TnE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



237 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



WASHINGTON, JUNE, 18G8. 



Iti^TnE Ameuican Bi:e Jouunal is now 

 pub'.ishecl monthly, in the City of Wasliington, 

 (D. C.,) ut $2 per annum. All commnnications 

 should be .iddressod to the Editor, at that place. 



li;:^"Several valuable communications were 

 received too late for this number of the JouR- 

 NAT-, and some articles now in type are unavoid- 

 ably omitted. 



tl^The queen bee received last month by 

 express, from Mr. Grimm, died on the second 

 day after her arrival, before any steps could be 

 taken to ascertain why her eggs would not 

 hatch, as she laid none during her journey, nor 

 subsequently. An examination of her sperma- 

 theca le-rt it doubtful whether she had been fer- 

 tilized. 



No similar case appears to have come under 

 the observation of any German apiarian. The 

 Baron of Berlepsch, in his very comprehensive 

 treatise oa Bees and Bee-culture, published in 

 1860, says expressly that every egg laid by a 

 queen will hatch ; and so far as we can recollect 

 there is nothing in the Dletienzeititng since in- 

 dicating a different opinion or intimating a 

 doubt. Yet we have heard of several instances 

 in this country, besides tiiat of Mr. Grimm, 

 where eggs laid by an apparently healthy queen 

 did not liatch ; and we have now a queen in 

 our apiary which lays freelj', though a majoritj' 

 of her eggs are not placed on the bottom of the 

 cells, but on the side. Those so misplaced "we 

 suspect do not hatch, as the capped brood ap- 

 pears to be irregularly placed iu the combs, 

 and the population of tbc hive is certainly di- 

 minishing. 



Mr. ^larvin, of St. Charles, Illinois, had a 

 queen last fall which laid eggs tiiat did not 

 hatch. She was unable to fly, and was probably 

 unfertilized. 



Milkpan vs. Honeypot. 



To the class of popular prejudices against 

 honey bees belongs the singular notion, preva- 

 lent among dairymen, that white clover, on 

 whose blossoms those busy insects have been 

 foraging, is less valuable as food for milch cows 

 than it would otherwise have been ; or that a 



herd will yield less milk, cream, and butter, in 

 a white clover region stocked with bees, than in 

 one in which no bees are kept. This conceit, 

 we apprehend, is on a par with that of the fruit- 

 growers, who imagine that bees injure blossoms 

 and deteriorate crops. 



The nectar of flowers is generally regarded 

 as a secretion intended by n:iture to attract bees 

 and other insects, to secure the fertilization of 

 plants. Yet in reality it is an excretion,, design- 

 ed to rid the plant of puperfluous matter by 

 natural process. It is extruded and thrown off, 

 because not needed, or no longer needed, for the 

 growth and developement of the plant as a herb- 

 aceous or vegetable production ; though, in this 

 extruded condition, it slill subserves the import- 

 ant purpose of reproduction, by securing fertili- 

 zation, through the instrumentality of honey- 

 loving and honey-gathering insects. But here 

 its ofQce or function ends, and whatever has 

 not been gathered by the insect tribes, is almost 

 immediately dissipated or dessicated. In some 

 blossoms it is so exceedingly volatile that it 

 evaporates early iu the day, and bees are never 

 seen exploring them after noon. What is not 

 gathered to-day is lost ; it cannot be gathered 

 to-morrow. Still it is not re-ahmrbed. It does 

 not re-enter the plant, and again form part of its 

 substance. If, on drying, a minute portion of 

 it may be supposed to remain on the nectarj% 

 the infinitessimally thin lilm of saccharine mat- 

 ter thus deposited, is speedily dissolved and 

 washed away by dews and rain, or f»lls to the 

 ground with the unfertilized blossoms. Precious 

 little of it would find its Avay into the dairyman's 

 milk pail, cream pot, or butter churn, though 

 not a bee had ever existed, or the whole race 

 were bani.shed from the laud by exasperated 

 town meetings. 



It is universally conceded that the white clo- 

 ver is a much more valuable forage plant for 

 milch cows, than the red. Yet the latter loses, 

 by insect abstraction, comparatively little of the 

 saccharine element so abund.iutly secreted or 

 excreted in the nectaries of its blossoms. Hence, 

 on the dairymen's theory, it should, so far as 

 the sweets of a honoy-bearing herbage are con- 

 cerned, be at least fifty-fold more valuable than 

 the former. While a wliite clover patch iu 

 bloom is swarming and musical with honey 

 bees, scarcely a few dozen "droning humlers " 

 can be found on an acre of the red, though in 

 full flower and redolent with sweet savor. If 

 then the retention of the saccharine element so 

 essentially conditions the value of the forage, 

 as one of its milk producing constituents tiiat 

 the market price of cream and butter is affected 



