AMEEICAN BEE JOUKNAL 



EDITED AND PUBLISHED BY SA]\ttJEL WAGNER, WASHINGTON, D. C. 



AT TWO DOLLAKS PER ANNUM, PAYABLE IN ADVANCE. 



Vol. VI. 



AXJGTJs^T, ISTO, 



No. 2. 



[Translated for the American Bee Journal.] 



Practical Bee Culture. 



Pure Fertilization Controllable. — A Hun- 

 garian Process 



The Bieiienzcitun!]f contains the following 

 commnnication from Mr. Semlitsch, one of its 

 most intelligent correspondents, as well as one 

 of the most experienced practical apiarians in 

 Germany. 



Some time ago the Chevalier de Azula informed 

 me that a Mr. John Dax, of Giins, in Hnngary, 

 employed a means of securing the fertilization 

 of a queen bee, under his immediate supervision, 

 by any drone he chose to select. He stated that 

 Mr. Dax cut out a queen cell on the day before 

 the young queen would mature. ].lacecl it in a 

 queen cage, and let the (pieen emerge therein ; 

 then transferring her with a few workers to an 

 appropriate case, introduced a drone and lertiliza- 

 tion speedily followed. 



Acting on this information, I made several 

 experiments last spring, but failed in every 

 instance. Then having occasion, early in au- 

 tumn, to make an excursion to Penkafeld, in 

 Hungary, I concluded to extend my jaunt nine 

 leagues further and proceeded to Giins. I here 

 found Mr. Dax, who received me very cordially 

 and readily communicated much interesting in- 

 formation gathered by him in the course of forty 

 years' experience in practical bee-culture — besides 

 giving me an opportunity to examine a manu- 

 script treatise prepared by him, eiubracing his 

 observations and opinions, arranged under the 

 head of 136 qiiestions and answers, being 

 literally a bee-keeper's catechism. 



Of course the pure fertilization of queen bees, 

 and the means of securing it, soon became the 

 subject of our conversation ; and he unre- 

 servedly communicated how he proceeded to 

 accomplish that object. As he generously 

 allowed me also to impart the information to 

 others, I now proceed to do so for the benefit of 

 bee-keepers generally. — The importance of the 

 discovery, in case the process proves to be reliable, 

 induces me to make it known at once, though I 

 should have preferred to test it previously more 

 thoroughly myself, under proper conditions. 

 The few experiments which I could as yet make, 

 failed, as it seemed to me, only because the 



weather was then so cold that I could not keep 

 the embryo queens from becoming cliilled in the 

 cells ; but that it is practicable to procure the 

 fertilization of qiteens, by the method employed 

 by Mr. Dax, using the requisite precautions, I 

 regard as unquestionably true. I proceed to 

 details. 



For our purpose we need, first of all, a common 

 cylindrical wire gauze queen cage, fastened 

 securely to the middle of a piece of board ^ inch 

 thick, and having a f inch hole through its centre. 

 This board nivist be sufficiently large to cover 

 the hole in the top of the hive. A second similar 

 board serves to have a queen cell attached to 

 its under side with melted wax, and is laid on 

 the first mentioned board, with the queen cell 

 passing through the f inch hole — thus closing 

 the queen cage. Next we need a tin plate six 

 or seven inches square perforated with numerous 

 holes so small that a worker bee cannot pass 

 through. And finally we need a four-sided case 

 of wire gauze or a glass cylinder, six inches \\4de 

 and six or seven inches high, open at top and 

 bottom, and having within on one side, three or 

 four inches from the bottom, a wooden i^eg or 

 spear on which a small piece of honey comb may 

 be suspended. These are all the requisite 

 materials. 



When we are having queens reared, it is 

 important that we should note the day on which 

 the cells are sealed. On the second day thereafter 

 cut out a queen cell, attach it by means of 

 melted wax to the under side of the second 

 board above described. Then inverting the board 

 pass the cell through the | inch hole of the first 

 mentioned board, into the queen cage, so 

 placing the board that the cell shall be freely 

 suspended in the cage, with room all around 

 and below, for the young queen to emerge when 

 mature, AVith the second board then placed on 

 the first, the queen cage is perfectly closed. 

 Now open the hole in the top of the hive, and 

 place the board on it, with the attached queen 

 cage passing down into the hive as far as the 

 board to which it is fastened will peimit. Close 

 all crevices tightly, and cover the whole with a 

 piece of blanket doubled and securely fastened. 

 By lifting the blanket and raising the upper 

 board to which the queen cell is attached we may 

 at any time ascertain whether the queen has 

 emerged or not. On finding that she has left the 

 cell, we wait four or five days longer, or more 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by Samuel Wagner, in the office of the Librarian of Cungress, at 



Washington. 



