THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



117 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



WASHINGTON, DECEMBER, 1868. 



H^"The American Bee Journal is now 

 published monthly, in the City of Washington, 

 (D. C.,) at $2 per annum in advance. All com- 

 munications should be addressed to the Editor, 

 at that place. 



am — 



Queens and Workers. 



Our correspondent, Mr. Gallup, errs in as- 

 suming that the queen larvae are fed in their 

 earliest stages, with food differing in composi- 

 tion or quality from that which worker larvas 

 receive. This was formerly believed to be the 

 case ; but it is now ascertained that, as regards 

 quality of nutriment, all fare alike until near 

 the period of capping. Up to the sixth day 

 after emerging from the egg all the larvae, 

 whether workers or drones, or those designed 

 for queens, receive precisely the same kind and 

 quality of food, namely, chyme, as prepared by 

 partial digestion in the stomach of the nursing 

 workers. To the queen larva, however, this is 

 administered in larger quantity — so plentifully, 

 indeed, and apparently so greatly in excess of 

 its immediate needs, that the nascent insect 

 literally swims in it, or on it. But when the 

 time for capping approaches a change is made 

 in the food, and the worker and drone larvae 

 are thenceforward fed with a mixture of undi- 

 gested honey nud pollen, while the queen larva 

 continues to receive the accustomed chyme ex- 

 clusively, still administered with unstinted 

 copiousness. 



The longevity and fertility of queens do not, 

 therefore, result so much from the peculiar or 

 superior quality of the nutriment consumed by 

 them in the early stage of their existence, as 

 from its greater abundance and continuous use, 

 and from the enlarged size of the cell in which 

 they are reared, whereby a more full and per- 

 fect development of the insect is made attaina- 

 ble and fostered from the instant of its exclu- 

 sion from the egg. In these respects queens 

 reared naturally by the workers possess, in al- 

 most all cases, advantages only partially enjoy, 

 ed by those artificially bred, and hence become 

 qualified to be more productive and longer 

 lived. 



Mr. T. W. Woodbury, of Mount Radford, 

 England, (the "Devonshire Bee-keeper"), has 

 obligingly favored us with a translation, pre- 

 pared by him, of Dr. Preuss' essay on Foul- 

 brood, which recently appeared in the Bienen- 

 zeitung. We shall present it to onr readers im- 

 mediately after the article on the same subject, 

 from the pen of Mr. Lambrecht, is concluded. 



E2T On inquiry, we find that we were under 

 a wrong impression as regards the Kidder hive. 

 In the case referred to in our last number, we 

 learn that the court rendered no decision. Had 

 this information reaehed us in time, we should 

 have made the necessary correction in Mr. 

 Gallup's article on page 107 of the present 

 number. 



A chemical correspondent of a late German 

 bee journal suggests the use of freshly prepared 

 solution of hydrate of lime (lime water) as a 

 specific, to remove pain and prevent swelling 

 when stuag by bees. According to him, the 

 poison of the bees is an acid in all respects 

 similar to formic acid, and like it instanty 

 neutralized by lime-water. We cannot test this 

 prescription ourselves, as, with us, the sting of 

 a bee causes slight pain and no swelling— albeit 

 this was by no means so in by -gone years. 



A bee-keepers' association has recently been 

 formed at Montreal, in Canada, for the encour. 

 agement of bee-culture in that vicinity. The 

 following named gentlemen are it officers : 

 Gerhard Lomer, Esq., of Montreal, President; 

 Dr. Webber, of Richmond, aud Thomas Vali 

 quet, Esq., of St. Hilaire, Vice Presidents; 

 John Lowe, Esq., of Montreal, Treasurer ; S. 

 J. Lyman, Esq., of Montreal, Secretary ; and 

 J. J. Higgens, of Cote St. Paul, Mr. Goodhue, 

 of Danville, and Mr. Piper, of St. Gabriel 

 Locks, Committee. 



C^*We have in hand still a large number of 

 communications from valued correspondents, 

 for which we could not make room this month. 

 Though some of them might be in season now, 

 they will not spoil by being held over, and shall 

 have early attention. 



We expect to begin the coming year with in- 

 creased aid from contributors ; and hope to 

 complete arrangements to have in each number 

 at least one illustration, expressly designed and 

 engraved for the Journal. 



