AUGUST 1, 1916 



649 



Dr. C. C. Miller 



STRAY STRAWS ^^^^^ 



Mrs. Allen wonders, page 522, 

 whether bees would suffer drones 

 in a super till the general drone- 

 slaughter. In cases I have known, 

 whether it was the indoor eonfine- 

 I ment, or whether they were starv- 

 ed by the bees, it was not long 

 before they were all gone, and nothing left 

 of them except their polished thoraxes lying 

 on the excluder. 



" An ordinary frame of sealed brood " is 

 pictured on p. 488. Is that a fair sample 

 taken from a good colony in the height of 

 the breeding season? So many unsealed 

 cells among the sealed do not seem entirely 

 satisfactory, altho it may be all right if the 

 picture be taken rather late in the season, 

 when laying has become more scattered. At 

 any rate, such a frame is hardly the ordi- 

 nary thing in my hives in June. [The comb 

 was not shown because it was perfect or_ 

 normal for the time of year, but because it 

 showed all kinds of brood, worker and 

 drone, sealed and unsealed. Perhaps we 

 ought to have had another frame showing 

 all the cells sealed. But our main purpose 

 was to illustrate to the novice the difference 

 between the different kinds of brood. Per- 

 haps the word " ordinary " is not quite the 

 correct qualifying adjective. We will change 

 it when it comes out in book form. — Ed.] 



The last paragi-aph, p. 549, intimates 

 that when a queen becomes a drone-layer 

 she lays two and three eggs in a cell. I 

 wonder. I'll tell you what I think, subject 

 to correction. When a queen becomes a 

 drone-layer she has the same instincts as 

 before, will lay in the same kind of cells, 

 and the same number of eggs, only they'll 

 all produce drones. A laying worker seems to 

 consult her own comfort, and prefers the 

 larger cells because more comfortable. (I 

 saw one once laying an egg in a worker- 

 cell, and her wings were crowded up about 

 her head so uncomfortably that I don't 

 wonder she should want a larger cell.) So 

 when each drone-cell has an egg she prefers 

 to duplicate them rather than to use a 

 worker-cell. A queen-cell is still more com- 

 fortable, and three times as many eggs may 

 be found in a queen-cell as in a drone-cell. 

 But when scarcity of larger cells obliges 

 laying workers to use worker-cells, there's 

 one egg in a cell; and until the cells are 

 sealed you can't tell the work from that of 

 the best queen. At least that's the way "in 

 this locality." [When we read over your 

 first sentence, referring to page 549, we felt 



sure 3'ou nui^l bo referring to some corre- 

 spondent, because we certainly believed just 

 what you say ; but when examination show- 

 ed that you were referring to our own 

 statement, we have to confess we did not say 

 what we meant, because we had in mind 

 laying workers. It is true, just as you say, 

 tliat a laying queen that turns drone-layer 

 does not lay eggs like a laying worker; but 

 a queen that never met a drone, and never 

 laid worker eggs, will behave very much like 

 a laying worker. Thanks for your correc- 

 tion. — Ed.] 



" Reliable estimates show that the total 

 amount of honey produced is not far from 

 200 million pounds," page 547. That sounds 

 like such an enormous cjuantity it seems 

 there must be some mistake about it. But 

 when we remember that that's to feed a 

 hundred million people, what a stingy mor- 

 sel it is! Less than a tenth of an ounce a 

 day for each individual! My daily ration 

 is 15 to 30 times .that much, and I'm a very 

 small eater. The average beekeeper does a 

 lot of grumbling because he isn't better 

 I^aid. and I don't know that I blame him. 

 But let him take comfort in the thought that 

 he's engaged in a work of true philanthro- 

 py with every pound of honey he produces, 

 in helping to bring up the annual average 

 from 2 pounds to 50 or more. I'm not 

 getting rich producing honey, but I'm tak- 

 ing pride in kfiowing that I'm doing my 

 little share toward making the people of 

 this country just a little healthier and hap- 

 pier because of the honey they eat. [The 

 government census shows 100,000,000 lbs.; 

 but from reliable data it is very evident that 

 it would be safe to double these figures and 

 make it 200,000,000. The census took no 

 account of beemen in cities and towns, and 

 many of the large producers live in town 

 but operate their outyards at points remote 

 from town. Furthermore, the canvass at 

 conventions and elsewhere shows that some 

 of the large producers furnished no figures 

 nor estimates to the census enumerators. 

 This year we shall not be surprised if the 

 actual gain in honey would be nearer 400,- 

 000,000 lbs. 



Yes, it is a comforting thought to feel 

 that, while we are not only getting a living 

 out of our bees, we are helping other people 

 to live longer. When the world wakes up 

 to the fact that the carbohydrates are ener- 

 gy-producers, and that honey stands at the 

 top of the list, and that it is partially di- 

 gested, the demand will be a great deal 

 larger than it is now. — Ed.] 



