@T ^ OLDEST BEE PAPErKJTF 

 IN AMERICA 



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



VOL. XVII. 



CHICAG-O, ILL., MARCH 23, 1881. 



No. 12. 



Has If 



Published every Wednesday, by 



THOMAS G. NEWMAN, 



Editor and Proprietor, 

 974 WEST MADISON ST., CHICAGO, ILL. 



TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION! 



WEEKLY— (52 numbers) $2.00 a year, in advance. 



Three or Six Months at the same rate. 

 SEMI-MONTHLY- The first and third numbers of 



each month, at $1.00 a year, in advance. 

 MONTHLY— The first number of each month, at 



5© cents a year, in advance. 



%3T Any person sending a Club of six is entitled 

 to un extra copy < like the club) which maybe sent to 

 any address desired. Sample copies furnished free. 



fW~ Remit by money-order, registered letter, ex- 

 press or bank draft on Chicago or New York, payable 

 to our order. Such only are at our risk. Checks on 

 local banks cost us 2S cents for collecting. 



Free of postage in the United States or Canada. 

 Postage to Europe SO cents extra. 



Entered at Chicago post office as second class matter. 



UPM 



iSs, 



SBtfe 



For the American Bee Journal 



What is the Royal Jelly ' 



C. J. ROBINSON. 



I propose, by permission, to discuss 

 in the columns of the Bee Journal 

 the hitherto puzzling problem: " What 

 is royal jelly, that substance known 

 to produce the transformation of worker 

 larvae to queens'i"' Profound scientists of 

 Europe and this country have delved 

 into the secrets of the grand problem, 

 but none of them have handed down a 

 satisfactory solution. Yet, it does not 

 seem rational that the question is so ob- 

 struse as to forever remain past finding 

 out what the so-called royal jelly con- 

 sists of; the source from which it is de- 

 rived; its definite action on larvae 

 and whether it is administered by the 

 workers as a nourshing aliment to larvae 

 in royal cells, or for the purpose of im- 

 pregnating the larvae (as pistilliferous 

 flowers are impregnated with pollen) 

 and thus develop a female bee fully 

 qualified to reproduce males. The set- 

 tled doctrine of writers on bee-matters 

 is that it is chiefly due to the excess of 

 food served to the larva by the workers 

 that produces the transformation from 

 worker to queen. Still no writer has 

 ventured to assert that such is a dem- 

 onstrated fact. The late Baron of Ber- 

 lepsch, the able expounder of the Dzier- 

 zon Theory, and the most scientific and 

 practical apicultural writer and expe- 

 rienced apiarist in all Europe, wrote 

 thus: 



"Every hypothesis, however, yet sub- 

 mitted from any quarter, rest chiefly 

 upon the assumption that the develop- 

 ment (of fertile workers and queens) 

 has by some means been over-stimu- 

 lated for a brief period, and as the re- 

 sult affects the sexual organs more es- 

 pecially, the quantity and quality of the 

 food administered has been looked to as 

 the exciting cause." 



If his assumption be admitted then 



individual female bees are very likely 

 to be reproduced imperfectly developed 

 in all the degrees between a rudimen- 

 tary fertile worker up to a perfect. 

 queen. Furthermore, were it true that 

 development depends on quantity of 

 food or the over-stimulating caused by 

 high feeding, the workers would be able 

 to supply themselves with queens at all 

 times; when on the contrary it is well 

 known that workers cannot always per- 

 fect queens when furnished with every- 

 thing necessary for that purpose except 

 the impregnating principle — semen. 



A full knowledge of the reproduction 

 of the honey bee is of great importance, 

 and at the very foundation of the sci- 

 ence of bee culture and of great value 

 to those who intend to breed the supe- 

 rior races of bees, especially the princi- 

 ples of hybridizing so as to prevent 

 their deterioration and improve the 

 breeds. And it is of great moment to the 

 science of entomology to determine 

 whether insects are produced by par- 



Egos and Larva. 



thenogenesis, as is believed, or by se- 

 men received by the male progenitors. 

 As for myself. I have conclusive evi- 

 dence that such queens as are repro- 

 duced by furnishing a colony of black 

 bees with eggs laid by an Italian queen, 

 is in some degree hybridized. 



All of the points in the " Dzierzon 

 Theory " have been demonstrated ex- 

 cept his theory of the reproduction of 

 bees, particularly drones and queens. 

 It seems that he" was sorely puzzled in 

 his profound research to comprehend 

 the laws involved in the strange phenom- 

 ena—virgin queens reproducing male 

 bees — and to dispose of the (to him) in- 

 explicable point in his colossal theory, 

 he jumped at a conclusion which was 

 based upon the hypothetical doctrine 

 advanced by Professors Von Seibold, 

 Leuckart, and Dr. Donhoff, the fathers 

 of the theory called "Parthenogenesis," 

 that is procreating without male sperm. 

 It was during the period that Dr. Dzier- 

 zon was making public his theory that 

 Mr. Elihu Kirby, of Henrietta, N. Y., 

 attempted to make known the result of 

 his long-time and attentive research 

 into the principles of reproduction of 

 the different races of honey bees. He 

 was a scientific apiarist of long expe- 



rience, and enthusiastic in the cause of 

 progressive bee-culture. Not until 18(51 

 was there published or circulated in 

 this country a periodical devoted to bee 

 affairs and scarcely no attention was giv- 

 en to scientific bee-culture atthattime. 

 Mr. K. communicated to the American 

 Bee Journal at different times just 

 after its advent, the discoveries he had 

 made relative to the reproduction of 

 bees, but not much attention was given 

 it further than a brief notice by the ed- 

 itor, the lamented Samuel Wagner, 

 who, like the great Dzierzon, seemed 

 not to comprehend the evolution of the 

 reproduction of insects. 



During the period of 1850-63, Mr. 

 Kirby was in failrhg health, and when 

 in the summer of 1863, he was abont to 

 bid adieu to his long-cherished theme 

 and go from the altar of home on earth 

 to a heavenly inheritance, he besought 

 me to further his designs and he com- 

 mitted to my charge his new theory of 

 the reproduction of drones and female 

 bees. Ttie result of the case thus con- 

 signed to me is as follows, conclusions 

 that I have come to derived from care- 

 ful observations for many seasons, viz., 

 videlicet. 



To produce drones the workers fe- 

 cundate the worker lavas in royal cells 

 with drone's semen, which gives the el- 

 ements of queens. The workers supply 

 the said larva with animal secretion, 

 water, bee-bread and honey, until it se- 

 cretes sufficient material for a queen, 

 and when the larva arrives at maturity 

 it is then metamorphosed to an egg 

 substance, from thence it passes to a 

 chrysalis state, and in the pupa 

 state her ovary is formed and impreg- 

 nated with semen retained in the larva 

 state imparting the elements of life. 

 She then leaves her cell and is prepared 

 to lay eggs that produce drones only, 

 without further fecundation, and when 

 ttie drones are matured from their nat- 

 ural genital propensities deposit their 

 semen in the queen's spermatheca to 

 enable her to fecundate her full grown 

 eggs to produce workers, and also de- 

 posit semen where the workers can ob- 

 tain it in the abscence of the drones, to 

 perfect queens, and for storing it in 

 their combs, where it retains its vital- 

 ity at least from the time that the drones 

 are expelled until they are reproduced 

 the following season. It is ascertained 

 that the drones and queens can be hy- 

 bridized by their drone progenitors in 

 the embryo state, which is conclusive 

 evidence of their being fecundated with 

 drones' semen. 



To produce workers the drones de- 

 posit their sperm in the queen's sperm- 

 atheca while on the wing (and on top, 

 clasping the drone's back to herself) 

 and from thence she fecundates full 

 grown eggs, as they pass the mouth of 

 her spermatheca on the way out of her 

 oviduct, and by the combining of the 

 elements of the drone and worker in 

 one, by which the worker is produced. 

 Thus, there can be no logical reasoning 

 in saying that the workers are produced 

 by semen, and the drones and queens 

 are produced without semen. 



To produce queens the worker fecun- 

 dates the worker larvae in royal cells 

 with drone's semen which gives the el- 

 ements of fhe drone, worker and queen, 

 combined in one, in the larval state; it 

 secretes in its growth the proper mate- 

 rial for perfect queens, and when the 



larva arrives at maturity it is trans- 

 formed to an egg-form, and then to a 

 chrysalis, and in that state her embryo 

 ovary is formed and impregnates in the 

 upper points or sacks of her ovary, and 

 contains the elements of myriads of 

 drone egg germs before leavingher cell, 

 and her physiology is changed in her 

 transition from the chrysalis state to a 

 perfect queen, and is qualified before 

 leaving her cell to lay eggs that will 

 produce drones only. To be fully qual- 

 ified to produce workers she must re- 

 ceive a deposit of semen from the 

 drone in her spermatheca. If once 

 filled with semen it is efficacious through 

 life, and qualifies her to fecundate the 

 full grown drone eggs as they pass the 

 mouth of her spermatheca, and causes 

 them to produce workers, and to lay all 

 the eggs, both male and female and 

 workers, that the colony may require. 

 It is ascertained that the embryo drone, 

 workers and queen can each be hybrid- 

 ized in the ovary, egg or larva state, 

 which is communicated to the whole 

 production. I think the evidence con- 

 clusive in the reproduction of the queen. 

 The fertile workers are produced by the 

 workers taking the drone's semen into 

 their stomachs, and from thence it is 

 transmitted to their embryo ovary, and 

 fecundates it, which gives the elements 

 of life to the progeny, and qualifies 

 them to lay eggs which produce drones 

 only, unless the eggs are further fecun- 

 dated by being brought into contact 

 with semen. It appears that the young 

 queen's ovary on leaving her cell, and 

 the ovary of the fertile worker when fe- 

 cundated,are identical in the production 

 of drone eggs. Thefore, the evidence 

 is that semen is the agent in both cases. 



I wisli to call attention particularly 

 to the following points : 1st. The em- 

 bryo ovary of young queens must be 

 fructified before she leaves her cell with 

 drone's semen, which gives the elements 

 of life to her drone progeny, and forms 

 the basis for the whole progeny of bees. 

 To produce the 3 sexes of bees there 

 are 3 distinct fecundations. 1st. The 

 embryo ovary of the pupa queen to 

 produce the drones. 2d. The full 

 grown egg to produce the workers. 3d. 

 The worker larva is fecundated by the 

 workers with semen, given off by the 

 drones to produce the queens. And 

 all in the larval state the ysecrete suffi- 

 cient material to perfect in their tran- 

 sition either drones, workers or queens, 

 and they each can be hybridized in the 

 embryo state. 



2d. 'in the reproduction of bees there 

 are 2 distinct egg forms: 1st. The eggs 

 that produce the larva. 2d. The larva 

 when it arrives at maturity is trans- 

 formed to an egg substance, of which 

 it forms the chrysalis that produces the 

 perfect bees and their sexes. 



3d. It requires 3 states of existence to 

 perfect the organism of bees. 1st. The 

 larva. 2d. The chrysalis. 3d. The per- 

 fect bee. The queen first deposits her 

 eggs in the proper cells or utricals in 

 which the larva is hatched and supplied 

 by the workers with animal secretion 

 and food until their transition to an egg 

 substance or chrysalis. 



I will propose the following question 

 for consideration: What is it that is 

 found in the royal jelly that is possessed 

 of such impregnating powers as to 

 cause the ovaries of the workers to pro- 

 duce drone eggs ? 



Richford, N. Y., March 14, 1881. 



