MillerThousand AnswersBeekeepingQuestions.pdf - BioBees

76 DR. miller'sby Prof. Gaston Bonnier, showed that the empty combs were justas good as a board partition.For winter, the space behind a dummy may be filled with warmabsorbents.Dwindling.—Q. (a) Why do some colonies (having pleiity ofstores and a fairly good number of bees) start brood-rearing inthe latter part of winter and get a good deal of capped broodand brood in all stages, and when cold weather comes the wholeoutfit 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 springdwindling. The cause is somewhat in doubt. It looks a little asifthe bees were old, had more brood started than they could takecare of, then died off with the strain of trying to provide digestedfood for the brood, sometimes swarming out with plenty of foodinthe hive.(b) I don't know, unless it be to have colonies strong withbees not too old the preceding fall.Dysentery (See Diarrhea.)Dzierzon Theory.—Q. The following was copied from a dailypaper. Is the doctrine true? I have never heard of it before."The strangest thing that Mr. Watts told the Review reporterwas that the drones are produced from unfertilized eggs. Onewith experience with poultry would expect such eggs to fail tohatch. Scientists, both by microscopical examination of the eggsfound in drone combs and by studying the life history of bees,have proven that the drone actually has only one parent, thequeen mother, and every observing apiarist has seen convincingevidence of this fact."A. Of all the bee journals of any language in the world, theone that I have valued most is the first volume of the AmericanBee Journal. That was published in 1861. Its chief value consistsin 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 unfertilizedeggs produce only drones. In the half century since then therehas been some attempt to controvert the Dzierzon theory, especiallyby Ferdinand Dickel, but intelligent beekeepers quite generallyaccept it; so that the clipping is all right.Egg-Laying.—Q. When does the queen begin laying in thespring?A. In a colony wintered outdoors she begins, in the north, inFebruary, or even in January. In Texas, probably earlier. If