1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



23 



known. Being desirous of saving some of 

 her stock I fed her colony very Hberally dur- 

 ing the time of cell-building; and when the 

 cells were ready to hatch I distributed them 

 among nuclei except one left in the parent 

 hive. Drones being scarce in my home yard, 

 I secured about 100 fine big fellows, all hand- 

 picked from an outyai'd. These I gave to 

 queenless bees that wei'e being fed night- 

 ly. I now fully expected to secure a good 

 number of choice matings; but if any mated 

 except the queen in the old hive I am 

 sure I never knew it; yet my observations 

 were very close. However, on the fifth day 

 after hatching, this queen flew out, and, on 

 returning, brought the di^one organ with her. 

 When she had gone into the hive, and the 

 bees were somewhat quieted, I opened the 

 hive and found the male organ still remain- 

 ing, but protruding considerably from the 

 vagina, which convmced me that it was no 

 false contact but a true connection. I now 

 felt that I had one of these choice queens 

 safely mated; but imagine my surprise the 

 naxt day, when, standing by this same hive, 

 quite by accident as it were, to see this iden- 

 tical queen emerge from the hive and fly di- 

 rectly away, returning in about ten minutes, 

 with no signs of having met a drone. I now 

 had my curiosity fully aroused, and proceed- 

 ed to watch for her on the succeedmg day, 

 and, lo! she appeared again and flew out, 

 but returned the same as before. After 

 that she flew no more, though a strict watch 

 was kept for some days in order to deter- 

 mine this fact. I fully expected to see her 

 dep3sit a few eggs in the center of the 

 brood-nest, especially as the bees seemed to 

 have prepared quite a large space for her, 

 polishing the cells and refusing to store 

 any honey in them; but up to the present 

 time, seven days after mating, there is no 

 sign of eggs in any part of the combs, and 

 the queen has shown no increase in size; she 

 also maintains all the excitable shy appear- 

 ance common to virgins. I fully believe 

 this mating failed to do the work of fecun- 

 dation, and, while still under the unsatisfied 

 sexual impulse, she flew out a second and a 

 third time, failing to meet a drone on these 

 trips solely on account of their great scarci- 

 ty; but after the second failure the impulse 

 to mate wore off, and of course she did not 

 go out after that. This colony is in good 

 condition, and will winter, I am sure, and 

 will be under the closest observation next 

 spring in order to see what the final result 

 will be. If she should fail to lay in the 

 spring, which I fully expect, or if she should 

 prove to be a drone-layer, it would confirm 

 my belief that, in order to be fully effective, 

 the sexual organ of the drone must be ab- 

 sorbed into the body of the queen. On the 

 other hand, if she should prove to be all 

 right it would go far to establish the belief 

 that a queen might mate several times, 

 either of which matings might or might not 

 "be effective. 



The fact that men of high intelligence are 

 willing to go on record as declaring that 

 overstocking is a thing not to be feared is. 



to say the least, astonishing. I have for 

 several years been in a most favorable posi- 

 tion to learn something about this question. 

 For three years past I have established one 

 new yard each year, taking from 25 to 40 

 old colonies to start with. These new yards 

 have never contained more than 60 colonies 

 during the first season, and, without excep- 

 tion, have always yielded a third more prof- 

 it than any of the old established apiaries. 

 The present year, though a very hard one, 

 well illustrates this fact. One of these new 

 apiaries had only 40 colonies in it, and none 

 of them of more than moderate strength; 

 yet the yield was nearly 70 lbs. per colony, 

 while those in larger apiaries, and four 

 miles away, did not average 20 lbs. The 

 forage was the same in both places. Close- 

 ly observing both yards it was readily ap- 

 parent that the weaker colonies, in the new 

 yard, were working much the stronger force, 

 and continued to do so for a greater number 

 of hours each day, up to the last day of the 

 flow. From the time the fir^t bees began to 

 go out in the morning until they were re- 

 turning in good force did not exceed five 

 minutes, and this was kept up throughout 

 the day in the large yards. The first bees 

 returned in an equally short time; but in- 

 side of two hours the working force showed 

 a big weakening, and by two o'clock in the 

 afternoon they had almost quit work for the 

 day, while those in the smaller yards con- 

 tinued with almost the same force until 

 night put an end to their labors. This fully 

 satisfied me that lack of nectar to gather 

 was the cause of this suspension of bee la- 

 bor. I am also satisfied that the larger 

 force of bees, in the big yards, was com- 

 pelled to work over the flowers many times, 

 and that this increased the length of time 

 necessary to make a trip, and, of course, 

 diminished the yield; whereas those in small- 

 er yards never had to work the same bloom 

 twice, and, of course, could get honey for a 

 greater length of time each day. This con- 

 dition would not be so noticeable in good 

 years; yet if the field were sufficiently over- 

 stocked I am sure it would make itself felt. 

 But the danger from this source is not so 

 much to be dreaded in good years, when 

 some surplus may be had, even at the very 

 worst; but in poor years it might make feed- 

 ing for winter stores a necessity. I don't 

 know how others regard it; but with me it 

 is a real and decidedly apparent factor. 



Priority rights in regard to location is, to 

 my mind, a real and menacing question for 

 the specialist; and if it can not be settled 

 satisfactorily, the occupation of the bee- 

 keeping specialist in many localities is as 

 good as gone; but if it can be settled in a 

 way to protect those who are depending on 

 bee-keeping for a living, then it will tend 

 to place the pursuit on a higher plane and 

 on more solid ground. What hope or what 

 prospect is there for a man with ability, en- 

 ergy, and patient perseverance, all of which 

 are requisite in successful bee-keeping, to 

 start apiaries and work for years to build 

 up a trade, only to wake up some morning 



