52 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 15. 



were filled. Over 100 supers of sections of 

 foundation were moved back, making about 

 68 miles hauling, and handled 4 times in load- 

 ing and unloading, and not a dozen sheets of 

 foundation fell out, and these were not prop- 

 erly fastened into sections, or there would not 

 have been any to fall out. Now, then, this 

 I extra-thin foundation is bound to swing from 

 side to side in moving wiih a wagon over a 

 few miles of the way on very rough roads, and 

 yet they were in as good condition as when 

 they left the apiary, excepting these few sheets 

 that came entirely loose and whole from the 

 wood. This is surely a good test. 



It is a mistake to work against this improve- 

 ment. Experience with the unprejudiced will 

 prove them good. 



It rained in the northern part of the State 

 on the 22d, and may reach us in a few days ; 

 but they have considerably more rain in the 

 north than down here. Near the coast the 

 country has a beautiful shade of green, and is 

 gradually becoming so away from the coast. 

 M. H. Mkndleson. 



Ventura, Cal., Dec. 25, 1899. 



[M. H. Mendleson is, perhaps, the most ex- 

 tensive bee-keeper in California, and perhaps 

 in all the West. He is a strong advocate of 

 extra-thin foundation and tall 4x5 sections. 

 Mr. Mendleson is also the man who hauls whole 

 apiaries in a single load over the mountains 

 in California, and who does things on a big 

 scale; and this reminds me of a statement re- 

 cently made by the editor of the Review, that 

 he who would make a specialty of bee-keep- 

 ing, and make that almost his exclusive busi- 

 ness, should manage bees on a large scale. — 

 Ed.] 



does the queen meet the drone the 



second time? 

 On page 882 Prof. C. F. Hodge states, in re- 

 lation to the nuptial flight of a queen, that 

 within 15 minutes after the bees had removed 

 the organs of the drone she flew again, and 

 in five minutes returned with a second trophy 

 of success. Now, as I always have supposed 

 that a queen flew but once for the purpose of 

 mating, this is news to me, and no doubt will 

 be to a number of beginners. Will you 

 please give us your views on the subject .■' 



John F. Hennessy. 

 Ballston Spa, N. Y., Dec. 11. 



[I noticed the passage to which you refer in 

 Prof. Hodge's article, and intended to call 

 particular attention to it ; but I see I overlook- 

 ed it. The language is susceptible of two or 

 three interpretations. One is, that Prof. 

 Hodge believes that queens may meet the 

 drone more than once — before and after egg- 

 laying ; second, that they may be fertilized 

 two or more times before actual egg-laving be- 

 gins, but not after ; or, third, what is more 

 probably true, the bees, on the return of the 

 young queen, in their efforts to remove the 

 outside appendages, took out all the organs of 

 the drone, thus making the first flight of the 

 queen fruitless, rendering a second one neces- 

 sary. I have seen virgin queens go around 

 with the appendages more or less shriveled up 



in the form of little strings, for a day or two ; 

 but the bees always chase after, and probably 

 do in time succeed in pulling them away. 



It is generally laid down in the text-books, 

 and the statement seems to be supported by 

 facts, that a queen meets a drone but once in 

 her lifetime ; and although there has been 

 some evidence that seemed to indicate that 

 queens might meet a drone a second time, all 

 such reports have been discredited. Perhaps 

 Prof. Hodge, now that the question is opened 

 up, will be enabled to enlighten us a little fur- 

 ther on these points. 



An observatory hive is worth all the books 

 that have ever been published on the subject ; 

 but the only trouble is, it takes more watch- 

 ing than most people are willing to give. 



A strong fact against the theory that the 

 queen meets the drone a second time is that 

 there has been no absolute proof to the effect 

 that the progeny of any one queen changes 

 from black to Italian or vice versa. The first 

 bees hatched by the qtfeen will be like all the 

 rest reared from that mother, no matter wheth- 

 er she lives to be three months old or three 

 years. It is true, there have been reports that 

 the progeny of one queen changed all their 

 markings, but so far as I can remember there 

 have been too many chances for error on the 

 part of the observer. — Ed.] 



MATING of queen AND DRONE, AS SEEN BY 



another eye-witness. 



Having just read what you say on page 97 of 

 your ABC book about the mating of queens 

 in the air, including the communications of 

 Messrs. E. A, Pratt and S. R. Fletcher, I am 

 prompted to report the following : In the 

 spring and summer of 1884 I had an apiary 

 near Way land, Stephens Co., Texas, on the 

 top of one of those precipitous elevations that 

 are there called mountains, and to this apiary 

 I gave daily personal attention. During the 

 swarming season there might be two or even 

 three swarms in the air at once. This kept me 

 much of the time on the lookout. One day 

 while standing on the outer edge of the apiary 

 I heard a buzzing noise overhead, and, looking 

 up, I saw a queen and a drone that had evi- 

 dently just embraced and then separated, and 

 were now circling in the air. each in its own 

 way, but connected with each other by a long 

 white filament that was being drawn out long- 

 er and longer till it was not several feet only, 

 but several yards, in length. When this gos- 

 samer-like thread became too attenuated to 

 stand the strain it parted, and I lost sight of 

 both the queen and drone while they were still 

 up in the air. I did not consider the mat- 

 ter worth reporting, not knowing then that 

 such observations have rarely occurred, or at 

 least have rarely been published ; hence this 

 report is like one born out of due time, but so 

 the apostle Paul said he was. 



R A. Cole, M. D. 



Jackson, Ind. Ter., Nov. 10. 



the CUBAN bee-keepers' ASSOCIATION. 



For a long time there had been talk of the 

 need of a bee-association in Cuba. This finally 



