November, 1907. 



American Hee Journal 



t;ir in a cell. But I bey of my read- 

 ers to note that I say that I liavc never 

 seen it, and that I do not state that it 

 never occurs. I must believe that it 

 does occur, for my friend, A. C. Miller, 

 says that he has seen it. It simply has 

 not been my good fortune ever to have 

 seen field-bees deposit their loads in 

 cells. 



On the other hand, I have many times 

 seen field-bees give over their loads to 

 younger bees. Many a time have I seen 

 the incoming bee, unmistakable because 

 of its pollen-dusty back, scurry about 

 and draw the attention of younger bees. 

 These younger bees gather about the 

 head of the field-bee while that bee 

 causes the nectar to drop into its mouth 

 and rest in the depression bounded by 

 mouth and slightly relaxed tongue. In 

 this case the tongue is not extended, but 

 is folded back much as it naturally lies 

 at rest. I have seen 3 young bees at 

 once relieving a field^bee of her load. 



If one desires to see how a bee offers 

 its load he can do so in a variety of 

 ways. Let him drop a strange bee with 

 load of honey amongst the bees of a 

 colony. Except for the cringing and 

 fear this bee will give over its load much 

 after the fashion of a field-bee. Again, 

 take a loaded bee in the fingers and 

 press the distended abdomen with 

 thumb-nail. After a slight pause the 

 bee will cause the honey or nectar to 

 accumulate above the folded - under 

 tongue. 



Mr. Miller, who takes a diametrically 

 opposite view from that of Mr. Doolit- 

 tle, would have us believe that the field- 

 bee never passes over its load to other 

 bees, but rather always puts it into the 

 cell. This is not the first time that the 

 Miller strain of l>ee has acted in a differ- 

 ent manner from the Doolittle strain. 

 I have never as yet had a colony headed 

 by a "Providence Queen," but have had 

 many a colony headed by a "Doolittle 

 Queen." This fact may account for my 

 agreeing with Doolittle in this matter. 



I know for an absolute certainty that 

 field-bees give over their loads to the 

 home-bees. I do not know by my own 

 observation that they sometimes place it 

 in the cells themselves. I have watched 

 for them to do this, again and again, 

 and have never seen it done, hence I 

 naturally conclude that the rule (though 

 it may not be one without an exception) 

 is for the field-bee to hand its load over 

 to the home-bee. 



It is manifestly true that in a time of 

 heavy flow the field-bees would bring 

 home more than could be retained by 

 the home-bees. Whether at such times 

 the field-bees are obliged to place the 

 honey in the cells themselves is a mat- 

 ter which I hope some time to settle 

 to my own satisfaction. That thin nec- 

 tar very quickly reaches the cells, even 

 when there are many home-bees which 

 are not loaded to repletion, has come 

 under my observation. This points to 

 an early unloading of the home-bee, or 

 else to the placing of the nectar by the 

 field-bee. 



One thing is to be noted: In a time 

 of heavy flow all the younger bees of 

 the colony will be surcharged with 

 honey which they are curing, while the 

 field-bees will in most ca^es lie idle in 

 nooks and corners of the hive. 



Another thing is worthy of note: Be- 

 fore a honey-How the colony will not 

 seem to be so very populous, whereas 

 .after the flow opens the hive almost 

 immediately becomes overflowing with 

 bees. It is simply a case of not room 

 for bees which are full of nectar, but am- 

 ple room for lank bees. Two fat per- 

 sons take up the room of three lean 

 ones on the scat of the street-car. A 

 colony with 5,000 fat bees will seem to 

 the novice more populous than will one 

 of 10,000 lean bees. 



Whether the field-bee puts its load 

 into the cell or hands it over to a young- 

 er bee is not in itself of vital import- 

 ance, though there is a certain satisfac- 

 tion in knowing the truth of the matter. 

 Personally, I am inclined to think that, 

 except in times of heavy flow, practi- 

 cally all is handed over to the home- 

 bees; while under pressure the field-bee 

 disposes of it in the quickest and easiest 

 way she can find. 



Norwich, Conn. 



Are a Queen's Drones Affected 

 by Her Mating ? 



BY E. V. PAGAN. 



pn page 687, T. W. Livingston, with 

 quite a flourish announces that he pro- 

 poses to explode the theory that the 

 drone progeny of a queen is unaffected 

 by her mating, and calls upon all bee- 

 keepers interested to listen for the ex- 

 plosion. Others besides Mr. Livingston 

 have discredited the theory, but perhaps 

 none of them has ever been so cock-sure 

 of his ability to disprove it. 



Some very able men have accepted 

 the theory and defended it. In the first 

 volume of the American Bee Journal, 

 published in 1861, appears on page 41 

 the following sentence, evidently from 

 the pen of its first and ablest editor, 

 Samuel Wagner : 



"The concurrent testimony of all ob- 

 servers, whose reports we have, is that 

 Italian queens, fecundated by common 

 drones, do invariably produce Italian 

 drones, as fully and perfectly marked 

 as, and in no respect diflferent from, 

 the drones produced by Italian queens 

 fecundated by drones of their own race, 

 and that a corresponding result occurs 

 in the case of common queens fecundat- 

 ed by Italian drones." 



The ground for this belief lies in the 

 fact that an egg which produces a drone 

 is unfertilized, and so must take its char- 

 acteristics entirely from the mother. It 

 sometimes happens that a queen which 

 has not met a drone proceeds to lay 

 eggs, such eggs invariably producing 

 drones. These drones certainly can not 

 be afTected by the mating of the mother, 

 for the mother has not mated. The 

 question is then asked, "Can the drone- 

 eggs of a mated queen be any more af- 

 fected than those of an unmated one, 

 seeing that the eggs are no more fer- 

 tilized in one case than the other?" 



To this it is replied by those who hold 

 the opposite view that the blood of the 

 queen, in its circulation, is affected by 

 the contents of her spermatheca, and 

 thus the drone progeny is indirectly 

 affected. 



If this latter view be correct, it would 

 be inlf-resting to know to what extent 

 this affecting goes. If only to an infini- 

 tcsmal ikgrcc, it may not be worth con- 

 sidering, and this is the view that some 

 take. 



Mr. Livingston believes he has estab- 

 lished his position because his queens 

 were all the daughters of a pure Italian 

 queen, and yet when queens were in 

 turn reared from these daughters 90 

 per cent of them showed impurity in 

 their worker progeny. One all-impor- 

 tant item in the case is fatally absent. 

 That item he should have given in some 

 such words as these: 



"I have the most indubitable proof 

 that no colony containing any degree 

 of black blood is located near enough 

 to my apiary so that any of its drones 

 could have met my queens." Without 

 this his proof is no proof whatever. 



In his closing paragraph he exhorts 

 others to try the matter as he has done. 

 How many bee-keepers are situated so 

 they can try it, isolated from all black 

 blood but that in their own apiaries? 

 Is there one in a thousand? 



Mints— Irregular Flowers 



BY PROF. A. J. COOK. 



Those of us who live in Southern 

 California, will, of course, be partial to 

 the great Labiate family of plants, for 

 here belong the incomparable honey- 

 plants, the white and ball sages. It is 

 doubtful if any honey-plants, the world 

 over, excel these in the quality or 

 amount of honey which is furnished. 

 The honey is like that from the clov- 

 ers, especially the white clover — very 

 mild and pleasant, and so is enjoyed by 

 all. Of course, one who has learned to 

 like the pronounced flavor of linden 

 may prefer that to any other, and those 

 that have a hankering for the almost 

 rank taste of buckwheat will pronounce 

 the mild sage honey as tasteless and 

 insipid; yet it is incontestible that the 

 most people will enjoy these mild hon- 

 eys more than any other, and when they 

 are white as are the sage and clover 

 honeys, they will always top the mar- 

 kets, in most of the marts of the world. 



It will be noticed that the mints, or 

 flowers of the great familv Labiatae, are 

 irregular, and so are like the flowers of 

 the clover family— Leguminosae, and of 

 the figwort family (the Scrophulariceae). 

 All such flowers have developed to effect 

 cross-pollination, and we should expect 

 that they would be honey-plants of no 

 mean rank. The irregularity and the 

 nectar-secretion are for the same pur- 

 pose, and so we should expect they 

 would always be companions, as they 

 are. This mint family is well named 

 "Labiatje," as this refers to the two- 

 lipped arrangement of the flowers. 

 These flowers, like the same in the fig- 

 wort family, are decidely bi-labiate. This 

 interesting conformation is obviously 

 for the purpose of ensuring cross-pol- 

 lination, as was so admirably demon- 

 strated by the great Charles Darwin. 

 The flowers are on the plan of five, 

 but the petals are so united that there 

 are two pronounced lips, and these in 



