DRONES. 



146 



DRONES. 



ticiency with the microscope, required to 

 make these minute examinations, is such 

 that but one or two have ever succeeded in 

 exploring as far as we have mentioned, and 

 it is somewhat like our investigations in the 

 polar regions. Who among us will educate 

 liiniself for the work and carry it along? 



Drones are also hatched from eggs laid by 

 worker-bees. These drones are usually 

 smaller in size than those from a queen be- 

 cause they are generally reared in worker- 

 cells, and the question as to whether they 

 are capable of fertilizing queens, so as to be 

 of some value, like other drones, is one that 

 we believe has never been decided. Some 

 facts have been brought to light that seem 

 to be pretty good evidence on both sides 

 of the question; but, so far as we know, 

 nothing very definite. We confess that we 

 sliould not want to make use of them, even 

 if they were good, for we want the strong- 

 est, healthiest, and largest drones we can 

 get. Eor a further account of the mothers of 

 these queer drones, see Laying Workers. 



After what we have said, you will perhaps 

 see how clear it is that the drones are in 

 no way affected by the fertilization of the 

 queen; or, in other words, that all daughters 

 of a purely fertilized Italian queen produce 

 drones absolutely pure whether they have 

 been fertilized by a black drone or not. 



Until the invention and general adoption 

 of foundation we had no easy way of repress- 

 ing the production of drones in far greater 

 numbers than could ever be desirable. Since 

 the introduction of foundation, however, it 

 is found to be quite an easy matter to make 

 almost every cell in the hive a worker-cell. 

 On the other hand, if we choose we can have 

 a hive filled entirely with drone comb, and a 

 good queen could, we think, be induced to 

 raise nearly, if not quite, a full quart of 

 drones at one time. By this means we can 

 liave our drones raised from such stock as 

 we choose, and we can save the vast amount 

 of honey that has so long been wasted by 

 rearing and feeding drones that we do not 

 need. While extracting, we have found as 

 many as several pounds of drone larvse in a 

 single hive ; and, to save the honey they 

 would consume as soon as hatched, we used 

 to shave their heads off with a very sharp 

 knife. This is certainly rather expensive 

 l)Usiness,for it must take more than a pound 

 of honey, to say nothing of the value of the 

 pollen, to get up a pound of sealed brood. 

 If all this labor and material had been util- 

 ized in the production of worker-brood, it 

 Avould doubtless have been equivalent to a 



swarm of bees. All-worker comb would 

 have insured this without trouble. 



This general subject is covered in a more 

 technical article entitled Parthenogene- 

 sis elsewhere in this book, and also under 

 head of Queens. 



HOW^ TO MAKE BEES BUILD AUL WORKER 



COMB W^HKN ONLY STARTERS 



ARE USED. 



Where one can not afford the expense of 

 full sheets of foundation it is well to know 

 how to make the bees eliminate all drone 

 comb. Mr. E. D. Townsend, of Remus, 

 Mich., tells in Gleanings in Bee Culture how 

 this may be accomplished. 



Tlie secret seems to be in having just the right 

 number of worliers and just tlie right amount of 

 honey coming in, so that the bees will draw out the 

 combs no faster than the queen can occupy them 

 with brood. As long as this condition lasts we 

 should expect tlic bees to build worker combs. 

 Prom this we see that, in order to get good results 

 in comb-building from a natural swarm, this swarm 

 should be of just the right size, and there should be 

 a honey-flow of, s.ay, three or four pounds a day. 



We will suppose a large swarm is hived during a 

 period when honey is coming in freely. At this 

 time tliere is too much honey coming in for the best 

 results in comb-building in the brood-nest, if the 

 whole force of workers is compelled to do all theij- 

 work in the brood-nest. The remedy is to put most 

 of the workers at work in the supers. Most begin- 

 ners fail in doing this; but the principle is to make 

 the surplus receptables more inviting to the work- 

 ers than the brood- nest, and the bees will immedi- 

 ately go up into the supers on being hived. Our 

 comb-honey super with extracting-combs at the 

 sides make an ideal arrangement forthis very thing. 



It is plain to see that, if most of the honej' being 

 carried in is placed in the sections, where it shoiild 

 be, the queen will not be hurried to keep pace with 

 the workers, consequently nearly all worker comb 

 will be built. The brood-nest should be filled with 

 comb during the first 23 days after the swarm is 

 lii\ed, for the queen must keep up with the work- 

 ers and lay in nearly every cell as fast as it is drawn 

 out, or the bees will begin to stoie honey in the 

 cells. Wlien this condition arrives, the bees, on tlie 

 supposition that the queen has reached her limit, 

 and that the rest of the combs 'Will be used for stor. 

 ing honey, begin to build the storage size or the 

 di'one-cells in the broodnest. This is likely to occur 

 in about 23 days after the swarm is hived; for by 

 this time the brood is beginning to liatch out in that 

 part of the hive where the laying began. From this 

 time on the queen has nearly all she can do to keep 

 the cells filled with eggs where the young bees are 

 hatching. This means that the comb-building part 

 of the hive is neglected, and that the bees build 

 store or drone comb to a great extent until the hive 

 is filled. 



There are artificial ways of handling bees so that 

 they will build good worker combs. I refer to the 

 plan of shaking the bees into an empty hive, in the 

 same way that a swarm is hived. Tf a colony is 

 divided into nuclei of, say, two or three combs each, 

 and each nucleus given a young queen reared the 

 same j'ear, such little colonies will build very nice 



