■i^e 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



A distant view of tlie Akiilioslii apiary in Jap;ni 



liatc'h in 21 days, but a few would still be 

 iHihatched ou the '22d day from the time 

 the queen was taken away. 



I had occasion to test this in transferring 

 bees from box hives. When breaking up 

 tlie box after 21 days, or on the 22d day. 

 1 have always found some unhatehed bees 

 (brood). Dr. Miller does not say that he 

 looked at this frame ("XIX") once be- 

 tween August 5 and August 25. 



Now, Mr. Editor, I know by experience 

 that eggs don't always get a chance to hatch. 

 When taken from home, and put into a 

 strange colony, the bees sometimes take 

 offense at this strange batch of eggs and 

 destroy evei'y one of them. I wish Dr. 

 Miller would please tell us if he looked at 

 this particular "XIX" frame at any time 

 between August 5 and 25, and if he is sure 

 the eggs in this frame ever reached the 

 larval state. I am frank to say that I don't 

 believe bees will hatch in 19 days 18 hours 

 nnd 50 minutes from the time the egg is 

 laid; and T believe if Dr. Miller had taken 

 a peep at that frame any time between 

 Aug. 8 and Aug. 25 he would have found 

 e\ ery cell in said frame empty. 



1 expect to test this matter thoroughly 

 tliis coming season, and will let you know 

 what I find. 



Atwood, Col. 



Dr. Miller replies : 



It's a g'^od thing there are sharii eyes 



upon us, for there are many chances foi' 

 slips in conducting any experiments with 

 bees. I know that bees will sometimes 

 destroy every egg in the hive, but that did 

 not occur to me when I reported the case in 

 that Straw, p. 125. All that I reported 

 was that the last egg was laid just before 

 5 :05 P.M., Aug. 5, and that the cells were 

 empty 11 :55 a. m., Aug. 25. With no more 

 data than that, there is the possibility of 

 destruction of the eggs, and I am thankful 

 to friend Landrum for taking up the matter. 



At the start, there was no thought of 

 learning any thing about worker-brood. It 

 was an experiment relating to queen-rear- 

 ing. I will now give the case more in detail. 

 The comb was taken from No. 28 at 5:15 

 P.M., Aug. 5 (the only comb in the hive), 

 and put into No. 91, a strong queenless nu- 

 cleus kept as a sort of storehouse. 



Aug. 8, it was put into No. 69, a sti'ong 

 queenless colony, with the express purpose 

 of having queen-cells built. I made no 

 minute of whetlier eggs were present at this 

 time or not, and have no recollection about 

 it, but I think it doubtful that I should 

 have put into a hive a comb for cell-build- 

 ing without noticing that the eggs had been 

 removed. Still it is possible. 



The record shows that Aug. 12, at 3 p. m.. 

 no queen-cells were vet sealed. T can hardly 

 imagine the possibility of my examining 

 the queen-cells at this time without noticing 

 that the woi'ker-cells were empty, if such 



