GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 
li) 
1874 
of Insects etc. and Professor In the Academy of Sci- 
ences, Salem, Mass, and perhaps theVe is not a nat- 
uralist who is acquainted with the anatomy of the bee 
that will take any other position. 
You emphasize the word “ Practically." Now. I quit 
the barbarous practice of cropping the queens wings, 
several years ago, because T discovered that they 
were not'so prolific as those wdth wines. As a rule 
they will, many of them, live .lust as ion?; in fact, one 
of the oldest queens I ever had, had no wings. She 
lived until the sixth year but never had a populous 
colony, and many of her offspring ware without wings. 
On the contrary a queen that lays, up to her full ca- 
pacity, will not live long. After one full seasons lay- 
ing she becomes almost worthless. When tile definite 
number of egg germs in her ovaries are exhausted 
she dies from exhaustion, as does the worker bee 
when it has expended its vitality in labor, and I think 
It likely that .when we get to Understand perfectly, 
how to manage bees; and when queens are bred up 
to their full vigor, that a queen will not live longer 
than a worker. Yours truly, 
I). L. Ad.uk, 
IfawesvlUc, Ky. Jan. 7th, 1874. 
We welcome the above as being strait for- 
ward and manly with the exception of the re- 
mark that we ever considered or thought of 
calling friend Adair a fool, or in fact any one 
else, or of using any similar term, in all out- 
writing on Bee-culture ; nor can we for an in- 
stant believe that any of our readers have so 
understood it. We have considered many the- 
ories like the above “sheer folly” and in ex- 
treme cases think it best to so pronounce them 
to prevent if possible the host of novices from 
accepting and acting on assertions easily 
shown to be grievous errors. 
Mr. A. in Ills present remarks is mild in com- 
parison with the paper referred to ; that he 
started out with established facts, in part at 
least, and that he is somewhat contradictory, 
those may see who care to go over the matter. 
We declined publishing the paper then, and 
do now on the ground that very few people in- 
deed are capable of deciding what is truth and 
what is error in the Microscopic World. And 
we would also question the propriety of the 
Rural New Yorker and other papers submitting 
to their readers such an article, when mankind 
is so prone to take up and disseminate error, 
most especially the “twaddle” that has passed 
tis true science for years past concerning the 
“wonderful revelations of the Microscope.” 
Such of our readers as would know our 
grounds for calling Adair’s paper “folly” we 
would refer to “Carpenter on the Microscope,” 
pages 570 and 574. We extract in substance 
as follows, the italics of which are our own : 
“The wing of tlie bee, is composed of an extension of 
the external membranous layer of the body,— over a 
framework formed by prolongations of the inner hor- 
ny layer ; within which prolongation of the inner hor- 
ny layer,— trachae are to lie found,— around which arc 
found channels, through which blood circulates, du- 
ring the growth of the wing and a short time after its 
completion. Each of the nerves of the wing contains 
a trachae, or air tube,— which branches off from the 
tracheal system of the body; and it is In a space 
around the trachea that the blood may be seen to 
move,— when the hard framework of the nerve itself, 
is not too opaque. This circulation may be seen read- 
ily in tile wings of bees, while young .and growing,— 
shut up motionless in their cases; lor this condition 
of apparent torpor is one of great activity of the nu- 
tritive system ; -those organs, especially, which are 
peculiar to the perfect insect,— being then in a state 
of rapid growth, and having a vigorous circulation of 
blood through them ; but this movement soon ceases 
ancl the wings dry up” 
Arc we not right in concluding that by the 
time the queen lias reached tlie age at which 
she usually lays eggs, she has no further use 
for her wings than for flight, for their circula- 
tory system has then dried up as Carpenter 
has it, and the clipping them then, affects her 
about the same as does the cutting of our hair 
or finger nails. 
So much for the Microscope: Now should 
practical Bee-keepers agree, after trying Queens 
clipped and unclipped side by side for a num- 
ber of years, that they could see no difference 
in fertility, are we not excusable in terming 
the paper as we did. So far as eminent Natu- 
ralists and Entoinolgists are concerned we 
have only to say it will be the worse for Ihvn 
if they endorse the paper in question and its 
winding up especially. 
Agasssiz has given us one illustration of the 
“stubborn folly” of some, who stand high be- 
fore the world, that will not soon be forgotten 
in Bee-culture. Again should one Apiarist of 
limited experience in extracting, make a state- 
ment directly at variance with one hundred or 
more who had large experience, and who all 
agreed in their statements, what term should 
be applied to such a course?" 
In both of the above cases much mischief 
might be done to beginners were not the mat- 
ter corrected at once. 
Who has not seen one of their rousing 
swarms of bees sailing away to the woods, and 
stood helplessly thinking they would give their 
best live dollar bill if just one “little tip” of 
one of that queens wings was off? 
And in latter days, how many novices have 
wished they only knew for certain, whether 
’twould hurt the brood to throw all that mass 
of honey around and among it out, that the 
queen might further extend her domain? 
The truth is we are afraid of Adair ; for 
years back he has made at times such tremen- 
duous jumps at conclusions that we dare not 
trust him, and in fact true to nature he makes 
one in his article above before finishing viz: 
Ilis queen without wings produced offspring 
also wingless during the first generation. Dar- 
win in his works protests that a million of 
years would be far too short a time for such 
and such results, but our friend would have 
accidents to the mother producing wingless 
workers in six short years or less? We have 
all seen wingless workers of course, but an ex- 
amination of tlie combs, not the queen, usually 
solves the difficulty. 
In regard to the two story hives and pro- 
miscuous changing of the combs, we have no 
doubt but that our friend is in the right and 
we heartily thank him for his suggestions. 
We have more than once noted the disorgani- 
zation of a colony by spreading combs too fast, 
and also the shock that was given them when 
giving them the whole upper story at once, es- 
pecially if cool weather intervened. Rest as- 
sured friend Adair that however severely we 
may criticise, we shall never forget the valua- 
ble hints you have thrown out here and there, 
and shall certainly never think of calling you 
the harsh names you accuse us of having used. 
In concluding we will say that we have a way 
of measuring a Bee-keeper by the tons of 
honey he has produced, and number of colo- 
nies he can manage successfully. Nothing 
else will do as a substitute, and we are as well 
aware as any one else that our place is not 
very high up on the ladder, but we hope “we’re 
growiu’. ” 
