1897. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



227 



fecundated eggs, and represent strictly nothing but their 

 mothers' blood, and explain the above-mentioned facts simply 

 by the Influence either of the queen's blood upon the sperma- 

 tozoa, or of these latter upon the queen's blood. 



Many years ago I had a fine Angora cat, grey like a 

 mouse, with long, silky hair. She was mated to a male cat of 

 a common race, and produced half-breed kittens, I was sorry 

 about it, but thought the next time I would do better, and 

 when the time came I lookt my lady puss up, and with her a 

 fine Angora male cat. The result, however, was not what I 

 thought — the kittens were not all Angora cats at all ! I was 

 then told that the same thing happened with other animals. 

 For instance, the mare that had been crost with a donkey, 

 and had once produced a mule, was no more to be used for 

 horse-breeding, as the young horses showed some connection 

 with their "stepfather," Mr. Donkey ! 



It was in the year 1875 or 187(i, I made a call upon 

 Count Kolowrat and Mr. Ed Cori, in Bohemia, the first breed- 

 ers of Cyprian queens in Europe, from whom I had procured 

 the same, and there I found that even the primogenitors (I 

 mean the queens' daughters of original queens) — that all pro- 

 duced only 3-banded workers, with the " half-moon " on the 

 corselet, altho it was pretty certain that they had been mated 

 to black drones ; whilst their drones showed signs of hybridiza- 

 tion ! We could not, at the time, come to a conclusion how 

 this fact could be explained with the laws of parthenogenesis, 

 and only much later I came to the persuasion that it was 

 nothing but the influence of the queens' blood upon the sper- 

 matozoa of the male, which live in her spermatheca ! 



The queen-bee is once mated, and the male sperm is taken 

 up and preserved in a special little bag, called the "sperma- 

 theca," and here continues to vegetate and impregnate the 

 eggs from which workers or queens have to issue. Now, 

 would it be possible that these spermatozoa could live in that 

 bag for years, without any nourishment of some kind, with- 

 out coming In contact with life giving or preserving blood ? 

 Could the spermatheca, or any part of the queen-bee, continue 

 to vegetate without the circulation of the blood ? No! The 

 circulation of the blood is absolutely necessary to keep alive 

 the queen and all her organs; and last, but not least, the 

 spermatozoa, which in millions in number are of immense im- 

 portance to the existence of the whole colony. 



Now, if we admit the circulation of blood, we must admit 

 also that particles — be it most infinitesimal — of the drone's 

 blood will assimmilate with that of the queen, and vice versa, 

 the spermatozoa will also absorb particles of the queen's blood, 

 and, consideriug that a queen lays her own weight in eggs in 

 a short time, it proves an immense power of reproduction, so 

 that the asslmmilation or reciprocal influence will always 

 more and more increase, and still show itself in the prog- 

 eny the second season. 



During the laying season tha spermatheca contains a 

 greater quantity of bee-blood than during the winter time ; 

 this fact induced, some years ago, a certain Mr. Metzger, in 

 Hungary, to suggest that the drone-eggs were fecundated by 

 this liquid, and that the spermatheca produced (when once 

 fecundated) new spermatozoa in itself ! Now I think that 

 my theory, which explains all the peculiar facts that 

 apparently speak against the truth of parthenogenesis, has 

 more right to likelihood than the hypothesis of Metzger, who 

 wanted to make a hermaphrodite of the queen-bee, rather 

 than believe that anything can be born without fecundation. 

 I would be pleased to hear our American bee-keepers' 

 opinion about my theory, and I will submit to anybody's bet- 

 ter explanation of the above-mentioned facts. 



Trieste, Austria. 



Feeding Bees Grapes and Raisins. 



BY SKYLARK. 



The editor of the Bee Journal calls on me for something 

 " real praclleal." 



Well, Mr. Editor, I have a box of it — of the real, unadul- 

 terated article, hid away some place, but I have forgotten 

 where I hid it. But while I am thinking where It is, I will 

 tell you how I fed ray bees in 1896. 



In that eventful year, there was no honey here, and star- 

 vation stared the bees in the face. Three years ago raisins 

 were so low that I fed my crop to hogs. In 1895 I could not 

 sell my crop at all — could not trade them for anytliina but 

 contemptuous laughter. I refused the trade, for I had enough 

 of that on hand. With a crop of raisins on hand, and a crop 

 of grapes ripening that there was no sale for in any shape — 

 with the bees in a coDdition that they were sure to starve dur- 



ing the fall and winter — what would you have advised ? Buy 

 sugar? Not much. No, sir. 



The genius of Skylark rose— or fell — to the occasion. I 

 was sitting on a pile of raisin trays in the vineyard figuring 

 up the cost of digging out 10 acres of vines 1 1 years old. 

 The bees in tens of thousands were around me, sucking the 

 juice from crackt grapes and those punctured by birds. All 

 at once a thought struck me just above the eyes so hard that 

 it knockt me clear off that pile of trays. Eureka! I will feed 

 the vineyard to the bees ! And as they come a quarter of a 

 mile from home for the juice, why not make the horses carry 

 it to them, or close to them ? 



I had a home treadmill and press for making vinegar, 

 and I utilized these for getting out the juice for the bees. I 

 fed in a large solar extractor (out-of-doors under the shade of 

 a tree), and covered the feed with a little hay. This was con- 

 tinued for more than a month — giving them all they would 

 carry away. 1 found the juice would sour If any were left 

 over more than the second day. So I drew off all that was 

 left each evening, and boHccl it. The boiled juice will keep 

 in the open air several days ; and sealed up tight, indefinitely — 

 say 6,000 years. I finally took to boiling it all for them, and 

 I had no bother watching it. In fact, this is nothing less than 

 unfermented wine. But in boiling, all the alcohol is evapor- 

 ated, and it makes a splendid cooling drink for a hot summer 

 day. There is not a vestige of tanglefoot left in it. 



Now I have been doing the same thing with the raisins 

 for spring feeding, only I had to boil them and then press out 

 the juice. The bees made no kick against the proceeding, 

 and I didn't. In both cases 1 made vinegar out of the pulp. 

 Now, I am sorry you fellows East have no Muscat grapes — no 

 I'm not, either ; you crow too much anyhow. Your grapes 

 would kink a bee up into a double bow-knot in half a minute. 

 Grapes ! 



THE NEW DEEP CELL FOUNDATION. 



I see that Editor Hutchinson, with T. F. Bingham and 

 others, are out against the introduction of the new deep-cell 

 foundation. But there is no use in kicking against the march 

 of improvements. It has gone steadily on for years — here a 

 little and there a little, ever since Langstroth invented the 

 movable-frame hive. The invention of deep-cell foundation IS 

 a great leap forward in the right direction. Instead of help- 

 ing the adulterator it will kill his business dead, for who will 

 produce extracted when he can get just as much comb honey 

 for the same labor ? In time there will be no extracted honey 

 in the market? 



W. Z. is afraid of leather. Now, leather — in the shape of 

 a good pair of boots — is much more valuable than deep-cell 

 foundation, pound for pound. Editor Root — In fact all the 

 Roots and branches — are far too sharp to put their boots into 

 drawn combs ! 



In these latter years the improvements in apicultural ap- 

 pliances have been so great, so swift, and so complete a victory 

 all along the line, that our future progenitors will look back 

 upon us with admiration, pride, veneration and love. I will, 

 anyhow ! 



Strawberries and Honey-Bees — Queen Stung. 



BY CARSON VAN BlARICUM. 



In previous issues of the Bee Journal the subject of straw- 

 berries and bees has been carefully examined, and we conclude 

 that bees do, and do not, visit the berry bloom in quest of 

 honey, but all agree that they sometimes do gather pollen, 

 but only on certain occasions, and then only when the atmos- 

 phere is in a humid condition. 



I have had my colonies situated within six rods of half 

 an acre of strawberries for the last four years, and by actual 

 observation I have always seen a few bees, between the hours 

 of 9 and 11 a.m., flitting from flower to flower, and I have 

 observed, too, by following a particular bee, that eventually 

 it would leave for other pastures without any perceptible 

 reward for its toil. 



Dandelions are in blossom In profusion at the same time, 

 when any observer would actually be In error as to the actual 

 facts of the case. I have been carefully endeavoring to ascer- 

 tain from what source came the pollen, so generally carried 

 by the bee, and traced its origin to the dandelion. So much 

 for personal observation. These are Nature's own identical 

 truths. 



To summarize : We must conclude the fact as a probable 

 result, that bees do not glean any perceptible addition to their 

 stores, or gain an advantage by toiling amid strawberry bloom. 



