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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



weather will not allow bees to get out to 

 gather it. If the clover has plenty of 

 nectar, my predictions hold good. The 

 western part of Kentucky ought to have 

 had a better honey-flow than in Shelby 

 county, and east of there. I hope that 

 bee-keepers will report if they have 

 had a failure. Please state what caused 

 it — bad weather, or for the want of nec- 

 tar in flowers. Nature does not make 

 nectar in a day, in a week, nor in a 

 month ; it takes as long to make it as it 

 does to make corn and wheat, and it 

 comes from the earth, the same as corn 

 and wheat. 



I have read what Mr. C. J. Robinson 

 has written about "foul brood," and I 

 think his theory is rightabout its origin. 

 Some particular colony of bees had to 

 take the disease sometime without get- 

 ting it from other bees, and if it can 

 start once, it can do so again under the 

 same conditions. The idea that foul 

 brood cannot originate seems very fool- 

 ish to me. If it did not originate, how 

 did it get here ? 



Cosby, Tenn., July 18, 1892. 



Tie Mating of Queen-Bees, 



S. E. MILLER. 



Queries 819 and 820 (pages 668 and 

 698) are such that may never be ac- 

 curately answered ; nevertheless they 

 are questions of vital importance, and 

 we should do our best to arrive at some- 

 thing as near the facts as possible. 



Let us put the question in this shape : 

 If I have only Italian drones, and a 

 neighbor within 1% miles of my apiary 

 keeps black bees, may I expect to have 

 the greater part of my Italian queens to 

 be purely mated? The best we can do 

 in this matter is only conjecture, and 

 varies in the minds of leading lights in 

 bee-culture, from one to four miles. 



Many believe that drones congregate 

 in great numbers, and that the queens 

 fly among them and find a mate. For 

 my part, I am inclined to believe that 

 the loud noise overhead, that is taken to 

 be a congregation of drones, is nothing 

 more than the workers going to and 

 from a certain field. But admitting 

 that drones do congregate, let me ask 

 what there is in the instinct or nature 

 of a drone that would take him three or 

 four miles from the apiary to meet his 

 comrades ; and how does he know just 

 where this "convention " is going to be 

 held, so far from his home ? (Have they 

 a "secretary?") Is it not more reason- 



able to suppose (for supposition is all 

 that we have to go by) that the drones 

 would congregate within a short dis- 

 tance of the apiary, where each drone, 

 after making a few circles about the 

 apiary, will come within hearing of the 

 " officers," and first members of the con- 

 vention that have arrived, and join 

 them ? 



But let us imagine that the conven- 

 tion is called to order. The next thing 

 on docket is to make a loud noise to 

 attract the attention of queens that may 

 be out in search of a mate. Now let us 

 go to a hive where there is a virgin 

 queen about five days old. She comes 

 out of the hive, and in all probability 

 this is the first time that she has seen 

 the outside of the hive. Does instinct 

 teach her that in one certain direction, 

 some three of four miles away, a great 

 number of drones are congregated await-, 

 ing her arrival ? How does she know 

 in which direction to go ? 



Have we any reason to believe that 

 the All-Wise Creator should so arrange 

 it that this most important inmate of 

 the hive should endanger her life among 

 rapacious birds and insects by flying so 

 long a distance ? Would it not be more 

 reasonable to believe that a queen, 

 when she leaves the hive, makes a series 

 of circles, each time making a larger 

 circle, until she comes within hearing of 

 the drones ? or, what is more reasonable, 

 meets a drone that is circling about the 

 apiary in a similar manner ? Which 

 theory looks most reasonable? A queen 

 and drone mating two or more miles 

 from any apiary is no evidence to the 

 contrary, as both may be from a tree, or 

 trees, in the woods. 



Early in May, in passing through the 

 apiary, I noticed a commotion among 

 the bees, in front of a nucleus hive hav- 

 ing a queen about five days old. I sat 

 down to watch, and soon saw the queen 

 appear, but could not tell whether she 

 came out of the hive or returned from a 

 flight; I think the former. She took 

 wing, and I looked at my watch, and 

 when she returned she had been gone 

 five minutes. She remained a minute or 

 more, and flew away again, and this 

 time was gone only about one minute. 

 This she repeated once more, and re- 

 turned without meeting a drone, and 

 went into the hive. The day was cool, 

 and partially cloudy, with the sun shin- 

 ing intermittently, and only a few drones 

 were flying. 



Then followed a week or more of 

 weather that bees flew scarcely any, and 

 when a warm day came I witnessed a 



