276 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



DRONES FROM FERTILE QUEENS. 



[December, 



SAM'L, SIMMONS. 



TRULY, as you say in your issue 

 of October, "where ignorance 

 is bliss 'tis folly to be wise," 

 and I may say I am in complete accord 

 with Mr. G. M. Doolittle upon this mat- 

 ter of drone progeny. For more than 

 30 years I have never wavered in my 

 conviction that a mismated queen will 

 produce hybrid drones, and no other. 



I. therefore. stand shoulder to 

 shoulder with Doolittle, and smilingly 

 take unto myself such scattering abuse 

 as you see fit to heap upon him in re- 

 gard to this question. Cheer up. 

 Brother D., only bide a wee; where 

 folly was bliss it has been thought ig- 

 norant to be wise; but some pet theo- 

 ries may presently be sadly shaken. 



Now, dear editor, the facts are al- 

 ready marshalled in battle array, and 

 when they are unfolded to view, they 

 will be found unassailable, convincing, 

 and satisfactory. Your humble servant 

 knows just a little about the organs of 

 the drone and queen; he has dissected 

 only a few hundreds, and many while in 

 close association with one of the great- 

 est masters of bee-anatomy — micro- 

 scopically and otherwise. 



Broomham, Heathfield, England, 



Nov. I, 1907 



I am sorry to have to oppose Mr. 

 Simmins' position on the matter of the 

 drone progeny of mismated queens. 

 As I stated in the article to which he 

 replies, I consulted some of the world's 

 highest authorities on parthenogenesis 

 and they were unanimous in stating 

 that the mating of the queen had no 

 effect upon her male offspring. 



Until queen breeders can know with 

 certainty the ancestry of their queens 

 for many generations back, they can- 

 not rightfully make such assertions as 

 those of Mr. Doolittle and Mr. Sim- 

 mins. So long as the queens mate in 

 the open air it is impossible for the 

 queen breeders to know to a certainty 

 the male with which they mated, and 

 without that knowledge, they cannot 

 say that the queen was raised from a 

 pure mother. Mr. Simmins has made 

 such wonderful advance in practical 

 apiculture by his leaving the main 

 traveled way, and the results of his 

 progress have rightfully given him 

 such confidence in himself, that it is 

 not to be wondered at that he believes 



his conclusions in the matter of queen 

 mating are beyond question. — Asso- 

 ciate Editor. 



THE RIPENING AND MATUR- 

 ING OF HONEY. 



An Important Subject to Bee-keep- 

 ers. 



On the second day of the Waika- 

 to Winter Show, Mr. I. Hopkins, 

 Government apiarist, delivered the fol- 

 lowing address to the members of 

 Waikato Bee-keepers' Association at 

 Hamilton: — 



The subject of the short address 

 I am about to give has Deen set down 

 as the "Ripening of Honey," but I 

 think a more appropriate title will be 

 the ''Maturing of Honey," as this 

 will include everything that should be 

 done to have our honey in the very 

 best form for placing on the market, 

 and I know you will agree with me 

 that this should be our aim, for the 

 better our product is the larger will 

 be the demand for it. 



Percentage of Water in Honey. — 

 All honey, whether it is what we term 

 ripe or unripe, contains more or less 

 water. In its ripe condition it con- 

 tains the least. According to the 

 authorities I have looked up, it may 

 range between 12 and 23 per cent. 

 On page 286 of "Thorp's Dictionary 

 of Applied Chemistry," the maximum, 

 minimum, and average amount of 

 moisture in twenty-five varieties of 

 honey examined are given as fol- 

 lows: — Maximuin, 23.26 per cent; 

 minimum, 12.43 P^r cent.; and the 

 average of the whole, 19.3 per cent. 

 You, as practical bee-keepers, will 

 readily understand vinder what condi- 

 tions we get the most moisture, that 

 is, when honey is being stored in 

 close, damp weather, or, in other 

 words, when there is much moisture 

 in the atmosphere; and, as a matter 

 of course, we get the least in dry 

 weather. You are also aware that 

 honey containing an excess of mois- 

 ture is bound, sooner or later, to fer- 

 ment. Now, just where that excess 

 commences I confess I do not know, 

 and, so far as my investigations have 

 gone — and I have looked up many 

 authorities — I have not yet seen any- 

 thing- more definite than that stated, 



