208 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL AND GAZETTE. 



a few none. No one else in the neighborhood 

 obtained avy surphts Jwney that season, except 

 a friend, whose apiary I superintended. You 

 see my policy. I keep none but strong colo- 

 nies, and all are strengthened early in the sea- 

 son. If I cannot strengthen a colon}', I break 

 it up. I have lost none from the moth, while 

 my neighbors all have. Near the tiniber-Iands 

 pasturage here is most abundant. Early in the 

 spring we have willows, plum groves, and rasp- 

 berry thickets, and a little later lindens, while 

 in the autumn months the golden rod, asters, 

 and cuittle-weed abound." 



The system of management so successful in 

 this case, I am confident cannot fail to demon- 

 strate in any region of country, that there is in 

 all ordinary seasons honey enough, if tlie bees 

 are in a condition to gather it. A hundred col- 

 onies, strong and in perfect order in the begin- 

 ning of the season, will send out swarms and 

 store a good quantity of surplus honey, where 

 one weak in the spring might only gather 

 strength to rear brood in time to consume the 

 honey gathered later in the season. 



Wherever complaints are heard of regions 

 growing poor in honey resources, look first to 

 the condition of the bees there. 



Ellen S. Tupper. 



Bbighton, Iowa. 



For the American Bee Jourual. 



Handling Queen Bees. 



It is recommended by some writers to take 

 queen-bees by their wings, Avitli the thumb and 

 forefinger. That will do at times, but not if 

 the hands are dirty, moist with sweat, or have 

 been handling o^.her hives or bees, especially if 

 a bee has left any of the poison of its sting that 

 the hands have come in contact with. Valu- 

 able queens should not be handled by some per- 

 sons hands at all, while others are compara- 

 tively safe in handling at most times. The 

 queens are apt to contract an odor that is for- 

 eign to the bees and their hive, by being 

 handled, as also sometimes from the cages they 

 are put in. The cage should be left in the hive 

 long enough to lose all odor that is foreign to 

 the hive in which it is placed. 



Leave the queen on her own comb, or let her 

 run off the comb and in the hive in which she 

 is to be placed. Daubing the queen with honej' 

 will sometimes counteract the odor; but a better 

 plan is to sprinkle the whole stock with highly 

 scented honey, and in extreme cases with the 

 use of smoke in audition. That of rotten wood 

 is good. 



Many a queen has been killed by her own 

 bees, because the owner picked her off and put 

 her back in her own hive; the bees no doubt 

 regarding her as a usurper, as she had acquired 

 an odor which they did not like. 



James M. Marvin. 



St. Charles, Ills. 



In Switzerland a whole village clubs to- 

 gether and hires a cold dry room, which they 

 darken and put all their bees in, each man tak- 

 ing away his own again in the spring. 



For the American Bee Journal and Gazctter. 



Mr. Editor: Since yoti invite communica- 

 tions from the patrons of your valuable Jour- 

 nal, I propose to give my views upon the per- 

 plexed question of the complete fertilization of 

 the female bee. That the female bee is subject 

 to three distinct developmcuts, I think few at 

 all conversant with the history of the bee are 

 inclined to question — to wit : toorkeis, fertile 

 icorkers, and queens. 



The term itself — "fertile worker" — implies 

 two distinct and separate fertilizations, in order 

 to develope a perfect mother-bee. The ques- 

 tion then very properly arises, at wliat stage of 

 development do these fertilizations transpire ? 

 My answer is, the first transpires at the time 

 the larva state is perfected. The next C[ues- 

 tion is, how is it brought about ? I reply 

 it is produced by the workers who sacrifice the 

 larvfc to obtain the fertilizing principle known 

 as royal jelly. 



I hold that the fertilizing fluid imparted from 

 the drone to the queen, and from the queen to 

 the egg, is not exhausted of its fertilizing powers 

 until after the larva reaches a certain stage of 

 development, possibly not till the change to a 

 chrysalis. 



Hence it seems rational to conclude that 

 this latent principle of life, previous to being 

 called into action by developing nature, 

 should be as fully possessed of its fertilizing 

 powers as when first imparted to the egg; and, 

 consequently, when duly supplied to the fully- 

 developed larva, as perfectly produces the 

 primary fertilization, so to speak, or drone-pro- 

 ducing powers, as does the actual copulation of 

 perfect insects the secondary or female-produc- 

 ing powers. 



If this view of the case be correct, it follows 

 that the two fertilizations are wrought upon 

 two distinct nervous organizations. Conse- 

 quently, why should it seem at all strange that 

 the queen, when nbout to deposit an egg, should 

 know from sensation which of the sexes she is 

 about to yield ? That she does know this, I 

 think that all who believe in the two kinds of 

 eggs will scarcely doubt. But that she has the 

 power to produce either drone or worker-eggs 

 at will, I am not fully prepared to admit, any 

 more than I am that she has the power to lay 

 at will, or to suspend laying at will. 



It is self-evident that in case the primary 

 fertilization originated with the bees which 

 nurse the larvse, if it were brought about by 

 any principle inherent within themselves, inde- 

 pendent of the drone which fertilized the 

 mother, then the mature queen, if an Italian 

 raised by a nucleus of black bees would be in- 

 herently impure — that is, the same physiologi- 

 cal phenomenon would be witnessed, as in all 

 other cases of mixed blood — a hybrid progeny, 

 testifying to its parentage. 



The drones of such a queen, in this view of 

 the case, would as assuredly show a cross be- 

 tween the black and the Italian, as would the 

 worker progeny in case the mature queen co- 

 pulated with a black drone. 



G. A. Wright. 



Osage, Iowa. 



