AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



565 



shape one of the front feet catches hold 

 of this apparently secure foothold, upon 

 which the opening is closed from the 

 sensation caused by the foot — holding 

 the foot as in a vise — thus keeping the 

 queen in her doubled-up position as long 

 as the foot is so held. 

 Borodino, N. Y. 



Will of the Queen vs. the Com- 

 pre§9ion Theory, Etc. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY DR. C. G. MILLER. 



Mr. Editor, I see you are determined I 

 shall have no comfort in the columns of 

 the "Old Reliable." There was that 

 woman from Texas, pounding away at 

 me with her "will "theory, and now 

 you have got in a man from Germany 

 that's worse still. I could get along 

 after a fashion with all the Texas 

 woman had to say, for no matter what 

 argument she brought up, 1 could say, 

 '•But in that case the queen is in a 

 different position from what she Is in a 

 drone-cell." But Herr Reepen comes 

 out in the Centralblatt with the point 

 that the cells of Apis dorsata are all 

 alike, whether drones or workers are 

 reared in them, and if the cells are all 

 the same size, how can there be any dif- 

 ference as to mechanical compression ? 

 Now you see, no matter how much I 

 might squirm and wriggle out of other 

 arguments, I don't see any possible an- 

 swer to that. So the compression theory 

 must be given up entirely ; but please 

 don't print this in the copy you send to 

 Mrs. Atchley. I don't want her to crow 

 over me.* 



AGE OF QUEEN WHEN BEGINNING TO LAY. 



I suspect there may be some mistake 

 on the part of the reporter or printer on 

 page 496, where C. F. Muth is made to 

 say, "On the fourth or fifth day after 

 the queen is hatched, she begins to lay." 

 Our genial German friend is too well 

 posted, and careful In his statements, I 

 think, to make such an assertion. 

 Dadant and Alley make five days the 

 shortest time between the birth of a 

 queen and her first bridal-flight, and 

 Dadant says she lays two days later, 

 making seven days the shortest time for 

 a queen to begin laying. He makes the 

 average time 8 or 9 days. Root gives 9 

 days as the average age of commencing 

 to lay. As a rule, I don't look for eggs 

 until a queen is about 12 days old, for 



although she may commence to lay be- 

 fore that, it takes less time to find eggs 

 when they are plentier, and some queens 

 are slow about commencing to lay.f 



QUEEN OR WORKER ? 



Friend Lindber^k needn't feel humili- 

 ated if he should not in all cases be able 

 to tell a worker from a queen. I'm sure 

 I've been so puzzled. Moreover, I've 

 seen workers encircling and caressing a 

 bee that I thought was a worker. But 

 I don't know whether they would follow 

 her if she were held on the hand. 



REDUCING BEES 100 PER CENT. 



Isn't friend Butts proposing rather 

 too savage a reduction on page 504 ? 

 He says : " I firmly believe that If the 

 stock of bees could be reduced a hundred 

 per cent, in this section of the country 

 at least, apiarists would be rewarded by 

 more surplus honey, and hence far 

 greater profits." They would hardly 

 get more surplus honey by killing all 

 their bees. Or has the "intelligent 

 compositor " been taking liberties with 

 friend Butts' figures ? t 



Marengo, 111. 



[*We don't believe Sister Atchley will 

 "crow" one bit. She may, however, 

 "go trotting off, laughing In both 

 sleeves," as she suggested Dr. Miller 

 might do, on page 492. But, then. It 

 would be just like the Doctor to laugh, 

 too — he's so good-natured he just 

 couldn't help it if he should try. 



fit must have been the mistake of the 

 reporter, for we printed it exactly as It 

 was written with a typewriter. 



tMr. Butts likely meant 50 per cent.; 

 but again we can Inform the Doctor that 

 we printed It exactly as Mr. Butts wrote 

 It. Our "Intelligent compositor" never 

 takes any "liberties" with anybody's 

 " figures." She (for our excellent and 

 intelligent compositor is a lady) is just 

 waiting for a good chance to get even 

 with the Doctor for such Insinuations. 

 When all the women-folks get after 

 him, he'll scatter his "stray straws" 

 worse than ever. If we didn't think so 

 much of the Doctor ourselves, we would 

 certainly be inclined to laugh at his 

 "stray straw" patch predicament— if 

 such should ever materialize ! — Ed.] 



