916 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 15. 



R." when he admits that ?onie floral honey 

 granulates in the combs. I doubt whether the 

 addition of flreiveed honey would prevent the 

 granulation of sugar fed to bees, if there was 

 any inclination on the part of the sugar to 

 granulation. In fact. I think that the addition 

 of the honey would aid the niattei'. A. I. R.'s 

 experience is different from mine when he says 

 that almost all sugar fed to bees will eventual- 

 ly granulate. I have fed a great deal of sugar 

 for winter stores, without the addition of any 

 thing to prevent gianulation. and granulation 

 has occurred so seldom ihatitdoes not seem 

 worth mentioning. There is a differencr in 

 sugar as regards this matter of granulation, 

 just as there is in natural honey. Most sugar 

 when fed to bees does not crystallize; most nec- 

 tar when gathered by bees does not granulate; 

 some kinds of either will granulate, hence I see 

 no argument in this point. 



If Bro. Root will read carefully Prof. Cook's 

 article in the October fJeuicff. also the extract 

 taken from the College Speculum., he will see 

 that the students did not pronounce the sugar 

 honey " basswood." They ■" pronounced it un- 

 doubtedly honey, and of excellent quality." It 

 was the chemical analysis and not the taste 

 that classed the sugar honey with that of the 

 finest clover and basswood. 



Thanking you again for your generosity and 

 fairness in allowing me the use of your columns 

 to make my position clearly understood, I am 

 as ever yours, VV. Z. Hutchinson. 



Flint, Mich., Dec. .5. 



[We are yet to hear from Prof. Cook, at which 

 time we expect to copy his Review article.] 



REPKODUCTION IN THE BEE. 



SOME THINGS NOT YET EXPLAINED. 



The patient efforts spent by our ancestors 

 upon our inherited knowledge are almost always 

 overlooked, underestimated, or ridiculed. In 

 the light of our present knowledge, crystallized 

 from concentrated study of ages, the mistakes 

 made by the ancient naturalists and students 

 floundering about in complete darkness seem to 

 be or are too often treated as inexcusable. Of 

 no subject is this more true than of the repro- 

 duction of the honey-bee. A little thought, 

 however, and a brief comparison with the re- 

 productive systems of the better known and 

 more approachable animate beings will suggest 

 a reason for much of the seemingly wild guess- 

 work with which the habits of this little work- 

 er were distorted. So complete a departure — 

 reversal, almost — of the more observable laws 

 of nature was well calculated to foster erroneous 

 ideas. 



In a general way, we now understand the 

 functions of the three branches of the bee- 

 family — the drones, queen, and workers. But 

 who would expect to encounter, in a herd of 

 several thousand wild cattle, a single cow, a 

 few bulls, and the vast body of the herd sexless, 

 or practically so? No wonder Shakspeare pen- 

 ned of them. "They have a king and officers 

 of state;" and when we come to the remark of 

 the ancient naturalist Aristotle, that "some 

 say the rulers produce the young of the bee," 

 we should rather be surprised that they had 

 learned so much about them as they had.' Nor 

 were all tiie great mistakes on this subject 

 made in the earliest times. Virgil, about the 

 time of Christ, makes the assertion that a cus- 

 tom, said to have once existed in Egypt, to 

 replenish weak swarms, was to suffocate a 

 young bullock, cover the carcass with flowers, 

 the worms appearing in the decomposing flesh, 



and hatching into bees, being utilized to 

 strengthen the depleted colonies. Virgil, how- 

 ever, states this only as a historical fact, leaving 

 it for Englishmen of a later century to gravely 

 repeat it as a practical truth. 



In 1017 an English physician. Joseph Warden, 

 in a volume entitled "The Feminine Kingdom; 

 or. the True Amazons," gave many hitherto 

 unkown facts about the bee, among which was 

 the assertion that the queen was at the same 

 time ruler aiftl mother of the colony. An Eng- 

 lish bee-keeper by the name of Butler is also 

 said to have understood this at even an earlier 

 date. 



A little further back I said we all now under- 

 stand the methods of reproduction in a general 

 way. Let me now add. audin o general way 

 only. With all our boasted nineteenth-century 

 knowledge there are a good many things in this 

 subject quite undetermined. In the hope of 

 adding something to the knowledge of some 

 one, this article is written. Let us now consider 

 the uses of each member of the hive, and in- 

 quire into the reproduction and development of 

 each, beginning with the queen. 



Everybody, perhaps, knows that the queen- 

 cell is larger than the worker-cells, and opens 

 downward. Into this an egg is placed; just how 

 is still disputed. Some claim to have seen the 

 queen deposit it there herself, while others are 

 as certain it is carried there by workers. If all 

 things are favorable, the larva becomes a queen 

 in 16 days. Previous to this, by about 8 days, 

 the old queen leads a portion of the swarm 

 away to other quarters, giving her young suc- 

 cessor undisputed sway from the first. This, 

 however, is in case the weather and conditions 

 are favorable. If the young queen hatches be- 

 fore the colony is ready for her. the workers 

 confine her in her cell, and care for her there 

 until the conditions are more favorable. 



On being released, her first act is to make a 

 tour of the hive and destroy every embryo 

 queen that, if allowed to hatch, would in time 

 become her rival. If this destruction is inter- 

 rupted by the workers, or incomplete for any 

 reason, a second swarm is usually the result. 

 This destruction is rendered the easier by the 

 victim of it. who leaves one end of the cocoon 

 open, and thus exposes hei'self to just sueh an 

 attack. The queen -bee seldom makes any use 

 of her sting except to destroy rival queens. 



If the weather is bad, and the honey-flow 

 ceases, the workers not infrequently destroy all 

 queen-cells and thus stop all swarming for the 

 season— a method the keeper himself sometimes 



resorts to for the same purpose. _ 



rPerhaps the most curious fact connected with 

 the bee colony, and the one that has been the 

 least explained, is the action of the swarm when 

 a queen is lost. If the colony is healthy, and 

 there is brood in the hive not over three days 

 old, worker larva; are removed to queen-cells, 

 where they are fed on the " royal jelly," and in 

 the course of time become full-fledged queens. 

 That the extra nourishing and stimulating food 

 should increase the size of the bee receiving it, 

 and perhaps reduce the time required for hatch- 

 ing, just as plants are hurried along by the 

 forcing process, is not so very remarkable. But 

 that the larva, which, by the regular course of 

 nature, would develop in 21 days to a sexless 

 member of the family, of short life, small size, 

 gingery disposition, and, withal, a strong ven- 

 eration for a queen, could, by the magic influ- 

 ence of more commodious quarters and better 

 food, become in five days less time a much larger 

 member, with a fully developed sexual organi- 

 zation, a strong dislike to attack any except 

 another queen, for which their hatred is deadly, 

 a greatly prolonged life, and the physical and 

 character peculiarities almost entirely opposite. 



