102 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



culture was getting at the facts as 

 they really existed. There are a few- 

 bee-keepers who yet doubt the truth 

 of a portion of the Uzierzon theory. 



I would state the proposition thus : 

 All eggs germinated in the ovary of 

 the queen, are coated over with a 

 thin mucous substance, which receives 

 the impregnating male sperm while 

 passing the mouth of the seminal sac 

 or spermatlieca wlien decending the 

 oviduct, and said male sperm can be 

 removed by the nurse bees after the 

 eggs are deposited in the worker cells, 

 and tlie sex of the egg changed. 



Holy Closes ! do you intend to throw 

 aside all well-authenticated theories, 

 promulgated by such great lights as 

 Iluber, Eev. l)zierzon. Profs. A'on 

 Siebold and Leuckart, Baron of Berl- 

 epsch. and a host of learned bee-mast- 

 ers of the old and new world V Xo. my 

 friends, I do not doubt one syllable of 

 what these learned, scientific bee- 

 masters set forth, but only wish to 

 carry tlieir researches a little further, 

 if you please, making new discoveries 

 in fields so rich witli the thoughts of 

 so many learned men. 



To say that bees can change the sex 

 of eggs at pleasure, is saying a great 

 deal, but I think I can truthfully assert 

 such to be true, as much so as a drone 

 is the '• son of his mamma."' Under- 

 stand me ; a drone egg, that is, an un- 

 fertilized egg, will produce a drone 

 always, and cannot be changed bv the 

 nurse bees, it matters not how hard 

 the little fellows may try their mathe- 

 matical skill ; but, on the other hand, 

 it is a simple operation for them to 

 remove the male sperm from the 

 worker egg just after the egg is laid, 

 or just before tlie egg hatches. 



I claim, friend bee-keepers, that if 

 the egg is impregnated as it passes 

 the mouth of the seminal sac when 

 decending the oviduct, as the Eev. 

 Father Uzierzon asserts, the male 

 sperm is compelled to lodge in the 

 mucus covering of the egg, and can be 

 removed by the bees when the welfare 

 of the colony demands it ; and this 

 seldom happens, unless a queen is 

 suddenly killed by some mishap, and 

 no drones left for mating with the 

 young queen. And further, I believe 

 the entire outer coating or covering of 

 the egg is taken up in the develop- 

 ment of the young larvse ; or, in other 

 words, is a part of the milky substance 

 seen when the egg is changed to a 

 minute grub or larv;e. 



And now for the facts in the case : 

 I suspected this was the case in 187!), 

 but was not positive about it until this 

 and last yeiir. Tn test the matter 

 thoroughly, last August I took two 

 new worker brood combs, built out on 

 Given foundation in wired frames, and 

 inserted them in the center of my 

 Syrian colony containing one of 1). A. 

 Jones' best queens, and placed a Mason 

 yi, gallon fruit jar feeder, filled with 

 syrup, immediately over these frames 

 to get the bees to cluster on them. 

 Four days after. I take them out. and 

 find them about half filled with eggs 

 equally, on each side. I cut a hole, 

 about one inch in diameter, near the 

 center of the eggs in one of the combs; 

 in the other, near the center, I scrape 

 the cells off to the foundation for a 



space of 3 inches by one inch, and put 

 both combs together in a strong queen- 

 less colony that had been especially 

 prepared for this experiment, and had 

 no laying queen for 2 weeks, having 

 taken out a virgin queen 3 days before 

 giving the frames with eggs ; and. to 

 be sure, I carefully examined the 

 other frames and saw no signs of lay- 

 ing workers. I examined these combs 

 every day initil the brood was all 

 capped. .Vround the hole S queen 

 cells were drawn out, and all hatched 

 nice queens, and near these cells a 

 dozen or more cells were enlarged 

 and drawn out for drones, from which 

 I saw drones hatch, and this was the 

 sole cause of the experiment. On 

 comb number 2. was not a single drone 

 cell ; and on the comb containing the 

 queen cells, the drone brood was on 

 the same side of the comb on which 

 were the queen cells, while the other 

 side showed solid worker brood. I 

 tried this experiment twice in ].s,S2. 

 and several times last year, and I in 

 variably found some drone brood near 

 queen cells. 



These experiments were always in 

 colonies where there were no dronesor 

 drone brood ; and to further test the 

 matter, I ))repared a comb as above 

 stated, and put it in a queenless col- 

 ony containing drone brood and 

 drones, without getting any drones on 

 my prepared comb, although I got a 

 nice lot of queen cells, which proved 

 to my mind, that bees have the power 

 to change the sex of eggs when the 

 welfare of the colony demand it. It 

 was hardly possiblethat thebees re- 

 moved the eggs of the worker bee and 

 deposited one in its place, for there 

 was only 2 day's difference in the cap- 

 ping of the worker and drone brood. 



This thing has been surmised by 

 several of your correspondents. Mr. 

 Editor, but! do not know how far they 

 cartied their experiments. 



Xow in conclusion, let me introduce 

 three propositions, and I invite all 

 bee-keepers to watch closely and see 

 if I am not correct. 



First proposition. — Bees change the 

 sex of eggs (female to male only). 

 whenever the economy of the colony 

 require it. 



2. Laying workers are found in 

 nearly all colonies, hence a colony with 

 a pure mismated queen may contain 

 hybrid drones. 



3. Queenless colonies containing lay- 

 ing workers will gladly accept a fertile 

 queen or queen cell, if properly intro- 

 duced. 



Dresden. Texas. 



For tbe American Bee Joomal. 



Successful Out-Door Wintering. 



J. E. VAN ETTEN. 



On page 56 Mr. O. O. Poppleton 

 says : '• Show me a practical method 

 of keeping the entire inside of my 

 hives perfectly free from dampness, 

 and I have no' further fears of unsuc- 

 cessful wintering." 



About 2 years ago I reached the 

 same conclusion. I observed that 

 wasps, hornets, flies and various- 

 winged insects invariably sought adr;/ 



place in which to pass the winter, pay- 

 ing little or no regard to its exposure 

 to a very low temperature. I observed 

 Hies issuing in the spring from iron 

 door-locks, in which they had success- 

 fully passed the severest of winters. 



I have also seen many " bee-trees " 

 cut, and I observed that the bees sel- 

 dom built their brood nest at the very 

 top of the hollow, but almost always 

 left an open space or hollow at the 

 side or very nearly above their brood 

 nest. 



These various hints set me to think- 

 ing, and I came to the conclusion that 

 bees could stand almost any degree of 

 cold, if free from dampness. I made 

 many experiments, and the more I ex- 

 perimented the more I became con- 

 firmed in my notion. 



At last I thought I had solved or 

 very nearly solved the problem of suc- 

 cessful out-door wintering. Accord- 

 ingly, last fall I took off the surplus 

 sections from my bees, took out the 

 sections and replaced the empty sec- 

 tion boxes turned upside down, to 

 give a dead-air space above the bees, 

 and covered with enameled cloth and 

 a thin woolen mat. One colony I left 

 exposed without any case or cap sur- 

 rounding or covering the frames. Over 

 cach I placed a "shock" of corn stalks, 

 which I tied at the top. 



The winter so far has been remark- 

 ably cold, the thermometer in Janu- 

 ary reaching as low as 20- below zero 

 in this locality for several days in suc- 

 cession, yet my bees are all right. On 

 the second day of February, I exam- 

 ined them and found them in the very 

 best condition, and the colony without 

 a ease or cap quite as good as the rest, 

 if not better. The bees were all bright, 

 dry and clean, and not over a handful 

 of dead bees could be found in any 

 hive. 



I have no further fears of successful 

 out-door wintering. Keep away chaff 

 and everything that will draw or hold 

 moisture. Cover with corn stalks, set 

 on end. tied at the top, and I will 

 guarantee success. 



Kingston, N. Y. 



For the American Bee Journal- 



The Winter Problem. 



HENRY ALLEY. 



I have read several of the articles 

 on the above subject, that have ap- 

 peared in the Journal the past few 

 months, and it strikes me that there 

 is more or less theory in all of them. 

 Much has been written about pollen 

 being the cause of dysentery. Loss 

 in wintering is not in my opinion 

 caused by the bees eating pollen. It 

 has not yet been made evident beyond 

 a doubt "that old bees eat it in' the 

 winter. The fact that bees will live 

 without any pollen rather proves to 

 me that thev use Viut little, if any, 

 unless breeding is going on in the 

 hive. How is it that bees used to 

 winter well on summer stands before 

 patent hives and much other " scien- 

 tific apparatus" were invented? 

 Why, I know of a bee man here in 

 Essex county (one of ye olden kindV 

 who keeps 40 colonies,' and he uses all 



