82 ANNUAL REPORTS 01 DEPARTMENT <>!• AGRICULTURE, 1939 
and for calcium arsenate it was much less. Of the four insecticides, 
phenothiazine is by far the leas! toxic 
Tests of 14 Lines of commercial stock in package colonies ahowed 
that loss of queens, poor quality or spotted brood, and l<»w honey 
production were characteristic of certain lines of stock haying a 
common hereditary background. Only 49.3 percent of the queens 
survived the producing season, and only l j 7.'.» percent of the original 
number survived as good queens. The average honey yield for the 
14 sources of stock ranged from 21 to 162 pounds, while for individual 
Colonies headed by queens that survived the producing season it 
ranged from 30 to 310 pounds, as compared with the 60 pounds re- 
quired for winter. 
A survey conducted in Wisconsin in 1037 which included the bees 
of 17 beekeepers possessing a total of 3,438 colonies showed that many 
of the keepers were losing honey through weak colonies. The aver- 
age honey crop per colony for the total number in the survey was 
125 pounds, while for the colonies of the individual beekeepers the 
average ranged from 80 to 300 pound-. The range per colony, when 
only the highest producing colony of each beekeeper is considered, 
was from 175 to 600 pounds, the average of these colonies l>eing 378 
pounds. Since the average crop of the beekeepers as a whole only 
equaled one-third the average oi these maximum-producing colonies, 
a failure to harvest the major part of the potential honey crop is 
indicated. 
Enough instances of multiple matings of queens were observed at 
Beltsville. Md., and Baton Rouge. La., to indicate that such occur- 
rences are not so rare as has been commonly supposed. 
The followng chemical analysis (percent) of royal jelly was ob- 
tained: AVater, 66.05; dry matter, 33.95; protein, 12.34; lipid content, 
5.46; reducing substance, 12.49; ash, 0.82; undetermined material, 
2.84. No demonstrable amounts of vitamin C were found. The ab- 
sence of vitamins A and E and the presence of vitamin B have 
previously been reported. 
In cooperation with Louisiana State University royal-jelly extracts 
ted lo rats failed to produce any gonadotropic effect, contrary to 
what has been suggested by other inve-tigators. 
In studying the differentiation between workers and queens, chem- 
ical analysis shows the queen to have a higher nitrogen, lipid, reduc- 
ing-substance. and energy content during the developmental period 
following the time of differentiation than the worker. During the 
unsealed larval stage the respiratory quotient of both queen and 
worker is greater than unity, indicating the synthesis of fat from 
carbohydrates. During the pupa] stage the respiratory quotient of 
the queen ranges from 0.96 to 0.83, whereas that of the worker is 
between l.":. ;ind 0.94. Value- of less than unity for the respiratory 
quotient indicate the conversion of fat and protein into carbohydrates 
oi- the incomplete oxidation of metabolites. 
The optimum temperature for caged bees was found to be 93.9° F. 
( )t her opt iiniun condit ion- for keeping bees in cages, previously found. 
are a 50-percent sucrose solution, water ad Libitum, and a relative 
humidity of 20 to 25 percent. 
Invest igat ion- of the causes of mortality during brood development 
indicate that the nur.-e hees may he at fault as Well as the queen. 
'rim- when eggs from a queen with uniform brood and those of a 
