268 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[June 



queen, whether he should preserve or destroy 

 her, is unlit for the business of breeding queens 

 for sale. 



L. L. Langstroth. 



Dried Cow Dune: for rumie;atma: Bees. 



Nearly two thousand years ago. Columella 

 recommended the dried dung of cattle as tlie 

 best thing for fumigating bees. Learning, soon 

 after importing the Egyptian bees, that the 

 Egyptians made use of the smoke from this sub- 

 stance in all their operations upon their irascible 

 bees, we began to use it largely in our apiary. 

 The smoke from burning cow dung, while very 

 penetrating, is not offensive. It can be blown 

 so as to diffuse itself very quickly through the 

 hive, and yet it does not seem to irritate the 

 bees, and our own experience confirms tiie very 

 strong commendations of Columella. Wherever 

 rotten wood is not easily iH'ocurcd, it will be 

 found of very great value. 



When thoroughly dried, it will burn slowly 

 but steadily ; and by slightly dampening the out- 

 side after lighting it, a piece not larger than the 

 hand may often be made to last for several 

 hours. It does not always ignite as readily as 

 one could wish. Dr. E. Parmley has obviated 

 this difficulty \>y dipping one corner in coal oil. 

 The odor is so little offensive that it may be used 

 instead of pastiles in the sick rocnn, a little sugar 

 being sprinkled upon it while burning. Those 

 who know how universally the dung of buffaloes, 

 called buffalo chips, is used for cooking purposes 

 on our great plains, will feel no prejudices 

 against this seemingly uncleanly substance. W^e 

 shall call it biiff'alo chips. 



L. L. Langstkotii. 



Uses of Wool in the Apiary. 



For the last four years we have used wool quite 

 largely for various purposes in our ai iary. We 

 use nothing else for stopping up our queen 

 cages, rolling it for this purpose into a tightwad. 

 The bees cannot gnaw it away, and seldom pro- 

 polise it. We shut up all our nuclei, when first 

 formed, with wool. It can be crowded into place 

 in a moment, admits air, and is easily removed. 

 If we wish for any purpose to shut up a hive, 

 we use wool. In the working season, jve keep 

 one "pocket full of wool," and know nothing of 

 the vexations we experienced when using wire- 

 cloth. Occasionally a few bees aie cauglit in the 

 fibers of the wool, but they are for the most 

 part very shy of it, and are quite indisposed to 

 commit felo cle se, by hanging themselves in its 

 meshes. Robbers will very quickly retreat from 

 a hive well wooled. If we use the words (o 

 wool and umcool a hive or nucleus, instead of to 

 shut up or open the entrance, our readers will 

 understand what we mean. 



L. L. Langstuoth. 



[For Wagaor's American Bee Journal.] 



Controlling Fertilization. 



The controversy on this subject waxes hotter 

 and hotter, and Mr. W. H. Furman seems de- 

 termined to secure the services of the most 

 prominent parties who have claimed success, if 

 money can do it. We confess that all our 'at- 

 tempts to have queens fertilized in confinement 

 have thus far been complete failures. We ex- 

 ]ierimented upon a large number on the plan 

 detailed by us in the American Bee Journal for 

 May, 1871. We dissected the queens and found 

 that not a single one had been fertilized. 



For the benefit of our readers, we explain how 

 we dissect queens. Holding the queen firmly by 

 her head and thorax with the left liand, we pull 

 away the abdomen with the right, quickly 

 crushing her head to put her out of pain. We 

 then press gently upon the lower part of the 

 abdomen until the spej'matheca appears, which 

 we place upon our thumb nail. If the queen 

 has not been fertilized this organ is ratlier under- 

 sized and seems to be only partially distended, 

 looking somewhat like a small white bead ; when 

 pressed it discharges a little fluid as clear as 

 water. If the queen has been fertilized, the sac 

 is larger, is more distended, and has a cream 

 like color — when piessed it discharges a milky 

 fluid, like that which tills the organs of the 

 drones. 



Tlnee years ago we devised a plan for control- 

 ling fertilization, which we communicated to Mr, 

 Samuel Wagner, Dr. Ehrick Parmley, Mv. W. 

 W. Carey and some others. The plan in sub- 

 stance, was to use a fertilizing house or apart- 

 ment with one window opening fully to the 

 sun's ray at about 2 p. m. — to keep in it one 

 good stock well supplied with choice drones, 

 and to jilace in it the nuclei, having young 

 queens to be fertilized. The window was to 

 have wire cloth slides- with meshes fine enough 

 to allow free passage to the workers only. For 

 a large part of the day, the window to be left 

 v,'holly open ; but during the fiight of the drones 

 the wire slide to be opened and shut at intervals 

 until the drones become accustomed to have their 

 flight to the window interruyjted, both when 

 leaving the hive and when returning to it — the 

 workers also learning the lesson of flying either 

 through the open window or the wire cloth. 

 This window was to be placed JiigJi up, and the 

 stock and nuclei low down, and as far as possible 

 from the window. Tlie drones and workers 

 from the full stock were to be properly educated 

 before the nuclei were introduced. We hoped that 

 in this way, when the queens took their wedding 

 flight, they would fly about the room and mate 

 with drones that did not feel themselves placed 

 in a strange, and tlierefore an unnatural condi- 

 tion. We founded our hopes of success on the 

 fact that the intercourse of queen and drone (see 



* lostead of the wire cloth, panes of glass might 

 be set Ju a sasli, so that at the top of each glass there 

 would be the 5-.32 opening. The window might be 

 made large enough to secure any desirable amount 

 ofliiiht. 



