270 



THE AMEBTCAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[JUXE, 



swarms. from prospering, and I was obliged to 

 cease forming nucleus colonies for queen rearing, 

 and feed and take special care of those already 

 formed, to keep them along. About the first of 

 August the huckleberries dried up. An old 

 settler told me they were usually most numerous 

 at that period, and that such a drying time had 

 not been known here for forty years. 



I also made the unpleasant discovery that the 

 milkweed here is different from any I had ever 

 seen before, and very abundant. The bees 

 woi'ked freely on it, and many lost their lives in 

 the following manner. The blossoms have very 

 acute angles, pointing upwards. The bees would 

 get their feet entangled in these angles, and the 

 harder they pulled in their struggles, the tighter 

 they were fastened. Nearly every bunch of 

 blossoms had from one to three bees either dead 

 or struggling on it ; and I think I may Scafely 

 say that I saw hundreds that had thus perished, 

 and Icnoio that a considerable number must 

 have been thus destroyed. I have before now 

 noticed bees with little scales of the northern 

 milkweed attached to their feet ; but this whole- 

 sale destruction was new to me. 



It was certain that at the middle of August, 

 my bees, which had not swarmed, (nor bad any 

 bees or honey been removed except from the 

 natural causes above-mentioned), were in no 

 better condition than they usually are in New 

 Hampshire by the middle or last of I^Iay. How 

 much of this may properly be attributed to the 

 peculiarities of the season and my inexperience 

 here, is ajjroblem not easily solved. It is certain 

 that had I known what to expect, and prepared 

 myself for it, a far different result might, have 

 been obtained. It is not pleasant to record one's 

 failures, but if it shall prove of ativantage to 

 others, as I think it has to me, then you are 

 ■welcome to the facts. 



The severe winds ceased in the early part of 

 summer, and the weather was remarkably pleas- 

 ant and quiet until the middle of October. The 

 first buckwheat I sowed was blasted by the 

 lieat ; but some sown later proved to be of con- 

 siderable value. The bees had worked "on it 

 perhaps two weeks, when a long rain came on, 

 alter whichWery little more was done. I never 

 before had honey stored so rapidly from buck- 

 wheat. The hives had been so poorly supplied 

 that I began to think the bees would not get 

 honey enough to winter on ; but one day I dis- 

 covered that one of them had been speedily filled, 

 and bringing my machine into use, I soon re- 

 moved from fifteen to twenty pounds from each 

 hive, leaving them enough for winter stores. 



I forgot to mention about the toads. There 

 are in this region 799 (or less) on each acre, 

 and just at nightfall they sally forth for their 

 evening meal. They are a small variety, and 

 quite active. One of my neighbors calls them 

 lioppers. Now I do not like to kill toads (you 

 know, it makes the cows give bloody milk!), 

 and think I never did kill one before I came here. 

 But when I went out and found one, "squat like 

 a toad," as Milton says, by the side or in front 

 of each individual hive and nucleus box, my 

 patience was sorely tried. As my cows are kept 

 five or six miles away, I thought I would run 



the risk, armed myself with a stick, and "went 

 for" the squatters. my ! what a scampering 

 there was among the toads ! Ten, twenty, fifty — 

 I don't know how many more were caught 

 "chucking" down the bees. Some, however, 

 got away, and in a short time not a toad was to 

 be found around the hives. I really believe that 

 those which got away were intelligent enough 

 to keep away. The toads did not come back, 

 and the cows did not give bloody milk ; so I 

 quieted my conscience in that respect. 



J. L. Hubbard. 

 Briclcsburg, N. J. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Tlie Noa-fiyin'^ Fertilization of Queen Bees. 



Public attention has been for some years 

 directed to securing the fertilization of queen 

 bees by a process entirely under the control 

 of the apiarian, so that, while selecting the 

 choicest mothers, he may also select the choicest 

 fathers of his apiary, for their progeny. It is 

 only within a few years that it has become spe- 

 cially important to control the fertilization of 

 queens. Since we have commenced breeding 

 from different species of bees, it is as desirable 

 to control this, as it is the stock-raiser to con- 

 trol the breeding of his cattle. 



Believing that when a thing is evidently de- 

 sirable, the Creator has always provided some 

 means of attaining it, I have experimented 

 largely and persistently to control the fertiliza- 

 tion of queen bees. Thus far all my experi- 

 ments have been failures. One plan I have, 

 which, if others fail, I shall give to the public as 

 a plan promising success, although somewhat 

 too complicated for the common breeders of 

 bees. We have reports from various parties, in 

 communications to the different Journals, in pri- 

 vate utterances, and in addresses to bee conven- 

 tions, of great success, in what I shall call non- 

 flying fertilization, simply by confining qvieens, 

 when of proper age, in some receptacle connected 

 with the .hive, so that they receive sufficient 

 warmth, and then at the projier time introduc- 

 ing to them one or more selected drones. From 

 the evidence presented it seems certain that 

 some queens have been fertilized in this way. 

 But as some of our largest and most experienced 

 breeders have failed in almost every instance in 

 which they have attempted thus to control fer- 

 tilization, it seems very evident that we have 

 not yet attained what may be called a practical 

 method of non-flying fertilization. 



I propose a plan by which this confinement of 

 queens with selected drones may be tested the 

 coming season at small expense and on a very 

 large scale, so that by the efforts of many, in 

 different parts of the country, we may reach 

 precisely what are facts and what are merely 

 conjectures ; and if facts, what modifications of 

 the proposed plan may be needed, in order to 

 make it practically useful. 



Let a box be nnide, to fit over the top of one 

 of my hives, in place of a honey-board. Let 

 this box have for its bottom wire-cloth too flue 



