THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



167 



ference in their looks, however, to 

 distinguish them. 



9. I have never observed. 



10. I have looked for a laying worker 

 for ten years, but have never found 

 one. I once had a swarm that I 

 thought was infected. In all other 

 cases of drone layers I have found 

 imperfectly developed queens. 



Starkville, N. Y. 



ANSWEHS BY H. ALLEY. 



1. No. 



2. Reply to this question must be 

 based on suppositious. Who can watch 

 a queen when she gets a few rods from 

 the hive? In my opinion it takes place 

 within one-eighth of a mile from the 

 hive. Drones will fly a long distance 

 from home but queens do not. The dis- 

 tance at which mating takes place from 

 the liive depends, of course, upon how 

 soon the queen and drone meet after 

 leaving the hive. When they have once 

 met tiiev must alight on some object or 

 on the ground to disengage. 



3. I should say six or seven frames, 

 provided all are rilled with brood. 



4. Cyprians are not -so liable to 

 swarm under any circumstances as the 

 Holy Lands. 



5. With my experience I consider 

 wooden separators decidedly tlie bet- 

 ter; would not use tin under any con- 

 sideration. If wooden ones could 

 have holes in them the same as in 

 perforated zinc it would be a great 

 advantage and much better than leav- 

 ing a space over and under the sepa- 

 rator. 



6. White glue, when the work can 

 be done quickly and neatly. But is 

 not there something better than either 

 glue or glass ? 



7. Queens will live from one month 

 to six years. One of my customers 

 reported to me this season that he had 

 a queen he obtained of me that lived 

 six years. Mr. Aaron Benedict had 

 one which was purchased of me that 

 lived four years. Such cases are very 

 rare. I don't think the average life of 

 a queen is over two years. I generally 

 supersede them as often as once in two 

 years. 



8. At any time from the moment the 

 larva is one minute old, to the time it 

 is nearly ready to seal up as a worker. 

 When the royal jelly has been fed to a 

 larva then transformation begins at 



once. Have seen the royal food around 

 an egg before it had hatched. 



9. In my opinion no queen ever 

 mated too young, and should they 

 mate, which to me seems almost im- 

 possible under a certain age or state of 

 development, I cannot see how they 

 would be changed or " stunted." There 

 may be cases where mating has taken 

 place on the fourth day after the queen 

 hatched, but in my opinion such queens 

 were not fertilized. That queens do 

 mate twice I do not doubt, l)ut that 

 they are fertilized twice I do doubt. 



10. I give it up. I think it will not 

 pay a man very much to investigate a 

 case of tlie kind. 



ANSWERS BY DR. J. P. H. BROWN. 



1. According to a corollarv of the 

 theory of parthenogennsis all such 

 drones are pure. This theory is ac- 

 cepted as true by the majority of 

 scientific apiarists. Some who take 

 the facts involved in the higher order 

 of animals as their standpoint to com- 

 pare the fertilization of the queen and 

 to reason by analogy, doul)t the truth 

 of this theory. In breeding queens I 

 always avail myself of this "doubt" 

 and reject the drones of all misraated 

 queens. 



2. I have reason to believe that 

 mating most usually takes place at some 

 distance from the hive. Were it near, 

 the "act" might often be seen by the 

 beekeeper, but such is not the case. 

 During the copulating season of birds 

 and many species of insects, the fe- 

 male takes most active wing to be 

 followed by her troup of admirers, and 

 " victory" is attained by the strongest 

 and swiftest of the pursuers. The 

 capability of the bee to gather honey- 

 is unquestionably measured, in a great 

 degree, by its power of flight; hence 

 it would seem that the Creator wisely 

 intended the queen to make ''love on 

 the loimi " in order to secure swift and 

 hardy drones, and consequently fleet 

 progeny. 



3. Ten in very strong colonies and 

 eight in average sized ones. 



4. Cyprians I find more inclined to 

 swarm than hybrids. 



6. I prefer tin points. Glue is an 

 article that adheres very imperfectly to 

 glass. Gum tragacanth is better than 

 glue. 



7. Three years is a fair average. 

 I have had queens to be good layers the 



