DR. MILLER^ 
76 
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 plenty 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 
