1889 



GLEANINGS IN LEE CULTURE. 



405 



bors these pimple mites. They are hard to exter- 

 minate, but, fortunately, they do little harm except 

 to mar the fair face of beauty. Possibly in hum- 

 bling pride they may be a disguised blessing, prov- 

 ing Shakespeare's paradox : " Sweet are the uses of 

 adversity." 



These two mites, if we except the old wood-ticks, 

 are all that attack man. In another article I will 

 describe the Texas cattle or pony tick, and then 

 speak more fully of the old wood-tick which for- 

 merly, before the forests were cleared away, were 

 far more numerous than now. A. J. Cook. 



Agricultural College, Mich. 



Well, I declare, friend Cook, entomology 

 did do good service for once, didn't it? 1 

 wish I could have seen your face when you 

 demonstrated by science the problem the 

 doctors could not grapple. Now, I tell you 

 I believe in that sort of medical education. 

 When we learn to chase out disease as we 

 would chase out rats and mice, we are at 

 work with a solid rock under our feet. I 

 am a little surprised to know that live ani- 

 mals really burrow in the skin of the face. 

 I have heard this contradicted so ably that I 

 had decided it was only a piece of supersti- 

 tion. I trust they are not very common. 

 How about pyrethrum for these minute an- 

 imals? If one had the itch, would not py- 

 rethrum, rubbed thoroughly into the skin, 

 have the effect it does on all other kinds of 

 insects? I have heard my father tell about 

 wood-ticks when he used to work in the 

 clearing around our log house in the wilder- 

 ness, and therefore I am much interested. 



SUPERSEDING DRONES, AND DRONE 

 COMB. 



DR. C. C. MILLER TELLS US SOMETHING OF SOME 

 SENSIBLE METHODS OF DOING IT. 



TP there is no interference on the part of the bee- 

 |jf keeper, an unprofitable number of drones will 

 W be raised. It is supposed by some, that, for 

 "*■ the best success, each colony should be allowed 

 to raise some drones. I never saw any reason 

 given for thi*, and I suspect there is no kind of 

 need for any drones, except as many as a single 

 colony will raise, even in a good-sized apiary. Per- 

 haps if the matter could be fully controlled, the 

 best way would be to have not a single drone raised, 

 except in one colony, and that the best in the apia- 

 ry, and to raise no queens from that colony. But 

 with all the pains that may be taken, there are like- 

 ly to be drones raised in nearly every colony. Even 

 if you fill a hive with worker foundation, the bees 

 will build some drone-cells. Not many, however, 

 but from year to year the amount of drone comb 

 is likely to increase on account of the bees filling 

 up with drone comb any hole made by mice or in 

 any other way. It will pay to look this matter up 

 annually, and make the effort to prevent drone 

 comb in all but the one colony. 



A good time for this is in the spring, when the 

 combs contain the least honey. If you find holes in 

 the combs you may be pretty sure that, if left to 

 their own sweet will, the bees will fill it with drone 

 comb. To prevent this, till it yourself with worker 

 comb or worker foundation. Take one of the combs 

 that has in it a good deal of drone comb, and cut it 

 out of the frame to patch other combs with. Then 

 cut the drone comb out of another frame; lay this 



frame over the comb to be used for patching; mark 

 with your knife the shape of the hole on the under 

 comb, then cut out the piece and crowd it in the 

 hole and the bees will do the rest. If the frames 

 are wired it may be better to use foundation. Cut 

 away the cells around one side of the hole, so that 

 the s«ptum shall be bared about the margin for per- 

 haps a fourth of an inch, and press on this a patch 

 of foundation, preferably somewhat warm. Let me 

 remind you, that, if left alone, the combs will grad- 

 ually have a larger and larger percentage of drone 

 comb, and that it is not likely any hole will ever be 

 filled by the bees with worker comb, and that every 

 square inch of drone brood not only takes the place 

 of a larger amount of honey, but that these drones, 

 when hatched out, make heavy drafts on the stores 

 brought in by the workers. I think Cheshire has 

 estimated that each drone raised means the loss of 

 about three times its weight of honey; but I may 

 be wrong about this. 



While you are at it, let me call your attention to 

 another thing to notice, as you look over the combs. 

 I do not remember to have ever seen it mentioned, 

 and it is quite possible some of the veterans may be 

 glad to have their attention called to it. When ex- 

 tracting our honey, if the emptied comb is ex- 

 amined there will very often be found cells a 

 quarter, an eighth, or even a sixteenth of an inch 

 deep— possibly a patch of several square inches of 

 such cells. They have been made in this way: In 

 moving the combs they have been so placed that 

 two sealed surfaces have been placed together, but 

 so far apart that, when the bees have been increas- 

 ing their store room, they have built cells on top of 

 the capping; and when the comb was taken from 

 the extractor, the honey still remained under the 

 lower surface of the capping. So far you have no- 

 ticed this. Now, did you ever notice that the bees 

 never uncap this lower capping? Even if rudimen- 

 tary cells have bec^n begun on top of the capping, in 

 which not a drop of honey has ever been put, nor 

 could be put— so shallow, indeed, that ordinarily it 

 would hardly be noticed— all the honey that is under 

 the capping in such a place might just as well be so 

 much lead so far as the bees are concerned. I put 

 a comb containing such honey, last fall, out in the 

 open air, at a time when the bees were inclined 1o 

 rob. Not a drop of honey was taken from it. If, 

 in the course of time, as much as a quarter of a 

 pound of honey should thus accumulate in each 

 comb, it would be a matter of some moment. So 

 whenever you see these shallow cells, punch a hole 

 in the bottom, which was originally the capping, 

 and the bees will tear out this false bottom. If t he 

 surface of such cells is considerable, cut away and 

 uncap it. C. C. Miller. 



Marengo, 111. 



Friend M., I have done exactly all you 

 mention, and have observed all you speak 

 of, and I believe that my conclusions were 

 just about the same as yours. I never saw 

 very'much honey left in the comb, however, 

 because of this intermediate capping, and 

 the robbers m our vicinity would certainly 

 have found it in time. I have known them 

 to chew up a comb and pack it on their legs 

 and carry that off too. The chaps that car- 

 ried off the comb, however, might not have 

 been positive robbers. I have seen colonies 

 get along apparently well, even after I had 

 removed every cell of drone comb ; and it 



