42 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[Auo. 



but they annoyed us during the rest of the sea- 

 son. We could hardly open a hive without 

 seeing the robbers of No. 18 arrive in great 

 numbers. I expected winter to destroy this pro- 

 pensity, but they were as bad after as ever before. 

 Happily, it was the only hive in our apiary that 

 had such a characteristic. 



One day the son of one of our neighbors came 

 and told us that our bees were robbing one of 

 their hives. " It is probably No. 18 that is rob- 

 bing," answered I. Indeed, we found No. 18 

 working as during harvest, whilst the other 

 hives were quiet. My son went to see the robbed 

 hive ; it had neither queen, brood nor bees. To 

 change the character of this hive we had to use 

 the greatest care in handling honey, and when- 

 ever there was any danger of robbing we had to 

 close No. 18 for a time. After two or three 

 months, the old robbing bees having died, and 

 being replaced by young bees, this hive became 

 as quiet as any other Italian stock, and quieter 

 than black bees generally. When we open some 

 nuclei in the apiary the black bees are always 

 the most annoying in this matter. 



The robbing and stinging propensities of bees 

 can therefore be increased or decreased by man. 

 They can be educated in this matter, at least. 



JSygs— According to Mr. Adair, the eggs of 

 bees do not differ substantially from the seeds of 

 the poppy or of the tomato. There is, however, a 

 great diflerence. The seed of the poppy has 

 been fertilized before its development, and could 

 not have developed if this fertilization had not 

 taken place; whilst the egg of the bee can 

 develop itself without any forced action, and is 

 capable of fecundation only after its growth, and 

 when it leaves the cluster of eggs of the ovaries. 



" In a normal colony such eggs always pro- 

 duce worker- bees, and although from the same 

 eggs queens may be produced, it is only when 

 there is some derangement in the proper balance 

 of the hives, and consequently is abnormal " (p. 3.) 



"Drones are an abnormality." 



I cannot conceive how the production ef 

 queens and drones is an abnormality, or an 

 irregular act. All beings that belong to the 

 animal kingdom are perptetuated by the mating of 

 both sexes. An abnormality would be a race of 

 animals that would perpetuate with the help of 

 only one sex. But nothing is more normal than 

 the reproduction of animals of either sex, since 

 without this reproduction the race would perish. 



" General causes of production of drones and 

 queens. — There are physical qualities that pertain 

 to the queen alone. The most general cause 

 pertains to the whole colony, and is the result, as 

 in the production of queens, of some derange- 

 ment in ihe proper balance of the hive. . . .When 

 honey becomes abundant in the fields. . . .the 

 hive is rapidly filled, and consequently the laying 

 room is contracted, and the queen finds herself 

 suddenly deprived of cells in which to deposit 

 the fast accumulating eggs ; the result is a physi- 

 cal derangement of the reproductive organs, 

 and consequently drone eggs, which she is com- 

 pelled (why ?) to lay in drone cells if there be any 

 in the hive." 



Here is a fact that destroys the whole of Mr. 

 Adair's arduous theories on the production of 



drones. I never leave any drone comb in my 

 hives, except in those that I destine to the pro- 

 duction of drones. These hives I select with 

 the aim of securing pure fertilization for my 

 queens. Now I have never seen my queens lay 

 drone eggs when they have no drone combs, 

 except in case of disease or old age. The physi- 

 cal derangement, therefore, takes place only in 

 Mr. Adair's imagination. 



Moreover, every year, as early as March, I 

 introduce drone comb in strong, pure, and pro- 

 lific colcmies, in the centre of the hive. The 

 result is that the queen lays eggs in it almost 

 immediately, as this comb is placed in the 

 warmest part of the hive. This also upsets Mr. 

 Adair's theory ; for these queens lay drone eggs 

 without experiencing the physical derangement 

 of which Mr. Adair speaks. 

 A normal colony of bees; (p. 5.) • 



" A perfectly balanced normal colony of bees 

 consists only of a queen and workers ; and so 

 long as the balance is maintained, there is no 

 necessity for any other members being added." 



I do not understand this. We see, daily, colo- 

 nies composed of queen and workers, and there- 

 fore well balanced and normal, raising drones and 

 young queens, and swarming. 



^^ Another fact. — Another fact of great impor- 

 tance is that so long as the balance is perfect, no 

 drone-comb will be constructed by the bees, nor 

 will any queen cell be commenced." 



I do not understand this any better. A well- 

 balanced colony, having queen and workers, will 

 build drone combs as soon as it is strong enough 

 to do so. By what Mr. Adair says, it would 

 appear that as long as a hive has no drones, it is 

 well-balanced, and will raise neither drone nor 

 queen cells. Therefore, a hive that never had 

 drones could never have any, and could never 

 swarm. 



" And still another. — And we venture to assert 

 another fact ; that in such a colony the bees can 

 generate wax and construct combs as rapidly as 

 it is needed for the brooding of the queen and 

 the storing of honey." (Same page.) 



It is a recognized fact, that bees build comb 

 only according to their needs. So if we hive a 

 swarm in an empty hive, this swarm will build 

 if the harvest is good, and will stop building as 

 soon as the harvest ceases. 



Let us suppose that a short time after hiving 

 the swarm, a heavy honey harvest should take 

 place — such a crop as Gallup spoke about, when 

 a hive gathers thirty or forty pounds of honey 

 per day ,- will the bees of the swarm have enough 

 comb to store all that they can gather ? No ! 

 Evidently, Mr. Adair is thus mistaken, when he 

 says that a hive will always have enough of 

 comb for the storing of honey. It is principally 

 for want of room that the extractor is so useful 

 to bee-keepers. 



Another proof, of the falsity of this theory, 

 lies in the fact that, if you give transferred combs 

 to a colony when honey is abundant in the blos- 

 soms, the bees will fill them before they fasten 

 them— either through lack of time, or lack of 

 wax — and the combs thus filled will fall, or be- 

 come deformed, by the weight of honey. 



