American Bee Journal 



DEVOTED EXCLUSIVELY TO BEE CULTURE. 



Vol. X. 



CHICAGO, MAY, 1874. 



No. 5. 



Correspondents sihould write only on one side of i 

 the sheet. Their best thouirhts and practical ideas are : 

 always welcome ; no matter how rough, we will cheer- ' 

 fully '• fix them up." ' 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Items from Argus. 



[Mr. Editok : — Your remarks in the Feb- 

 uary number on bee meetings are to the 

 point, unci demand the attention of every 

 bee-keeper, inasmuch as it is for their 

 interest to meet, tell their experience, com- 

 pare notes and criticise. A bee friend 

 suggests that every Town, County and 

 State ought to have meetings as often as 

 desired, and that delegates be sent to the 

 State Convention, and let these again send 

 delegates to the National Convention, hav- 

 ing their expenses paid. 



In this way the best talent will be col- 

 lected, when subjects of the most im- 

 portance will be discussed, and a greater 

 interest awakened, and, too, the published 

 reports of such meetings will be of far 

 greater interest as well as benefit to every 

 progress-loving bee-keeper. As a rule, so 

 little has been done at these meetings it 

 really did not pay for the time and money 

 spent. And another thing : some of the 

 ideas advanced are not fit to be published 

 unless we intend to progress crawfish fash- 

 ion. 



Take for instance the Convention at 

 Topeka, Kansas, held last September (see 

 AsiERic.lN Bee Journal for November) 

 where some new ideas were advanced that 

 may lead to a '^^ great discovery in apicul- 

 tural .science.'" Mr. Meador says after the 

 queen is impregnated " all the eggs produce 

 femals, and that the male bees were generally 

 produced by eggs from, the worker bee that 

 was fed for the purpose." Now all practical, 

 intelligent bee-keepers know that is not so, 

 for a hive in a normal condition never has 

 a fertile worker, and all the drones in such 

 a hive are produced by the queen. One 

 season's operations in an apiary will con- 

 vince a mere tyro of this. 



Again, Mr. O. Badder says he " removed 

 a dozen or more eggs from worker cells to 

 drone cells, and at the same time removed 

 the queen from the hive, and all the eggs 

 thus removed hatched perfect drones as far 

 as the eye could detect. No other solution 

 could be given to this experiment than that 

 the bees removed the spermatozoa that 

 changes the character from male to female 

 after they had been placed in the drone 

 cells." 



From these statements I conclude as fol- 

 lows : — 



1 . The experiment was a very imperfect 

 one, because there was not that careful mi- 

 croscopical examination necessary to test 

 the truth of his statement. 



2. His conclusion is a very erroneous 

 one, because the egg is not fertilized by the 

 life-giving principle, the spermatic filament, 

 remaining on the outside, as his language 

 would seem to imply. 



3. The whole shows an unpardonable 

 ignorance of physiology, because it over- 

 turns the well-established facts in the re- 

 production of the honey-bee. It is very 

 evident that the nature and permanent lo- 

 cation of the spermatozoids is not under- 

 stood, for we learn from the best authority 

 that when an egg leaves the oviary it slips 

 past the seminal duct, where it receives a 

 portion of its contents, and the seminal fila- 

 ments being very active soon find their way 

 into the micropyle or opening of the egg. 

 Now how the bees could remove the 

 spermatozoids from the egg without de- 

 stroying such a delicate article I will leave 

 for Mr. Badders to explain. 



I was somewhat surprised at the secre- 

 tary sending the statements, and more so 

 wiien the Editor published them without 

 note or comment. A good deal has been 

 said i-egarding the cause of bee disease, and 

 some, I think, have arrived at pretty near 

 the truth, but it is just fun to see Friend 

 Quinby astride his hobby, old Boreas, and 

 shouting with all his might, "I tell you, 

 gentlemen, it is cold that kills the bees, for 

 what I know / tmno." 



Behind hin. tiway in the distance, is an- 

 other hobby. Old Sirupy\ its rider is hatless, 

 coatless, and belaboring his nearly worn 

 out favorite. He is also shouting at the top. 

 of his voice : " 'Taint cold that kills the 



