76 DR. miller's 



by Prof. Gaston Bonnier, showed that the empty combs were just 

 as good as a board partition. 



For winter, the space behind a dummy may be filled with warm 

 absorbents. 



Dwindling. — Q. (a) Why do some colonies (having pleiity of 

 stores and a fairly good number of bees) start brood-rearing in 

 the latter part of winter and get a good deal of capped brood 

 and brood in all stages, and when cold weather comes the whole 

 outfit dies? This has happened with me two seasons. 



(b) How can I avoid this thing? 



A. (a) This seems to be a case of what is called spring 

 dwindling. The cause is somewhat in doubt. It looks a little as 

 if the bees were old, had more brood started than they could take 

 care of, then died off with the strain of trying to provide digested 

 food for the brood, sometimes swarming out with plenty of food 

 in the hive. 



(b) I don't know, unless it be to have colonies strong with 

 bees not too old the preceding fall. 



Dysentery (See Diarrhea.) 



Dzierzon Theory. — Q. The following was copied from a daily 

 paper. Is the doctrine true? I have never heard of it before. 



"The strangest thing that Mr. Watts told the Review reporter 

 was that the drones are produced from unfertilized eggs. One 

 with experience with poultry would expect such eggs to fail to 

 hatch. Scientists, both by microscopical examination of the eggs 

 found in drone combs and by studying the life history of bees, 

 have proven that the drone actually has only one parent, the 

 queen mother, and every observing apiarist has seen convincing 

 evidence of this fact." 



A. Of all the bee journals of any language in the world, the 

 one that I have valued most is the first volume of the American 

 Bee Journal. That was published in 1861. Its chief value consists 

 in the fact that it gives a full discussion of the Dzierzon theory, 

 the kernel of which is that the queen is fertilized once for life, 

 laying fertilized and unfertilized eggs, and that the unfertilized 

 eggs produce only drones. In the half century since then there 

 has been some attempt to controvert the Dzierzon theory, espe- 

 cially by Ferdinand Dickel, but intelligent beekeepers quite gen- 

 erally accept it; so that the clipping is all right. 



Egg-Laying. — Q. When does the queen begin laying in the 

 spring? 



A. In a colony wintered outdoors she begins, in the north, in 

 February, or even in January. In Texas, probably earlier. If 



