248 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



the time for the brood to make young, 

 thrifty bees for the beginning of winter. If 

 I have a queen that from any cause has 

 ceased laying, or is not laying sufficiently, 

 I give her colony a few stimulating feeds, 

 and get her to work. This has been my 

 practice ever since I have been keeping 

 bees on the modern plan, and I challenge 

 any man to show a better record in win- 

 tering than I can show. 

 Sneedville, Tenn. H. F. Coleman. 



New Theory About the Queen's Will. 



As the compression theory is pretty well 

 exploded, I will advance a new one made 

 from the remnants of various theories. The 

 drone organs are so constructed that they 

 cannot be pulled away from the queen, and 

 are detached from the drone and are re- 

 tained by the queen, thus becoming a part 

 of her body, and consequently she is both 

 male and female, and can replenish the 

 colony in early spring without the expense 

 of wintering drones. The same theory ap- 

 plies to bumble-bees, wasps, and various 

 other tribes of the bee-family. The bum- 

 ble-bee males are not reared until late in 

 the season, just in time to transport the 

 male organs in the female before they 

 hibernate for the winter. 



I have never been able to see any differ- 

 ence in the brood-cells, hence the queen 

 must have the power to lay the kind of eggs 

 wanted. As to the drones being affected 

 by fertilization, I oan't see how that is to be 

 determined until we have complete control 

 of the fertilization of the queen. I would 

 like to hear some of the " big guns " go off 

 on this theory. Rufus Williams. 



Crescent, O. T. 



Two Q,ueens in One Cell. 



I see on page 140, a report of D. L. Mc- 

 Kean in regard to finding a queen and 

 worker in the same cell. About two weeks 

 ago a friend of mine had a swarm come off, 

 and he sent for me to go and cut out the 

 queen-cells, and put the bees back into the 

 old hive. I cut about seven or eight, be- 

 sides finding five queens with the swarm. I 

 saved three of the queens, and threw the 

 cells on the ground. 



Another man was present (a shoemaker 

 of our town), and he picked up some of the 

 cells and took them into the shop. A cus- 

 tomer, coming in soon, his attention was 

 called to the cells, and not having seen any- 

 thing of the kind before, the shoemaker 

 cut some of them open to show them. In 

 one of the cells they found two well devel- 

 oped queens — one slightly smaller than the 

 other, but both dead, but did not appear to 

 have been dead very long. He says there 

 was no partition between them. Is there a 

 similar case on record ? If not. let the 

 learned ones explain. I told them I thought 

 I could see a " sell," but they claim "a true 

 bill." Who says this is not a progressive 

 age ? ■ T. C. Ket-let. 



Slippery Hock, I 'a. 



A Beginner's Experience with Bees. 



I bought 3 colonies last winter, and had 

 them delivered to me in the spring. One 

 colony is pure Italians, one hybrids, and 

 one blacks. I made a division from my 

 blacks, but not having any experience with 

 bees, I made a failure instead of a success. 

 I could not get a queen-cell started. Either 

 of my colonies have not swarmed thus far. 



I bought a swarm about a month ago, and 

 hived them myself ; they were about 10 feet 

 from the ground in the top of an orange- 

 tree. With a bucket of water and a turkey 

 wing, I went up the tree and wet the clus- 

 ter, then cut the limb off and carried them 

 down, and put them into a hox which I have 

 for the purpose. This was my first attempt. 

 I suppose I did very well. I did not get a 

 sting. 



My bees have not done very well in stor- 

 ing honey, but I hope they will do better 

 next year. 



I am very much pleased with the Bee 

 JouRXAL. It gives so much good advice, 

 that I don't see how any bee-man can get 

 along -without it. Chas. S. Cukrt. 



Venice, Fla., Aug. 9, 1893. 



Coufeiitioii j^otices. 



IOWA. — The eleventh annual convention of 

 the Iowa State Bee-Keepers' Association will 

 be held in their tent at JJes Moines. Iowa, on 

 Sept. 6th and 7th. All friends and bee-keep- 

 ers are cordially invited. For programme 

 write to the Secretary. 



J. W. BiTTENBENDER, SeC. 



Knoxville, Iowa. 



INTERNATIONAL.— The North American 

 Bee-Keepers' Association will hold its 24th 

 annual convention on Oct. 11, 12 and 13, 1893. 

 in Chicago, Ills. Not only is every bee-lieeper 

 In America, whether a member of the society 

 or not, invited to be present, but a special in- 

 vitation is extended to Iriends of apiculture 

 it every foreifrn land, Frank Benton. Sec. 



Washington, D. C. 



NEBRASKA.— The yearly meeting of the 

 Nebraska State Bee-Keepers' Association will 

 be held at Lincoln, Neb., on Wednesdaj' and 

 Thursday evenings. Sept. 13th and 14th, 1893. 

 This will be held in connection with our State 

 Fair, and we would be pleased to have Eastern 

 visitors meet with us. One-way excur- 

 sion rates will be given on all railroads from 

 Chicago to Lincoln, at that time. Let every 

 bee-keeper call and get acquinted with the 

 Nebraska honey - producers, whose head- 

 quarters are always open. 



York, Nebr. L. D. Stilson, Sec. 



Bee-Keepings for Profit. — We 



have just issued a revised and enlarged 

 edition of Dr. Tinker's book, called 

 "Bee-Keeping for Profit." It details 

 his most excellent " now system, or how 

 to get the largest yields of comb and 

 extracted honey." The book contains 

 80 pages in all, and is illustrated. Price, 

 postpaid, 25 cents, or clubbed with the 

 Bke Journal for one year, for .f 1.15. 



