384 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 



MORE ABOUT FERTILIZATION OP THE QUEEN. 



As I do not remember to have seen a statement 

 from any one, as to how a (jueen is freed troin the 

 male orfran of a drone, I will give my experience for 

 what it is worth. 



Yester(la\- afternoon, I opened a nucleus to see if 

 a queen that had been hatched some few days had 

 been fertilized. The tirst thing- I noticed was a 

 group of bees, and the queen in the midst of them. 

 One bee was biting- at the organ of the drone, which 

 seemed to bo firmly attached to the queen; he 

 pulled at it with force enough to lift the queen from 

 the comb, without removing it. 



As soon as she got loose from him, she ran along 

 the comb and the bees after her, trying to get hold 

 of the projection. I watched them for a minute, 

 and as thev seemed to stop their endeavors to free 

 her, I thiiimht they might be frightened from my 

 holding them out in the air; so I placed the frame 

 back in the nucleus. That was late in the after- 

 noon. This morning I saw her again, and she was 

 freed from her burden. 



From what I saw, I infer that the bees free the 

 queen from the organ, and that it requires some 

 time for them to get it away, as it seems to be very 

 firmly attached. T. B. Parker. 



Goldsboro, N. C, Sept. 26, 1878. 



I have seen precisely what you describe, 

 friend P., but my conclusion was that the 

 white substance was finally drawn into the 

 body ot the queen, and I have closely 

 watched a good many. The bees seem to 

 grab tor it, just as they do for a piece of 

 liirva; that is thrown out of the cells, in cut- 

 ting out queen cells, or larva; for queen 

 rearing. It is true, I have considered 

 whether it might not be that they, some- 

 times, in their meddling, pulled the organ 

 from her, and I have wondered too, whether 

 this might account for the pretty well au- 

 thenticated fact, that queens sometimes 

 mate more than once. Give us the facts 

 and we shall, in time, get at the truth. 



out the cells, as we do with this new ar- 

 rangement. "We nuist not forget to give 

 due credit to the friend who used the clam 

 shells for the purpose, for had it not been 

 for him, this idea might never have suggest- 

 ed itself. 



Find enclosed $1.25 for Vj dozen ABC books. I 

 received those you sent me, and the first bee-keeper 

 I came across, on looking at them, took one and 

 paid for it; the other is gone the same way, and 

 more are engaged. J. F. Racine. 



Walben, Ind., Oct. 8, 1878. 



THE SITTING HEN QUEEN NURSERY. 



The next thing in order will be for you to get us 

 up some large goose eggs, to hatch our queens in. 



R. B. Parker. 

 Lafayette, Ind., Oct. 8, 1878. 



All right ! Just get some tin tobacco box- 

 es, paint them white that old "Biddy" may 

 imagine they are eggs, put in Avire cloth 

 apartments to keep the cells separate, and 

 then we have use for all the incorrigible sit- 

 ting hens that the neighborhood can fur- 

 nish. Have the hen located in a convenient 



box, right handy in the apiarj, and good 



bye, lamp nursery. Each box should hold 8 

 (jueen cells comfortably, and one of the large 

 lirahma hens would cover safely about 7 

 boxes; say one hen to every 50 queens. It 

 will be well to have an extra hen, in case 

 one should play truant; and perhaps we 

 could hnd a couple of them that would work 

 lovingly in tlie same nest. If hens sit now, 

 as tliey used to in my boyhood days, I pre- 

 sume there will be no difficulty in securing 

 candidates for tlie office. I can furnish box- 

 es with apartments for 1.5c. each; and sit- 

 ting hens will some of our poultry men 



send in bids for furnishing sitting hens for 

 1879V 



The lamp nursery has one very important 

 advantage, because we do not have to cut 



NEW THEORY. 



We had the State fair in Detroit last week. I was 

 surprised to find so little in the bee line. There was 

 one nucleus swarm, one Everett extractor from To- 

 ledo, some \ery fine honey, and one or two Simplici- 

 ty hives; also a man with a new theory, or one new 

 tome. The theoi-j' was this: give a swarm a queen 

 cell or a virgin queen, and if there be no way for the 

 queen to meet a drone, she will lay eggs, raise 

 drones, and mate with one of them, and then raise 

 workei'S. What do you think of his theory'/ 



It would be almost, if not quite, impossi- 

 ble for a queen to be fertilized by one of her 

 own drones, although some who claimed to 

 have succeeded with fertilization in contiiie- 

 ment say such things have happened. A 

 queen rarely lays drone eggs before she is 

 at least two' weeks old, and it would be then 

 24 days more before the drone could be 

 hatched. Allowing 10 dnys for him to gi-ow 

 to sufficient maturity to riy out of the hive, 

 we have the queen at least 7 weeks old, 

 before fertilization. Queens liave been 

 known to be fertilized after they were 3 

 weeks old, but cases are rare where it is de- 

 layed beyond 2 weeks. 



r.RAPE sugar. 

 1 have been waiting to hear some definite report 

 on feeding grape sugar to bees. If I am not mistak- 

 en, you said in Gleanings last winter, "Wait and see 

 what success friend Shaw has in wintering bees on 

 grape sugar;" but I have seen no report. You say, 

 better feed sugar for winter stores; please tell me 

 when and to what extent to feed it. Is it safe to 

 feed late? I have fed in the spring, but never in the 

 fall. 



I stated, at the ])roper time, that Mr. Shaw- 

 succeeded in bringing through one of the 

 two colonies wintered on dry combs, with 

 lumps of grape sugar laid over the frames, 

 but that the other one died. The only_ trou- 

 ble with the grape sugar for wintering is 

 that it may get so dry that the bees cannot 

 moisten it. If they have 10 lbs. of honey, I 

 think they can be safely given grape sugar. 



See FEEDKKS AND FKKDING ill A B C. 

 UNFINISHED OR DAUBED SECTIONS. 



Friend Shane wishes to know how to fix sections 

 when the bees do not cap over all the cells. Just 

 take such ones, together with any which may be 

 daubed with honey, and put them into a box, and 

 place them where the bees can get at them for a 

 short time, and they will clean them up nicely. Do 

 not let the bees have them long enough to uncap 

 any cells. It is a good way to place the box at the 

 entrance of a hive, for a short time, just before 

 night, then take them away and shake or brush off 

 the bees. J. G. S. 



Detroit, Mich. 



Your pin 11 is very good, if you do not get 

 the bees robbing, or let them go so far as to 

 micap the sealed cells, which they will some- 

 times do in a very few minutes. We sire 

 getting rid of our unsealed honey and unfin- 

 ished sections, by cutting it out and selling 

 it in pans and plates as "chunk" honey. 

 This chunk honey may be so arranged as to 

 look very pretty; and those who object to 

 buying wood and glass with their honey can 

 have the ''clear stuff" at the same price per 

 lb. At present the chunk lioney is selling 

 faster than any other. 



