THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL AND GAZETTE. 



169 



became aware of what I was after, formed iuto 

 a cluster on the ceiling, directly over the hive, 

 and, on showing to them the flandriu bottle, 

 they, PreMo! as if touched by a magician's 

 wand, " unanimously'^^ dropped from the ceiling 

 among the frames, when, in a jitFy, I clapped 

 on the cover, placing the hottU on top as a sen- 

 tinel to keep them in. , 



And here I propose to leave them till your 

 readers shall feel interested in what became of 

 them thereafter. 



Most delightfully, yours, &c.. 



Prof. A. P. Aster Alsatius A. M., 

 Ph. D. Asst. Experimental Philosopher in En- 

 tomological Metempsychosis, Molecular 

 Micromimics, and Corresponding Secretary 

 of Coon Island Golden Apiary, West End, 

 Pa., 12^ miles from shore. 



Note. — Professor Flander says " Taint;'''' I 

 know better; I say It is, for by a certain alexi- 

 terial subjection of these ^.rirwis to my ^Astral- 

 omeliphagostic Pantalembickosmatrabilarium, 

 I have obtained a substance in every respect 

 identical with the thrasico-ti'igoneilaniso-hege- 

 microcosmological fluidity of Prof. Flanders, f 



The additional powers inspissated by the 

 above laborious process to this already wonder- 

 ful "Charm," have induced me to apply, by- 

 and-by, (Oh my !) for letters patent wherewith 

 to protect the bottles before sending them, per 

 mail, to my customers. 



Mr. Editor, if you Avill send me three stamps, 

 I will forward to you a quart of it for trial next 

 season. It does not smell very bad, and I 

 think it is very good. 



*P. S. — For the benefit of those of your readers who do 

 not, like we Professors, understand the meauing of the 

 above chemical expressions, I would s-ay that the first is the 

 machine newly invented and patented, by the use of which 

 we caa extract the volatile oil of "Funny Greek " 



t The second is, the oil obtained so "fixed" that the 

 "Funny Greek" cannot evaporate. 



The larvre of bees, though without feet, are 

 not without motion. They advance from their 

 first station at the bottom of the cell in a spiral 

 direction. This movement, for the first three 

 days, is so slow as to be scarcely pcrceptilile; 

 but after this it is more easily discerned. The 

 insect now makes two entire revolutions in 

 about an hour and three quarters; and when 

 the period of its metamorphosis arrives, it is 

 scarcely more than two lines from the mouth of 

 the cell. Its attitude, which is always the 

 same till its metamorphosis approaches, is a 

 strong curve. This causes the inmate of a 

 horizontal cell to be always perpendicular to 

 the horizon; and that of a vertical one to be 

 parallel with it. 



Bees are generally thought to foresee the 

 state of the weather; but they are not always 

 right in their prognostics. Reaumur witnessed 

 a swarm, which, after leaving the hive at half- 

 past one o'clock, was overtaken by a heavy 

 shower at three. 



[From the American Agriculturist.] 



Impurities of Cross-bred Drones. 



BY BID WELL BROS. , ST. PAUL, MINN. 



The best apiarians, both in this country and 

 Europe, consider that a pure Italian queen, in 

 mating with a less pure or black drone, though 

 producing cross-bred queens and workers, will 

 nevertheless produce pure Italian drones. In 

 our experience we have not foimd it so. 



The great multiplication of Italian bees in 

 Europe as well as America, isby what is termed 

 Italianizing — that is, removing a black queen 

 and substituting an Italian in her place. Her 

 progeny in time replace the black bees. Queens 

 for the remaining hives of the apiary are reared 

 by removing the Italian queen nnd compelling 

 the queenless bees to rear one or more " forced 

 queens " from her worker eggs or larvae. After 

 hatching, these tiy out to meet the drones, which 

 at that time are for the greater part black drones, 

 the progeny of the previous black queens, 

 or belonging to neighboring hives. The drones 

 of these "hybrid queens," so-called — (Italian 

 queens which mate black drones,) are claimed 

 to be pure Italians, and are allowed the second 

 season to mate with queens subsequently reared 

 from eggs of the original pure queen, thereby 

 aftecting, we claim, in a degree, the greater 

 part of the apiary. 



In bee-breeding these, facts are established, 

 viz : Queens tliat have never met the drones 

 will lay fertile eggs which will all hatch into 

 drones. Queens never meet the male but once, 

 and after this they are called "fecundated 

 queens." Their eggs are directly influenced 

 by thefecundative principle, or not, at volition. 

 These eggs which are thus fecundated produce 

 workers or queens; those which are not fecun- 

 dated, as is the case with the eggs of the non- 

 fecundated queens, produce drones From these 

 premises, and from the fact that an Italian 

 queen crossed with a black drone produces 

 droues more or less closely resembling pure 

 Italians, apiarians argue that the drone progeny 

 must be of the original purity of the virgin queen, 

 and advise the use of such drones in apiaries. 



Now we claim that a jmre Italian queen, in 

 mating loith a less pure drone, or with a black 

 drone, is tainted, and remains a cross-bred ever 

 after. Certain it is that the seed of the drone 

 forms a part of her system, requiring the blood 

 or fluids of her liody to circulate into it and 

 back iuto her for its nutrition and development. 



An Italian queen having mated an Italian 

 drone, produces handsomer, and hence purer 

 drones than similar and sister queens having 

 mated black drones; this we have observed in 

 many diflerent apiaries. Our experience on 

 this point is as fclloAvs : In raising Italian queens 

 in the summer of '05, the first queen that mated 

 with a black drone produced drones of an 

 inferior colcri', and apparently less pure than 

 those of sister queens mating with Italian 

 drones. We were compelled to remove her 

 from our apiary. We repeated the experiment 

 afterwards with similar results. To prove that 

 this queen must have mated with a black drone. 



