694 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 15. 



ing, " I don't know." And this saying of his 

 often reminds me of a story; and as I have 

 not told any stories in any of my late articles 

 I think the editor will excuse me if I tell one 

 at the beginning of this reply instead of at the 

 end, as is my usual custom. The story is 

 about the late Henry Ward Beecher, who used 

 to say that a problem in mathematics taught 

 him reliance, and he told this story to prove it : 



' ' My teacher in mathematics taught me to 

 depend on myself in this wise: I was sent to 

 the blackboard, and went uncertain, and full 

 of whimpering. ' That lesson must be learn- 

 ed, ' said my teacher, in a very quiet tone, but 

 with a terrible intensity. All explanations 

 and excuses he trod under foot with utter 

 scornfulness. ' I want that problem; I don't 

 want any reasons why you haven't it,' he 

 would say. ' I did study two hours.' 'That's 

 nothing to me; I want the lesson. You need 

 not study it at all, or you may study it ten 

 hours, just to suit yourself. I want the lesson.' 

 It was tough for a green boy; but it seasoned 

 me. In less than a month I had the most 

 intense sense of intellectual independence and 

 courage to defend my recitations. One day 

 his cold calm voice fell upon me in the midst 

 of a demonstration. 'No.' I hesitated, and 

 then went back to the beginning, and on 

 reaching the same point again, ' No! ' uttered 

 in a tone of conviction, barred my progress. 

 ' The next ! ' and I sat down in red confusion. 

 He, too, was stopped with ' No ! ' but went 

 right on, finished, and, as he sat down, was 

 rewarded with 'very well.' 'Why,' whim- 

 pered I, ' I recited it just as he did, and you 

 said 'No!' 'Why didn't you say yes, and 

 stick to it ? It is not enough to learn your 

 lesson ; you must knozv that you know it. 

 You have learned nothing till you are sure. 

 If all the world says no, your business is to 

 say yes, and prove it. ' " 



And now. Dr. M., without wishing to give 

 any offense, allow me to say that quite a num- 

 ber have written me during the past, in sub- 

 stance, " Why doesn't the doctor say yes, and 

 prove it?" And as our correspondent says 

 you stated that bees were in the larval form 

 five days, we want you to " prove it " if you 

 did say so ; for, from all of my experience, I 

 am led to say " No " to the five-days theory, 

 and right here I am going to try to prove the 

 " No " for the readers of Gleanings and the 

 questioner; and if the opposition prove differ- 

 ently, I am going to do still further experi- 

 menting along this line of " from the egg to 

 the perfect bee ' ' till the right comes upper- 

 most. 



Ouinby told us in his "Mysteries of Bee- 

 keeping Explained," which book was pub- 

 lished about 18(>5, that the egg, as laid by the 

 queen in worker-cells, hatches in three days 

 to a larva; this larva is fed by the nurse-bees 

 six days, when the cell containing it is sealed 

 over, remaining thus for twelve days, during 

 which time it undergoes the change "from' 

 caterpillar to butterfly," when the covering to 

 the cell is eaten off and it emerges a perfect 

 bee, being a period of 21 days from the laying 

 of the egg to the perfect bee, making a little 

 allowance for the weather, as very warm 



weather hastens this development to a limited 

 extent, and cold weather retards the same. 



Always being desirous to know things for a 

 certainty, so far as they can be ascertained, I 

 conducted experiments which proved to my 

 satisfaction that Quinby was correct. I placed 

 a frame of nice worker comb in the center of 

 a populous colony about June first, and looked 

 at it very often till I found eggs in it, which 

 date I marked on top of the frame. In about 

 two hours less than three days I found larvae 

 hatched, and in six days and three hours the 

 first larvse were fully sealed over. Twelve 

 days thereafter I found a very few bees just 

 biting off the covering to their cells, where 

 the first eggs were laid. 



From this trial I was entirely satisfied as to 

 the correctness of Quinby till a few years ago 

 when I was withstood by a bee-keeper of con- 

 siderable prominence who said that bees are 

 in the larval form but little more than three 

 days. I was about to contradict the state- 

 ment, but concluded that I would not, as I 

 had made only the one experiment ; still, I 

 could not think that both Ouinby and myself 

 were wrong. So I went to experimenting 

 again, the weather being extremely hot at 

 this time, while it was moderately cool when 

 I tried the first experiment. The result dur- 

 ing this hot weather was very nearly three 

 days in the egg, five and three-fourths days 

 in the larva, and eleven and one-fourth days 

 in the pupa state, making twenty days in all; 

 and this is the shortest period of time I ever 

 knew workers to emerge from their cells after 

 the &^^ was laid, under any circumstances. 

 Besides this, I have many times cut out all 

 queen-cells but one, from colonies seven to 

 eight days after a prime swarm had issued 

 from them, and had said colonies build queen- 

 cells over larvte still unsealed, and, when 

 these queens were old enough to hatch, send 

 out a swarm with the queen hatching from 

 the cell I had left when the rest were cut. It 

 may be possible in the South, with extreme 

 heat, for bees to hatch in less than twenty 

 days from the laying of the egg; but I doubt 

 about that time being reduced very much, 

 even under such circumstances. On the othei 

 hand, I have known very nearly twenty-four 

 days to elapse with weak colonies and cold 

 weather while the bee was developing. But 

 twenty-one days is the rule, according to all 

 of my general work among the bees during 

 the past nearly thirty years, and this rule can 

 be depended upon in governing all of our 

 methods of dividing bees, etc., where it is 

 necessary that we should have some knowl- 

 edge in these matters. The time of the year 

 when the development of brood is most retard- 

 ed by cool weather is in the fall, and when 

 most accelerated by warm weather in May 

 and June. The reason for this is that bees 

 are very active in spring and early summer, 

 while they become quite sluggish on the 

 approach of winter. 



In conclusion, perhaps I should say that I 

 find the rule with queens to be, three days in 

 the egg form, five and one-half days in the 

 larval form, and from seven and one-fourth to 

 seven and three-fourths in the pupa form, 



