438 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 1 



RELATIVE VARIATION OF DRONES ANDWORKERS. 



The Importance of Large Drones. 



BY E. F. PHILLIPS. 



It is, no doubt, well known to most of the 

 readers of Gleanings that the drones in a 

 hive vary in color more than do the workers 

 from the same queen. Another fact still 

 more easily seen is that there is a great 

 difference is the shape of the body in drones 

 which hatch from worker- cells and those 

 which hatch from the regular drone-cells. 

 From these two facts the inquiry arose as to 

 whether the drones or the workers showed 

 the greater amount of variation in other 

 parts of their bodies; and to test this the 

 writer, together with Dr. D. B. Casteel, of 

 the University of Pennsylvania, made a se- 

 ries of measurements of 500 drones and 500 



we divided the length of the vein marked a 

 by the length of the vein marked b, and got 

 a fraction which represented their relative 

 lengths. After this measurement was all 

 done (and it took considerable time) we ar- 

 ranged our results in the form of tables. 

 Since these tables were made out to prove 

 a point which has no bearing on apiculture 

 I will not give them here; but they will be 

 published elsewhere, since they are, per- 

 haps, of interest from the standpoint of zo- 

 ology. The facts brought out were that 

 the drones vary more than the workers, and 

 that the variation depends on the cell from 

 which the bee hatches. For example, a drone 

 from a worker-cell is long and narrow, with 

 long narrow wings, while a drone from a 

 full-sized drone-cell is fat, and has wide 

 strong wings. 

 Now, the point which interests apiculture 



workers. In this work the wings were cho- 

 sen, since they were the most satisfactory 

 organs that we could find, as they do not 

 shrink in alcohol. 



Before going into details a few words 

 along another line may be allowed. As is 

 well known, the drones come from parthen- 

 ogenetic eggs, and the workers from fertil- 

 ized eggs. On general principles it might 

 be supposed that, since the workers have 

 two parents, they would naturally vary all 

 the way between these two parents in their 

 characters, while the drones, with one pa- 

 rent only, would tend to be like that one 

 parent. If we did nothing but sit down 

 and reason the thing out we shDuld come to 

 the conclusion that the workers would vary 

 more than the drones; but while reasoning 

 is all right in its place, it must be preceded 

 by observation, and we shall see in what 

 follows how well our reasoning serves us. 



The illustrations which accompany this 

 article show the vems on the wings of the 

 bee. Five measurements were taken for 

 each bee measu' ed, and the points marked 

 in dotted lines show what these measure- 

 ments were. Besides this, for each wing 



most is this: Since the drone's size 

 and power depend on the cell from 

 which it comes, it is of the utmost 

 importance that full sized drone comb 

 be furnished when the drones are to 

 be used for fertilizing queens. If 

 nothing but worker foundation is 

 given to the bees, the drones will be 

 small, and their organs will not get 

 a chance to develop as they should, 

 and their wings are not strong enough to 

 support them when they take the marriage- 

 flight with the queen. Small drones are 

 perfectly capable of fertilizing a queen, as 

 all bee-keepers know; but in the race for 

 the queer, it is the largest drone that is suc- 

 cessful; and, in case a small drone does 

 catch the queen, he will not be able to give 

 enough spermatic fluid to last her through 

 life, and she will soon dwindle. 



There is one fact that some queen-breeders 

 overlook, and it seems very desirable to 

 point it cut as plainly as possible. The 

 male has just as much influence on the off- 

 spring as has the female, and just as much 

 care should be exercised in the choice of the 

 drones in a yard as is used in choosing the 

 breeding queen. If a man pays $10 for a 

 breeder, and then lets all kinds and sizes 

 of drones fly in his yard, he generally gets 

 what he deserves; and that is, a poor lot of 

 queens. It is the customer who suft'ers, 

 since a queen may leave the apiary tested, 

 and in capital condition, and the results of 

 incomplete fertilization not show for some 

 time. Of course it may happen that the 

 breeder gets fairly good results; but he 



