1S86 



GLliiANiA^GS IN BEE CULTURE. 



r 



am correct, letting the water get low does 

 not cause the boiler to explode. It does. 

 however, draw the flues out of shape, and 

 cause the boiler to be sure to explode, if the 

 engineer is so thoughtless as to pump water 

 into it when red-hot. If, however, lie finds 

 he has by accident boihnl all the water oiit, 

 and heated the flues red-hot, he can just let 

 the fires go down, and no harm is done. 

 When the flues get cold, he may even go on 

 with his work, if the l)oiler does not leak so 

 badly as to put the tire out. Explosions are 

 generally caused by pumping water on to 

 red-hot flues. This "results in making a great 

 volume of steam so suddenly that tiie safety- 

 valve is entirely inadequate to carry it off, 

 so that everything is blown to pieces with an 

 explosion. I do not know of any book on 

 the care of the steam-engine — atleast, no- 

 thing up to modern times. If any of our 

 readers know of such a work, T should be 

 glad to put it in our book list. 



^ — ■ ■ ■ 



EGG-LAYING OF QUEENS. 



Ifi IT THK BEES OR THE QUEENS, f)R THE Sl'/E OF 

 THE CELLS TH.\T DKTEK.MINES THE SEX? 



T READ with much interest the able article from 

 jMp the pen of Mr. ('has. Dadant, as I aUvays do 

 ^l any thing- from him. Mr. Dadant's statement, 

 "^ that the use of worker comb, or worker foun- 

 dation, almost wholly precludes the deposition 

 of drone-eg-gs, and therefore the pres3nee of drone- 

 brood, is certainly a thoroug-hly wellf slablished 

 fact, and is one of the strong' arg-iiments in favor of 

 the use of foundation. Vet, does this fact neces- 

 sarily lead to Mr. Dadant's coi elusion, " A (jueen in 

 g-ood health lays drone-cg-gs in drone-cells, tiecuuse 

 they are greater; and worker-eggs in worker-cells, 

 because they are smaller"? If, as I think, tli^ 

 ([ueen knows what she is abou,, and acts from vo- 

 lition, then surely she would not lay the unfecun- 

 dated egg in a cell that would restrict tlie size a.id 

 full development of the drones, or male l)ees. I 

 think the queen knoTS the large cells are for 

 drones, and will lai' the unfecundated eggs in no 

 other, e.xcept by mistake. The fact as 1 gave it 

 before, that very short worker-cells, hardly deeper 

 than those of our liest foundation, sometimes re- 

 ceive eggs that develop into woi-kers, as no doubt 

 Mr. Dadant has witnessed, is very signifleant; and 

 can any one doubt, after examination, that the 

 queen l:iy8 the egg in the queen-cells'^ But, if any 

 other proof were needed we have it at our com- 

 mand: In some species, like -1. Z/idica. the drones 

 are smaller than the workers; while in wasps, like 

 VtKpa in//yari.'<, the cells are all equally large; yet 

 the whole life economy of the ^'l^x|>:t and Apix gene- 

 ra, so far as reproduction is concerned, are identi- 

 cal. Our ants, too, closelj' related to bees in many 

 respects, produce males and females in the same 

 manner as do bees, and their eggs are not |. laced in 

 cells at all. 



Mr. Dadant's point, that the reason why young 

 queens lay some drone-eggs in worker-cells is be- 

 cause the queen is small, and so her abdomen is not 

 compressed, would surely have weight if it stood 

 alone. Vet, were this the case I should suppose 

 there would be more drones. They are usually 

 very l'»w and scattering. In my apiary I have once 

 In a while had a very small queen, hardly larger, 



though slimmer, than a common worker, even in 

 her most fecund days; yet her eggs in worker-cells 

 produced workers. Has not Mr. Dadant noticed 

 the same? So I still think these young queens at 

 first fail to manage adroitly the muscular machin- 

 ery that extrudes the sperm-cells from the sperma- 

 theca. 



Mr. Dadant's conclusions as to wasps are not 

 warranted, t think. The wasps that Sir .John Lub- 

 bock referred to are our mud-wasps, not our paper- 

 making- wasps. These mud-wasps do vary the sze 

 of the cells— those containing the males being the 

 smaller. So the point Jfr. Dadant makes is hardl.\ 

 warranted, I think, by the facts in the case. 



Do animals drop eggs at just sucli a time, irre- 

 spective of surroundings? I doubt it. Some of 

 our birds that usually lay only five eggs will ef)n- 

 tinu© to lay .as many as thirty, if we keep taking 

 the egg- from the' nest. Thus, a flicker, Ci.lopti'x 

 mirntux, laid over thirty under these cireutnstanecs, 

 here on our college campus. 



From all these facts, I still think the queen knows 

 what she is about, and that fecundation of the egg- 

 is voluntary, not automatic. 



I wish to express my jjleasure, that Messrs. Da- 

 dant & Son ai-e revising Mr. Langstroth's book. 1 

 think he could not have chosen more wisely. 



Agricultural College, Mich. A. J. Cook. 



Friends Cook and Dadant, may I now put 

 in a thought which I believe neither of you 

 have touched upon V It is this : That the 

 worker-bees are a factor, as well as the 

 queen, in deciding whetlier they will raise 

 drones or workers. You may remember, 

 that some years ago there was a discussion 

 in regaid to the swarming impulse. Does 

 the (lueen lead out the swarm, or do the 

 bees '^ Several brought fortli very clear fads 

 to show that it was the queen that went out, 

 and that the bees followed her. Others 

 brought equally plain facts to show that the 

 l)ees got up the excitement and poiu-ed out 

 of the hive, and Anally the queen joined in 

 and Avent Avith them. Jiut we were flnaliy 

 forced to concliule that it was sometimes 

 the one and sometimes the other; or, most 

 likely, the queen and bees both acting in 

 perfect harmony. — Xow for A. I. Eoofs the- 

 ory about determining the sex. I suggest 

 that the bees have the power, at least very 

 largely, in their own hands, so to speak. I 

 have tried in vain to get early drones, by 

 placing the drone-comb in the center of the 

 brood-nest. The queen would not occupy 

 these drone-cells until other qtieens in other 

 hives began rearing drones also. If 1 fed 

 the colony, the bees used this drone-coml) 

 for storing honey; and it has just occurred 

 to me that the queen didn't lay any eggs in 

 the drone-comb, because the bees did not flx 

 the cells, and invite her to occupy them. Is 

 it not true, that a queen never occupies any 

 cell, drone or worker, until the bees flrst 

 clean it out, varnish it over, and give it that 

 fresh, inviting appearance, with winch we 

 are all so familiar V Are we sure that they 

 do not say by actions, if not by Avords, 

 " When your highness gets that little patch 

 of comb filled, please come over here and 

 take these next "V Who has not tried to get 

 a queen to fill combs when the cluster of bees 

 was so small they couldn't get cells ready for 

 her fast enougli '? She would fill all the cells 



