1918 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



317 



little, have become accustomed to reading not 

 only in your delightful book but in your cor- 

 respondence in Gleanings and the American 

 Bee Journal, your characteristic "I don't 

 know," and also your little joke, "I don't 

 know enough to answer," but you do not fool 

 us any; if you do not know, who does? My 

 opinion is that you probably know as much 

 about bees as any man could who is no older 

 than vou are and has devoted practically his 

 whole "life to the study; but as a man of high 

 inteligence, you are only resorting to these 

 harmless subterfuges in the knowledge that 

 some of the works of old man Nature are be- 

 yond human understanding. For instance, we 

 are led to believe by all writers that certain 

 bees function in certain things at certain 

 times. The "books" say young bees build 

 comb, feed young larva?, do sentry work, etc., 

 and goes on and says that they change 

 and relieve each other at times. I shall not 

 be simple enough to ask you why at certain 

 times or what is the ruling spirit of a colony 

 of bees — in short, who is the "boss," and 

 what prompts these "insects with small in- 

 telligence" to do these things so methodically, 

 but I would like to know just the same. In 

 my small way I have found out, however, that 

 they will often do the unexpected, and that 

 "Old Man Experience" is about the best cri- 

 terian to go by, and sometimes he fails. 



W. E. MEANS. 



Answer. — The story of your experiences, 

 which you call "a long drawn out introduc- 

 tion," is very interesting, and I'm glad you 

 gave it. If your question about workers being 

 produced from the eggs of laying workers had 

 been asked before the appearance of the Au- 

 gust American Bee Journal, I should have re- 

 plied that in no case do anything but drones 

 proceed from the eggs of laying workers; but 

 that if by any means laying workers should 

 get into the business of rearing workers, I 

 should expect them to be no whit different 

 from workers in general, as to all their func- 

 tions. But in the August number, page 270. 

 John H. Lovell says: "It is less surprising 

 to learn that in some instances there are lay- 

 ing workers of the honeybee which can also 

 produce both drones and females." Prof. 

 Lovell is a man for whose assertion I have 

 high respect, and, moreover, he is a man for 

 whom I have a decided liking, although I have 

 never seen him. Yet, in spite of all that, I do 

 not feel inclined to make much change in my 

 answer, nor. indeed, to make any change, ex- 

 cept to add, "the exceptions to the rule are so 

 exceedingly rare as to be not worth consider- 

 ing in actual practice." And I feel warranted 

 in saying this from the fact that for a good 

 many years I have been reading a large part 

 of what has been said about bees, and never 

 before have I heard of such a thing as a 

 worker bee being produced from the egg of a 

 laying worker. 



Now, it would be just like you to think — 

 even if you don't say — "But how about that 

 flat capping in the case of my own laying 

 workers?" Well, if you don't mind, let's go 

 back and look over your storv. In the first 

 place, although you raise no question about it. 

 it is interesting to note that you report a 

 prime swarm June 13, and an afterswarm 

 June 15. Only two days between hte prime 

 swarm and the first afterswarm, although the 

 rule is that the first afterswarm comes about 

 8 days after the prime swarm. It may happen, 

 however, that when the first queen-cell is 

 sealed, at which time the prime swarm issues 

 generally, the weather may be bad, so as to 

 delay the issuing of the prime swarm a day or 

 more, thus lessening the time between the 

 prime swarm and the first afterswarm. But to 

 have the weather so bad continuously as to 

 delay the issuing of the prime swarm 6 days 

 is something unusual, and I feel inclined to 

 account for the closeness of those two swarms 

 in another way. Here's what may have hap- 

 pened: About June 5 a prime swarm issued 

 without being observed by you, and the queen 

 was in some way lost. Such things happen. 



The swarm, being queenless, returned to the 

 hive. June 13 the first afterswarm issued, and 

 June 15 the second afterswarm. All of which 

 is merely by the way. 



( We come now to the nucleus charged with 

 having laying workers. Pardon me if I say I 

 don't believe there were any laying workers in 

 the case, but a laying queen. You say you 

 did not find a queen. That proves nothing. 

 Queens are net always found, even when we 

 are sure they are present. "But the drone- 

 brood?" Well, it often happens that a young 

 queen seems not to get the hang of properly 

 laying for some time, and a large part, or all, 

 of her brood, is drone brood, and later she 

 performs all right. Sometimes, also it hap- 

 pens that a young queen lays mostly drone 

 eggs, and continues to do so as long as she 

 lives. 



You want to know how bees differentiate be- 

 tween the two kinds of eggs when both are 

 laid in worker-cells. That's easy, at least if 

 guesses are allowed. The drone-larva is so 

 much larger than the worker-larva that the 

 bees are obliged to build a canopy over it if 

 they cover it at al' 



You might send on, say about a dozen, of 

 the 101 questions you have on hand. Maybe 

 I can match most of them by drawing on the 

 pigeon-hole labeled "I don't know." 



UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT 

 OF AGRICULTURE 

 Bureau of Markets 



Honey arrivals since last report : 



Medina, O.— Alabama 1133 lbs., Mis- 

 sissippi 26,917 lbs.. North Carolina 15,- 

 665 lbs., Florida 11,284 lbs. 



Shipping point information, Aug- 

 ust 14: 



Log Angeles, Calif. — Supplies clean- 

 ing up. Demand active, firm feeling. 

 Cash to producer on farm — Extract- 

 ed: White, 2\y 2 -23c; light amber, 

 20y 2 ~2\ l / 2 c; amber, a few sales at 15- 

 18c per lb. Comb honey: $6-6.50 per 

 case. Beeswax: 34-36c per lb. 



San Francisco, Cal. — Shipments lib- 

 eral. Demand and movement good, 

 steady feeling. Wagon loads track 

 side— Extracted : per lb., water 

 white, 22-23c; sage white, 21-22^4c; 

 Alfalfa white, 20-21c; light amber, 19- 

 20c; dark amber, 15-16c. Beeswax, 

 33-35c per lb. 



Caldwell, Idaho— (unofficial) — No 

 sales. Inquiry steady. Crop not made 

 yet. 



Yakima, Wash, (unofficial)— Ship- 

 ments light. Growers holding for 

 higher prices. Few sales reported. 

 Cash to producers: Alfalfa white, in 

 5-gal. cans, 22y 2 c per lb. 



Portland, Ore., Aug. 14.— Demand 

 active, strong feeling, some growers 

 holding for higher prices. Cash to 

 producers — Extracted: Amber, 15- 

 18c per lb.; light amber, 17-21c; 

 white, 20-24c. Comb honey: $4.75- 

 5.25 per case. Sales to manufactur- 

 ers: Amber, 18c per lb.; light, 22c; 

 white, 25c. Sales direct to retailers- 

 Extracted: Water white alfalfa, 5- 

 gal. jackets. 27c per lb.; 2-gal jackets, 

 29c per lb. 



Spokane— Receipts very light. Sales 

 direct to retailers — Yakima district: 

 Alfalfa white, in 5-gal. cans, 25c per 

 lb. 



Cincinnati— 1,700 lbs Florida, 988 

 lbs. Kentucky, 3,510 lbs. Alabama ar- 

 rived. Supplies very light. Demand 



and movement slow, market firm, 

 few sales. Sales to jobbers — Ex- 

 tracted : California, white orange, 

 25-26c per lb. Beeswax: Demand and 

 movement slow, market steady, few 

 sales. Average yellow, 37-40c per lb. 



Denver — Approximately 100,000 lbs. 

 extracted, 1,399 cases comb arrived. 

 Demand and movement good, firm 

 feeling. Quality and condition gen- 

 erally good. Sales to jobbers — 

 Comb, 24-section cases, No. 1 white, 

 $6.50; No. 2, $6. Extracted: White 

 to light amber, 23-25c per lb. 



Kansas City — 14,200 packages by 

 express and approximately 750 lbs. 

 extracted by freight arrived. Re- 

 ceipts very light. Demand poor, 

 movement limited, weak feeling. 

 Sales to jobbers — Comb : Native Mis- 

 souri, quality and condition generally 

 good, 24-section flat cases, light, $6.50 

 -7.50. Extracted, quality and condi- 

 tion generally good, 18-23c per lb. 

 Beeswax: Receipts very light. Sup- 

 plies light. Demand light, movement 

 limited, firm feeling. Sales to job- 

 bers, 35-38c per lb. 



New York — 317 bbls. and 25 tierces 

 Porto Rico, 1 car California. Re- 

 ceipts moderate, demand light, move- 

 ment slow, market firm. Sales to 

 jobbers — Extracted, per gal., Porto 

 Rican, $2.35-2.45, mostly $2.40; Cali- 

 fornia, light amber, $3.00-3.12; white, 

 $3.20-3.25. Beeswax: Arrivals 178 

 bags West Indies; 4 bbls., 8 boxes, 19 

 bales, 6 bags Porto Rico ; 42 bags 

 Cuba. Receipts increasing. Demand 

 and movement good ; market firm. 

 Per pound, yellow, 43-44c; dark, 42- 

 43c; some poorer as low as 37c. 



St. Louis — No arrivals. Supplies 

 light. Too few sales to establish 

 market. 



Chicago — Supplies light. Demand 

 and movement moderate. Sales to 

 jobbers — Extracted: White, 23-24c ; 

 amber, 21-22c per lb. Comb, No. 1, 

 27-28c per lb. Beeswax: Prime 33- 

 38c per lb. 



Minneapolis — Minnesota receipts 



very light. Supplies cleaned up. Very 

 few sales. Sales direct to retailers — 

 Comb honey : 24-section cases, $6.50. 

 Extracted: No supplies. 



Philadelphia, Aug. 16.— Arrivals : 

 7,000 lbs. New York, 4,000 lbs. New 

 Jersey, 1 car California, 3,000 lbs 

 Pennsylvania, 90,000 lbs. Florida. 

 Sales principally to soft drink deal- 

 ers ; New York, Pennsylvania, New 

 Jersey, 5-gal. cans extracted, 20-22c, 

 mostly 20c per lb.; Florida and do- 

 mestic, 22c; California bulk, 22y 2 c per 

 lb. 



St. Paul — Minnesota receipts very 

 light. Supplies cleaned up. Very few 

 sales. Sales direct to retailers- 

 Comb honey; 24-section cases, $6.50. 

 Extracted: No supplies. 



Write for Price List and 

 Booklet descrip- 

 tive of 



HIGH GRADE 



Italian Queens 



JAY SMITH 



Route 3 



Vincennes, Ind. 



