August 18 , 1881 . ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 163 
females fully or partially developed are the result. A microscopic 
examination of the egg shows that it has been formed for this 
method of impregnation. The whole surface is covered by a most 
beautifully reticulated membrane (chorion'), the lines of which 
lead up in pattern towards the larger end of the egg, where they 
all terminate by joining a ring, reminding one of the cordage 
over a balloon which leads up to the string ring at the top. In 
the centre of this ring we find an aperture (micropyle) very minute, 
but passing through the egg coats and giving an opportunity of 
entrance to the spermatozoa, whose rhythmical movements, as 
though guided by intelligence, bring them to the micropyle, when 
they pass within, are absorbed into the germ, and effect the result¬ 
ing sex as we have already seen. The question has been asked 
whether the queen is conscious of the sized cell in which she is 
laying and impregnates the egg or not accordingly. It is difficult 
to theorise here, but the cause is probably reflex in its character. 
The fertile worker plays an important part in the normal state 
of many insects. Amongst bees she is a cause of ruin ; but here 
she is of service, as she completes our argument. She is incapable 
of impregnation, but is capable of depositing eggs which produce 
drones only. Some three months since I attempted to make a 
swarm of the whole of the bees of a colony, in order that they 
might be sent to a distance. From a hundred to two hundred 
bees remained in the hive, which was returned to its old stand. 
Intending to give them a patch of hatching brood so soon as such 
was seen, I did not disturb them. In a few days, opening the hive, 
I found hundreds of eggs, ten or twelve in a cell, and covering a 
circle of about 3 inches in diameter. Amongst this little lot a 
fertile worker had appeared. But these things are not without 
their parallel. For instance, amongst wasps we find the counter¬ 
part to it all. The Polistes gallica, which builds its nest in bushes, 
is an interesting example. A mother or queen fertilised in the 
autumn passes into complete dormancy until aroused by the spring 
sun ; she then with great industry builds a few cells, furnishes 
them with eggs, and feeds the resulting larvae, all of which turn 
into females, but females which cannot be impregnated since males 
do not survive the winter. These virgins in turn add to the nest 
by ovipositing, and all their eggs produce males parthenogeneti- 
cally, as in the case with the drone egg of the queen or fertile 
worker. Females of larger size than the rest produced by the 
mated mother late in the year, and probably differentiated by 
peculiar feeding as in the case of the queen bee, meet males of the 
same year ; the former survive the winter, and so the race is 
continued. 
It is curious to the naturalist that in other creatures this rule is 
sometimes reversed ; for instance, in rotifers, females are generated 
by virgins, and males by mated individuals ; and amongst moths 
there are known instances, of which space forbids particulars, of 
twenty generations of females succeeding each other without one 
male specimen having presented itself, or one case of impreg¬ 
nation having occurred. Indeed amongst some moths the male 
is at present altogether unknown, nor have we here at all ex¬ 
hausted our knowledge of these surprising variations, for amongst 
other similar cases Cecidomyia produces a larva which is itself 
fertile, not laying eggs but evolving living larvm like to itself 
within its own body. This may remind us of the sexless bud¬ 
ding-aphis passing through several generations until perfect 
sexual winged aphides are brought into existence, upon which 
seems to be laid the task of continuing the race to the succeeding 
year. Nor is this parthenogenesis amongst plants quite unknown. 
Dr. Asa Gray gives us as an example Coelebogyne, respecting 
which he adds, “ Parthenogenesis is thus confirmed, and is shown 
to occur in most polyembryony.” 
So far my object has been to point out that in studying bees we 
have no monopoly either of the wondrous or beautiful, but that 
even the material works of the Creator are everywhere infinitely 
beyond us all. 
In conclusion I must just mark one point in which I do not see 
with Mr. Pettigrew, if, indeed, I understand his meaning. The 
determination of the impregnated bee egg into a queen or worker 
is the result of treatment or feeding so far as we know ; but he 
speaks of dwarfing the worker and interfering with its develop¬ 
ment. But this does not meet the case, since in some respects the 
worker is more highly developed and organised than the queen— 
e.g., its tongue, its mandibles, its legs, the hind pair especially. 
It is rather a question of diversion of nutrition, but in what way 
this is brought about we know not. The organs of flight of the 
worker, again, are more perfect, as indeed they need be. The 
large air sacs, so important when distended for long flights, as 
decreasing the specific gravity of the body and bracing up its 
muscular attachments, and as increasing the possible aeration of 
the circulating fluids, give place in the queen to the ovaries, and 
so on throughout. It is neither a dwarfing nor a development 
merely, but an adaptation most minute in its details. The worker 
for honey and pollen-gathering, wax-secreting and comb-building, 
nursing and cleaning, with every tool she can need ; the queen for 
the duties of maternity, and for these alone, with generative 
organs fully equipped for the enormous work demanded of them, 
but that at the expense of all those parts which minister nothing 
to her proper functions.— Frank It. Cheshire, Avenue House, 
Acton, IF. 
STRONG HIVES. 
During- the hot weather at the end of June and beginning of 
July bees in this neighbourhood gathered honey very fast from 
white Clover. For fifteen or sixteen days we had a great honey 
glut. The month of May this year was more favourable for 
honey-gathering than any corresponding month for some years 
past ; but during the last three weeks or more the weather in 
this locality has been so unfavourable that breeding in most of 
the hives is discontinued. What with loss of brood and the great 
consumption of honey, hives are becoming much lighter in 
weight : and, as the Clover season is apparently over, those who 
do not take their bees to the moors should take at once what 
honey they want from their hives. The present is the best time 
to make stock hives strong for another year. Possessing strong 
hives in autumn, hardly anybody who gives a moderate amount 
of attention to his bees will fail to be successful. We hold that 
hives cannot be too strong in young bees in autumn if they 
contain food enough for the population during the winter and 
early spring months. The difficulties and dangers of bee life in 
winter should be well understood. As bees live nine months only, 
many reach the span of life and die in the winter months. Only 
those born in August and September can be depended on for the 
necessary work of April and May, as cold weather in early spring 
may prevent an early hatch of brood. Great losses by chills during 
winter dances are frequent. Sometimes the ranks of the com¬ 
munity are thinned by dysentery, sometimes by mice gaining 
access to hives and eating the heads of the bees, sometimes 
whole communities are destroyed by mice. Small communities are 
often killed by cold. Strength in autumn goes far to promote 
health and safety in winter, activity and prosperity in spring. 
There are two ways of making hives strong in bees in autumn. 
One is by giving them additional swarms from honey hives ; the 
other is by treating bees so that late hatches of brood are obtained, 
and of course this is done by artificial feeding. If six patches of 
brood the size of the crown of a man’s hat are safely hatched in a 
hive at the end of August or in the month of September, the hive 
will be a strong one, able to bear and survive the difficulties of a 
severe winter. If this lesson be well understood and carried into 
practice by the bee-keepers of England, their success will be more 
general, and bee-keeping will very likely become more popular 
than it has been hitherto. As to the time of feeding-up stocks 
for winter, it should be known that early feeding, say in August, 
is better than late feeding, say in September. In August more 
flowers are in bloom, and pollen, so necessary for breeding, is 
plentiful. In September the weather, generally speaking, becomes 
colder and less favourable for breeding and hatching and comb¬ 
building. In late feeding there is, too, the greater danger of 
losing bees when they fly about during the excitement of feeding 
and in fetching water for the brood. It may be laid down as an 
axiom that early feeding is preferable to late feeding. One year 
I was so engaged that my bees were neglected till October, when 
they were fed-up with winter stores, which caused them to breed 
pretty extensively, as the weather was mild at the time. Before 
the brood came to maturity a severe frost killed it. Feeding and 
breeding should be over before autumnal frosts come. Bees 
naturally prepare beforehand for times of rest and quiet in 
autumn and winter. If they have a little sunshine and a winter 
dance now and then, and their dead cast out, the quieter they 
remain from September to February the better. Excitement in 
winter is not good for bees. Whatever feeding is necessary let it 
be done as soon as the honey season ends. 
Bee-keepers are pretty well acquainted with sugar-feeding, 
and therefore little need be said about it here. Everyone carries 
out his own plan, and considers it the best. I do the same, and 
find no fault with the plans and modes of other bee-keepers. 
In spring and summer syrup unboiled, mixed at the rate of 1 lb. 
of sugar to a pint of water, is used. In autumn our syrup is 
mixed at the rate of 6 pints of water to 7 lbs. of sugar, and boiled. 
A slight boiling improves it in taste and appearance, and we 
think makes it keep better. Summer feeding is resorted to merely 
to keep bees alive, not for storing-up. Food in autumn is given 
to be stored up for winter and early spring, and therefore the 
quality of the food should be considered. Good sugar, mixed at 
