AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



725 



the brood was part drone and part 

 worker. 



(And right here I would like to state, 

 while I think of it, that the reason inex- 

 perienced queen-breeders sometimes 

 send out virgins for laying queens, is by 

 being "fooled" by laying-workers as 

 above. I can nearly always tell when a 

 queen is laying, by her size and general 

 appearance.) 



Another reason is, the queen may 

 make a mistake. You know we are 

 taught that the laying apparatus of the 

 queen is forked, and at the time of cop- 

 ulation there is a little, minute sac on 

 one side of the forked stem filled with 

 the fluid from the drone, and every egg 

 she lays down that stem passes the fluid 

 and is impregnated, and when she lays 

 down the other stem it does not come in 

 contact with any substance, hence is an 

 unimpregnated egg, and produces a 

 drone. Now the queen has the power to 

 lay down either stem at will, as you can 

 move your right or left hand. So she 

 may make a mistake until she gets use 

 to it, and lay down the wrong stem oc- 

 casionally. 



And last, you probably know that 

 some writers claim that the bees have 

 the power to change the sex of the egg ; 

 but I can't agree with those writers. 

 And so you see in this case, the bees may 

 make a mistake, and sometimes rear a 

 drone when they meant to rear a worker. 



Now, dear friends, I do not claim 

 these questions to be answered com- 

 pletely, and may not be satisfactory, 

 but I trust pou will let me off when I tell 

 you that I have answered them to the 

 best of my ability. I would like to hear 

 from some one or more persons that are 

 more capable of answering these ques- 

 tions than I am. 



Bee-Keeping- in Southern Kansas. 



Mrs. Jennie Atchxey : — I am only a 

 beginner, this being my third season. I 

 commenced with one colony in an old- 

 fashioned hive. I have studied New- 

 man's, Root's and Langstroth's books on 

 the honey-bee, besides several others, 

 and have taken the American Bee 

 Journal for the past year. It all reads 

 very nice, and yet none of them exactly 

 fit our locality (the extreme southern 

 part of Kansas) in all respects. I know 

 much more than when I commenced, and 

 if I should quit keeping bees now, I 

 would think I had been amply repaid by 

 the many wonderful things regarding 

 the honey-bee I have learned. 



The past season here has not been 

 nearly as favorable as last, although I 

 have much better results than last year. 

 I safely wintered 11 colonies of bees on 

 permanent stands, with only the loss of 

 one queen, which I replaced. Last year 

 this colony only stored 2 pounds of sur- 

 plus honey ; this year, 72 pounds. I 

 now have 22 colonies of thoroughbred 

 Italians in fair condition for the winter, 

 and nave taken 700 pounds of surplus 

 section honey. The surplus was stored 

 from knot-weed during the last ten days 

 of August and the first ten days of Sep- 

 tember, and is of very good quality. 



There is much said at this time about 

 the way to winter bees. For this section 

 I think the following is as good as any, 

 and is my way : 



Close the entrance of the hive to one 

 inch space ; take an ordinary grain-sack, 

 or its equivalent, and fold three double, 

 the size of the super ; take the bottom 

 slats out of the super, and place the sack 

 on top of the frames, put the top on the 

 hive, and that is all, except to keep the 

 hive well shaded from the sun all winter 

 and well into the spring. 



I find the difficulty here is not in keep- 

 ing the bees warm, but to keep them 

 cold during the winter ; and the same, 

 to a great extent, holds true in the sum- 

 mer. My colonies, whose hives face the 

 north, and are the best shaded, produce 

 the best results. J. L. Bowdish. 



Oxford, Kans., Nov. 11, 1892. 



Does Bee-Keeping 1 Pay f 



Yes, bee-keeping pays here in Ten- 

 neesee. Mr. S. W. Henley purchased 

 12 colonies of bees last April, and paid 

 $25 for them. He sold $25 worth of 

 honey, and saved 4 swarms. 



This is the first season that I have 

 given bee-keeping my whole attention. 

 Early in the spring I invested $100 in 

 bees, and began work. I gave my whole 

 attention to the apiary for four months, 

 and at the end of the four months I had 

 sold $128 worth of honey, and had in- 

 creased my bees to 107 strong colonies. 

 I have replaced the $100 I invested, 

 and have for my four months' work 107 

 colonies of bees in frame hives of my 

 own make, and the $28. INow I can say 

 from experience that bee-keeping does 

 pay in Tennessee. W. M. Scruggs. 



Tracy City, Tenn., Nov. 21, 1892. 



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