568 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



The Mating of Queen-Bees, 

 Heredity, Etc. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 

 BY DE. A. W. TUFTS. 



On page 431 Rev. W. P. Faylor says, 

 or we infer that he means, that he wit- 

 nessed a meeting between a virgin queen 

 and a drone, or drones. Now I beg 

 ieave to differ from Mr. Faylor, and ven- 

 ture to express a fear that he has drawn 

 his conclusions from insufficient evi- 

 dence. I do not believe that there was 

 any copulation in that case. 



I have reared several hundreds of 

 queens in the last seven or eight years, 

 and although I have often seen the 

 virgin queen come out of the hive and 

 take her flight, and have often seen 

 them return from their bridal trip, I 

 have never seen them in the act of copu- 

 lation. Therefore, my experience and 

 evidence is negative rather than affirma- 

 tive as an eye witness. 



I have often had the hive open, look- 

 ing for a queen, when she would return 

 from her bridal flight, and run in, or in 

 several instances alight on the tops of 

 the frames, with the remains, or a por- 

 tion of the sexual organs of the drone, 

 still protruding from the vulvas of the 

 queen. Immediately — I might say in- 

 stantly — upon her alighting she was fol- 

 lowed by the worker bees, that proceeded 

 to bite or tear away the protruding 

 portion, and in the course of one or two 

 minutes, or less time, all protruding 

 portions would be removed, leaving no 

 evidence that copulation had taken 

 place that day. Hence, I conclude that 

 such observers are correct in their 

 teachings in our text-books, that copur 

 lation can only take place on the wing, 

 and that the sexual organs of the drone 

 are taken away, and consequently the 

 death of the drone ensues. 



It is also, if I have correct evidence, 

 that there can be but one meeting of the 

 same queen and a drone, during the 

 bridal flight of a virgin queen. As to 

 whether she may come from the hive at 

 any future time to mate again, is a 

 question that is not within the scope of 

 this article. 



As to the different shades of color of 

 queens reared from the same mother, I 

 think that we will have to seek further, 

 and a more possible reason, as the meet- 

 ing of the same queen with different 

 drones is not even a tenable hypothesis. 

 We see the same attribute in all orders 

 of the animal kingdom — progeny that 

 differ from either parent in color or 



complection, and inasmuch as it is as- 

 cribed to heredity in the animal king- 

 dom, why not the same law hold good 

 among the insect tribes ? I find from 

 experience that heredity is a very mark- 

 ed and useful attribute in the genus 

 Apis mellifica, as we can breed out, or 

 in, almost any trait that we desire that 

 they should be possessed of, or other- 

 wise. 



Musson, La. 



Bee-Keeping With mixed Farm- 

 ing — Specialists. 



The idea is too prevalent that bee- 

 keeping to be a success must be con- 

 ducted as a business by itself ; when in 

 reality there is nothing in which a per- 

 son can do so well as a " side-issue" as 

 to keep bees in connection with other 

 branches of business. Our advice is, 

 and always has been, for the masses to 

 raise a diversity of products, then by 

 systematic management there will be 

 something for the market at all seasons. 

 Do not carry the eggs in one basket, is 

 just as good advice now as ever. 



Disease may wipe out the flocks and 

 herds, drouth or blight destroy the crops, 

 but all are not likely in one season, thus 

 he with more than one string to his bow 

 is the more likely to secure the game. 



With mixed farming there is a diver- 

 sity of crops, some of which produce 

 honey nearly the entire season, and 

 where bees are kept to gather it they pay 

 the best of anything on the farm, if 

 properly cared for. The price of feed 

 and care given a cow will provide hives 

 and fixtures and care for 20 colonies of 

 bees, and, taken for a series of years, 

 equal to the life of the cow, the bees will 

 pay double the cow. 



I am well aware of hitting some fel- 

 low's corns in making this statement, 

 but it is the fact, just the same. But, 

 says one, if that be true, why don't 

 everybody keep bees ? Tell me why 

 you have not been keeping bees, and I'll 

 give a reasoirwhy some others have not. 

 Would you have been keeping cattle or 

 hogs if you had not thought "that other 

 fellow " was making a little money out 

 of that business; or, did you "bite" 

 when he unloaded ? 



The swine, poultry, horse, sheep and 

 cattle industries, as well as fruit and 

 truck farming, have all been boomed, 

 have had their ups and downs for years. 

 Papers without number have been pub- 

 lished in their interest, and many a poor 

 fellow has dropped " his all " by biting 



