296 



(CLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 



degrees, that heat is not lost through a thin wall of 

 % in., or to assume that that is not a loss. Wbj'! if 

 not well covered, work above is often stopped. Hav- 

 ing the cases well protected by good quilts we know 

 to be a great advantage in cool nights and during 

 cold rainy weather. But, one important point Mr. 

 Heddon does not touch upon, and that is, to have 

 the room for expansion below, to get the forces 

 ready for the honey-flow. It is dilBcult to believe, 

 that as powerful a force can be developed and held 

 without swarming in an eight as in a ten frame 

 hive. Possibly as great an aggregate result in honey 

 from a given number of say 25 original colonies 

 might be obtained by increasing stocks and with- 

 drawing brood, but I doubt it; for I think it is true, 

 that 50,000 workers at the honey-flow will store more 

 in one hive that the same number in two hives. 

 Voncentratcd force counts. J. W. Porter. 



Charlottesville, Va., Feb. 21, 1884. 



A SUGGESTION IN REGARD TO ARTIFI- 

 CIAL FERTILIZATION. 



SOMETHING ALMOST TOO WONDERFUL TO BE TRUE. 



^^DITOR GLEANINGS:— I have been a bee-keep- 

 ym er since 1872, atid for the past eight years 

 have madebee culture my exclusive business; 

 and although I have been fully alive to all the many 

 new ideas and improvements in the art, yet in no 

 one particular direction have I given more thought 

 and experiment than in that of controlling the fer- 

 tilization of queens. I persisted in the belief that 

 this could be done in some way ; but my experiments 

 in that direction invariably resulted in failure, and 

 1 had begun to look upon the occasional articles in 

 the journals, on the subject of fertilization in con- 

 finement, with disgust, and upon their authors with 

 pity; and but for an accidental circumstance, I 

 should have continued to look upon a solution of 

 this theory just as unlikely as that of ptrpetuttl mo- 

 tion. 



In September, 1882, I removed some queen-cells 

 from a queenless colony, with a view of placing 

 them in nuclei; but in trying to separate two that 

 were built close together, I accidentally cut into 

 one (which, by the way, was barely sealed), exposing 

 the larva at the base. As it was a fine cell, 1 thought 

 I would try to save it, as I had often done before, 

 by so placing it in the comb as to perfectly close the 

 rupture; and as the place selected for it was in a 

 small patch of drone comb containing unsealed lar- 

 vae, this was not difficult, as the drone larvse in the 

 broken cells assisted in forming a cement that did 

 the job nicely. 



Some days afterward the cell hatched, and the next 

 day— about 18 hours after — i saw the young queen 

 deposit eggs! I could hardly believe my own eyes; 

 but the indisputable facts were before me. In vain 

 I looked for a satisfactory solution to the phenome- 

 non; but as 1 was positive 1 had made no mistake 

 in my reckoning, I had no alternative but to accept 

 the old, but none the more satisfactory one, that it 

 was a " freak of nature," or, as is a more common 

 term in bee culture, a " sport." Could it be possible 

 that the embryo queen could have become fertilized 

 while yet in the larval state by having come in con- 

 tact wilh the larvtc of the drone, and remaining 

 sealed with it during this period? It did not look 

 very reasonable, certainly, but yet was it any more 



unreasonable than any other theory by which it 

 could be explained? 



The circumstance which at first seemed such a 

 puzzle continued so to occupy my mind during the 

 winter, that, notwithstanding my doubts, I deter- 

 mined to prove either the truth or falsity of the 

 tneory at my first opportunity, and so end the mat- 

 ter. Accordingly on the 20th of May, 1883, when 

 swarming had fairly commenced, I performed the 

 operation on three queen-cells, varying In age from 

 four to seven days from the egg. inoculating them 

 with drone larva; of about the same age, and await- 

 ed results, which were such as to fully meet my 

 most sanguine cipectations. One fertilized in the 

 natural way; one missing soon after hatching; and 

 the third laying after she had been Imt 17 hours from 

 the cell! This was enough, however, to prove that 

 the thing could be done, and I was more than satis- 

 fied with the eiperiment. 



Of course, this was followed by persistent experi- 

 menting during the entire season, and with extreme- 

 ly satisfactory results. I will simply say, that I 

 have now in my apiary 53 laying queens, not one of 

 which has ever hcen old of the hive. These queens are 

 in every respect first-class; and although they re- 

 main in the cell about two days longer than the usu- 

 al time (they hatch in about 18 days from the egg), 

 they have commenced laying at from 15 to 20 hours 

 after leaving the cell. There is no way of distin- 

 guishing their progeny from that of queens mated 

 in the natural way, and they in every instance take 

 the characteristics of the parents as faithfully. I 

 sent four of these queens to as many of my bee- 

 keeping friends, with a request that they test them 

 carefully, and report to me; and in no case has any 

 peculiarity in the queens themselves, or of their 

 progeny, been observable. 



I have no doubt but this statement will be received 

 by many scientific bee-keepers with severe criticism, 

 and perhaps more likely with scorn, even; but if 

 there are any who prefer to accept theory rather 

 than actual results, of course they have the priv- 

 ilege of enjoying their wisdom. For my part, I shall 

 accept the practical, especially where it combines 

 such numerous and valuable advantages over the 

 theoretical. 



In conclusion I will say, that I have never reared 

 queens to any extent for sale, nor do I intend to do 

 so; but as I expect to continue my experiments still 

 further the coming season, I will send a limited 

 number of fertilized queen-cells free of charge to 

 such among our prominent bee-keepers as will sig- 

 nify their desire to receive them, and who will give 

 them a fair and thorough test, together with a full 

 report of the result for publication. B. F. Lee. 



South Oxford, N. Y., Jan. 20, 1S84. 



Our friends will notice that this paper has 

 been with us some months. At the first 

 reading I had about as niuch faith in it as I 

 should have had, had our friend claimed 

 broadly that he had discovered perpetual 

 motion. I confess that 1 feel something the 

 same way in regard to it now ; but when he 

 tells us he has .')3 queens fertilized by this 

 process, that have never been outside of the 

 hive, we are obliged to conclude that we do 

 not know very much about these things 

 after all, especially if it sliould transpire that 

 this idea can really be put in practice by any 

 one. 1 think 1 published an editorial a year 

 or two ago about seeing a queen of but a 



