574 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 15. 



admit that one of the reasons is because we 

 recommended it, and that the majoiiiy do as 

 we indicate; but in turn we are intluenced by 

 the preferences of some of the best and most 

 successful bee-l<eepers for the eight-frame, and 

 we decided it was better to follow their advice. 

 Now, we are not prejudiced in favor of one 

 hive over the other. We desire to be on the 

 right side, or, more strictly speaking, to rec- 

 ommend that hive which will suit best the 

 needs of the mass of bee-keepers with whom we 

 deal. It is a fact, and we presume it is true 

 that our customers will follow largely our 

 recommendation ; and the reponsibility is a 

 great one, and we therefore desire to view the 

 matter as candidly and fairly as possible. — Ed.] 



EGGS. 



DO BEES TRANSPORT THEM ? AN INTERESTING 

 CA.SE. 



By J. A. Golden. 



I notice in Gleaning.s, page 50(5, that Willie 

 Atchley makes an attack on Rambler as well as 

 on all who advocate the theory that bees do 

 carry eggs and deposit them in cells for the pur- 

 pose of rearing queens; and in his argument, 

 with his close observation, he gives quite a con- 

 vincing proof that his theory can not be suc- 

 cessfully disputed; but after he has heard from 

 quite a number of close observers of bees, who 

 have observed their peculiar freaks, he perhaps 

 may come to the conclusion that he is wrong in 

 speaking with such strong language as he does 

 when he says that bees never carry eggs from 

 one cell to another, nor to any part of the hive, 

 nor anywhere else, for that matter, and depC"!!, 

 in view of rearing a queen; and to satisfy Wil- 

 lie that he makes a mistate we will call his at- 

 tention to this one case: 



Three years ago I had two colonies of black 

 bees. I was introducing Italian queens, having 

 at the same time a queenless Italian colony 

 badly infested with fertile workers, which killed 

 two queens as soon as they liberated them from 

 the cages. So I concluded I would cage one of 

 the black queens taken from one that I wa< in- 

 troducing an Italian queen to, and hang it in 

 the hive two or three days, and then see if I 

 could introduce her to the fertile-worker colo- 

 ny. Having made a hole in the wire cloth over 

 the cage, so a worker-bee could get in. I sus- 

 pendi'd the cage between two frames, and cov- 

 ered the hive up. Some ten or twelve'days aft- 

 erward Mr. C. C. Eddy called to see me, and we 

 went into the bee-house. The thought sudden- 

 ly occurred to me in regard to the queen that 

 was suspended in the fertile-worker colony, 

 having entirely forgotten the matter. We then 

 opened the hive, and, what do you suppose we 

 found ? Well, Willie, we found two patches of 

 brood and eggs around that queen-cage, nearly 

 as large as one's hand, and two queen-cells 

 nearly ready to cap over; and, on examination, 

 lots of eggs were observed around the inside of 

 the cage. The queen was three years old, and 

 was killed, and queen-cells destroyed, and an 



Italian queen introduced and accepted. In due 

 time the brood hatched that was thus reared, 

 and were the regular native (or German) bee, 

 tlie same as the queen. Then when the eggs 

 from the queen introduced hatched, they proved 

 to be satisfactorily ihree-banded. 



Now, Willie Atchley, please tell us where 

 those eggs came from, if the bees did not carry 

 them from the caged queen and place them in 

 those cells, as above stated. J. A. Golden. 



Reinersville, O., June 25. 



[If we remember correctly, there have been 

 reports in Gleanings, saying that bees do ac- 

 tually move eggs from one part of the hive to 

 another, and a large amount of circumstantial 

 evidence to the eft'ect that bees at times, when 

 queenless. and reduced to the last extremity, 

 will steal an egg from another colony, with 

 vvhich to rear a queen; but we do not remem- 

 ber that we have ever had a report before, 

 where a queen deposited eggs anywhere else 

 than in cells of comb. We have sometimes seen 

 eggs drop from a queen in the height of her 

 laying season, as she walked over the combs; 

 we have also seen bees pick them up; but what 

 they did with them, we do not know. We 

 shall be glad to receive reports from others, 

 especially on this point as to whethei- bees will 

 at times take eggs and put them into queen- 

 cells. The theory that Willie Atchley advanc- 

 es may account for some of the phenomena 

 noticed in the hive; but we do not believe we 

 can safely say yet that bees do not actually 

 take the eggs and deposit them in cells under 

 circumstances, at times, that may seem extra- 

 ordinary.— Ed.] 



^ I ^ 



THE TARIFF. 



WHY THERE SHOULD BE A PROTECTIVE DUT^ 

 ON honey; A STRONG ARTICLE. 



By H. F. Moore. 



lean not forbear replying to the free-tradt 

 doctrine advanced by friend W. G. Hewes, or 

 page .505. of June 15th issue of GLEANi>fGs. 

 have a most friendly feeling toward all reader; 

 of Gleanings, and I can not bear to think sue! 

 ideas should go unchallenged to your 50.00( 

 ri'aders, many of whom may have no opportu 

 nity to investigate the matter for themselves. 



Friend Hewes takes issue with Mr. Elwoot 

 in his attack on the proposed reduction of dutj 

 on honey by the Wilson bill. He says the Cali 

 fornia prices are governed entirely by the goot 

 or poor crop in California. As a matter of fact 

 doesn't Mr. Hewes know that carloads anc 

 carloads of California honey are shipped U 

 Chicago, Indianapolis, New York, and othej 

 cities east? that the price the first carloac 

 brings furnishes a standard of valuation for th< 

 next ten carloads furnished"? Does frien( 

 Hewes know that tons of cheap honey are use( 

 in Mansfield, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, O., ii 

 cake-baking? In all these cities in the manu 

 facture of tobacco? and in Chicago in makinf 

 bedbug poison? It is well known to all well 

 informed people that the larger part of thi 

 value of any given article is composed of wage 

 of the labor that produced it. This is no les 



