10UH 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE, 



Aug. 1 



that this might bo an isolated case, occurring 

 when the general atmosphere within and 

 without the hive was saturated with moist- 

 ture. — Ed.] 



An Amekican bee-keeper, having an api- 

 ary of choice colonies, the fruit of long and 

 patient selection, introduced Italian bees in- 

 to his apiary. In a few years the greater 

 part of his colonies were poor; the revenue 

 of his bees was diminished; he was obliged 

 to eliminate all that was worthless and be- 

 gin all over again. That's the story in Le 

 Bucher Beige. Now who can give us the 

 name of the American bee-keeper who thus 

 suffered from introducing Italians? [This 

 does not seem to dovetail with the facts. 

 The editor of Le Rucher Beige must have 

 been reading the bee- journals carelessly or 

 else he would not have singled out an isolat- 

 ed case that does not anywhere near rep- 

 resent the facts. — Ed.] 



Washing honey off the lingers with earth 

 is disapproved by D. M. M., British Bee 

 Journal, 232; and in the next breath he says, 

 " When folding sections, handling founda- 

 tion, wiring frames, and especially when 

 dealing with surplus honey, the fingers must 

 be kept rigidly clean." Friend D. M. M., I 

 plead guilty to using mother Earth as a 

 cleanser, and I don't see any harm it does 

 while opening hives and handling frames; 

 but I don't do any of the things you name 

 while in the apiary; and when I leave the 

 apiary I wash my hands. You say, "Noth- 

 ing beats cold water." Yes, cold is very 

 good, and warm water not so bad; but it 

 takes more time to tramp off for the water- 

 dish than to grab up a handful of soil with- 

 out leaving the hive. I give you my solemn 

 promise, though, that I'll not handle sections, 

 foundation, etc., without first washing oft" the 

 soil. 



Accident, perhaps, as often as design, 

 leads to some new plan in bee-keeping. 

 Some years ago I piled over a colony four 

 stories of empty combs to be taken care of. 

 To make sure that the bees would traverse 

 the whole lot I put one or two brood in the 

 top story. Some three weeks later I was 

 surprised to hnd bees ftying through a crack 

 under the cover; and upon examination I 

 found a laying queen in the upper story. 

 There was no excluder in the pile; but the 

 bees, feeling isolated by distance, reared a 

 queen of their own, and the accident of a 

 hole under the cover allowed the young queen 

 opportunity for fertilization. I published the 

 case, I think in Gleanings, and, if I mistake 

 not, that was the beginning of all this rear- 

 ing of queen-cells over colonies with laying 

 queens. [We can not be sure, but we are of 

 the opinion that the feasibility of rearing a 

 queen in an upper story was demonstrated 

 long before the instance to which you refer. 

 Perhaps some correspondent can help us out. 

 —Ed.] 



Suppose two queens are introduced at the 

 same time, either in two cages or in the same 

 QAge, wiH not the bees accept both? [You 

 could not ordinarily release two queens at 



the same time; for when they got together 

 there would be a fight between them, with 

 the probable result that the bees would ball 

 one or both. But if two queens were caged 

 at the same time, each in a different cage, 

 after the proper time had elapsed it would 

 make no difference to the bees which queen 

 they had, providing one was not more timid 

 than the other. A timid queen, especially if 

 she squeals in fright, is always more liable 

 to attack than one which acts when first re- 

 leased as if she had always been in a hive. 

 We are practicing the dual plan of introduc- 

 ing every day. We let out one; and after 

 she begins to lay she is caged and sold. Al- 

 most immediately the second one is released 

 and accepted. By the time she begins to 

 lay, another is ready to be released, and so 

 the process continues. This is being enacted 

 as a regular thing at our north yard, and 

 any visitor who may come will be shown the 

 whole performance.— Ed.] 



E. S. Roe, in reply to a question on page 

 754, says he has often seen eggs in drone-cells 

 as. shallow as or shallower than worker cells. 

 That knocks away a prop in support of the 

 compression theory. But it by no means set- 

 tles the case in favor of the queen-will theory. 

 Who knows that some peculiarity of position 

 of the queen standing over drone-cells, even 

 if still shallow, may not make the difference 

 in fertilization? Mind you, I don't say which 

 theory is correct; I don't know; but I must 

 say that the preponderance of argument does 

 not yet appear in favor of the queen decid- 

 ing the sex of eggs by the mere act of her 

 will. Let me now ask another question. 

 Does any one know of a queen laying work- 

 ei'-eggs in normal drone-cells? Years ago I 

 thought I'd force a queen to do so. I took 

 from a colony its combs and gave it all drone- 

 comb. The bees swarmed out rather than 

 to live in such a place. It is well known 

 that a young queen in a weak after-swarm, 

 if she has any will at all in the matter, has a 

 will for worker-eggs only. Give her drone- 

 comb in the center of the brood-nest; and if 

 the sex of eggs depends on her will, why does 

 she not lay worker-eggs in the drone-cells? 

 "You've known them to do so?" I begyour 

 pardon, are you sure they were normal drone- 

 cells? I've known workers to be reared in 

 drone-cells, but not normal drone-cells. The 

 workers had changed them by putting on a 

 rim of wax, thus narrowing the mouth of 

 each cell before the queen laid in them. 

 W^hy could she not will to lay worker-eggs 

 in them before the bees changed them? [We 

 have received numerous other statements, all 

 certifying to the facts set forth in the letter 

 published on page 754; but the, evidence set 

 forth by these others is even more conclusive. 

 In some cases the drone-cells have been shav- 

 ed down to within J inch deep. The queen 

 laid therein, and the eggs produced fully de- 

 veloped drones. So much evidence has come 

 in to this effect that we are unable to give 

 space to it all, and we are, therefore, of the 

 opinion that we may conclude that the diam- 

 eter of the cell and the depth of it have 

 nothing to do toward making the egg male 



