170 



very hairy and of a silvery-light 

 color, glistening in the sun. Mv 

 question is, what kind of bees were 

 they? SYLVESTER KALER, 



Arkansas City, Ark. 



High Prices in Denmark 



Tlie honey harvest this year was 

 nearly a failure most places in Den- 

 mark. The island of Bornholm was 

 one of the best, here it was about av- 

 erage. I got 300 pounds less than 

 last year, but the price was so high 

 thai the increase this year was inure 

 than last. The price was fixed by 

 the government at 67 cents per 

 pound, or 23 cents higher than in 1917. 

 If there had been no fixed price it 

 would have gone away in the wild, as 

 the demand was very great. For wax 

 we were offered $2.50 per pound, but 

 now the price is fixed at about 90 

 cents, which is too low, so no wax 

 will be sold. Thank God the war is 

 over. ANNA SOMMER, 



Lobbek Bornholm, Denmark. 



Introducing Virgin Queens 



Referring to page 17, January 

 American Bee Journal, article writ- 

 ten by Dr. Miller, "Care of Virgin 

 Queens." 



Having had much experience along 

 this line for the past 18 years, I will 

 give my plan of introducing week-old 

 virgin queens taken from a nursery 

 cage. 



Take a cage same as used for ship- 

 ping a pound package of bees, cage 

 bees in these the exact amount in 

 each cage desired to form the nucleus. 

 Leave them caged from 10 to 14 hours 

 or over night without food. Then 

 sprinkle heavy next morning with 

 sugar syrup; at the same time dip the 

 virgin queen in syrup and let her loose 

 in the package; turn the package 

 first one way and then the other, 

 mixing the bees all up. Don't be 

 afraid you will hurt them; give 

 them a good shake. Leave them for 

 one hour, or, better still, if they are 

 to be taken any distance to outyards, 

 load into truck and take to locations 

 where the nuclei have been prepared 

 to receive them. Upon arriving, if 

 they have cleaned themselves up 

 pretty well, sprinkle again with 

 syrup; then dump the whole bunch 

 into the prepared nuclei, which 

 should contain some empty combs, SO 

 they may have a place to store a por- 

 ' i the syrup now in their honey- 

 sacs. 



There should be no br 1 in the 



nuclei, only empty combs. I remem- 

 ber oner of introducing 450 old \ ir ■ 

 Kins in this way, and 14 days later 

 caged 412 fine laying queens. 

 This is the most successful plan I 

 er used, after trying many 

 different ones the past years. 



''1 these week-old virgins be 



introduced to full colonies or old 



nuclei which have been 



queenless 3 or more days, I would 



II the old bees oul 

 that 1 thought they could spare over 

 night, not to weaken them so as to 

 leave these caged 

 in same manner over night, and treat 

 them as before, with syrup; loose 

 the virgin from hatching cage, dip 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



her in syrup and run into the cage; 

 then take these back to the colony 

 Hum which they came; and the plan 

 works better than any I have ever 

 used. In other words, it's about the 

 only way a virgin can be successfully 

 introduced. 



It seems as though the bees, after 

 having been confined for so long 

 without food and then sprinkled " 

 heavily with food, have so much to 

 be thankful for that they gladly ac- 

 cept the virgin and never think of 

 picking a scrap with her, and after 

 remaining an hour or so with the 

 bees in this manner she becomes one 

 of the bunch, and they can better be 

 united to their original colony. 

 \VM. ATCHLEY, Ontario, Calif. 



Temper in Bees 



In 1916 I purchased a Cyprian 

 queen. In 1917 I grafted 10 cell-cups 

 from the Cyprian queen and got 7 

 laying queens. These were mated to 

 the golden drones in my yard, and in 

 temper were about like the average 

 of the yard. That is, you really 

 don't need a smoker. 



Ten virgins just hatched were 

 chosen for a mating experiment. 

 1 hey all looked alike and all were 

 hatched within 4 hours, from first to 

 last. The excluder zinc was closed 

 on all 10 entrances till on the fifth 

 day. All drones were confined to 

 their hives except those of the Cy- 

 prian queen. Then 5 excluders were 

 opened, these S mated on or before 

 evening of the ninth day; the exclud- 

 ers were now closed on these, a 

 drone trap placed on hive of Cvprian 

 queen. The other 5 excluders were 

 opened and also the excluders from 

 my colonies of Golden drones. One 

 queen was lost, the other four were 

 O. K„ Results: These 4 queen bees 

 were about like the average in the 

 yard as to temper; the other 5 queen 

 bees were alike, and if such were 

 possible, were crosser than those of 

 the Cyprian queen. 



I now mated a virgin from mv 

 breeding queen to the drones of one 

 of those queens crossed with Cy- 

 prian drones, and in temper these 

 bees were equally as cross. We can't 

 be too careful of our drones in mat- 

 ing queens. Some dav the old theory 

 will he shattered that the drone is 

 nol affected by the mating of the 

 queen. If you wish to change the 

 wa\ - and temper of your bees look t„ 

 your drones. My conditions here 

 are ideal for such experiments | 

 had less than 1 per cent misniated 

 queens in 1918. 



D. L. SWARTS, 

 Lancaster.. Ohio. 



Parthenogenesis 

 1 ant sending you a clipping con- 

 taining an article bv \Y. E. Io.,r. 

 ! til of the Dallas ( bunt | B( 

 Vssociation, in which he 

 says that the queen lays eggs in 

 I 'Us that produce 'drones. Is 

 I rect ? 

 What I know about bees I have 

 learned dii e< tlj from the bees, and [ 

 have seen worker-bos lay eggs in 

 drone-cells and I know that these 

 hatched as drones. I have had this 



May 



to happen many times in queenless 

 hives. So I have concluded that the 

 worker-bees lay the drone eggs and 

 the queen lays the eggs that hatch 

 as workers or queens. Let me know 

 whether I am right. \V. H. M. 



Answer. You and Mr. Joor are 

 both right. He is right in his asser- 

 tion that the queen can and does lay 

 drone eggs in drone cells and you 

 are right in saying that workers- 

 some of them, at least— can lay eggs 

 that will hatch as drones. 



The ability of the queen to lay 

 both worker and drone eggs is sim- 

 ilar to that of any other perfect fe- 

 male. Hut she has another ability 

 which pertains only to a few inserts, 

 and that is to lay eggs which will 

 hatch into living insects without hav- 

 ing been fertilized at all. This pe- 

 culiarity is called "parthenogenesis." 

 It is as follows : 



The queen has, alongside of the 

 duct or canal through which the eggs 

 pass, a small sac which is called the 

 "spermatheca," and in which the fe- 

 cundating liquid from fertilization is 

 kept. When the egg passes by that 

 sac, if a slight pressure is exerted, 

 the egg is fertilized and becomes a 

 female, queen, or worker. If the 

 pressure is not exerted, the egg 

 passes without being fertilized, but it 

 nevertheless hatches and produces a 

 male or drone. The worker bees, 

 never having been fertilized, may 

 nevertheless lay some eggs, and these 

 also hatch as drones. It is only in 

 queenless colonies that vou will find 

 laying-workers, and whether »their 

 eggs are laid in drone cells or in 

 worker cells, they invariably hatch 

 as drones. 



The same thing happens with a 

 queen which has been confined to 

 the hive during the first month or so 

 of her life, so that she cannot mate. 

 After that lapse of time she loses all 

 desire to mate and begins to lay 

 eggs. But as she has not been im- 

 pregnated, all her eggs hatch as 

 drones. 



These are facts which have been 

 proven over and over. You will find 

 them mentioned in "The Hive and 

 Honey Bee' revision, pages 55 to 62, 

 or in shorter description in "First 

 wessons in Beekeeping," pages 3 and 



4. I" fact, almost any work on bees 

 mentions: this "parthenogenesis." 

 which is a very interesting peculi- 

 arity .d the honeybee.— C. P. D. 



Spraying Again 



T have just been reading the article 

 in your journal in regard to prohib- 

 iting spraying while the trees are in 

 lib i. mi. 



The writer semis to think that 

 laws are not just what are needed. 

 Why not require manufacturers of 

 spraj poisons t.. print the necessary 

 information on the labels of poison 

 containers? It will then be where it 

 is needed at the right time, and tin 

 average person will pay more atten- 

 tion to it than to the same thing in 

 a circular that he probably received 

 two or three' months before and had 

 time to forget. 



WM. C. KFLSFY. 

 Orland. Ill 



