

 Now Mr. Dzierzon may be right in his experi- 

 ence, but I think he failed just a little when he 

 took the position that the impregnation of the 

 queen does not affect her drone progeny. I think 

 it affects the drones the same as the workers. 

 Now, if you take particular notice of a full-bred 

 queen mated with a full-bred drone, the drones 

 will show a dark color ; and a fuU-blo'od queen 

 mated with a black drone or a hybrid drone, the 

 drones will have the yellow bands more beauti- 

 ful than the full-bred drones. That is my expe- 

 rience of the honey bee, and I write this to aid 

 in ferreting out the true nature of that interest- 

 ing insect, Alfred Chapman. 



Neic Cumberland, West Va. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Queens Mating Twioe — Sending Queens 

 by Mail. 



I noticed in the December number of the Bee 

 Journal, an article from Mr. D. C. Hunt, in 

 which he says that he never knew a case where 

 a queen had mated with a drone when she was 

 not fertilized. He also says he thinks that I am 

 mistaken in what I stated in regard to queens 

 mating twice with drones. Now, friend Hunt, 

 I will give you two instances that I think will 

 convince you that I am not mistaken in what I 

 have said. 



Several years ago, a bee-keeping friend, who 

 lives four miles from me, had a queen which he 

 wanted my drones to fertilize, and so kept lier in 

 the yard with my drones. In a day or two his 

 queen flew out and mated with a drone, and I 

 happened to be present when she returned to the 

 hive. This hive contained but one sheet of comb, 

 and had glass on both sides for observation. I re- 

 moved the covers from the glass, watched the 

 bees for some time, and soon saw some of them, 

 with the genitals of the drone, trying to find their 

 way out of the hive. I then covered the glass, 

 and a bee soon came out with it. As this was 

 the first case of the kind that I had seen, I then 

 believed, as you now do, that the queen was 

 surely fertilized. In a day or two my friend 

 came for his queen, and I said to him that she 

 was impregnated and ready to be taken home. 

 We happened to pass along there about the time 

 when queens generally fly out to meet the drones, 

 and, on examining the hive, found that the queen 

 had just returned with all the evidence of having 

 just mated with another drone. 



Now, friend Hunt, I might have been mistaken 

 in this case, but I do not see where the mistake 

 comes in. 



Here is another case, friend Hunt, where I 

 think I can be equally positive. A bee-keeper 

 from Manchester, N. H., was visiting me, and of 



course, I took him into the garden to show him 

 my bees and queen nursery. We came to one 

 hive, and I remarked to him that it contained a 

 queen which was fertilized two days before, and 

 that we should probably find her laying eggs. I 

 opened the hive, but could find neitlier queen 

 nor eggs. After looking the combs over thor- 

 oughly, I closed the hive and stepped back to one 

 side, and the queen soon went in. She also had 

 just mated with a drone. Now, friend Hunt, I 

 am sure that this queen mated twice with drones. 



I should not suppose that any one who has had 

 any experience in queen rearing would doubt that 

 such cases will happen once in a great while. 



I had twenty-four queens that were fertilized 

 as late as the 1st of October, 1860. I shipped 

 between 400 and 500 queens by mail last season. 

 About seven per cent, of them were lost or stolen, 

 or perished in the transit. 



On the morning of the 4th of October, I mailed 

 twenty-one queens, and all of them perished; 

 not on account of cold weather, but because of a 

 very severe storm that prevailed throughout the 

 New England States, washing away railroad 

 bridges and otherwise damaging railroads. They 

 were in the mail-bags for more than a week be- 

 fore any of them reached their destination, and 

 some of them never reached the parties to whom 

 they were sent. 



Mr. A. Burton, of Harpers, mailed a queen to 

 me as late as the second week in November, and 

 we had at that time the colde!5t weather of the 

 month ; but the queen and nearly all the workers 

 reached me alive, though they were " laid up" 

 in the Boston post-oflice over on Sunday. Some 

 of my customers supposed that queens cannot be 

 sent by mail as late as the month of October. I 

 know that they can, if they are not kept in the 

 mail-bags until they starve. I sent them very late 

 in October into the State of New Hampshire, and 

 they were several days in the mail. 



H. Alley. 



Wenham, Mass., Dec. 14, 1869. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Observations and Experiments. 



Mr. Editor : — This is my first year of bee- 

 keejMng, and of course I have been exceedingly 

 interested in the study of their habits and the 

 most successful management' of bees ; and for this 

 pui'pose it seems to me your Journal is a sine 

 qua non. 



I commenced with two hives, and have in- 

 creased tliem by swarming and purchase to nine. 

 Of these I have Italianized six, simply by removing 

 the black queen and immediately introducing the 

 Italian queen, after smoking the hive for a few 

 minutes with tobacco, and dipping the queen in 

 honey. They were all accepted, and only two 

 made any queen cells which had to be removed. 

 I say all, though there was one excejition. I in- 

 troduced a small queen, on the last of September, 

 to a hive which had been without a queen for two 

 weeks, having previously removed all queen cells 

 by smoking, and loithout dipping her majesty in 

 a honey bath. The next day I found her dead, 

 in front of the hive. 



