566 



THB Mri^ERICSr* BEE? JOURPiaEr. 



The Traveled Bumble.Bee. 



A bumble-bee. belted with brown and gold, 



On H purple clover sat : 

 His whiskers were shapcy. bis clothes were old. 



And he wore a s.littl-ii»y hat : 

 But his song was luml. and his merry eye 



Was full of laughter and fun, 

 As he watched the hoh-u-links flutter by, 



And spread his wings in the bud. 



A butterfly spangled with yellow and red. 



Came flvinK alune that way ; 

 He had two little feathers on his bead. 



And his toat wa^ (Quaker gray ; 

 He carried a parasol marie of blue, 



And w(jre a purple vest ; 

 And seeing the bumble-bee, down he flew. 



And lit on a daisy's crest. 



Then from the grass by a mossy stone 



A cricket and beetle came : 

 One with black garb, while the other shone 



IJke an opal's changing flame ; 

 A swaying buttercup s gitUien bloom 



Bent down with the beetle's weight. 

 And high on a timothy's rounded plume 



The cricket chirruped elate. 



The bumble-bee sang of distant lands 



"Where tn-pical rivers flow ; 

 Of wide seas rolling up shinihg sands, 



Anii mountains with crowns of snow; 

 Of creat bruad plains, wrih flower-gems bright. 



Of forests, whtjse Iragrant glooms 

 Showed crumbling ruins, ghostly and white. 



Old forgotten nations' tombs. 



Then wisely the beetle winked his eye ; 



The cricket grew staid and still. 

 The butterfly. "in his great surpriae, 



■Went sailing ov^-r ihe hill ; 

 The beetle scrambled bet eath his stone. 



The cricket, he gave a hop. 

 And there the bumble-bee sat alone 



On the purple clover top. 



—Dumb Animals. 



Qmries f Ri 



Rendering Bee§u'ax. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



Query 570.— In rendering out the wax 

 from old brood-combs, dots It make the wax 

 darker it it is boiled In a casl-lron kettle, than 

 it would be it a tin or cupper kettle was used? 

 — Bee-Keeper. 



Yes, a trifle.— Mrs. L. Harrison. 



I do not know.— M. Mahin. 



I do not know. — Eugene Secor. 



Yes, usually.— A. E. Mason. 



I. do not know.— J. M. Hambaugh. 



Yes.— R. L. Taylor. 



Yes, sir, much darker. Iron should 

 never come in contact with hot wax.— 

 James Heddon. 



I think not, if the kettle is clean.— 

 C. C. Miller. 



I think not. A sun wax-extractor is 

 the proper thing for a bee-keeper to 



use.— G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



Iron kettles will always turn the wax 

 dark.— P. L. Viallon. 



If the iron kettle is clean and bright, 

 it will make no difference ; but we pre- 

 fer copper or tin.— Dadant & Son. 



I tried this once and nearly ruined 

 the wax. Tin, cojiper or galvanized 

 iron is the proper material, and much 

 lighter to handle.— r. 11. Dibuern. 



I do not think that it does, if care is 

 taken in the boiling, and after strain- 

 ing. Some of the wax-extractors, how- 

 ever, are preferable.— .J. E. Pond. 



I do not see why it should. But I 

 should not wish to boil the wax much 

 in any kettle.— A. J. CIook. 



I prefer a cast-ron wash pot that has 

 been long used, rather than tin ; for as 

 soon as the sheet-iron loses its flimsy 

 tin covering, it discolors the wax badly. 

 Copper or brass will do very well if the 

 wax is not allowed to stand too long in 

 such a vessel.— J. P. H. Brown. 



The IceUle does not color the wax. 

 Excessive heating colors it. and worse 

 that that, ruins it. Ileat it just enough 

 to get the wax out, and no more ; boiling 

 does no good.— J. M. Shuck. 



Some grades and mixtures of cast- 

 iron will darken wax every time, while 

 other grades will have no effect on it. 

 You will notice that some iron kettles 

 will always rust after use, and put 

 away for a few days, while others never 

 rust. Copper is best, as you are sure 

 of the results.— II. D. Cutting. 



I have tried both when I used to 

 have no better way to render wax, and 

 there is no difference if the cast-ron 

 vessel is smooth and clean. If there 

 is red rust adhering to the inside of the 

 kettle, it is sure to color the wax. But 

 since the improved solar wax-extractor 

 has been described and given to the 

 public by the " undersigned," there is 

 no further need of mussing with kettles 

 of any kind.— G. W. Demaree. 



Yes. Take the tin or copper kettle 

 every time. If the iron kettle is old. 

 well-used and perfectly clean, it might 

 be used, but the ordinary run of iron 

 kettles will color the wax.— The Edi- 

 tor. 



The Sex of Bee.Eggs and How 

 Produced. 



Written for Die American Bee Journal 



Query 571.— 1. What is the sex of an egg 



betore the queen has become pregnant? '.i. 

 When the queen mates with the drone, does it 

 change the sex of the egg ? 3. How is the sex 

 produced ?— E. 



All the unimpregnated eggs produce 

 drones, or males.— G. M. Doolittle. 



1, Male. 2. Yes, to a great extent. 

 3. I do not know.— C. H. Dibbern. 



1. Male. 2. No. 3. Refer to someof 

 our bee-books.— P. L. Viallon. 



I.Male. 2. Xo. 3. By fertilization 

 when the egg passes by the sperma- 

 theca.— Dadant & Son. 



1. Male. 2. No. 3. The egg in pass- 

 ing down the oviduct, is impregnated 

 in passing the mouth of the sperma- 

 theca.— Mrs. L. Harrison. 



1. Male. But " pregnant " is not the 

 proper word. 2. No. 3. Eggs become 

 female by receiving the male germ in 

 the act of being laid.— M. Mahin. 



Please read the books ; get Cook's 

 "Manual," or Cheshire's "Bee-Keep- 

 ing." They are up to the times on this 

 subject eggs-actly.— J. M. Shuck. 



1. Male. 2. No. 3. At the will of 

 the queen. She has the control, and 

 can fertilize the egg or not, as she may 

 desire.— H. 1). Cutting. 



1. Male. 2. It makes it possible for 

 the queen to lay male or female eggs at 



pleasure. 3. See scientiflc works on 

 bees.— Eugene Secor. 



1. Male. 2. No, not until the egg is 

 brought into contact with the male 

 sperm. 3. There is a difference of 

 opinion. Kot by difference in the size 

 of the cell; most likely by the volition 

 of the queen.— J. P. H. Brown. 



1. I hardly think there is any egg 

 before the queen is pregnant. 2 and 3. 

 You had better send 15 cents to Mr. 

 Newman for the "Dzierzon Theory," 

 and get a full answer to this and many 

 other questions. — C. C. Miller. 



1. The egg of an unfertilized queen- • 

 bee produces a bee of the male sex. 2. 

 The mating of the queen does not of 

 itself change the sex of the bee. 3. 

 The sex of a bee seems to depend upon 

 whether or not the egg from which it 

 was produced was impregnated by the 

 seminal fluid deposited by the drone. — 

 R. L. Taylor. 



1. Always masculine. 2. It changes 

 the sex of every egg which comes in 

 contact with the drone sperm. 3. I be- 

 lieve that the sex is controlled by voli- 

 tion on the part of the queen.— James 

 Heddon. 



]. It has no sex. 2. No. 3. If the 

 egg, as it passes by the spermatheca, is 

 impregnated— that is, if it receives 

 sperm cells— the result will be queen or 

 worker, otherwise drone. See some 

 good book on bees.— A. J. Cook. 



1. Male. 2. No. 3. Dzierzon says 

 that the egg is " fertilized by one of 

 the spermatozoa from the seminal re- 

 ceptacle of a fertile queen entering it 

 as the egg passes down the oviduct;" 

 it becomes transformed into the germ 

 of a worker bee or queen.— J. M. Ham- 

 baugh. 



1. Male, in all cases whether preg- 

 nant or not. 2. It does not. 3. By 

 being saturated with the contents of 

 the spermatheca when deposited in the 

 cell. The question is too big for this 

 department. Read " Dzierzon"s The- 

 ory," or some text book on bees.— J. E. 

 Pond. 



1. Y''our query is misleading, because 

 it infers that the queen inaij lay eggs 

 before she is impregnated, which is not 

 true if the queen is impregnated at all. 

 All my experiments in this direction, 

 and they have been many and carefully 

 made, tend to show that the virgin 

 queen lays eggs until her amatorial 

 period has passed. If she passes this 

 period without meeting the male, she 

 is likely to lay male eggs only. 2. No ; 

 but many of us believe that her " mat- 

 ing " gives potency to her male issue, 

 which is lacking in drones from un- 

 mated queens. 3. Nature has provided 

 the how.— G. W. Demaree. 



1. The question is not properly 

 stated. It cannot be said that the 

 eggs of a virgiu queen have any sex, 

 but they invariably produce drones. 2. 

 No ; but she is then enabled to produce 

 male and female progeny at her pleas- 

 ure. 3. The egg is iuipregnated in the 

 act of being laid, when it receives the 

 male germ in passing the spermatheca. 

 The pamphlet called "• Dzierzon's The- 

 ory," would be very interesting to you. 

 —The Editor. 



