1903 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



241 



and hang's in the cag'e with the new queen 

 and her retinue, and other bees if desira- 

 ble, there is a bee-space left on all sides of 

 the frame, the top-bar of the frame filling' 

 the whole cavity of the box at the top, thus 

 excluding- the rest of the colony. This box 

 with the frame inside takes the space of 

 two ordinary frames; otherwise it hangs in 

 the hive like the other frames. 



To introduce, first remove the old queen 

 and then take a frame of very nearly all 

 capp-jcd brood, and, if possible, a frame 

 with man\^ young' bees just cutting' their 

 way out. Remove all bees from the frame; 

 put 3'our new queen with her escort on the 

 frame or in the box, and hang' the same in 

 the cage in the hive. As this cag'e or frame 

 takes up more room 3'ou can make room for 

 it b3' removing' some frame that has little or 

 no brood in it. 



The last queen was introduced in the 

 manner just described, and, indeed, was 

 forg'otten for a week; and when I went to 

 remove her from the cage the frame was 

 found to be full of j'oung bees, and everj' 

 cell had an egg where 3'oung' brood had 

 been hatched, and some good- sized larva? in 

 the comb. All queens were introduced suc- 

 cessfuU}', and I believe it to be as nearly 

 infallible as any method we shall ever find. 



Carrollton, O., Dec. 23. 



[There may have been a reason for your 

 continued failure to introduce by the meth- 

 od given by Mr. Hutchinson. I should as- 

 sume, under the circumstances, that there 

 was either a fertile worker or a good-for- 

 nothing virgin, either of which was so in- 

 significant and small, and so much like the 

 common bees, that you failed to observe her 

 presence; but after you adopted the large 

 cage for inclosing the brood-frame, you had, 

 of course, no difficult}' in introducing the 

 last queen to the hatching bees. The pres- 

 ence of a good laying queen, protected by 

 the wire cloth, and practically in the cen- 

 ter of the hive, with eggs and brood in all 

 stages, doubtless induced the bees to de- 

 stroy their worthless queen-mother, if they 

 had one, and made them think, therefore, 

 they had better take up with something of 

 some use. 



I never let a colony kill more than two 

 queens for me. If they kill the second they 

 are pretty sure to kill the third one and the 

 fourth. Once in my early experience I had 

 a colony so notional that they killed about 

 hve queens. They would even tear down 

 the cells we gave them. Finally I stole a 

 march on them — let them build their own 

 cells, and then grafted them with larva; 

 from an imported queen. In the course of 

 time I had a first-class laying mother do- 

 ing full service. I know this colony was 

 queenless, because the^' would continually 

 start cells. But nine times out of ten when 

 a colony persists in killing every queen 

 that is introduced it has something in the 

 hive that it recognizes as a queen; and un- 

 til that something is removed it is a waste 

 of time and money to try to introduce. 



Your cage may be an excellent arrange- 

 ment for introducing a very valuable queen 

 in any colony, whether obstreperous or not; 

 but if I wished to be perfectly sure, I would 

 put a frame of hatching brood in a nucleus 

 by itself, for there is a possible danger 

 that, when the wire cloth is taken away, 

 the older bees, which have not had actual 

 contact with the new mother, might destroy 

 her. 



There are not many queen-breeders who 

 would have been generous enough to contin- 

 ue sending queens, as did Mr. Hutchinson. 

 He is one of those few, and I am glad to 

 hold him up as a worthy example to some 

 other queen-breeders who refuse to give 

 their customers the benefit of the doubt. I 

 believe it alwa3's pays to be liberal — that is, 

 go more than half way in dealing with pa- 

 trons. But there are some who will not be 

 satisfied with any reasonable form of ad- 

 justment. There is no use, in such cases, 

 in casting pearls before swine. — Ed.] 



MURMURS FROM TEXAS. 



Pseudo=science versus True Science. 



BY WILMON NEWELL. 



There are a few points which among bee- 

 keepers at present seem to be popular bones 

 of contention. I am, therefore, tempted to 

 take a crack at them myself. 



The first of these is that ' ' umbilical cord. ' ' 

 The subject as at present being discussed 

 by the bee journals is fast becoming ridicu- 

 lous. While I do not like to differ with 

 such an eminent authority as Dr. Gallup, 

 still he has made a mistake, no doubt, about 

 it. If he will examine any standard work 

 upon anatomy, physiology, zoology, or em- 

 bryology, he will find that the umbilical 

 cord is one of the membranes having for its 

 purpose the nourishment of the unborn foetus 

 (or embryo) of viaifima/s, and of ina)nmals 

 o?ilv. The umbilical cord and the placenta 

 in their origin are closely related, and arise 

 as developDients of the mucous membrane 

 linirtg the uterus of the }nother, and are in 

 no way developed as structures of the em- 

 brj-o. The umbilical cord serves to carry 

 on the circulation between the tissues of the 

 embryo itself and the placenta or embryonic 

 sac surrounding it. How, then, can a 

 queen-bee, which is not developed within 

 the body of the mother, possess such an or- 

 gan? The name "umbilical cord " is ap- 

 plied to a structure which occurs in >nam- 

 )nals only, and no amount of argument can 

 change the meaning of the term. 



What I strongly suspect is this: Dr. Gal- 

 lup has discovered, in the development of 

 queens under the most favorable conditions, 

 an organ or tube throug'h which the queen 

 is enabled to take up some of the surround- 

 ing food-media, after passing into the pu- 

 pal stage. However, with all due credit to 

 the doctor for his discovery, the fact still 

 remains that he has given this structure, or 

 organ, an entirely erroneous name. It re- 



