THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



475 



they are functionally perfect. I do 

 not think that these sperm cells affect 

 the queen or her eggs, although some 

 do. I believe that a queen, however 

 mated, will produce pure drones of 

 he? own kind. If this is not true, the 

 only way that the queen can be 

 tainted in blood, through the presence 

 of the sperm-cells, is by cell-inocula- 

 tion ; something like what takes place 

 when a wound or sore enlarges. Some 

 cells of the tissue are poisoned, and 

 they inoculate others, and so the 

 lesion spreads. 



2. It is not very uncommon for queens 

 to prove or become "drone layers." 

 If young, they simply have failed to 

 mate,and as there are no sperm-cells, 

 no eggs can be fecundated. As was 

 well shown by Von Siebold, unfecun- 

 dated eggs of bees, ants, and wasps 

 will develop, but will always produce 

 drones or males. In case the queen is 

 old, the spermatheca may become de- 

 pleted, in which case of course the 

 eggs will remain unfecundated.— A. 

 J. Cook.] 



White Clover Nearly a Failure.— 

 B. W. Peck, Richmond Centre,;^ O., 

 on July 14, 1887, says : 



The white honey harvest has closed 

 here. White clover was nearly a fail- 

 ure ; basswood did fairly well. I have 

 taken about 40 pounds per colony— 

 about one-half comb and the other 

 half extracted honey. I commenced 

 with 38 colonies, and increased them 

 to 48. Those who let their bees 

 swarm got but little honey. We need 

 a rain for the fall crop. 



Lucerne.— Wm. J. Tracy, Burrill- 



ville,5 R- 1-, writes: 



I send a plant to be named. I think 

 it is a species of clover, and until re- 

 cently I supposed that it was sweet 

 clover, but I find that it is different 

 plant. 



[The plant is Medicago, saliva, the 

 common Lucerne. It is not culti- 

 vated to a great extent in America, 

 but it is often found thinly scattered 

 over the greater portions of the 

 United States.— T. J. BuERrn..] 



Very Little Honey Taken, etc.— 

 Paul Scheuring, Nicollet, o+ Wis., on 

 July 14, 1887, writes: 



Last year I commenced the season 

 with 108 colonies, increased them to 

 nearly 200, and got 6,500 pounds of 

 comb honey and 1,500 pounds of ex- 

 tracted. This season I commenced 

 with ItJO colonies, having increased 

 them, by natural swarming, to 215 

 colonies, and have not had 25 pounds 

 of honey ; and for every pound I ex- 

 tract from unfinished sections I will 

 have to feed at least the same amount 



of sugar syrup for winter stores. As 

 I do not believe in feeding extracted 

 honey, I always save the nicest combs 

 of honey for the bees for winter ; but 

 when I do not get any, and have to 

 feed for winter, I prefer sugar syrup 

 to any other feed. Where bees are 

 wintered in the cellar, in putting them 

 out in the spring is it necessary to 

 put them on their same stands ; that 

 is, must each colony have the same 

 place which it occupied the season 

 before, or will it do to interchange 

 them? 



[No ; they will mark their location 

 anew after their cellar experience. — 

 Ed.1 



Honey-Plants of Idaho.— P. H. 



McDonald, Star, P Idaho, on July 4, 

 1887, writes : 



One colony of my bees cast a swarm 

 on May 2, and another on May 13. 

 The latter part of May was cold and 

 frosty, and the bees killed off their 

 drones by the score. In June bees did 

 well, and there was plenty of swarm- 

 ing. The following is what our bees 

 have to work on : Willow, balm, 



Eoplar, fruit-bloom, blackberry, rasp- 

 erry, white clover, red clover, and 

 alfalfa, the last but not the least. The 

 bees gather more honey from alfalfa 

 than from any other bloom we have. 



Time for the Convention.— E. H. 



Collins, Mattsville,© Ind., on July 20, 

 1887, says : 



If the Convention is held at the 

 time of the Fat Stock Show I can go ; 

 and also many in this community go 

 to the Fat Stock Show who do not go 

 to a local entertainment. 



"Slung" Honey. — M. S. West, 

 Flint, (^ Mich., writes: 



Apropos of the discussion regarding 

 a name for honey out of the comb, 

 how do you like the name given by a 

 customer who came to me to buy 

 " slung" honey, as he called ? Several 

 in this vicinity call the extractor a 

 " honey slinger," and its product 

 " slung honey." 



[No I No ! That will never do. It 

 is indefinite, inelegant, uncertain, un- 

 suitable, and wholly inappropriate.— 

 Ed.1 



Indorses all its Acts.— L.Eastwood, 

 Waterville,-o O., on July 19, 1887, 

 says: 



I am in a fruit-growing neighbor- 

 hood, and within corporate limits; 

 the people are intelligent, and un- 

 derstand that the bees work for their 

 interest, as well as for mine. Others 

 may come of different minds, and 

 make war on the bees— since it is be- 

 coming epidemic—" no telling where 

 lightning may strike ;" sol cheerfully 

 renew my membership in the 

 " Union," and indorse all its acts. 

 The Manager's report shows that " in 

 union there is strength." 



No Surplus this Season.— Thos. O. 

 Hines, Anamosa,o* Iowa, on July 15, 

 1887, says : 



There is no prospect of getting any 

 surplus honey here this season. White 

 clover looked as nice as I ever saw it, 

 but it did not seem to have any honey 

 in it. We have had very little swarm- 

 ing in this neighborhood, and what 

 we have had will starve, unless we 

 have a good honey-flow this fall. 



Nothing to Report.— M. W. Shep- 

 herd, Rochester,5 O., on July 18, 



1887, says : 



No white clover, no basswood ; no 

 honey, no swarms— no money. Who 

 envies us our fortune V 



Small Crop— Alsike Clover.— J .Few 

 Brown, Winchester, 5 Va., on July 

 18, 1887, writes : 



The season in this locality for sur- 

 plus honey gathering closed about 

 July 8, with a very short crop gath- 

 ered, not more than one-fifth of last 

 season's crop. There was plenty of 

 bloom, but very little honey. My 100 

 colonies will not average more than 

 15 to 20 pounds of surplus, with only 

 3 swarms. My 2 acres of Alsike 

 clover, sowed last season with 

 timothy, was filled with bees from 

 daylight until dark, and made splen- 

 did hay. I have never seen men- 

 tioned why Alsike hay is free from 

 dust. I think it is because the stalk 

 or stem Is free from fuzz, while the 

 red clover is not. 



Flowers Fertilized by Bees.- A. 



C. Tyrrel, Madison, 5 Nebr., on July 

 18, 1887, writes : 



To prove that bees do fertilize 

 flowers (if proof is necessary after all 

 that has been written upon the sub- 

 ject by eminent writers), I send two 

 stalks of Melissa in bloom— one white, 

 the other blue. The flowers, when 

 the plants were first imported, were 

 pure white, and remained so until I 

 procured bees. It will be observed 

 that a great transformation has taken 

 place, not only in the flowers, but the 

 stalk has been changed from green to 

 blue. I wish to ask if honey gathered 

 from the blue flowers will be darker 

 in color than that from the white ? 

 If so, I will destroy all of the plants 

 having blue flowers. The pollen is 

 certainly much darker. 



[It is a transformation, indeed. The 

 white flowers of the original are blue 

 in the improved, and the stalk also 

 has become purple. No further proof 

 of the agency of the bees in cross- 

 fertilizing and improving the flowers 

 is at all necessary, yet it is pleasant 

 to witness it under our own supervi- 

 sion and management. You can 

 easily test the matter about the color 

 of the honey. We do not think that 

 it will be darker in the plants with 

 the blue flowers.— Ed.] 



