164 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



have much to do with the developenient of the 

 sexual organs, thereby changing the nascent in- 

 sect from a worker to a queen, may not the 

 position of the cell also have some influence in 

 effecting this change ? The work of the bee is 

 not in reality its own, but is that of an Allwise 

 Creator, whose "wisdom is manifest in all his 

 works," and who has given this interesting in- 

 sect a natural instinct by which it is diiected in 

 lis labor, and its work is perfect. When in a 

 natural condition it makes few blunders, few 

 mistakes, and performs but little if any needless 

 labor. Yet if the change in the position of the 

 cell is unnecessary to perfect a queen, there is 

 a grand mistake made in the construction of 

 every queen cell in the hive, as they are all 

 changed from a horizontal to a nearly or quite 

 perpendicular position. And if the partial de- 

 velopemeut of the procreative organs of the 

 worker is caused by its having, through some 

 confusion in the distribution of food, received a 

 portion of that intended for royalty, we at once 

 discover that they have made another mistake, 

 \)y mistaking a worker cell for a queen cell, and 

 a worker larva lor an immature queen. 



I think a few experiments made with this ob- 

 ject in view, Avill do much towards disproving 

 the fertile worker theory here advanced. In 

 order to be certain that our fertile w^orkers were 

 not reared in the vicinity of a queen's cradle, 

 we will select a colony of native bees in a sash 

 hive from which swarms have ceased issuing — 

 say twenty days after the issue of the first 

 swarm, and as early in the season as possible. 

 We will now remove the native queen from 

 this colony and introduce an Italian queen with 

 one wing clipped, so that we can at any time 

 id( ntify her. We will also remove the hive ten 

 rods from any other, to prevent bees uniiing 

 hfim neighboring colonies, from which swarms 

 may issue later in the season. This should be 

 done immediately after the issue of the first 

 SAvaim, setting the young swarm on the old 

 stand to catch the returning bees. The next 

 spring, in May, or as soon as the hive becomes 

 sufficiently populous to be able to spare a swarm, 

 and before there are any queen cells constructed, 

 we will take out the combs and look them over 

 until we arc satisfied that there is not a black 

 bee in the hive, and that they are all Italians. 

 If, on making the examination, we find the 

 queen with the clipped wing, we are quite sure 

 that no queens have been raised, and of course 

 no royal food used in the hive since the introduc- 

 tion of the Italian queen. About the middle of 

 a warm day, when the young bees are fiying, we 

 Vi'ill remove the hive to ancAV stand several rods 

 distant, and set on the old stand a movable comb 

 hive in Avhich are a few small pieces of comb 

 :ind, unless forage is abundant, some honey. 

 And the sooner to reconcile to their new home 

 tlie bees that will return to this hive, we will 

 give them a small piece of worker comb con- 

 taining young larva? : but before any of these 

 larvte have matured, the piece of comb contain- 

 ing them must be removed from the hive, or we 

 may get our fertile worker from this brood. 

 We ^\\\\ continue to form artificial colonies in 

 this manner, as often as the parent stock becomes 

 populous enough, until we have five or six of 



them ; cacl. time looking over the comb to find 

 the queen originally introduced, and to see that 

 there are no queen cells constructed. In from 

 three to six weeks after these queenless and 

 broodless colonics are formed, we are almost 

 certain to have in some of them, very likely in 

 several, and perhaps in all of them, one or more 

 fertile workers. Yet it will at once be seen that 

 no one of these workers, when in a larva state, 

 could even have tasted royal food, unless such 

 food is used at other times than when queens 

 are being reared, and this I believe no one pre- 

 tends to be the case. 



My first attempt at queen raising was made 

 in the month of May, taking bees for this pur- 

 pose from hives from which no swarms had is- 

 sued since the preceding July. I commenced 

 with nineteen small artificial colonies, and from 

 various causes failed to rear a queen in any one 

 of them, from the first Italian brood given them. 

 In most of them I failed, in the first attempt, 

 to get even a worker matured ; and in several of 

 them I had fertile workers before there was an 

 Italian bee to be seen. I have since had such 

 workers under similar circumstances, when I 

 was quite certain X\\cy never had been fed royal 



jelly. 



From the facts here given I am forced to the 

 conclusion that, although the kind of food a lar- 

 va receives may have an influence in the devel- 

 openient of the generative organs of the future 

 queen, we must look elsewhere lor the cause of 

 tertility in a worker. I know that to question 

 the assigned cause of a certain effect produced, 

 as given by another, without being able to fur- 

 nish a more satisfactory one, is not a very desi- 

 rable position to take ; yet it is one which I am 

 compelled to assume in the present instance. 



J. H. TOWISLEY. 



ToMPla^s, Michigan. 



The old-fashioned box hive and the hollow 

 log with brimstone, are humane compared with 

 the results of the first improvement, viz: top 

 boxes, causing the loss of more colonies than our 

 forefathers "took up." In the old plan bees 

 were "keptover," and had all their season's store 

 — almost invariably enough for winter. The im- 

 provement left it to the judgment of the owner 

 how nmch to take, and he frequently took 

 too much, and not only lost his swarm, but also 

 all thej' consumed, which loss through the coun- 

 try together is very great. Unless judgment is 

 used in depriving bees of honey, brimstone 

 fumes are more humane than honey boxes, in- 

 asmuch as sudden death is piel'erable to linger- 

 ing starvation. — E. Parndy^ Neic York. 



I do not think it right to advocate a system of 

 bee management which allows or encourages 

 persons to be comfortable in their ignorance and 

 laziness. We ought to make such as uncomfor- 

 table as possible, so that they will find no rest 

 until they are up with the present knowledge of 

 whatever they engage in. The majority of bee- 

 keepers require instruction, and they can only 

 get it practically and fully through the use of the 

 movable comb hive. — ^. Farmly, New York. 



