AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



661 



the honey as above described, and 50 

 pounds or more was sold in one week, 

 where they seldom had a call before. 



I now remember when we used to 

 handle large quantities of honey, we 

 used to experiment how to tastily ar- 

 range honey. A section must show up 

 pretty well if it beats a nice jar of clear 

 honey with a nice white chunk of comb 

 honey in it. But a one-pound section is 

 the proper way to have the honey stored, 

 but I only wished to assist those with 

 other kinds as well. 



Should you place extracted honey on 

 a market, it is well to post the dealer as 

 to its liability to candy, or have a card 

 on it telling about it, or some will be 

 afraid of it. 



Some Mistakes of Beginners. 



Some people are unfortunate enough 

 to have more money than brains. The 

 man who goes into the bee-business, de- 

 pending upon having his work done by 

 hired help, will, in all probability, get 

 severely left. 



Some make a mistake by not taking 

 the advice of the old bee-keepers, who 

 tell us to start with a few colonies and 

 increase them as our knowledge of the 

 business increases. Some "get left" 

 when they go into the queen-rearing 

 business just because they see some one 

 else making a success out of it. 



Bee-keeping is a profession, and the 

 man who starts with 200 or 300 colo- 

 nies before he has learned the business, 

 will be very liable to find it out. 



I predict that the low price of cotton 

 will produce a large crop of beginners 

 in bee-keeping in the South, as cotton 

 will not pay the expenses of raising it. 

 There is a general stir among the farm- 

 ing classes, and they are going to try 

 something else. C. B. Bankston. 



Thorndale, Texas. 



Bees that Had a Bath, and Swim. 



On page 574, Mr. Tarey speaks of 

 several colonies of bees being submerged 

 in water, and carried across the lot by 

 it. He does not state the length of time 

 they were under the water, but says he 

 only lost 2 out of 11 colonies. 



Last May I went into Jasper county, 

 Tex., to transfer a lot of black bees from 

 gums into new style of hives. I had a 

 2-horse hack, and was accompanied by 

 my wife and an 18-month baby girl. We 



had 7 empty hives complete, also an 

 observatory hive with one-frame of Ital- 

 ians, with their golden queen, all well 

 fastened on the hack. After crossing 

 Neches river (the boundary line be- 

 tween the counties) on a ferry boat, we 

 took a road used only during low water, 

 to cross a slough. We came to the 

 slough, and not knowing its depth, 

 plunged in. The team was soon swim- 

 ming, and we were waist deep in water 

 as we sat on the seat. The swim was 

 perhaps 100 feet, not much current, 

 and we landed safely, but thoroughly 

 wet and well scared. 



As soon as we were over our fright 

 somewhat, we looked to our bees, and 

 found them as wet as ourselves. I soon 

 got the water out of the hive, and I do 

 not think we lost a bee. They may have 

 been under the water ten minutes in all. 

 George Mott, M. D. 



Spurger, Texas. 



Producing: Sex at Will.— One 



of our readers sends us the following 

 questions : 



1. Can a queen lay eggs at will that 

 produce either sex ? Having some doubt 

 in regard to this matter, I shaved down 

 a worker-comb close to the eggs, and 

 gave it to a colony made queenless, and 

 destitute of brood. The result was a 

 batch of drones reared from eggs that 

 otherwise would have been worker-bees. 



2. Is it not reasonable to suppose that 

 bees are able to take the sperm fluid 

 from the worker-eggs ? A. B. B. 



Prof. Cook replies as follows to the 

 above questions : 



1. I fully believe that the queen con- 

 trols the sex at will. The eggs are im- 

 pregnated that produce females, and 

 she controls the delicate machinery that 

 adds or retains the sperm cell. So I 

 think she knows what she is doing. 



In the case given, I believe the eggs 

 were laid either by a drone-laying queen, 

 or laying worker. Or else, perchance', 

 all were destroyed and others added by 

 laying workers. 



2. I do not believe the workers can 

 manipulate a sperm-cell. They would 

 need a first-class microscope to see it 

 and very delicate fingers to manipulate 

 it. Great and wonderful as they are, I 

 cannot credit them with such skill or 

 wisdom. A. J. Cook. 



Great Premium on page 653 ! 



