544 



Juce 20, 1907 



American IBae Journal 



present, and then an adjournment until 

 1 .30 p. m. 



Second Day — Afternoon Session. 



After calling to order, Mr. L\Tnan de- 

 scribed his management of the hive dur- 

 ing the swarming and honey season. 



Dr. Bohrer — What is the principal ad- 

 vantage you claim for that arrange- 

 ment ? 



Mr. Lyman — ^It keeps the bees all at 

 work in the front brood-chamber un- 

 disturbed, and at the same time pre- 

 vents swarming. In my experience, 

 after you make this change, there is 

 no danger whatever of the bees swarm- 

 ing for at least 21 days. 



Queen Fertilization Affecting Drone- 

 Progeny. 



"Does the fertilization of the queen 

 affect her drone-progeny?" 



Dr. Bohrer — I wrote that question, 

 and the reason I did so was not to 

 make an attack upon any queen-breeder 

 at all, nor upon any author, but to call 

 attention to what I regard as an error. 

 I w'ill name the gentleman, and I re- 

 gard him as a higli-toned gentleman, 

 and a very honorable man — stands so, 

 I think, before the bee-keeping fraterni- 

 ty throughout the United States and ev- 

 erywhere he is known. I have refer- 

 ence to Mr. Doolittle. When I first 

 commenced to read bee-keeping and 

 study it carefully, I was attacked 

 through the press several times. I went 

 all the way through the State of Michi- 

 gan and discussed it before the Michi- 

 gan Bee-Keepers' Association, at the re- 

 quest of Prof. Cook. Two or 3 years 

 ago I wrote him asking whether he 

 had experimented any concerning that 

 matter, that is, the effect the fertiliza- 

 tion had upon the queen's drone-prog- 

 eny. He said he had not only experi- 

 mented, but he had proved my theory 

 to be correct. Mr. Doolittle takes the 

 position that it does affect the progeny 

 of the queen, and I believe he says the 

 fourth generation has produced a queen 

 no one could tell from a hybrid. While 

 I believe he is candid and sincere in his 

 conclusions, the manner in which his 

 experiments were conducted I am satis- 

 fied was erroneous. I doubt very much 

 whether Mr. Doolittle is so situated that 

 he can have four generations of bees 

 and the fourth queen successfully ferti- 

 lized where he is situated, on account 

 of the fact that there are hybrid bees all 

 around him, and on that account I think 

 it is true that the drone-progeny is af- 

 fected by her fertilization. The sperma- 

 tozoa are lodged there — never escape 

 at the will of the queen. When deposit- 

 ing a worker-egg she fertilizes that at 

 will as it passes the mouth of the sper- 

 matheca. To suppose that affects the 

 drone-progeny is to suppose it becomes 

 a part of her system, that the sperma- 

 tozoa become food and consequently 

 part of the system of the queen. That 

 is an utter impossibility. The revela- 

 tions of the microscope prove the con- 

 trary, and I am satisfied that Mr. Doo- 

 little, although honest and sincere in 

 what he teaches, is mistaken, and I 

 would not like at this time to have the 

 idea go out that such a thing is pos- 

 sible, because it is not. 



Requeening or Superseding Queens. 



Mr. Wheeler — Before dinner I was 

 going to speak of the value of chang- 

 ing queens. We read a great deal, and 

 it was the talk of some of the gentle- 

 men before dinner, about when a colony 

 showed weakness or anything the matter 

 with it. to change queens, and by select- 

 ing the right queen you improve your 

 stock of bees. That is right to a cer- 

 tain e.Ktent, but I think it is carried 

 too far. In the spring, quite often when ■ 

 the bees come out of the cellar, they will 

 fly together and are quite apt to kill 

 off the queen. There will be a very 

 strong colony of bees, and when I look 

 a little later they will have their queen 

 killed, and there is a great lot of bees, 

 and what am I to do with those bees? 

 They are losing their time. I will 

 look around and find a colony withered 

 away — a few bees with a queen. I put 

 that queen in the colony with the colony 

 ol bees and that queen will lay eggs, 

 when .she gets started, for all the bees 

 that are there — fill 2 or 3 hives. If she 

 had been left with that little colony, 

 her stock was bad and not worth 

 saving. I think that the bees have a 

 great influence over the queen. The care 

 they give a queen determines how many 

 eggs she will lay, and determines her 

 life as long as she has her youth and 

 strength, and I think there is a great 

 deal too much stress laid on the point 

 of the queen being to blame for a 

 colony being weak and dwindling. 



Progress of Bee-Keeping. 



"Have we made any progress in our 

 industry in the last twenty-five years? 

 If so, what is it?" 



Dr. ^Miller — I think we have made 

 some progress right in that very way, 

 if Mr. Wheeler will pardon me, in try- 

 ing to do something toward getting bet- 

 ter stock. It is all very true that is 

 makes a big difference. You put a 

 queen into a little handful of bees or 

 with a strong colony — she is a differ- 

 ent queen altogether. But, after all, 

 there is a material difference in the 

 queens themselves, and I would de- 

 precate the idea of trying to discourage 

 any one from doing all he can to im- 

 prove his bees by getting better stock. 

 As far as improvement is concerned, I 

 think we have made some changes with- 

 in the last 24 hours, in our views — 

 some of us. There is a change going 

 on. I am very sure that I know some 

 things I did not know 25 years ago, 

 and I am very sure that there are some 

 things I do not know now that I 

 thought I knew 25 years ago. Whether 

 it is an improvement or not I am not 

 so certain, but there are changes going 

 on, and when we are not standing dead 

 still there is a possibility of our im- 

 proving, so that I think the thing is 

 hopeful that we are going on a little. 



Mr. Wilcox — It is 25 years or more 

 since I commenced attending the 

 "Northwestern" convention and other 

 conventions in this city, and as I com- 

 pare what I have heard today and yes- 

 terday, with what I heard then, I am 

 very emphatically of the opinion that 

 the great mass of bee-keepers who at- 

 tend conventions have made improve- 

 ments, have improved themselves in 



knowledge. At that time half a dozen 

 men would run a large convention. The 

 rest knew nothing, or said nothing, any- 

 way, and did not seem to understand 

 fully what they heard. I am sure that 

 bee-keepers as a whole are advancing. 

 They are better advanced, on an aver- 

 age, better educated in the science and 

 art of bee-keeping; and when he says 

 "we" I suppose he does not mean, has 

 there been something new learned that 

 was never known before? but have we, 

 the bee-keeping industry, learned any- 

 thing in the last 25 years? The most 

 of us have. 



Dr. Bohrer — I was, I believe, in the first 

 bee-keepers' convention in the United 

 States, and I do not know but one other 

 man now living that was in that con- 

 vention. That was Mr. M. M. Baldridge. 

 I am satisfied there is great progress 

 in one particular. Then it was almost 

 imposible for a bee-paper to live. Now 

 there are 5 or 6. I hope the subscrip- 

 tion list of the American Bee Journal 

 is much greater than it was then. I 

 was one of its first readers. There are 

 other bee-papers. Gleanings has a good 

 circulation. Mr. Hutchinson's paper 

 has a good circulation. There are 

 thousands of people reading bee-litera- 

 ture now. Now we do not call a man 

 insane for paying $10 for a queen in 

 order to Italianize a colony of bees. So 

 there is progress shown in that respect. 



Pres. York— I think Mr. Taylor can 

 remember 23 years. Does he think there 

 has been any progress made? 



Mr. Taylor— Why, yes. You can't stir 

 around 25 years without knowing some- 

 thing more than you did before. 



Pres. York— If so, what is it? is the 

 question. 



Mr. Taylor— That would be a pretty 

 long story if I told it. We have made a 

 great improvement in hive-fixtures, for 

 one thing. We get our honey in a great 

 deal better shape than we used to. When 

 I commenced keeping bees we would 

 have a box made of half-inch stuff to 

 reach across the hive. 



Dr. Miller — You are going back more 

 than 25 years, now. 



Mr. Taylor — Not much more. Have 

 a hole in one side and two pieces of 

 glass on the end and a board laid over 

 the hive, with a couple of holes in it; 

 set two boxes in it under the cap on top 

 of that board. There is quite a dif- 

 ference between that and the comb 

 honey that we produce now. J might 

 go on and tell you about 20 things of 

 that kind. 



Mr. Todd — How have the average 

 tons of honey increased in 25 years? 



Mr. Taylor— Well, they used to tell 

 some big stories 25 years ago. One 

 thing we have lost in — we do not get 

 so much per pound. I have paid 20 

 cents per pound for honey in those old 

 boxes, and some of it was not very good 

 at that. A good many of us have learned 

 a good many things, and some of us 

 have learned a good many things that 

 are not so, I think. But, on the whole, 

 of course, w-e have made a wonderful 

 improvement. 



Mr. Abbott — I asked that question to 

 bring out a point. It has not come out 

 yet, so I will see if I can not get it 

 out. I was just thinking over what 



