ISSIJ 



GLEANINGS IN UEE CULTUllK. 



G17 



WEIGHING QUEENS' EGGS. 



Can a Queen Lay Eggs Enough in a Single 

 Day to Overbalance Her Own "Weight? 



PKOF. COOK PROVES, BY WEIGHING THE KGGS 

 AND WEIGHING 'J'HE QUEEN, THAT SHE MAY. 



aEAU MR. EDITOR:— As I wrote you, we are 

 carc't'ully iuvcstlg'ating: the laying' powers of 

 a queen, and we find that tlie number of 

 eggs that the queen lays per day is no more 

 surprising than the quantity by weight. 

 Mr. Cheshire states that the queen in spring " will 

 turn the scales at three grains— feeding adding 

 fully half a grain more." He says that '.I0,0[H) eggs 

 weigh r.'7'.l grains; henee 3000, the daily product of a 

 good (]ucon, would weigh nine grains, which would 

 be nearly thicj tiuK>s the queen's weight. 



You expressed doubt, Mr. Editor, and no wonder. 

 I have found Nature's laboratory so full of wonders 

 that I have learned to doubt, or, at least, deny, no 

 statement like this till investigation shows it to be 

 unfounded. My students and 1 took a queen, ^f 

 Syrian and '.^ Carniolan, or about that, and care- 

 fully weighed her on scales that weigh to one ten- 

 thousandth of a gram. She was weighed by two 

 separate parties, and on ditferent scales, and Mcigh- 

 ed .2390 grams. Multiply this by 15.4:31: and wo find 

 her weight 3 548 grains. The queen was carefully 

 lifted from the comb while laying. We see, then, 

 that this queen weighed a little more than one- 

 flfth of a gram, or a little more than 3' 2 grains. 



We next weighed a piece of comb full of eggs, 

 which liad been carefully dusted, both bj' blowing 

 and by use of brush. It was laid on a smooth dusted 

 board, and handled by metallic forceps. I then 

 carefully removed 30 eggs, which were carefully 

 weighed. The weight was .0030 of a gram. Multi- 

 ply this by 1.50, and we get the weight of 3000 eggs, 

 the number that a queen will lay in a day at this 

 Beason. I then removed 40 more eggs, and again 

 weighed the comb. By subtracting this weight 

 of the comb from the original weight, we found the 

 weight of 60 eggs, Avhich agreed almost with the 

 weight as determined by weighing the 33 eggs pre- 

 viously. Thus the weight of 3000 eggs is .39 of a 

 gram, which, reduced to gi'ains, gives six grains. 

 Thus it appears that, in this case, the queen may 

 lay 1.7 times her own weight. Unless the eggs va- 

 ry in weight— and why should they not'/— Cheshire 

 has got the eggs too heavy by 1 2 their weight. 



We shall repeat this experiment with several 

 queens and their eggs. We shall also weigh eggs 

 just laid, and those just ready to hatch, and com- 

 pare weights. 



Now, Mr. Editor, you must remember that your 

 name is Amos, not Thomas, and never doubt again. 



A. J. Cook. 

 Agricultural College, Mich., July 31, 188j. 



It would appear, friend Cook, tliat Frank 

 Cheshire had already made the experiment 

 when I wrote you. Of this I was not awnre, 

 for we had not yet received the complete 

 numbers comprising Volume I. of his book, 

 and in this case I shall have to beg liis par- 

 don and yours also. Yes, I will try to re- 

 member that my name is Amos and not 

 Thomas. It is not often that I feel like de- 

 manding so much proof; but I hope I shall 

 be ready to accept truth when it is made so 

 plain as you make it. When you talk about 

 your scales that wjll weigh q'lcaifcj and 



queens' eggs, I confess I begin to have a 

 good deal of reverence for the men who can 

 make and use such instnunents. Then it is 

 indeed true, that, bound up in the small 

 body of a (pieen, or mother-bee, are the nec- 

 essary arrangements and vital forces to take 

 the concentrated food furnished by the 

 workers, and convert it into several thou- 

 sand of these tiuv eggs, each one having a 

 sepai'ate life-giving principle bound up 

 within it, each one incased in a perfect 

 pearly shell of its own, and in one short 24 

 liours she may i)roduce tliese linished eggs 

 in quantities nuinlx-riug thousands, and in 

 weight two or tlirce limes that of her own 

 body, even wlien !-aid body is full of eggs. 

 I feel that, if I have been a doubting 

 Thomas, I am now, witli tlie facts you give, 

 ready to say with doubting Tliomas, in 

 words expressive of uiuiuestiouing faith, 

 " My Lord and my Cio<l ;'' and, '' How mar- 

 velous are tny works ! " 



AN ABC SCHOLARS EXPERIENCE. 



MOTHS, WIDE EUAMES OK CIt.VTES, STINGS, ETC. 



Y success with bees, all things considered, 

 has been good. When I began I knew on- 

 ly that bees make honey, and sting, and 

 that there are workers, drones, and a 

 (jucen. For the first twelve mouths I had 

 a mortal horror of the moths, nor did I get over it 

 until Root, in Gleanings, declared that he would 

 not give 35 cents to have the whole trilie of moths 

 abolished. If the moths have ever harmed my 

 bees, I have seen no evidence of it. Moths do ruin 

 combs that are off the hives, and left carelessly ex- 

 posed. 



WIDE EIIAMES OK CIIATES. 



Last year I usel section boxes and separators; 

 but it was such a job to get the wide frames olf 

 the hives, that this year I discarded the wide 

 frames and section boxes, substituting for them 

 ordinary frames with fdn. starters, ^4 or 1 inch 

 wide. I am much pleased with the change. How- 

 ever, there has been a good deal of drone comb 

 and brood in the honey-frames. One of your cor- 

 respondents affirms that a remedy for this is to fill 

 the frames with fdn. Is he right'? Can this be de- 

 pended on? If it can 1 will till every honey-frame, 

 next season, with fdn. I would have done it this 

 season to help the beos along had not another of 

 your correspondents atlirmed that bees get along 

 with their comb-building just as fast without as 

 with fdn. His experiments seemed to have been 

 conducted carefully and fairly. Please state how 

 this is. Foundation costs enough to make one 

 want to know the real facts about it. In the use of 

 starters I found out the importance of having the 

 starters go very near the uprights of the frames. 

 Where I let them extend only within an inch of the 

 uprights, the bees would build htrai,.;ht to that point 

 and thL'u go crooked, clear over to an adjoining 

 coinb. At first I put all my colonies on tl^c ground; 

 that is, on half-bricks laid Hat under each eoimer, 

 but the spiders and ants bothered so much I put 

 legs to all my bottom-boards, and I am much pleas- 

 ed with the change. 



KEHOSENE FOR ANTS. 



Only a few weeks ago one of my colonies was in- 

 vaded by ants, J\.\\ I did was to throw down my 



