THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



243 



apiary, when all will return to their respective 

 homes. Or they may be put in a hive or nu- 

 cleus with the queen, and form an independent 

 colony. 



This method is not patented. Try it, Mr. 

 Rice, and report your success. 



I made the discovery by accident, in 1802. 

 While taking off a large lot of boxes, a queen 

 happened to be in one ; the next morning all 

 the bees had collected around her. Since then, 

 I have tried it often, and have never failed to 

 get all the bees out. 



II. Nesbit. 



Cyntriana, Ky., May,lS8(). 



and thus keep the stock strong ; or, by increas- 

 ing the amount of pastorale, to gain the same 

 end ? We must increase the amount of pastur- 

 age, to be successful and prosperous in bee- 

 keeping. Jewell Davis. 

 Charleston, Ills., May 7, 18C9. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Barren Queens. 



The Cause op that Disease. 



Mr. Editor: — In the last journal I find 

 pome remarks on the above subject, by friend 

 Thomas, of Brooklin, Canada. I think the 

 correctness of his remarks depends much upon 

 how he defines the word barren, when applied 

 to the condition of the queen. If he meaDS 

 that the has ceased t.o lay worker eggs, but still 

 continues to lay drone eggs, then I think the 

 barrenness which he regards as a contingency 

 "too common to be productive of such fatal 

 results, 1 ' will, every time it occurs, prove fatal 

 to the stock in wJiich there is just such a queen, 

 unless promptly supplied with a fertile one. If 

 he means tuat the queen has, for a longer or 

 shorter period, ceased to lay eggs of any kind, 

 then, if this pciiod of time is too long protract- 

 ed, it would again prove fatal to the colony, as 

 it did in 1808, no matter how common the con- 

 tingency, for a short period of time. If then 

 the failure of honey in the flowers will be the 

 cause of barreuess in the queen, as long as it 

 continues ; our remedy is to feed the bees and 

 stimulate the queen to fertility. This fail- 

 ure of fertility with the queen is no longer 

 problematical with me, as to its "fatal results." 

 It is now fully developed in these stocks that 

 died— a pint or a quart of dead bees being all 

 that is left of a once fertile queen. 



The scarcity of honey began, in 1808, about 

 the middle of July, and continued until in Sep- 

 tember — long enough to make most of the 

 queens barren for six months. Well might we 

 look for the death of thousands of swarms, 

 which have passed out of existence from such 

 common contingencies. That "scarcity of 

 honey" will instinctively cause the bees to 

 cease to stimulate the queen to fertility, is now 

 placed beyond a doubt. This, then, is a legit- 



[For the American Bee Journal.! 



The Daierzon Theory. 



Reply to II. Rosenstiel. 



In the May number of the current volume of 

 the Bee Journal, page 222, II. R. refers to my 

 article on page 90 of the Bee Journal, for No- 

 vember, 18G7, and says that I claim that the 

 Dzierzon theory is not true. I am surprised that 

 he should make such a mistake, tor, bj r reference 

 to that article, it will be found that I say as 

 follows : — "Now, while I fully endorse the con- 

 clusion arrived at by Mr. Lowe, 'that drones 

 are in some wa}' affected by the act of fecunda- 

 tion, 1 yet I cannot say with him that the Dzierzon 

 theory is not the true theory of reproduction ot 

 the honey bee." 



II. R. will understand that Dzierzon claimed 

 that a pure queen, mating with a common 

 drone, would produce cirones as pure as herself. 

 This at least is what I understand Dzierzon to 

 claim ; and I hold that it is quite correct. 

 Nevertheless, the drones are not pure. And 

 why ? Simply because the queen is affected by 

 the act of coition with the black drone. By ab- 

 sorption and circulation her whole S3^em par- 

 takes of the nature of the male, and she is no 

 longer as pure as she was before coiiiori: Ilence 

 her drones, though as pure as herself, are not 

 pure; yet they are not hybrid, and the Dzierzon 

 theory is true that drone eggs arc unimprcg- 

 natcd eggs. 



If II. K. doubts my theory, he will, of course, 

 accept my offer on page 105 of the Bee Jour- 

 nal, for March, 18j9. Some may suppose that 

 Ihe above theory would make the ho.icy bee an 

 anomaly in creation ; but such is not the case, 

 for it will be found true in very many other 

 animals. It is well known to shecp-brecders, 

 that the blood of the male that first cohabits 

 with the ewe, will appear in after generations, 

 though the ewe may never a?ain cohabit with 

 a male of the same blood. This is true also of 

 cattle, horses, fowls, and even of human beings. 

 Is it strange then that it should be the case with 

 the honey bee ? 



I would say to H. R. that it is no evidence 

 that the black drones did not partake of the 

 nature of the Italians because to the eye they 

 "bore no Italian marks." It is often the case 

 with fowls, and other animals, that no foreign 

 or impure blood can be discerned in the male, 

 yet it will appear in the next generation. I 

 would say, therefore, that though the drones 



imate reason for the loss of so many bees all 



over a wide extended tract of country, without j produced by a pure queen mating with a black 



takinc into account anything that has been drone, may not show to the eye any siens ot 



said about poisonous boney, want of pollen, 

 constipation, or cholera, as the cause of thtir 

 death. 



Shall'we let this occur again, without an ef- 

 fort to save our bees, by feeding them in the 

 time of scarcity, to keep the queen breeding, 



black blood, yet if such drones mate with pure 

 queens, the progeny will show tho dash of 

 black blood, by losing one or more of the yel- 

 low hands. Hence my offer, already reiened 

 to. J. E. Thomas. 



Brooklin, Ontario. 



