328 



THE AMERICA]^ BEE JOURNAL. 



L. "W. Baldwin: I do not handle 

 dollar-queens, but I am satisfied that 

 it is an injury to the bee-business. 1 

 know that good queens cannot be 

 reared and sold for one dollar. A great 

 many ship old and inferior queens to 

 their dollar customers and keep the 

 best for better prices. 



J. A. Nelson : I think that as good 

 queens are sent out by the dollar-queen 

 breeders as those sent out as tested. 



1 take as mucli pains in breeding as 

 others, and my queens are as long 

 lived. There are irresponsible queen- 

 breeders, as well as in any other busi- 

 ness. I have had better queens that I 

 bought for SI. than many 1 have paid 

 S3 for. 



A. A. Baldwin : I have bought a 



freat many dollar-queens and never 

 ad one to live over 6 months. A 

 great man>' of them were nothing but 

 dwarfs. Some never laid an egg after 

 being introduced. 



J. C. Batch : I have bouglit dollar- 

 queens with good results; tfiey lived 

 as long as any, and I am well pleased 

 with them. 



W. B. Thorne : I have bought sev- 

 eral dollar-queens and have been in 

 every instance, well pleased. 



P. Baldwin : I have always ob- 

 served that the most of those who 

 bought dollar-queens were not expe- 

 rienced bee-keepers, but beginners 

 who want soQietliing cheap, and con- 

 sequently the breeders should be very 

 careful what they send out. 



J. A. Nelson : I have noticed that 

 a great many beginners buy dollar- 

 queens of me. but they generally buy 

 more the next year and often send for 

 tested queens. I have customers who 

 have bought ipieensfor S years, by the 

 dozen. Tliey say they can buy Ihem 

 cheaper tliaii they can rear them in 

 their own apiary. 



The next question was, " What is 

 the best method of wintering bees ?'" 



E. J. Baxter : I winter them on 

 summer stands in a double- walled hive; 

 liave S frames in the hive, pack one 

 side with leaves, put a mat of grass 1 

 inch thick on the top of the frames, 

 then till the cap with chaff and tack 

 on a piece of oiled muslin to keep the 

 leaves in. 1 leave the front entrance 

 open, make sure that they have plenty 

 of sealed stores witliin reach of the 

 cluster, and leave in plenty of lioney 

 to last them till the first of May. The 

 past two winters I have lost less than 



2 per cent. I much prefer this mode 

 of wintering to putting them into a 

 cellar. 



A. A. Bahlwin : I am very much in 

 favor of a double-walled hive with 

 side and top-packing, for out-door 

 wintering. I think tliat is the best 

 way a colony can be wintered; and it 

 will build up in less time in the spring 

 tlian one wintered in the cellar. 



P. Baldwin : I am in favor of a sin- 

 gle-walled hive for out-door wintering, 

 with the cap packed with chaff to ab- 

 sorb moisture. I think I can winter 

 more successfully on the summer 

 stands in this climate. 



.J. F. Myers : I whiter my bees in 

 the cellar, with less loss and a great 

 saving of honey. Last fall I put ss 

 colonies in and "look out 87 this spring 

 in good condition. 



L. W. Baldwin : I have l)een in the 

 business 16 years, and have always 

 wintered my "bees in the cellar when I 

 could. It saves a large amomit of 

 liouey and I find it less trouble to ear- 

 ly in and out of the cellar than to 

 pack them for out-door wintering. 

 And it saves the expense of mats and 

 quilts. 



-J. "\V. Hart: I have wintered bees 

 on the summer stands, and in the cel- 

 lar, with about equal success; but I 

 prefer the cellar, for I save from S to 

 10 lbs. of honey to the colony. 



J. D. Meador : I prefer a cellar to 

 winter in. if 1 have one that is suita- 

 ble; but if it is not dry and so fixed 

 that the air can be kept pure, the bees 

 had better be left on the summer 

 stands. 



Adjourned till 1:30 p. m. 



At 1:30, after calling the meeting to 

 order, the President introduced Mr. 

 Jerome Twichell, of Kansas City, Mo., 

 who addressed the convention in a 

 very able manner on the subject of 

 marketing honey. Mr.Twichell showed 

 the convention that he was master of 

 the situation, and well up vs-ith the 

 times in regard to the best manner of 

 packing and shipping honey. There 

 has been sold in Kansas Cit}', the past 

 season, 70,000 lbs. in I'-lb. sections. 4-3 

 of which was glassed; 13,00<J in 1-lb. 

 sections, 2,000 of it glassed; and about 

 6.000 lbs. of comb honey ; in irregular 

 shapes, about 18,000 or 20,000 lbs. The 

 honey from New York was mostly in 

 2-lb. sections glassed. The extracted 

 was nearly all from California, Iowa, 

 and Illinois. 



He says : I have received comb 

 honey from New York City in good 

 shape. It came by freight. I consider 

 Kansas Citv one of the best of honey 

 markets. There is no danger of over- 

 stocking the market. I have a large 

 trade in Colorado and New Mexico, 

 and have shipped there witli very sat- 

 isfactory results. For the home trade 

 1 prefer honey unglassed ; but for 

 shipping a long distance I strongly 

 favor glassing it My advice to bee- 

 keepers is not to use dovetailed sec- 

 tions. I have found on arrival 90 per 

 cent, of the broken combs of honey in 

 dovetailed sections. I do not think 

 i:Mb. sections would pay. I have had 

 but little shipped to me this year. 

 The bulk of the extracted honey, I 

 have sold for manufacturing purposes. 

 The crv of adulteration deters many 

 of my "customers from dealing in it. 

 All dark extracted honey should be 

 shipped in large packages, for the 

 manufacturers prefer it in that shape. 

 The average price in Kansas City this 

 season was : No. 1, comb, 17t^ cents; 

 irregular box-honey, 14 cts.; extracted. 

 No. 1, 9>4 cts.. No. 2, 83-4 cts. 



Independence, Mo., was selected as 

 the place of next meeting; the time 

 to be fixed by the executive committee. 

 Tlie following was adopted ; 



Besolved, That the Western Bee- 

 keepers' Association extend a vote of 

 thanks to Mr. J. Twichell for his able 

 and instructive address. 



The query-box was opened at this 

 time. 



The report of the committee on 

 statistics is summed up thus : 23 mem- 

 bers represented 1,938 colonies • fall 



count; 1,609, spring count. — loss 329 

 colonies. 



A large number of very prominent 

 bee-keepers from abroad were in 

 attendance. 



Adjourned to meet at Independence, 

 Mo., upon call of the Executive Com- 

 mittee. 



C. M. Crandall, Sec. 



Dr. G. W. Young, Tice-Pres. 



For the American Bee Joun,aL 



The Production of Drones. 



D. K. BOUTELLE. 



On page 594 of the Bee .Jourxal 

 for 1883, Mr. Thiehuann refers to the 

 statements of Messrs. Youngman and 

 Trussell, in the Northern Michigan 

 Convention (page -542 of the Bee 

 Journal for IsKl,) that they have had 

 queens, drones, and worker bees, all 

 from the same larvse. He then relates 

 an experience of his own, from which 

 lie seems disposed to conclude that 

 queens, drones and workers may be 

 reared from eggs laid in worker cells. 



On page ous iif the Bee Journal 

 for 1880, may be seen an article from 

 me relative to this same subject, giv- 

 ing an account of my experience in 

 1878. It seemed to "be so much at 

 variance with the Dzier^on theory, 

 and all popular writers upon bees, that 

 I did not venture to offer it for publi- 

 cation until I experimented more. 

 This I did in the two following years ; 

 and, by these experiments and my 

 former "one, I became fully convinced 

 that there is no difference in the eggs 

 from which the three classes of bees 

 are produced ; but that different treat- 

 ment and conditions cause the differ- 

 ent effects. 



I did not then venture, seemingly 

 against all the bee-world, to express 

 this conviction very strongly, but 

 simply gave my experience, hoping to 

 draw out others and more experienced 

 bee-keepers on the subject; but it 

 seemed to attract no attention, and I 

 concluded 1 had made a laughing- 

 stock of mvself among bee-keepers, 

 and that I "would better have kept 

 still. So. when tlie " parthenogene- 

 sis " discussion came round, I 

 shrugged my shoulders and kept quiet; 

 but I thought it was all no genesis. 



But finally Dr. A. B. Mason, in the 

 Bee- Keeper)!' Instructor, makes allusion 

 to my article, and the Bee Jour- 

 nal of 1882 quotes from him on page 

 37. The I'D 'tor. after quoting from 

 my article, pays me the following 

 compliment : '"• The experience that 

 this correspondent gives, is worth 

 more than all the theories of learned 

 and experienced apiculturists." While 

 of course I am thankful to the Doctor 

 for his compliment, if he means it, 

 yet, it seems to me like the boy's 

 "boo," that made the colt run away 

 with his father ; entirely " too big a 

 boo for such a little colt." 



Let us think a little more about this 

 subject, sex in bees. It seems to me 

 one worth investigating; and. after 

 all, what is there so very incredible in 

 the idea that the diffe"rent sexes of 

 bees should be developed from the 

 same kind of eggs V 



