THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL AND GAZETTE. 



175 



nagement is not precisely ac^apted to every dis- 

 trict, and mucli may be gained from a knowl- 

 edge of the deviations and variations which 

 have been found advantageous in any special 

 locality. Processes, too, may be modilied or 

 simpliiied; or a lucky thought may have led to 

 the adoi>tion of more convenient or more effi- 

 cient modes of operation. Accounts of these, 

 if communicated, can hardly fail to be of prac- 

 tical benefit, especially to new beginners. The 

 freaks of bees, too, are endless and wonflerful, 

 and there is scarcely a rule laid down in the 

 books to which we do not find exceptions in 

 practice. All these furnish food for reflection 

 and study, and a notice of them and of the de- 

 vices to which they have led, may relieve many 

 a novice from the embarrassment and dis- 

 couragement he feels when encountering such 

 for the first time in his own experience. Bee- 

 culture is not all enjoyment. It has its annoy- 

 ances as well as its delights. Troubles and 

 trials and difficulties will present themselves. 

 An account of them and of the means by which 

 they were overcome, will serve to encourage 

 those who are laboring under similar perplexi- 

 ties, and tend to infuse into them the spirit 

 which actuates the mathematician, who takes 

 pleasure in solving difficult problems. Of 

 course we desire to have detailed accounts of 

 new manipulations, successful operations, and 

 satisfactory results in bee-culture. They will 

 be to us as gratifying as to those who commu- 

 nicate. But do not omit to tell us likewise of 

 your mishaps and failures, of plans frustrated 

 and hopes disappointed — for you can hardly 

 have escaped being harrassed by such — and your 

 contributions will assuredly prove to be not only 

 acceptable to us, but interesting, instructive, 

 and useful to a large number of inquiring bee- 

 keepers. 



Impure Drones. 



■■ « < fii > » — 



TiiEKE is little danger to be apprehended 

 from the bees when they swarm, because at that 

 time they are well gorged with honey, with 

 which they take care to supply themselves 

 richly before leaving their maternal home, as 

 an outfit for organizing their contemplated new 

 establishment. At such times the naked hand 

 may be thrust up into the middle of a swarm as 

 it hangs on a bough, without tlieir showing the 

 least resentment; which, were they in their 

 hive, they would not suiter without the utmost 

 indignation. But if they have been hovering 

 about long after swarming, before alighting and 

 clustering, or have been clustered on a limb an 

 hour or more after swarming, so that much of 

 the honey with which they had supplied them- 

 selves has been digested, they will be apt to 

 become irritated, if not gently managed at hiv- 

 ing. 



We copy on another page, from the ^'Ameri- 

 can AgricuUurisf,'" a communication of Messrs. 

 Bidwell Bror's, respecting the quality of cross- 

 bred drones, in which the opinion is expressed 

 that all such drones are necessarily more or less 

 impure. This opinion is based on the assump- 

 tion that the semen of the drone "forms part of 

 the system" of a fertilized queen, "requiringthe 

 blood or fluids of her body to circulate into it 

 and back into her for its nutrition and develop- 

 ment." 



The subject is an interesting one, and has 

 claimed the attention of apiarians and physiolo- 

 gists ever since the Dzierzon theory was pro- 

 mulgated in the Bieiienzeitung. The more fully 

 it has been investigated, the more decided has 

 been the conviction that the drones are always 

 precisely of the same character and quality as 

 the queens producing them. 



The spermatheca of an unfertilized queen is 

 usually found charged with a pellucid liquid, 

 deposited therein by secretory glands. It is 

 consequently a secretion which, as such, re- 

 mains there, unless discharged through the ori- 

 fice of the organ into the oviduct, and voided as 

 other secretions and excretions are. It does 

 not return into the circulation any more than 

 do the contents of the poison-sac, at least no 

 vessels have yet been detected, in either case, 

 fitted to reconvey. Moreover, the sperm is not 

 a fcetus, requiring circulation for its growth and 

 development. It has simply vitality, and that 

 vitality is preserved for the time by the liquid 

 in which it is immersed, just as the simple 

 vitality of the egg can be preserved for a pro- 

 tracted period by immersion after extrusion. 



This is the view of the case now entertained. 

 Until vessels are found, fitted for the reconvey- 

 ance into the queen's system, of the liquid con- 

 tents of her spermatheca, so as tore-introduce 

 it into the circulation, Ave shall have to accept 

 the theory as correct, however much appear- 

 ances may sometimes seem to militate against 

 it. Again, if the suggestion that cross-bred 

 drones are necessarily impure, is to be received 

 as a ruling principle, it ought to be found to 

 work conversely also — that is, common queens 

 fertilized by an Italian drone should produce 

 hybrid, or at least contaminated drones. But 

 this is conceded not to be the case. No evi- 

 dence, of any such contamination, has ever j'et 

 been found, though often looked for. The 

 proof here is more satisfactory and conclusive 

 also, as it is much easier to obtain common 

 queens of undoubtedly pure race to breed from 



