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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



WASHINGTON, JULY, 18G7. 



^WTnE American Bee Journal is now 

 published montlily, in tlie City of Wasliington, 

 (D. C.,) at $3 per annum. All communications 

 should be addressed to the Editor, at that place. 



To Subscribers in Canada. 



Mr. John II. Thomas, of Brooklin, Canada 

 "West, will act as the authorized agent of the 

 American Bee Journal in Canada and the 

 British provinces. Bemittances to him on our 

 account, will be duly acknowledged. 



A. New Notion. 



The French Academy of Sciences has recent- 

 ly published an article, prepared by Dr. Lan- 

 dois, of Munster, on the " Law of Sexual De- 

 velojyment,'''' in which an attempt is made to 

 overthrow the Dzierzon theory on that subject 

 in the case of bees. He says : "It is known 

 that the eggs from which workers proceed are 

 laid in cells ditTering from those in which eggs 

 producing drones are laid ; and that the food or 

 jelly with which the bees supply the larva; is 

 prepared distinctly for each sex. Hence the 

 query readily arose, may not drones be pro- 

 duced from eggs laid in worker cells, if such 

 eggs be transferred to drone cells, and care be 

 taken that the nursing bees shall supply the 

 disclosed larvre with drone-jelly exclusively ? 

 and, conversely, may not workers be produced 

 from drone eggs, under similar circumstances 

 and like treatment ?" 



Dr. Landois says that he actually made the 

 cxi^erimcnt repeatedy, though at first Avithout 

 success, as the bees defeated his arrangements; 

 but finally he succeeeded in deceiving them, 

 and then the result was in accordance with his 

 anticipations. The attempt, he alleges, will in- 

 variably fail, if the transferred eggs be placed in 

 a comb the cells of which contain none laid there- 

 in by the queen. His process was to cut out with 

 the point of a knife, a portion of the cell bot- 

 tom to which tho egg is attached by the queen 

 in oviposilion ; and then, lifting out the small 

 plate witli the egg thereon, insert it in the cell 

 designed to receive it. He claims to have pro- 

 duced workers from drone eggs by this process, 

 and drones from worker eggs, and thus demon- 

 strated that the production of workers is not the 

 result of impregnation, and that sexual de- 

 velopment is dependent solely and exclusively 

 on nutriment. 



All this, we have no doubt will prove to be a 



mistake. It will be found that Dr. Landois, 

 instead of deceiving the bees, was himself de- 

 ceived by them. The fact, well ascertained, 

 that there is no difference whatever in the jelly 

 fed to drone or worker larvae, is fatal to his doc- 

 trine, if no other objections could be urged 



against it. 



i^ 



Errata. 



In Prof. Varro's communication on the 

 " Purity of Italian Queens," in our last number, 

 there is an omission after the fifth line from the 

 bottom of the second column, page 19, which 

 should be supplied. The passage ought to read 

 — "he bought three queens from Mr. Langstroth, 

 one of which jiroduced an almost black Italian 

 queen, wMch he tested for breeding," &c. 



In the description of Mr. Allen's hive, in the 

 same number, the word racks is misprinted 

 sacks in the 39th line of the first column, page 18. 



Among the mass of amusing and instructive 

 information with which the volumes of Kirby 

 and Spence abound, is the following: Bees in 

 excursions do not confine themselves to the 

 spot immediately contiguous to their dwellings, 

 but, when led by the scent of honey, will go a 

 mile from it, or considerably more ; yet from 

 this distance they will discover honey with as 

 much certainty as if it was in their sight. A 

 young bee, as soon as it can use its wings, and 

 has learned by hovering in front of it to know 

 the position of its hive, seems perfectly aware, 

 without any previous instruction, what arc to 

 be its duties and employments for the rest of 

 its life. It appears to know that it is born for 

 society, and not for selfish pursuits, and there- 

 fore it invariably devotes itself to the benefit of 

 the community to which it belongs. Walking on 

 the combs it seeks for the door of the hive that it 

 may sally forth and be useful. Full of life and 

 activity it then takes its first flight, and, uncon- 

 ducted but by its instincts, visits like the rest 

 the subjects of Flora, absorbs their nectar,cover3 

 itself with their ambrosial dust, and returns un- 

 embarrassed to its hive. 



IW It has been a common practice for many 

 years, among German bee-keepers, instead of 

 attempting to winter weak colonies, to drive 

 out the bees from all such in the fall, and unite 

 them with their strong stocks, preserving the 

 hives with the combs they contain for spring 

 use, and placing their early swarms in them. 

 New, clean combs arc too valuable to be melted 

 down, unless the present market price of wax 

 were at least quadrupled. When the hives 

 from which the bees were expelled contain 

 honey in the combs, they are occasionally 

 used in the Avinter or spring to save famishing 

 colonies. Such hives are called "7io?wc7i(37-" by 

 the Germans — a term for M'hich we have no 

 corresponding English word. — [ed. 



