494 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



on a hive at a time and this without bait section or foundation 

 in the sections. The bees are slow to enter the super at all under 

 such conditions and when they do, as soon as the super is well filled 

 and the bees crowded for room they will swarm. Dividing the col- 

 ony in the middle of the honey flow is making increase at the ex- 

 pense of the crop. The professional bee keeper makes his increase 

 at the close of the honey flow and thus gets both a honey crop and 

 increase. Another very common reason why little surplus is 

 stored is because the bee keeper is raising too many drones. The 

 drone is the male bee. It gathers no honey and adds nothing to 

 the productive powers of the hive. The only purpose of the 

 drone is the perj^etuation of the species. As each hive has only 

 one queen and one mating is sufficient for life it will readily be 

 seen that but a small number of drones in an apiary will serve 

 all the purposes for which nature designed -them. I think it safe 

 to say that I have found more drones in a single hive in the 

 ordinary farm apiary than I found in nearly one hundred hives 

 in the yard of F. W. Hall at Colo, Story county. The drones are 

 reared in larger cells than are the workers. If the bees are 

 allowed to build according to their own notions there will fre- 

 quently be from one-fourth to one-third of the total comb surface 

 in the hive made up of drone comb. During the productive 

 season the queen lays thousands of eggs daily and in such hives 

 thousands of drones will soon appear. Some one has estimated 

 that it requires the labor of five worker bees to support one 

 drone. I do not know whether this estimate is anywhere near 

 correct but if it is, it will readily be seen that the presence of 

 20 per cent drones in the total population of the hive will 

 absorb all the surplus honey that would otherwise be stored. 



The use of full sheets of foundation in the brood chamber re- 

 sults in the building of nearly all worker combs and thus few 

 drones are present at any time. Large numbers of drones are 

 not only loafers where workers should be present but they con- 

 sume the product of the labor of their industrious sisters. These 

 sheets of foundation lare made of pure bees wax rolled out thin 

 and run between rollers that leave the impression the exact size 

 and shape of the bottom of worker cells. The bees are quick to 

 make use of this boost in building their combs and straight combs 

 with cells nearly all of worker size are the result. Instead of 

 large blocks of drone cells as in natural built combs only a few 

 small places in the corners will thus be used. 



