134 



THE AMERICAN APIGULTURIST. 



possible methods is that given in the 

 August number of the Apiculturist by 

 Mr. Chas. Norman in his quotation 

 from the report of the Commissioner 

 of Agriculture for the year 1885. Ac- 

 cording to this report the experimenters 

 succeeded in artificially fertilizing the 

 queens by holding the queen in the 

 fingers and placing drops of the seminal 

 fluid of the drones in contact with the 

 vulva of the queens. If this method 

 can be successfully practised, as Mr. 

 Norman remarks, '-those plans [for se- 

 curing a cross between the race] would 

 not be upset, by any means" for it 

 would in that case make not the slight- 

 est difference whether the drones fly by 

 night or by day. 



But if it should turn out that this 

 method is inpracticable, there is still 

 another way by which it is possible that 

 crosses between the different races may 

 be secured. This method was described 

 by Mr. Langstroth, in his work "On the 

 Honey Bee" and I cannot do better than 

 to quote his words as given on page 

 469, edition of 1857. 



"Dr Donhoff reared, last summer, a 

 worker larva, from a drone egg whicli he 

 had artificially impregnated. I attempted 

 this experiment in 1852 ; but to my 

 great disappointment the bees removed 

 or devoured all the eggs thus treated, 

 owing, as I then supposed, to their un- 

 willingness to ra'se workers in drone 

 cells. By taking a piece of drone comb, 

 in which eggs have just been deposited, 

 and touching some of them with a fine 

 brush dipped in the diluted semen of 

 drones, I believe that queens, workers 

 and drones may by raised from these 

 eggs if the precaution is taken to give 

 them to bees having neither queen nor 

 brood of any kind." 



I do not know whether Mr. Langs- 

 troth or anyone else has ever repeated 

 this experiment, but if Dr. Donhoff suc- 

 ceeded in the experiment in 1852, oth- 

 ers can certainly succeed now. 



Perhaps Mr. Langstroth is right in his 

 surmise that the failure of his experi- 

 ment was due to the fact that the eggs 

 were in drone cells. If that was the 



case it would be easy to rectify the mis- -1 

 take the next time. Although fertile ' 

 queens never lay drone eggs in worker i 

 cells, yet drone eggs in worker cells ; 

 can be obtained by using the eggs ' 

 of a laying worker, or better, probably 

 the eggs of an unfertilized queen. It is , 

 well known that if the fertilization of '; 

 the queen is not accomplished within " 

 three weeks, according to Mr. Langs- 

 troth, or at the utmost within forty days i 

 according to some other authorities, she i 

 cannot afterward be fertilized and will .] 

 lay only drone eggs. Mr. Langstroth ] 

 mentions a case on page 41 of his work j 

 in which a queen which was born with '; 

 imperfect wings and consequently could j 

 not fly out for fertilization, laid drone ■ 

 eggs in worker cells. 1 



The fertilization of the queens could , 

 be prevented either by confining the 

 queens to the hive for forty days by ;J 

 means of perforated zinc, or by clipping \ 

 the wings ; or perhaps the best way would I 

 be to raise the queens late in the season : 

 after the drones are all destroyed. By' " 

 some one of these methods, queens ' 

 could be produced to lay drone eggs in < 

 worker cells and it seems reasonable to ^ 

 suppose that the bees would be more \ 

 ready to take care of these eggs if arti- 

 ficially fertilized so as to develop into : 

 workers than they would be to take care 

 of workers in drone cells. If any one 

 has heard of other experiments in the ' 

 artificial fertilization of bees or eggs I ] 

 hope that the readers of the Apicultur- 'j 

 1ST may have the benefit of a report. For ! 

 myself I feel indebted to Mr. Norman 1 

 for calling attention to the method re- 

 ported by the Commissioner of Agri- ' 

 culture of which I had never heard be- \ 

 fore reading his article in the Apicul- 

 turist. J. Edward Giles. j 



J2y East 16th St. Neiv York, August \ 



12., i8g2. j 



— If I remember correctly, the readers ! 



of the xApi nave been cautioned not to .i 



open a hive in the morning containing a j 



colony of ugly bees. Do all thewoikon '\ 



such a colony in the middle of the day, ; 

 or towards evening. 



