1871.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



259 



to friend Nesbit, as I feared all my best ones 

 were killed oft" — which fear proved to be ground- 

 less, for I had drones the first week in January, 

 and probably have some now. Well, friend 

 Nesbit's drones came, just as the queen was two 

 days old. By the way, I was careful not to have 

 a single drone in the nucleus when transferred. 

 I now put on the fertilizer, adjusted the entrance 

 so that a worker could just squeeze through, then 

 13ut in the drones, which were besmeared with 

 honey as I took them out of the transporting 

 box. The bees immediately commenced licking 

 them off", and they were received all right. On 

 the third day after, I saw a dead drone. By the 

 way, Mr. Adair says the queen will fly against 

 the glass, whenever the cover is lifted off ; but 

 I could never see her do so. On the i)th or 10th 

 day of the queen's age she was laying. I 

 thought I was positively sure I had succeeded 

 this time and the next ; but the third trial puz- 

 zled me. I believe the third trial was made as 

 carefully as the first two, and 1 thought I had 

 the same success, until the young bees began to 

 emerge from the cells— sheer hybrids. Now how 

 this happened I am unable to .say, unless the 

 queen got out at the enti'auce, as the workers did, 

 and met a black drone. 



Hurrah for Novice. He has gone to the camp 

 to make maple sugar, with all his bees ; and is 

 going to tell us how to i^ut our bees at it free of 

 charge ! Well, all right ! 



E. M. Argo. 



Loxoen, Ktj., Feb. 11, 1871. 



[For the Americau Bee Journal.] 



liTew Process cf non-flyicg Fertiliza,tion of 

 Queen Bees, 



Mr. Editor : — When last in Washington, you 

 showed me a letter from one of your correspond- 

 ents describing what he conceived to be a suc- 

 cessful method of non-flying fertilizntion of 

 queen bees, as devised and employed by one of 

 his neighbors. It seems to me that his plan, or 

 something akin to it, promises more success 

 than any one hitherto devised, as it seems to be 

 almost perfectly in accordance with the instincts 

 of the drones and queens. He says that if a 

 hive set on a mound of sawdust, some three feet 

 wide and two feet high, the young queen, with 

 her wings clipped, when* she comes out to meet 

 the drones, is easily seen by them and speedily 

 fertilized. When the queen is confined with the 

 drones, both queens and drones are in an un- 

 natural position, and seem to exert most of their 

 energies in trying to escape. But by the plan 

 mentioned by your correspondent, the queen 

 conies out at the proper season, just as though 

 she were capable of flying. The drones are in 

 full flight, leaving the hive and returning to it. 

 Being elevated above the surface of the mound 

 upon some light substance, she is quickly seen 

 by them, and it seems altogether probable that, 

 in most instances, fertilization will take place 

 and the queen return to her hive. When young 

 queens, whose wings are imperfect, come out in 



the ordinary way, they fall upon the grass or 

 ground, and are not in a position to be noticed 

 by the drones. 



' I shall give this j^lan a full trial the present sear- 

 son, and hope that many of our correspondents 

 will do so also. If it is found to answer, it could 

 easily be modified so as to be made serviceable 

 on a large scale. I do not suppose that there is 

 any peculiar virtue in sawdust, except that 

 being light and elevated, the queen is seen to 

 advantage by the drones. Perhaps a platform 

 over which cotton cloth is stretched, might be 

 found to answer even better than a mound of 

 sawdust. The hive containing drones might, 

 from time to time, be supplied with hatching 

 drone brood from our choicest queens. En- 

 trances might be made on all sides of this hive, 

 and nuclei might easily be placed in position on 

 dift"erent sides, so that drones entering and 

 leaving on all sides, would see the queens from 

 the different nuclei. The expert will easily un- 

 derstand how, by small boards, these nuclei 

 may be so separated from each other that the 

 queens will be almost sure to return to their 

 proper colonies. Should there be danger of the 

 queens crawling over these boards, by rubbing 

 their suifaces with chalk, they would be unable 

 to do so. As soon as the queen of any nucleus 

 is known to be fertilized, she might be removed, 

 and a nearly matured queen cell, or a just 

 hatched queen, put in her place. In this way 

 a few colonies separated a few rods from the 

 main apiary, and containing the drones from 

 which we wish to breed, might be made to serve 

 for a very large nvimber of nuclei. It is only 

 within a few years that the- necessity for non- 

 flying fertilization has been felt, and sooner or 

 later unquestionably some practicable method 

 for accomplishing it will be devised. 



L. L. Langsteoth. 

 Oxford, Ohio, April 13, 1871. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Natural and Forced Queens, 



I watched the discussion of this subject in the 

 Bee Journal for some time, with quite an inter- 

 est ; but, after hearing both sides of the ques- 

 tion, I am left to do as I always have done in the 

 propagation of queens. I have been propagating 

 queerjs for several years, for my own use and the 

 public as called for, but not making it a speciality. 

 I received my first instructions f'rom Eev. L. L. 

 Langstroth, and always rear my royal cells in 

 strong colonies, and from the egg or larva just 

 hatched— feeding the colony with sugar syrup 

 every evening when forage is not abundant. In 

 regard to the longevity and fertility of such 

 queens, I have found no difficulty. 



With the introduction of the Italian bee, some 

 years since, in my apiary, I commenced raising 

 queens, and in a short time my bees appeared as 

 though making an eft"ort to overstock my apiarj-, 

 which never occurred while operating with the 

 black bee, and under the old system of natural, 

 hardy, and prolific queens. 



My attention was never called to the speedy 



