HE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



307 



It may be true, in fact, it seems as 

 thougli these experiments prove that it is 

 true, that bees are able to rear drones 

 from worker eggs, but they do not seem 

 to be able to rear workers from the eggs 

 of a drone laying queen. I was about to 

 say that perhaps the explanation was that 

 the bees were able to destroy the fertili- 

 zing principle of the egg, thus producing 

 a drone, but I see that Mr. Dickel saj-s 

 that he has transferred drone eggs to 

 worker cells, and from these eggs pro- 

 lUiced both workers and queens, which 

 rather goes against my proposed expla- 

 nation. The question is a difficult one 

 to decide positively in all of it bearings; 

 but there is the comfort that the success 

 of practical bee-keeping is not very large- 

 ly dependent upon its solution. 



ROBBER BEES. 



In another place in this issue of the 

 Review is mentioned the plan of having 

 bees clean up unfinished sections in the 

 fall by placing them in the cellar, or in a 

 pile of supers out of doors, by allowing 

 the bees to have access through a small 

 entrance. There is one other point in 

 connection with this matter, and that is, 

 will this practice teach the bees to be- 

 come robbers? This point was quite 

 thoroughly discussed at the Philadelphia 

 convention. There was a mention of the 

 Coggshall plan of setting out hives con- 

 taining combs of honey, and allowing the 

 bees to carry in the honey. After they 

 were all emptied, full combs were taken 

 from the hives and set out and the bees 

 allowed to carry in the honey again. 

 This acted as a stimulant to the bees. At 

 once there sprung up the most animated 

 discussion of the convention. The plan 

 was most vngorously opposed on the 

 ground that it taught the bees to become 

 robbers. That old saw "Once a robber, 

 always a robber," was made the watch- 

 word. There is no (|uestion but what 

 bees can learn things, and one of the 

 things is that of watching for and bring- 

 ing home honey from a comb that is ex- 



posed, or even to fight for the possession 

 of a hive that is already occupied. They 

 will learn that they can gain access to 

 open hives by following a bee-keeper 

 about the yard. Such bees are particu- 

 larly annoying to a queen breeder, who 

 must often be busy most of the day open- 

 ing nuclei. At such times I have gone to 

 one side of the apiary and opened a hive 

 in which I kept my smoker fuel, and it 

 was really amusing to see the crowd of 

 bees that would follow me and "pounce" 

 down into the planer shavings the mo- 

 ment that I raised the cover. This shows 

 what bees can learn. Rut that bees can 

 become so addicted to the habit of robbing 

 as to cling to that habit during a good 

 flow of honey, as some have asserted, is 

 something that I have never believed. I 

 have seen no evidence of it. I have done 

 a great deal of feeding of bees, both inside 

 the hive and in the open air, and when 

 done for the purpose of stimulation, I see 

 no objection to the open air feeding. This 

 is supposing, of course, that there are no 

 other bees, aside from your own, to share 

 in the spoils. I have fed bees by setting 

 out combs of honey, a la Coggshall, by 

 making a syrup and feeding it in fruit 

 jars inverted on grooved boards. One 

 summer, when rearing queens, and pro- 

 ducing extracted honey, I took the cap- 

 pings, after the harvest was over, and 

 put out a few at a time in large tin cans. 

 The bees came in crowds and actually 

 tore the cappings into fragments, carr\'- 

 ing home every particle of honey. Each 

 day I put out a "batch" until all were 

 cleaned up. The bees soon learned where 

 the cappings were placed. Within a few 

 minutes after the cappings were put out 

 a few bees would be seen flitting about 

 the cans, then, almost as by magic, the 

 cans would be "roaring full" of bees. 

 Thev would grub away for an hour or 

 more, and then gradually dwindle down 

 to a few dozen. P^ven while they were 

 at work at their busiest, I could go out 

 in the apiary and open hives with no 

 more trouble than usual. I suppose the 

 point was that the bees had learned 



