speak any English; believes he is 91 

 years old, though he looks to be about 

 50 ; has curly hair ; looks like half Cau- 

 casian, and is a gentleman in looks and 

 bearing. His intelligence is in my mind 

 most extraordinary, as he utterly re- 

 fused to join the Jesuits, and the steal- 

 ing of his wife for 20 years could not 

 induce him to yield up his individuality 

 and manhood. I shall never forget 

 either Petoskey. 

 Dowagiac, Mich., Sept. 15, 1879. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Experiments with Eggs and Larvae. 



H. L. JEFFREY. 



I gladly comply with your request to re- 

 port ray experiments with eggs aud larvae, 

 and will give the detail of a few, aud results 

 gained up to this time. As I have pre- 

 viously stated through the Exchange, ray 

 attention was turned to experiments by 

 accidents which happened in May and June. 

 About the middle of May 1 discovered that 

 full-grown drone larvae would cap over and 

 gnaw out in a moderately warm room, and 

 that some eggs which had been laid in sec- 

 tions of drone comb, and had been out of 

 the hive from Monday till (Saturday night 

 were found hatched the Monday following, 

 and had not been in the hive 40 hours, an 

 impossibility with anew-laid egg ; and they 

 will not hatch in less thau 60 hours, and 

 are usually 72 to 80, according to the 

 weather. The section-box incident hap- 

 pened in the apiary of Mr. C. A. Stone, in 

 June, aud I saw the boxes in each change 

 that was made with them. This gave me 

 the first link in the chain of experiments 

 with eggs. The first one I wrote to was J. 

 H. Nellis, June 30 ; he shipped me some 

 brood July 2, taken from the hive at 12 m., 

 arriving at 3 p.m. July 4 ; one-half was put 

 in at 6:30 p.m.; X at 8 a.m. the 5th, and the 

 rest at 7:30 ; the piece was 4>£x2 inches, cut 

 into 4 pieces. The 2 pieces put in the 4th— 

 they started 7 cells, on the other 3 cells. On 

 the one put in the morning of the 5th they 

 started 2 cells ; on the one put in the even- 

 ing of the 5th they started 5 and deserted 

 2. The 10 cells started on the pieces put 

 in on the 4th were torn clown by the bees, 

 but the 5 that were capped on the 2 pieces 

 that were put in the 5th hatched ; 2 were 

 lost and 3 were mated. They were so near 

 alike that without minute examination they 

 could not be told apart. Three other times 

 I sent to Mr. Nellis for brood. The second 

 one was taken out at 9 a.m., July 23d, and 

 received the 25th at 3:30 p.m., but being 

 considerably bruised was not accepted by 

 the bees. The third was taken from the 

 hive Aug. 5th, at 2 p.m., and was received 

 at 7:30 p.m., Aug. 7. It was put into a 

 nucleus at 9 a.m., the 8th, and taken out the 

 9th for 36 hours ; then put into another 

 nucleus. One-fourth of the brood came out 

 perfect bees. The fourth piece from Mr. 

 Nellis was sent August 15, and received the 

 16th. A few cells were built, but the queens 



443 



became barren on account of rainy weather 

 when old enough to mate. 



I sent to A. 1. Root 3 times for brood. The 

 first was sent the 6th, received the 8th. The 

 nucleus was not very strong, and was rob- 

 bed ; then the brood was shifted, but was 

 pulled out by the bees. The second time he 

 sent me 2 pieces, 2x3 inches, Aug. 14; 

 received at 3:30 p.m., Aug. 16. They were 

 both pressed into a box made for only one, 

 and were useless. The third sent by Mr. 

 Root was taken from the hives at 2:30 and 

 2:35 p.m., Aug. 19 ; received at 3:30 p.m. the 

 22d. Both were Jarvae, and were given to 

 the bees at 6:30 p.m., but were allowed to 

 starve after being in the hive over 48 hours, 

 and 1 could discover no cause for deserting 

 it. 1 never knew bees to do so, either pre- 

 viously or since. 



The first piece sent from the American 

 Bee Journal apiary, from an imported 

 queen, Aug. 26, by express, received the' 

 29th, remained in the hive unchanged till 

 Sept. 2, and since then one egg has hatched 

 into drone larva. The second piece you 

 sent Sept. 10, arrived 13th, but I was away, 

 so it was not given to the bees till the 15th ; 

 but the eggs were all pulled out on account 

 of having perished from exposure to a dry 

 cool atmosphere for about 36 hours, the first 

 that have perished from that amount of 

 exposure. 



There are many more experiments, but I 

 will not give them all in detail, only giving 

 in full the different modes of inserting the 

 brood. The first trouble is to give it the 

 same scent as the hive into which it is in- 

 serted. Second, the bees will pull out both 

 larvae and eggs after the comb has become 

 very cool or exposed to smoke of any kind, 

 or if it has any animal or other foreign 

 smell. Third, after the larvae have con- 

 sumed the fluid so as to become dry, it will 

 be pulled out ; and fourth, a heavy flow of 

 honey will excite them to pull it out everv 

 time within 12 hours of insertion. 



To insure the bees accepting brood, first 

 give it the scent of the hive. If eggs from 

 a choice queen are used, put a piece of wire 

 cloth over the comb till they begin to hatch, 

 or in any other way give it the warmth and 

 scent of the hive, and if the larva? has be- 

 come dry moisten carefully with tepid 

 water and honey, and when warmed let the 

 bees have free access to it with perfect 

 safety, and if the bees to which it is given 

 are not more than 4 days hatched, they are 

 better in a good flow of honey ; but if honey 

 is scarce, at least two-thirds should be over 

 12 days old, with hatching brood to come on 

 as fast as the old ones die off. 



Pure Italians take either eggs or larvae 

 better than the blacks ; but hybrids are not 

 usable in cases where brood has once 

 become cold, though they will start the 

 most cells and rear the strongest queens 

 every time ; but they will tear out eggs or 

 larvae as fast as you can give them either. 



The oldest piece of eggs that a cell was 

 started from has been about 5 days and 2 

 hours as near as time agrees, and the longer 

 the eggs are out of the hive, the longer the 

 bees are capped, queen-cells extending to 

 the 11th day, and workers to the 24th day 

 Seven days keeping worker-eggs, has re- 

 sulted in % drones. 



