1884 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CtJLTUllE. 



701 



the price of buttei*, which was about 8 or 10 

 cts. If I am mistaken, doubtless friend 

 Pond or others will correct me. — It should 

 be explained, that Avhen I get honey for 7 

 cts. I take lots as large as three or four tons 

 at a time. By the time this is put in the gro- 

 ceries, it brings all the way from 10 to 15 cts. 

 —Now, friend D., in regard to your last 

 point I would suggest that tlie present prices 

 of honey may not pay you to produce it ; but 

 I think there are a great many who would 

 prefer to furnish honey at 7 cts. by the ton, 

 rather than to enter into any thing else ; and 

 in many cases they could do it while they 

 could not well do any thing else ; or, per- 

 haps, we might say, uvuhl not do much else 

 if they did not raise the honey. We shoidd 

 also bear in mind, that there are many who 

 claim that almost every other business is 

 overdone— small fruits, grain, stock, etc. 



SOME OF FHIEND CATHEY'S OBSER- 

 VATIONS IN BEE CULTURE. 



VALUE RECEIVED. 



fRIEND ROOT:— It has been more than two 

 years since I troubled you with a coniuiuni- 

 cation tor Gleanings. Perhaps I should 

 have bothered you before now, had I not re- 

 membered a little item you wrote to the 

 juveniles more than a year a^^o, on the subject of 

 " Value Received." Your instructions to them were 

 something like this: That when one gave a note 

 for value received, it implied that the maker of the 

 note had already received full value for the amount 

 for which he gave that note; and that when the 

 little ones wrote for a book, they should try to give 

 the worth of the book in some kind of information. 

 I thought this should apply to the old as well as the 

 young; and I set to, to try by experience to add 

 something to the general fund of bee lore. But 

 ■with my first attempt I met with many obstacles, 

 and I soon learned that the study of bees is like the 

 study of astronomy; that as you advance in ex- 

 perimental knowledge, the goal seems to recede; so 

 that the more you learn, the further you seem to be 

 from perfection. 1 had set out to try to establish or 

 destroy some fine-spun theories thatwere in dispute. 

 My experiments wei-e in the winter and spring of 

 1883. In 1884 my bees were so weak that I did not 

 continue my experiments. 



DO HYBRIDS COMMENCE REARING BROOD EARLIER 

 IN THE SPRING THAN ITALIANS? 



Feb. 15, 1883, 1 examined my hives, and found, as 

 usual, the hybrids laying several days earlier than 

 the Italians. That this is nearly always the case, is 

 established to my satisfaction; but I have some 

 doubts as to the cause. I found that the hybrids, 

 generally, had a little pollen, which I think was left 

 over the previous year, as they could not have gath- 

 ered any before that time. 1 have, therefore, con- 

 cluded, in the absence of positive evidence, that the 

 Italians are more apt to use all their pollen in the 

 fall, and consequently they can not raise any brood 

 until they gather it in^he spring, while the hybrids 

 have old pollen to begin with. But here are the 

 facts in the case (as Connor would say): The hy- 

 brids will lay first in the spring, notwithstanding 

 the Italians will leave the hive first during cool 

 mornings. 



CAN WORKER -EGGS BE CHANGED SO AS TO PRO- 

 DUCE DRONES? 



Feb. 28 I started out to prove or disprove the theo- 

 ry of bees changing the sex of the eggs. I believ- 

 ed they could, and I wanted to prove it. I took the 

 queen from a hive which had but few eggs. March 

 3, 1 found cells. At the usual time I found a queen. 

 All the brood that was in the hive, the same age of 

 that from which they raised the queen, hatched 

 worker-bees. April 8, no eggs; April 16, found 

 capped brood. There were no drones in my apiary, 

 and I did not think there were any in the whole 

 country. But whether she met a drone, wasp, or 

 bumble-bee, she was a fertile queen, and her eggs 

 produced worker-bees. To my chagrin, my theory 

 was annihilated, and I was bent so far the other way 

 that nothing short of ocular demonstration will 

 ever get me back to it. It is very humiliating to a 

 man when he has so much confidence in a theory 

 that he says, " I will prove it," and then fails. How- 

 ever, it did not hurt me much, as it was truth 1 was 

 after, and not victory. I think this theory originat- 

 ed from impei-fect experiments. We all know that 

 bees are not infallible in their instincts; foi% as the 

 most of us know, they, will try to raise queens 

 from drone-eggs, and they always fail. Now, their 

 mistake would be just as natural when their in- 

 stinct teaches them that they need drones for them 

 to draw out the worker-brood cells, and give them the 

 conical cap, and I think this the whole solution of the 

 theory. If a man says he undoubtedly saw a drone 

 crawl out of one of these cells near where a xjueen 

 had been hatched, then I will reconsider the matter. 

 I think that the experience I had sevei-al years ago, 

 which gave me so much confidence in the theory, 

 was drone-larvie, from which the bees had tried to 

 make a queen, and, of course, failed. 1 remember 

 there were only two queen-cells, and I destroyed 

 one, and forget all about what became of the other; 

 but I do remember that the walls of the cell were 

 very thin, and not polished off with the miniature 

 honey-comb which we find on all good cells. 



ITALIANS AHEAD OF HYBRIDS IN POOR SEASONS, 

 BUT THE REVERSE DURING A HONEY-FLOW. 



A small pamphlet by Adair was the first work I 

 ever read on bee culture. He stated that hybrids 

 were fully equal, as honey-gatherers, to the Italians, 

 and that any cross was better than blacks. I did 

 not believe it at that time; but my subsequent ex- 

 perience convinced me, that under certain condi- 

 tions the hybrids are superior to the Italians; and 

 my statement of this was the first that I ever saw 

 in print; but since then I have read the same en- 

 comiums pronounced on the hybrids by several of 

 your correspondents. My experience was for good 

 honey crops. Last year was the poorest for honey 

 that we have had for many, and I found to my sur- 

 prise that my Italians were ahead, without any ex- 

 ception. I have, therefore, established beyond a 

 doubt in my own mind, that, with a good How of 

 honey, the hybrids are superior; but with a dearth 

 of honey, the Italians excel. Now, I do not believe 

 in advancing an idea, or adoi)ting a theory, without 

 giving a reason for it. If, as is generally admitted, 

 the proboscis of the Italian is longer than tliat of 

 the black, it is a good reason why the Italian should 

 gather more honey in a dearth; but why the hybrid 

 should gather more in a fiow, is something for 

 which I will admit 1 can give no reason. I only 

 know they have always done so for me. 



