(pT (3 OLDEST BEE PAPER**' 



j^U 



DEVOTED TO SCIENTIFIC BEE-CULTURE AND THE PRODUCTION AND SALE OF PURE HONEY. 



VOL. XVII. 



CHICAGO, ILL., JANUARY 5, 1881. 



No. 1. 



B WW I ■>-. 





Published every Wednesdny, by 



THOMAS G. NEWMAN, 



Editor and Proprietor, 

 974 WEST MADISON ST., CHICAGO, ILL. 



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For the American Bee Journal. 



Fertilization in Confinement. 



G. W. DEMAREE. 



I have been something of an enthu- 

 siast on the subject of controlling the 

 fertilization of queens. I have felt sure 

 that after so much has been accom- 

 plished in the way of reducing bee-cul- 

 ture to a respectable science, the good 

 work would go on till the much-desired 

 secret of successful fertilization in con- 

 finement would be discovered. With 

 this hopeful state of mind, I deter- 

 mined not to be an idle spectator while 

 others were prosecuting the work. In 

 the month of August last I made what 

 I called a fertilizing cage, provided with 

 a steep glass roof. Thus prepared, I 

 watched for a virgin queen, and when 

 she came out to take her bridal trip I 

 captured her and placed her in the cage, 

 which was set on top of the hive. 



First one drone and then another, till 

 a half dozen or more were put into the 

 cage. The queen appeared to take her 

 confinement quietly ; inflated to the 

 fullest extent, she showed her beauty 

 to the best advantage. If you would 

 see a virgin queen in all her glory, you 

 must look at her when out on her hey- 

 day spree. The queen and drones flew 

 lively in the cage, but the latter would 

 do nothing but beat their cowardly 

 heads against the glass roof, uncon- 

 scious of the presence of the queen. 

 After well-nigh baking myself in the 

 hot sun, I gave it up and returned the 

 queen to her hive. 



SECOND EXPERIMENT AND FAILURE. 



The next day I proceeded to try the 

 following experiments hopes of throw- 

 ing some light on the subject. I pro- 

 cured a pole 16 feet long, to one end ol 

 which I nailed a strip of wood about -I 

 feet in length, at right angles with the 

 pole. Armed with a line thread 4 or 5 

 feet long I watched for the queen, and 

 when she came out I caught her. and 

 by the aid of the deft fingers of Mrs. 

 D., one end of the thread was made to I 



span the delicate waist of her royal 

 highness, the loop being provided with 

 a knot to prevent it from cramping her 

 waist— a performance, by the way, that 

 required no little skill. Thus cabled, 

 her wings and limbs were left free from 

 incumbrance. The thread was now tied 

 to the end of the transverse bar afore- 

 said, and the pole hoisted a few rods 

 from the apiary. The queen performed 

 nicely at the end of the thread. There 

 were plenty of drones flying, and soon 

 (I should think in 2 minutes' time) the 

 air was black with drones circling about 

 the fettered queen. Now and then one 

 of them would give her chase, but when 

 the thread would bring her to a sudden 

 halt, he would dart to one side and dis- 

 appear. Several times a drone struck 

 her with considerable force, but would 

 bound away as though suddenly fright- 

 ened. I watched the proceedings closely 

 till the queen became weary and the 

 drones retired. The experiment proved 

 a failure as to the fertilization of the 

 queen, which I attributed to the fact 

 that the queen was somewhat injured 

 by catching hold of a tuft of grass when 

 the pole was being elevated. 



WHAT THE EXPERIMENT SUGGESTED. 



It is evident from what I saw in con- 

 nection with this experiment, that a 

 great number of drones follow the queen 

 when flirting through the air, while out 

 on her hey-day spree, and perhaps the 

 swiftest cavalier of them all overtakes 

 and is accepted by her. Thus it would 

 appear that nature in this way selects 

 the swiftest specimens of the race to 

 propagate the species. If this is not 

 mere " theory," it goes very far to show 

 why nature lias provided so many males 

 in comparison with the number of de- 

 veloped females, and why the latter 

 must take the risk of fertilization in the 

 open air. 



I gave much time last season to the 

 study of this subject, and I find that a 

 well-developed virgjn queen plies her 

 wings with lightning velocity, and flies 

 with wonderful rapidity. Now, if she 

 does not give chase to the drones, how 

 are we to account for the fact that she 

 usually makes three or more trips into 

 the air when drones are plenty ? I saw 

 one beautiful, slender little princess 

 make 16 trips before she was caught by 

 a drone. When she returned for the 

 last time— having been gone 22 minutes 

 —she fell short of the entrance of the 

 hive, like a worker bee over-loaded with 

 honey and pollen. Three days later she 

 was laying. 



If nature has determined that the 

 " race is to the swift" as pertains to the 

 propagation of the honey bee, then per- 

 haps nature will forbid the interference 

 of the wisdom of man in this matter— 

 or, in other words, fertilization in con- 

 finement will never be a success. 



Christiansburg, Ky., Nov., 1880. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



My Bee Report for 1880. 



JAMES HEDDON. 



Now that the end is past and our bees 

 are once more prepared for winter, I 

 will give you my Glenwood apiary report 

 for 1880. 



I began the season with 185 colonies; 

 increased, by natural swarming, to 235 ; 

 obtained 108 cases of comb honey, con- 

 taining about 24 1bs.net per case — say 

 2,592 lbs. of comb honey— and 800 lbs. 



of extracted honey, from unfinished 

 sections. None but 15 cases of the comb 

 honey is sold, and that here at home at 

 15c. per lb., as it was the "011113" — i. e., 

 combs hardly fit to ship, but a little too 

 good to extract — such combs as were 

 full of honey, but not all capped over. 

 The 15 cases brought $43.50. We will 

 put the 93 first class at 20c. net (we feel 

 sure we shall get it, for some of this 

 apiary's honey is now sold so that our 

 net receipt is 23c. per lb., all in the 

 spruce figured sections), which will 

 amount to 2.232 lbs., at 20c, will bring 

 $446.40. We will put the 800 lbs. ex- 

 tracted at 10c. per lb. net, which makes 

 $80 ; honey sold at the apiary and 

 brought home, say $5.00 ; total receipts, 

 $574.90. The small increase will, in 

 value, nomore than offset winter losses 

 perhaps. 



Now for the expense account : 



Hired help $172 00 



Railroad fare and freights, say 20 Oft 



1011 glassed cases for como honey 15 CO 



1,300 sections 10 40 



Foundation for same 1U 40 



For the American Bee .Journal. 



Alsike Clover for Bee Pasturage. 



M. M. BALDRIDGE. 



This deducted from the income. 



$227 SO 

 . 574 90 



Leaves a net of $347 10 



The investment is about as follows : 



RB colonies of bees, at $8.00 $l,4ft0 00 



Buildings and land 000 W 



Surplus arrangement to hives, wintering 



boxes and other fixtures and tools 320 00 



Alsike or Swedish clover (Trifolium 

 hybridum) as its name indicates, is a na- 

 tive of Sweden, where it grows wild- 

 being both hardy and productive. It is 

 commonly known by the name of Alsike, 

 that being a parish in Sweden where 

 this clover originated. It was brought 

 into cultivation in Sweden about the be- 

 ginning of the present century, was in- 

 troduced into England in 1834, and soon 

 thereafter found its way into the Ger- 

 man States and other parts of Europe, 

 and was finally brought into the United 

 States, through the Patent Office, about 

 the year 1853. 



Alsike clover is regarded by botanists 

 as a hybrid between our common red 

 and white clovers. The stem and 

 branches are finer and less woody than 

 the common red, and when cut and 

 cured for hay, it is perfectly free from 

 fuzz or dust. It does not turn black, 

 but remains the color of well-cured tim- 

 othy. It has. as the following cut shows, 

 numerous branches and a multitude of 

 blossoms which are rich in honey. The 



Total $2,400 00 



10 per cent, of this to cover interest, insur- 

 ance and taxes 240 00 



If I have made no mistake in this 

 hasty figuring, it shows I have $107.10 

 for superintending this apiary, more 

 than its worth would amount to at 8 

 per cent, interest, even in this poorest 

 of all seasons. It will be further seen, 

 that because the scarcity of surplus is 

 general, the price being higher holds us 

 above loss this poor year. We hope for 

 more honey another season, and shall 

 be willing to accept less per lb. for it. 

 I should rather have established one or 

 two more apiaries than to have made 

 the large sales I have just been making, 

 but for the fact that I know not where 

 to get reliable, active and skilled help. 



Some may think that the capital in- 

 vested need not be so great, but I can- 

 not see how I can get along with less 

 and " do what is worth doing, »eW," 

 unless, perhaps, about $300 might be 

 deducted for a dwelling-house that we 

 do not need or use very much, having 

 two other capacious buildings. 



The foregoing is a better result than 



1 had supposed the figures would show, 

 inasmuch as the pro rata yield is only 

 about 16 lbs. of comb honey (counting 



2 lbs. of extracted honey as 1 ot comb). 

 My home apiary, of about the same 



number of colonies and investment, did 

 about as well this season, for the first 

 time since the other was established. I 

 find that well-bred stock, and well-kept 

 apiaries, buildings and tools, pay the 

 best interest on investment, either in 

 good or poor seasons. If we have a 

 " shower" of honey, we mean to be ready 

 for every drop of surplus ; if only a few 

 drops, we mean to make sure of that. 

 By the way. I came near forgetting $50 

 worth of feed, fed in the Glenwood 

 apiary, to make up the little that some 

 colonies lacked. This reduces my pay 

 for superintending to $57.10; however, 

 my hands there spent far more time 

 here than I did there. The above is 

 probably very close to the final results, 

 when all is closed up for 1880. 

 Dowagiac, Mich., Nov. 11, 1880. 



FIG. 1.— Alsike Clover Plant in bloom. 



bees have no trouble in finding the 

 honey, as the blossoms are short and 

 the heads no larger than white clover. 

 The blossoms at first are white, but soon 

 change to a beautiful pink, and emit 

 considerable fragrance. The leaves are 

 oval, of a pale green color, and may 

 readily be distinguished at any stage of 

 their growth from the white or red 

 clover by the total absence of a pale 

 white blossom on the upper surface of 

 each leaf, a peculiarity unnoticed by 

 previous writers. 



It ripens, in the latitude of Chicago, in 

 the latter part of July, but needs not to 

 be cut till August, if the weather should 

 be unfavorable. The crop of seed is al- 

 ways obtained from this cutting, in 

 which respect it is unlike the common 

 red. It is not advisable to cut this clo- 

 ver more than once each season, but it 

 may be pastured moderately during the 

 fall. When cut for seed, it may be 

 threshed from the field with a common 

 clover machine ; but, if more conven- 

 ient, it may be stacked and threshed 

 during the fall or winter. 



