18 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 



l.Ai:iNG AVORKEHS AMONG THE C\:P- 

 BIANS AND HOIiY-l.ANI>S. 



DRONES FROM WOkKER EGGS, AGAIN. 



eN the Uth of last July I shook a full stock of 

 Cyprian bees into a nucleus hive, destroyed 

 their queen, and gave them two solid Lang- 

 stroth frames of honey, and one frame from which 

 the honey had been extracted, inserting a strip of 

 comb Containing eggs from my breeding queen in 

 the empty frame. This was in the afternoon. Their 

 queen was a year old. The next day I examined 

 them and found but two or three queen-cells started 

 —poor ones at that. I also found that these bees 

 that had never been queenless In their lives were 

 laying eggs plentifully, filling all the empty cells in 

 the inserted strip, and in some cases putting eggs in 

 cells already filled by the queen. The next day mat- 

 ters were woroc— many cells were half full of eggs, 

 and even the queen-cells were covered over the bot- 

 tom with eggs, and new cells were started on the 

 comb at the right of the strip of eggs given them. 

 These I carefully removed, and destroyed the eggs 

 near by. By my daily examinations I prevented 

 any cells being nursed outside of the strip given 

 them. But the workers continued laying until they 

 had a strip IW2 inches long instead of 5S4 inches, as 

 at first. When the queen-cells and brood were final- 

 ly sealed over, there was rarely a worker coll to be 

 seen, and the others produced drones, for 1 saw 

 them hatching. But as soon as they had these 

 drones sealed over they seemed to be satisfied, and 

 ceased to lay. Having no confidence in their queen- 

 cells, I removed them and gave them a ripe cell 

 from another stock prepared in the same manner 

 the same day. The queen hatched, but never be- 

 came fertile. 



When I thought it useless to keep her longer I 

 killed her and gave them another cell. The work- 

 ers des'.royed this cell and commenced laying again. 

 They destroyed another and another, until I had no 

 more to give them, and they were left hopelessly 

 queenless. In a few more days a neighbor came 

 walking up to where I was working among the bees, 

 tvith an old queen between his thumb and finger. I 

 had been wishihg for a queen; so I clipped her 

 wings and dropped her into this hive, without any 

 ceremony. They accepted her and again quit lay 

 ing, and were soon full of sealed brood. I killed her 

 then, as she bore the name of producing cross bees, 

 and gave them a cell. This batched, but failed to 

 become fertile. Fearing she would never become 

 so I killed her also, and caged a laying queen among 

 them. By morning the workers were laying again 

 as badly as ever, and continued to lay till cold weath- 

 er, but finally ceased altogether, and are now a 

 good stock, the bees mostly the progeny of the last 

 qtieen. 



At another time, Sept. 18, I destroyed three 

 queens; one a laying queen two months old, one 

 just fertilized that day, the third a virgin. This was 

 in the evening. Early tiext morning, only twelve 

 hours afterward, the strips of eggs given them for 

 queeu'rearing were so filled with eggs by the work- 

 ers as to be utterly useless. An old bee-keeper, who 

 was present when I made these stocks queenless, 

 and also at the examination in the morning, de- 

 clared he would not have believed this, if he had 

 only heard of and not seen it. And I hope the 

 friends, and especially those who think that drones 

 ean be raised from worker eggs, will not think I am 



making an unwarrantable assertion when I claim, 

 that hijing workers may appear in a few hours 

 after the stock has been made queenless, no matter 

 what its previous condition has been, and that they 

 may lay for a short time only, and cease when they 

 have a supply of drones. In close connection with 

 this I want to assume, without taking space to prove 

 it, that the eggs and iarvoe in strips of comb inserted 

 for queen-rearing are many times missing shortly 

 afterward. On page 604, Dec. No., Chas. Kingsley 

 says such is repeatedly the case, and you certify 

 to it. 



Now for the " more yet " that friend Roe is ready 

 to hear. On page 536, Nov. No., he says: **I pave a 

 frame of eggs and brood from another colony, all 

 worker comb, on which they started several queen- 

 cells, capped about 50 cells as drones, and the rest 

 as workers. The drone-cells were scattered broad- 

 cast over the comb." On page 605, Dec. No., he says, 

 speaking of the same experiment, " 1 saw some of 

 the drones crawl out of the cells, and examination 

 proved the others to contain drones also." I don't 

 doubt a word that Mr. Roe says, but he doesn't say 

 enough. Experiments, to be valuable and conclu- 

 sive, must not be fragmentary. Before he can claim 

 to have proven that a queen's eggs can be changed 

 from worker eggs so as to hatch drones, he must first 

 state positively, from a careful examination, that 

 those fifty cells were every one occupied by an egg 

 at the time he inserted the comb. If they are not 

 occupied at that time, the natural inference is, that 

 they are supplied by la ing workers. If they do 

 contain eggs when he inserts the comb, he must 

 state, from frequent examinations, that they or 

 their larvae do not at any time disappear, that these 

 same 50 cells were at no time duplicated by the work- 

 ers, and the original destroyed. Then, if drones 

 come forth, he has a strong case. 



I will no,v indicate what I think will be necessary 

 to prove, that the workers can change the sex of 

 eggs. Firs'., a long strip must be taken from a comb 

 of worker-cells, every one of which is occupied by 

 an egg or larva. Secondly, the experimenter must 

 be very careful to know that every cell is continu- 

 ously occupied by the original product. Thirdly, 

 they mtjst be seen to hatch drones. Fourthly, they 

 must be of the same race as the queen, but of a dif- 

 ferent race from the bees among which they hatch. 

 And finally, no drones mitst appear on the remain- 

 der of the comb left with the queen. Whoever nar- 

 rates an experiment fulfilling all these conditions 

 will have good reasons for claiming that the workers 

 can change the sex of a queen's egg. In future 

 communications on this subject, it is to be hoped 

 that the brethren will give full details, as this is 

 what gives a scientific value to observations and ex^ 

 periments. J- 8. Hughes. 



Mt. Zlon, 111., Dec. 18, 1882. 



Seems to me you are drawing the lines a 

 little too close, friend H. If we put a frame 

 of worker eggs, laid by an Italian queen, in- 

 to a queenless colony of blacks, and find 

 that it hatches Italian drones, is not that 

 enough ? Of course, we want to show that 

 the eggs would not have produced drones, 

 if left undisturbed in the parent hive ; but 

 if the eggs were laid by a queen only a month 

 or two old, would not that fix that part? 

 I know hovp prone the " Cyps " are to have 

 laying workers, but such drones must hatch 

 later. Don't you see ? 



