150 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



of bee-men successfuly practised his 

 method since? Well, do as he does 

 and transfer a just laid drone egg into a 

 worker cell if you so choose, or into a 

 queen cell ; then fecundate it artificially 

 with drone semen and, if you used a 

 queen cell, wait three days (possibly 

 after having protected the egg) till you 

 give it to a colony which has neither 

 a queen, nor eggs, nor any unsealed 

 brood. 



From the report of the Commissioner 

 of Agriculture for the year 1885 another 

 quotation may not be amiss : "For 

 putting these claims to the test, we 

 caused a number of queen cells to be 

 built and fust before the cells were 

 capped I squeezed the contents of the 

 generative organs of nymph drones up- 

 on the larval queens. The bees removed 

 the larvas and destroyed the cells. After 

 other queen cells were capped we opened 

 them by making a horizontal incision 

 at the base of the cells, and another at 

 right angles down the side of the cell, 

 and laid back a part of the side, expos- 

 ing the queen pupa. Through the open- 

 ing in the cell we squeezed the liquid 

 contents of the generative organs of 

 imago drones upon the pupa queens. 

 The sides of the cells were then re- 

 placed and sealed with melted bees-wax 

 and rosin. These cells were placed in 

 nursery cages and hatched in queenless 

 nuclei colonies. These queens were 

 liberated in nuclei colonies after their 

 wings were clipped. Upon being hatched 

 they resembled fecundated laying queens 

 more than virgin queens. Repeated 

 experiments, however, failed to produce 

 a queen cajjable of laying fecundated 

 eggs. Still, the flict that the treatment 

 given the embryo queens had to such 

 an extent changed their physiological 

 characteristics was suggestive .... 

 Continuing the experiment we caused 

 more queen cells to be built after re- 

 moving the seminal sack from mature 

 drones with a pair of pliers, the con- 

 tents were pressed upon the larval 

 queens. The bees removed the un- 

 capped larvse as before. Most of the 

 pupa queens so treated and placed in 



nursery cages for hatching died in the 

 cell after assuming the imago state and 

 after being partly colored. We hope to 

 be able yet to discover what principles 

 and practice are essential to success 

 which seems possible, for many possible 

 opportunities remain untried." On ac- 

 count of his failing to succeed by these 

 methods the United States Entomologist 

 came to the conclusion that "the best 

 time to fecundate a queen is when she 

 wants to be fecundated, or when orgasm 

 appears," and, as I have already stated 

 in the August number of the Apicultu- 

 RiST, his assertion is that his experi- 

 ments were crowned with success. 



Chas. Norman. 

 St. Petersburg, Fla. 



WORMS IN COMBS. A NOVEL WAY 

 OF FEEDING BEES. BEST COV- 

 ERING FOE BROOD-NEST, ETC. 



Editor Am. Api : The brood frames 

 in which one of my colonies died last 

 spring contained considerable honey, 

 and before I was aware the millers had 

 begun work in it. I cut out all the 

 worms I could find, but did not feel safe 

 to leave it, so I put it above another 

 brood-nest in which I had hived a second 

 swarm that came off June 18. I think 

 the bees cleaned out the millers and 

 are at work in it, for I have not seen any 

 crumbs or refuse lately as I did at first. 

 Will the queen go up into those combs 

 to lay? and how will it do to leave 

 them double all winter and in the spring 

 when I have a swarm come off place it 

 in one of those brood-nests ? 



I have fed a little thin syrup at night 

 to the swarms mentioned. Have adopted 

 a very cheap feeder, the covers of black- 

 ing boxes, about three to a hive. The 

 feeders are filled late at night, after oth- 

 er bees have gone home. The feeders 

 are so shallow bees never get drowned in 

 the syrup. They come out so silently 

 to their late supper that even the bees 

 in the next hive are not aroused. 



Bees are working on buckwheat, and 

 carry a great deal of pollen in the early 



