^fo. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 359 



which brood can be reared. Sii])pose this comb to be the third comb 

 in the hive. Tlie space between tliis (liird comb and the second 

 comb will be tilled with bees, and so will the space between the 

 third and the fourth comb; that is, we have bees enouj,fh to till two 

 spaces. Now suppose we have twice as many bees, or bees enough 

 to fill four spaces. That will lill the spaces between the first and 

 second combs, and also the space between the fourth and fifth; so, al- 

 though we have three combs covered with bees, it takes only twice 

 as nuiny bees as it toolv to cover one comb. You will now under- 

 stand that if we have in a colony bees enough to cover three combs, 

 that by dividing them into two colonies we would have more col- 

 onies but less brood, and brood i® the thing we are very anxious 

 to have, for brood is what makes bees. If you will observe in the 

 spring, you will see that a colony with only bees enough to cover 

 two combs of brood remains stationary until the weather becomes 

 warm, while a colony with bees enough to cover four or more frames 

 of brood increases in number right along. 



When the weather becomes hot, a weak colony can do better at 

 increasing, but when you compare the harvest from weak and 

 strong colonies, even here it will be found that is desirable to have 

 many bees rather than nian^- colonies. If a colony with 25,000 bees 

 stores a certain amount of surplus, one would be likely to conclude 

 oti-hand that a colony of 50,000 bees under like conditions would 

 store twice as much. That would be an erroneous conclusion, for the 

 colony with double the number of bees would be likely to store three 

 times as much surplus. 



One of the most common errors of beginners is to increase too 

 rapidly in number of colonies, and one of the hardest lessons to 

 learn is that many bees is the desideratum rather than many colonies. 

 It is the strong colonies that count, either in rearing bees or stor- 

 ing surplus. The golden rule for bee-keepers has been said to be 

 this: "■Keei) your colonies strong." 



DRONE-LAYING QUEENS AND LAYING WORKERS. 



You may find eggs and brood in all stages, and yet affairs may 

 be in a desperate condition, for the brood is of such character that 

 only drones will emerge from the cells. Nothing but blank ruin is 

 in store for such a colony. When a queen becomes very old, and 

 sometimes before she is very old, she may cease to lay worker eggs, 

 laying only eggs that will produce drones. She will lay regularly 

 in worker cells, but the outcome v/ill be nothing but drones, smaller 

 in size than usual because of their cramped quarters. It is not 

 hard to distinguish a case of this kind. The first thing j>erhaps that 

 attracts your attention is the unusual number of drones, but the 



