120 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 15. 



through the medium of two pairs of glands,- one pair 

 of which secretes the needful element for the produc- 

 tion of drones, the other that necessary to produce 

 queens and workers only. The secretion referred to 

 is supplied during the hermaphrodite stage of the lar- 

 va, and continued until the commencement of the 

 nymph stage, the ultimate determination of sex being 

 brought about by the secretion of both these glandular 

 forms. 3. In the case of unfertile eggs, that is, eggs 

 laid by unmated queens or by '' fertile " workers, only 

 drones can result. 



These drones, however, are abuoi mal, and by no 

 means the same as tho^e produced from fertile eggs. 

 The normal drone possesses, of course, perfect genera- 

 tive organs, but in the "abnormal" insect these are 

 wanting. Up to the present no such distinction has 

 been made. 



The writer adds : 



All Dickel's experiments, as well as those of his sup- 

 porters, are based upon abnormal circumstances, and 

 therefore it requires only common sense to see that 

 the queen, finding only drone-comb in her hive, laid 

 worker eggs as well as' drone-eggs, and both were pro- 

 duced accordingly. 



This will probably conclude the matter. 

 The articles in question were written by Mr. 

 R. H. Harris, F. Z. S., and his scientific ex- 

 amination of this strange theory has left no 

 room for its further discussion. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 

 Mr. J. M. Donaldson relates his experience 

 in trying to sell clover honey after buckwheat 

 had preceded him on the same route. It con- 

 tains some valuable hints. 



Last year a man came through this district selling 

 buckwheat honey. It was a nice grade of comb hon- 

 ey, put up in cartons; he was selling it very cheap, 

 and disposed of quite a large quantity. Some of my 

 customers did not forget to call my attention to the 

 difference in his price and mine. One of them told 

 me he would ruin ray trade. 



I did not pay much attention to their remarks, as my 

 crop was all sold, and I could not understand how he 

 could hurt my trade, as he was selling buckwheat hon- 

 ey, and mine is from clover. But I soon learned my 

 mistake, when I began selling my honey the past fall. 

 One of the first houses I called at, I showed the lady a 

 jir of extracted honey, telling her the price of the 

 same. She said, " Our folks don't like strained honey. 

 We always get ours in the comb. " 



Then I showed her a nice, well-filled section. After 

 examining it she said, "Well, that looks nice, and it 

 is well filled, but we bought some last year that looked 

 nice, and we could not eat it. " 



I knew it would be useless for me to have her try 

 the extracted honey, then explain to her that it was 

 the same quality, so I passed on to the next house. One 

 of my regular customers lived there, so I made a sale. 



But I had gone down the street only a short distance, 

 when I received almost the .same story as I did at the 

 first house. This set me thinking. How could I over- 

 come these arguments? I thought if I could let them 

 sample the comb honey, the same as I do with extract- 

 ed, all would be well, 



I was only three blocks away from home, so I went 

 back and got some of my unfinished sections. I cut 

 the honey out of one of them, placing it on a plate. I 

 called at the same houses, and asked the ladies to sam- 

 ple my honey. The result was ready sales. I have 

 used this plan since then, and I find it a great help, 

 even when calling on my regular customers. When 

 you give them a taste cl honey (good honey) it seems 

 to create a desire for more. 



FERTILITY OF QUEENS. 



When to Weed out Poor Queens; Queens from the 

 Swarming Impulse. 



SNELL. 



It is a well-known fact to most bee-keepers 

 that queens vary in prolificness, some being 

 able to lay as many as 3000 eggs in 24 hours 



in the height of the breeding season, while 

 other queens do not produce or deposit half 

 that number under the same conditions, the 

 queens being of about the same age. It is ex- 

 pected that queens failing from old age will 

 not do so well. We may have two colonies 

 side by side in the same apiary, equal 1}' strong 

 in the spring. Later on we may see readily 

 that one is outdoing the other, and becoming 

 stronger. If the amount of worker comb is 

 the same in one as in the other, and the sup- 

 ply of food about equal, no reason can be 

 seen for this difference, providing the heat is 

 retained by equal ventilation at the start. The 

 only reason to be given for the better progress 

 of one colony over the other must be in the 

 two queens. One deposits eggs freely, and 

 the workers hustle to care for the eggs and to 

 develop this brood ; and in this hive every 

 energy is bent toward rapid progress. In the 

 other hive, fewer eggs and maturing brood 

 are found in a less number of combs ; atid if 

 this colony becomes strong, the season may 

 be advanced into June, or the surplus storing 

 season, before work can be commenced in the 

 surplus apartment. The better colony will, 

 by June 1, be a powerful one ; and when the 

 flow for surplus begins, and the supers are put 

 on, the bees are ready to rush into the supers 

 and begin work there at once ; and when the 

 first super is half or two thirds full, a second 

 one can be placed under the first provided with 

 starters, and work will be commenced in this, 

 and even a third super may be put on, and all 

 be filled in a good flow from white and alsike 

 clover bloom. 



The colony with the poorer queen may or 

 may not fill one complete super in the sar-e 

 time. This comparison is not drawn from 

 fancy, but from observation and experience. 



Now, the question arises as to cause and 

 remedy in the case of the inferior colony. 

 The cause is often in the rearing of queens 

 when the conditions are such that good queens 

 can not be reared. Good queens can not be 

 rerred in a time of scarcity of honey and pol- 

 len in the fields. No wise apiarist will prac- 

 tice doing so. If the queen in a colony be 

 lost any time during the working season, the 

 bees of that colony will rear one in her place, 

 be she good, fair, or poor. They will do the 

 best they can under the circumstances. If 

 the queen be inferior she should be removed 

 and a good one given. 



No better time can be found to rear queens 

 than at swarming time. The apiarist should 

 form nuclei, and save the queen-cells from the 

 choice colonies. When the brood hatches, 

 the purity, if Italians are bred, can be known; 

 and if pure, the poor queens in the apiary can 

 be superseded by these choice young queens. 

 In our apiary we aim to rear enough such 

 queens to replace all that do not please us 

 each season, and a few extra ones. Nothing 

 in the apiary pays any better than the labor 

 spent in weeding out the poor queens and 

 having good ones in all the hives. This is the 

 only way that the standard of value can be 

 raised in the apiary, and the maximum amount 

 of honey secured. 



Milledgeville, 111. 



