228 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[April, 



which is prepared for them and deposited in the 

 cells? This is a very important thing to know. As 

 the food prepared for the larvae tastes very strong of 

 pollen, it imparts much of its flavor to the honey and 

 very much injures its quality. If somebody does not 

 answer this question, I shall take it for granted that 

 it is improper to extract from the brooding apartment 

 of the hive, unless we are very careful to reject such 

 combs as have very young larvae in them. But I 

 think 1 have asked questions enough for once, and will 

 try my hand at answering a few. Commencing with 

 question number one in the question department of 

 the February number A. B. J., I would answer that 

 bees hatched late in the fall, and that have taken no 

 flight before setting away for the winter, will be 

 found to be the last to perish after commencing to 

 fly in the spring. Question number two: If the 

 extracted honey is thoroughly mixed it will not sepa- 

 rate, but different kinds of honey, if poured into a 

 barrel, separate, with the lightest on top, and will 

 remain partially separate, if remaining quiet; but 

 if you empty the heaviest honey <>n the top, they 

 will be pretty thoroughly mixed without further 

 trouble. Question number four: It will always pay 

 to double stocks in the spring, when there are not 

 bees enough in either one to mature brood rapidly. 

 There is one more question that has frequently been 

 asked, viz: How to cure bees of dysentery when 

 attacked with it in the cellar? One says, give more 

 ventilation, and another says, less, and a third says, 

 to take their honey away and give A I coffee sugar; 

 though this last should more properly be given as a 

 preventive. My way to cure them is, first, to fill 

 my stove full of dry maple wood, sufficient to heat 

 my kitchen to about 100° Far., and then bring my 

 diseased swarm from the cellnr and place them 

 where they will warm up as quickly and thoroughly 

 as possible. Of course the room must be dark or 

 the bees confined to their hive. When they are 

 thoroughly warmed up, I set them back in the cellar 

 and find them as quiet as when first put away in 

 the fall, with not an indication of dysentery left. 



J. E. Benjamin. 

 Rockford, Iowa. 



•■♦-• 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



The First Kecorded Demonstration of True 

 Parthenogenesis. 



Mk. Editor. — In the very interesting article in 

 your March number, translated from the German of 

 Dr. Kornhuber, occurs the following statement : 



" The first direct proof of the existence of real 

 parthenogenesis was furnished by Leuckhart, in the 

 Bienenzeitang, 1855, p. 127, where he communicates 

 the results of the microscopic examination of a queen 

 bee sent him by Baron Berlepsch. This queen had 

 been hatched in September, 1854, a time when no 

 drones existed. The next spring she had filled 1,500 

 cells with male progeny. On dissection, it became 

 evident that the queen had not been impregnated. 

 She was a normally formed female, with seed pouch 

 and eggs; but instead of spermatic filaments, the 

 former contained a perfectly clear liquid, devoid of 

 granules or cells, just as in the pupae of queen." 



In the October, 18(56, number of the American 

 Bee Journal,]). 74, in an article, " On the impregna- 

 tion of the Eggs of the Queen Bee," I have stated 



facts which prove that the first demonstration of true 

 parthenogenesis was made, not in Germany, by Prof. 

 Leuckhart, but in this country, by Prof. Joseph 

 Leidy, of Philadelphia. Copies of this article were 

 sent to the bee journals of Germany, but as the facte 

 there stated were not known by Dr. Kornhuber, and 

 probably by few abroad, I give them again to the 

 public, and as the Am. B. J. has now a much wider 

 circulation in Europe than it had in 1866, they will 

 doubtless obtain due recognition. 



On page forty-one of the first edition of my work 

 on "The Hive and The Honey Bee," published by 

 Hopkins and Bridgman, Northampton, Mass., in 

 May, 1853, occurs the following statement: 



"In the autumn of 1852, my assistant found in 

 one of my hives a young queen, the whole of whose 

 progeny were drones. * * This queen had laid 

 a number of eggs in one of the combs, and the young 

 bees from some of them were just emerging from the 

 cells. * * * As there were none but worker 

 cells in the hive, they were reared in them, and not 

 having space for full development, they were dwarfed 

 in size, although the bees, in order to give them 

 more room, had pieced out the cells so as to make 

 them larger than usual ! Size excepted, they appeared 

 as perfect as any other drones. * * * The 

 queen was removed from the hive and carefully 

 examined. Her wings, although they appeared to 

 be perfect, were so paralyzed that she could not fly. 

 It seemed probable, therefore, that she had never 

 been able to leave the hive for impregnation. To 

 settle the question beyond the possibility of doubt, 

 I submitted this queen to Dr. Joseph Leidy for 

 microscopic examination. The following is an extract 

 from his report: 'The ovaries were filled with eggs. 

 The poison sac was full of fluid. * * * The 

 spermatheca was distended with a perfectly colorless, 

 transparent, viscid liquid, without a trace of sperm- 

 atozoa.' 



" This examination seems perfectly to sustain the 

 theory of Dzierzon, and to demonstrate that queens 

 do not need to be impregnated in order to lay the 

 eggs of males." 



L. L. Langstroth. 



Oxford, Ohio, March, 1873. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Bee Disease. 



it is a well established fact, with me at least, that 

 weak colonies which have been confined to the hives 

 for a length of time, and become chilled until they 

 are dormant, if they revive and the atmosphere still 

 continues too cold for them to fly out and void their 

 accumulated fosces, will have what is termed dysen- 

 tery, and will soon perish if not attended to ; when, 

 if the weather had been so they could have flown a 

 few days before chilling, it would seemingly have 

 injured them but little. I have frequently had 

 weak, destitute colonies become chilled in the spring, 

 after they had several days to fly. On taking them 

 into a warm room, bringing them to and feeding, 

 allowing them to fly, they would appear as well as 

 ever. Feeding bees with liquid food in cold weather, 

 that have been confined to the hive for some time, 

 unless they can fly at the time of feeding, will 

 be very apt to give them the dysentery, (if they 

 have not been chilled.) All such bees as have to be 



