704 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



JUi.Y 15 



For moving- bees, the Hoffman frame, of 

 course, has its advantages; but they are 

 j^-^reatly outweighed by their clumsiness and 

 inconveniences for uncapping, difficulty in 

 removing first frame, excess of wood for 

 cool weather, and that little wedge is too 

 small and thin to hold in foundation which 

 is not wired. 



In editorials, J nne Review, Editor Hutch- 

 inson, page 202. in referring to a former 

 question asked by him, and giving a solu- 

 tion which I offered him, restates the mat- 

 ter so that it implies or leads one to believe 

 that he means that it might be possible that 

 a clipped queen, tested, and sent out by 

 him to customers, reniated in the hive after 

 being introduced, producing hybrids. That 

 is an extraordinary question, and I solicit 

 an answer from the editor, from Dr. Miller, 

 Mr. Doolittle, or some of our other past- 

 grand masters. As for myself, I think it 



The queen returns to the hive later, carrying with 

 her the copulatorv organ of the drone, and after a little 

 this is ejected. The essential part is, however, that 

 her spermatheca, or seminal receptacle, be filled with 

 spermatozoa during the marriage flight. The num- 

 ber of these has been estimated at from two to twen- 

 ty million, and it is at least certain that she receives 

 enough so that she can keep on laying worker eggs 

 for four or five years. The spermatozoa are the es- 

 sential things in this fertilization, and not the fluid in 

 which they float, and these do not divide or increase 

 in number in any way after they enter the queen. 



—Ed.] 



PREPARING COMB HONEY FOR MARKET. 



I herewith enclose a view taken recently, 

 of samples of my honey and how I put it up 

 in neat blue wrappers with my name and 

 address on each package for regular local 

 customers. The unwrapped sections are 

 not of my best grade, but No. 2. I sell my 

 best grade at 20 cts. per section at the be- 

 ginning of the season, and my No. 2 g3es 



SECTIONS WRAPPED AND UNWRAPPED. 



"was only some case of reverting to type or 

 conformity to type of ancestors. 



F. N. SOMERFORD. 



San Antonio de los Banos, Cuba. 



[Regarding queens mating the second 

 iime a//^;- they have begun laying, I have 

 already expressed my doubts in these col- 

 umns. I do not yet remember seeing a case 

 where it was absolutely shown that a queen 

 OEce producing pure Italians was after- 

 ward the mother of hybrid or black bees. 

 There is such a large chance for the old 

 queen to die and to be replaced by a daugh- 

 ter that looks exactly like her that one is 

 liable to draw a wrong conclusion. It has 

 been shown pretty conclusively that one 

 fertilization is sufficient to last a queen a 

 lifetime. As bearing on this point. Dr. 

 E. F. Phillips, of the University of Penn- 

 sylvania, in Gleanings for March 15, of 

 this year, said: 



at the same price later on when ten-cent 

 country box-hive honey has played cut. I 

 sell at 20 cts. all I produce, while others 

 sell at 10 cts. and less. 



The past spring proved one of the poorest 

 I have ever seen, as there was no rain dur- 

 ing l-Iarch and April, and it was unusual- 

 ly cool. My bees are moving along very 

 well at present, and are working on linden, 

 buckwheat, and sweet clover. I send ycu 

 a cut cf an experimental patcV". I also 

 have another patch of considerable extent. 

 In some places the plants have attained a 

 height of eight feet. These were small 

 I>lants taken up in Warren Co last July, 

 and set out here during the hottest weathi r 

 we had. I also planted a pe;k of seed pro- 

 cund from 3 our house. I have had no trou- 

 ble at all in getting a fine .'tiind, and now 

 it is a solid mass of blo^n s which are 

 covered with bees. 



I will say for the benefit of Dr. Miller, 



