THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



577 



advertise that he was trying to raise 

 a superior stock of yellow queens and 

 using black queens and black drones 

 for starters V What of another who 

 was striving for the development of 

 long tongues, and all the while de- 

 priving the mother-queens of their 

 tongues V What of another that was 

 woiTcing for large bodies, and all the 

 while using the smallest queens for 

 breeding stock V We would pronounce 

 them all crazy, or at least most woe- 

 fully inconsistent. Are not many bee- 

 keepers (and some who claim to be 

 teachers,) virtually acting just as in- 

 consistent V All will agree with me 

 that a bee may have bands, (or stripes,) 

 color, long tongue, large body, and 

 ever-so-much energy, and yet with fee- 

 ble wings, or no wings, all these fac- 

 ulties or qualities would be unavailing. 



I have thus led the readers along this 

 pathway, over which I felt assured 

 they would willingly accompany me, 

 until we have arrived at our present 

 stand-point. See how hard we are 

 trying to improve our stock, and then 

 what next do we do V Why, we just 

 allow our young queens 5, or perhaps 

 1-3, minutes to" meet the drone, and 

 then cut off her wing, or wings, and 

 never allow her to fly again. We thus 

 throw her flying members into disuse, 

 and as I have shown, continued disuse 

 renders a member or faculty rudimen- 

 tary. 



Again, all will agree with me that 

 a mother can by no possible means 

 transmit tliat which she doee not pos- 

 sess; and furthermore, that the off- 

 spring cannot inherit that faculty or 

 quality which the parent was unable 

 to transmit. If it be asked : How 

 then can the stock be improved 'i I 

 would answer : An individual, after 

 birth, may, by proper management, 

 have its members or faculties devel- 

 oped to a higher and better condition, 

 and that improvement may be trans- 

 mitted to its offspring. The improve- 

 ment of the race can also be made, to 

 a certain extent, by the crossing of 

 the diflereut breeds. If a faculty or 

 member of the individual becomes 

 weak by disuse, then that condition 

 of weakness may be transmitted to 

 the offspring. Disease may be trans- 

 mitted from parent to offspring ; 

 weakness is only another name for 

 disease. 



I would ask bee-keepers a question, 

 which they will please answer through 

 the Bek Jouknal. In view of the 

 above tru'hs, which queen do yon 

 think would tiansmit to her offspring 

 Hie greatest amount of wing power i 

 The one that is deprived of her wings, 

 and those members all through her 

 life being in a dormant state, or the 

 one that is allowed to retain her wings 

 and compelled to fly as often as cir- 

 cumstances would justify V 



If I were offering queens for sale, 

 as superior stock, I would compel the 

 brood mothers to fly often, even if I 

 had to toss them up to give them a 



Orion, Wis., Sept. 14, 1883. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



Comb Honey without Separators. 

 Alfred Gale and Wife. 



We will here give our experience in 

 producing comb honey, with and with- 

 out separtors. We got our first one- 

 pound sections in August, 1880, and 

 used separators ; about one-half of the 

 combs were more or less fastened to 

 them, and we had to put all that 

 touched the separators back into the 

 hive to be finished up without separa- 

 tors. We tried a few racks the next 

 summer without separators ; there 

 was at least »ne-fourth of them which 

 we could not crate. Tliese we sold at 

 home. This season we had 1,200 

 pounds of marketable honey, and 200 

 pounds not finished up, which we kept 

 for home use ; and of all this there 

 was not 20 pounds which we could not 

 crate. 



Now for the way we did it. We 

 take thin comb foundation, cut in a 

 triangular shape, large enough to go 

 the length of the groove in the sec- 

 tion, and kept watch of them after 

 they were ou the hive to see that none 

 of them bulged into the others. If 

 there were, we cut it oft evenly, and 

 put it next to one with a smooth face. 

 The hollow one, if some of it was 

 capped, we cut the caps off, and put it 

 next to a smooth one, and the bees 

 filled it up nicely. We have sold all 

 our honey ; at home we could get only 

 1.5 cents per pound. 



We took the first honey off on July 

 10th, and sent a few sample crates to a 

 merchant on South Water street, Chi- 

 cago, on the 1.5th ; and for this we got 

 22 cents per pound, and from that to 

 17 cents, the lowest. We sent 10 crates 

 per week. Just when it was nearly 

 all gone, he wrote to us to send 30 

 crates per week, as he had places to 

 sell it. We put our honey in twelve- 

 pound crates, having a label on each 

 section ; the crates were neatly made, 

 with glass in front, and wedged tight 

 on the back. We had no honey dam- 

 aged in shipping. Jf we had 3 tons 

 more we could have sold it all " like 

 hot cakes." 



Shelby, Ind., Oct. 18, 1883. 



1^ The Northwestern Bee-Keepers' 

 Society will meet in La Crosse, Wis., 

 Friday, Nov. 16, in the City Hail. 



E. Markle, Pres. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



The Cause of Fertile Workers. 



J. B. MASON. 



What apiarist of any note is there 

 who has not been troubled with fertile 

 workers V and which of them can give 

 an absolutely correct solution of their 

 cause V Many theories have been ad- 

 vanced, from time to time, in regard 

 to them, none of which, I apprehend, 

 satisfied their author any more than 

 those who read them. Why, again, is 

 the term "fertile" applied to these 

 egg-laying pests? A "drone-laying 

 queen " is called unfertile, then, why 

 call a "laying worker" fertile when 

 we know it is impossible for it to be- 

 come fertilized? I trust the term 

 " fertile " will be dropped entirely, and 

 the correct terra, viz. : ''laying worker" 

 will hereafter be use<l m its stead. 

 Had the bee-keepers in tlie past, and 



more especially those who assume to 

 be teachers, been more careful in their 

 choice of terms and statements of re- 

 sults, the science of apiculture would 

 be far in advance of what it now is 1 

 It behoves us, then, to use great care 

 in making statements, and avoid the 

 use of ambiguous or double-meaning 

 terms. 



The old explanation of the cause of 

 laying workers, or, at least the way in 

 which they derived the power to be- 

 come such, was that they were reared 

 in the immediate vicinity of queen- 

 cells, and partook of a portion of the 

 royal jellv, in those cells ; this idea or 

 e.xplanation is now fully exploded, and 

 bee-keepers to-day are striviu"; to find 

 a correct solution of the problem. It 

 has lieen stated that they are only 

 found in a colony that had long been 

 queenless ; that only one exists in the 

 hive at at time ; that one is reverenced 

 as is a queen when present ; that col- 

 onies containing these " laying work- 

 ers " cannot be induced to accept a 

 queen ; and many other curious, not to 

 say ridiculous statements have been 

 made in regard to them, none of which 

 are susceptible of proof, and many of 

 which show themselves on the face, to 

 be errors. 



I have given some attention to this 

 matter during the last three or four 

 years, and while I have not discovered 

 the real cause of the presence of laying 

 workers in a colony, I have ascertained 

 that they are present, and actually 

 sometimes deposited eggs in the cells 

 when a fertile prolific queen is in the 

 hive. This I have seen several times. 

 I have also seen several " workers " 

 laying in the same hive, at the same 

 tirne, with no attention bemg paid to 

 them by the bees. 



If the organs of the laying worker 

 from some cause are partially devel- 

 oped, we should expect to see some 

 change in their form by which they 

 could easilv be discovered, but such is 

 not the case ; the only way in which 

 they can be found, is by seeing them 

 in the very act of depositing eggs. 

 This I have seen many times, and 

 have found no difference in the ap- 

 pearance of those laying, from any 

 other worker. I have found laying 

 workers in a hive that had not been 

 queenless over twelve days ; this lay- 

 ing worker being nianv days, and 

 doubtless weeks old. This last fact 

 does away entirely with the royal- 

 jelly-eating theory, and is prima facie 

 evidence that any worker has the 

 power, under certain circumstances, 

 to lay drone-producing eggs. 



Queens have been reared at a time 

 when no drones occupied the hives, 

 but ere long drones have been found, 

 and the tiueeii has been fertilized by 

 them ; at least no other solution could 

 be given of their fertilization, except 

 that they were fertilized by these 

 drones, and no solution could be given 

 of the existence of these doiies, except 

 that they came from the eggs of a 

 laving worker. 



In tlie matter of introducing a f ertil* 

 laying queen to colonies that contain 

 " laying workers," I regard it just as 

 safe as in introducing to a colony that 

 has just had its queen removed ; aye, 

 and even safer, as a rule. It is true, 



