862 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



Nov. 



12V2 to 15 cts. for comb, and 8 to 9 for extracted. 

 Bees are in good condition for winter. 

 Harris Station, Ind., Oct. 11, 1889. J. Kunz. 



Now, look here, friend K., it seems to me 

 that a man who has so many premiums, and 

 a fat girl baby besides (that took the premi- 

 um) ought to be able to tell how many colo- 

 nies of bees he had when he got 1800 lbs. of 

 comb honey and 700 of extracted. If you 

 had only 10 colonies to begin with, it is a 

 big thing; but if all that honey came from 

 200 colonies, it was not a very big thing, 

 after all. 



0a^ QaEgTO^-Be^, 



With Replies from our best Authorities on Bees. 



All queries sent in for this department should be briefly 

 stated, and free from any possible ambiguity. The question 

 or questions should be written upon a separate slip of paper, 

 and marked, "For Our Question-Box." 



Question 147.— What is tin objection tn tin use of 

 drone foundation in the sections? Bees always build 

 drone comb if tin sections an- not filled with founda- 

 tion. 



I see no objection. 



Mits. L. Harrison. 



No objection. No, they don't. A. B. Mason. 



The honey from workers looks finer, and the ex- 

 pense is about the same. Thus I prefer worker. I 

 have no use for drone foundation. A. J. Cook. 



We prefer worker comb, for, if the queen finds 

 her way up to the sections, the workers produced 

 will have a value, while drones are worthless. 



Dadant &Son. 



Drone comb in the sections induces the queen 

 into the surplus apartment when the amount is 

 limited in the brood-chamber. It does not look as 

 well in section honey. H. R. Boardman. 



Queens are much more apt to deposit eggs in it 

 than in worker size. I am inclined to think that it 

 is not usually built as firmly to the sides of the sec- 

 tion, and is more easily broken by rough handling. 

 Tts general appearance, to me at least, is inferior. 

 O. O. Poppleton. 



Where a queen-excluding honey-board is not used, 

 the queen is more liable to deposit eggs in sections 

 containing drone comb than in those containing 

 worker. After the sections are finished, those hav- 

 ing drone comb in them do not look nearly so nice 

 as do those with worker. G. M. Doolittle. 



The objections can not be very great, except that 

 the drone-cells are filled with eggs by the queen, 

 which may be expected if drone-cells are scarce in 

 the brood -chamber. Besides, bees seem to give 

 some preference to worker-cells when honey is 

 coming in. They are generally filled up first. 



C. F. Muth. 



I don't know that there is any objection to the 

 use of drone foundation in the sections; but bees 

 do not always build drone comb in sections, if the 

 sections are not filled with foundation. I have in 

 my honey-house to-day as nice sections of all work- 

 er comb, as anybody would wish to see, built down 

 from half-inch starters. E. France. 



lam not authority on comb-honey production; 

 but my present convictions are that I should prefer 

 worker foundation, even in the sections. 1 have 



noticed that bees when given an equal chance will 

 fill worker comb soonest. Should we use drone 

 comb in sections, it would necefsilate having two 

 machines or sets of rollers by those who manufac- 

 ture foundation. S. I. Freeborn. 



The main objection is the inclination to raise 

 drone brood— a great nuisance where no queen- 

 excluding honey-boards are used. This is entirely 

 obviated by using worker foundation. Another ob- 

 jection that I have is, that honey in drone comb 

 does not look so nice as honey in worker comb, and 

 is less readily sealed by the bees. The latter is es- 

 pecially noticeable when the crop is cut short. 



Ceo. Grimm. 



The principal objection to drone comb has been 

 from the fact that the securing of all worker comb 

 in the brood-nest by the use of foundation has led 

 the queen to use the drone comb in the sections; 

 but now that the queen can be kept from the sec- 

 tions by perforated metal, we should be more in 

 favor of using drone comb. I have used drone 

 comb with impunity wherever I desired to in my 

 extracting supers, and kept the queen from them 

 with the metal. Great is perforated metal! 



Rambler. 



I know of but one advantage of drone comb in 

 sections, which is, that it takes less wax to contain 

 a given amount of honey, and I think this is over- 

 balanced by the more fragile character of such 

 comb in handling and shipping. Yes, bees fill out 

 vacant places in sections with drone, but not pri- 

 marily to store honey in, but for the queen to lay 

 in; and I have often seen drone-cells in sections 

 well drawn out, and not a drop of honey in them, 

 while the worker-cells were filled and perhaps seal- 

 ed. If a queen ever gets up into a super to lay, you 

 will pretty surely find her laying in drone-cells 

 there, and drone foundation in sections might be 

 an inducement' for the queen to go up and lay in 

 them. I don't think a section of drone comb looks 

 as well as worker. C. C. Miller. 



In the production of comb honey, properly man- 

 aged, there is no use for the queen-excluding hon- 

 ey-board; but there would be, if you used drone 

 foundation in the sections unless there were lots of 

 drone comb in the brood-chamber. Again, if you 

 did use a queen - excluding honey-board, every 

 queen in the apiary that could manage to get 

 through the metal perforations would get up above 

 if there were drone comb in the sections. 1 be- 

 lieve the bees would urge her up there, they know- 

 ing that the drone comb was there and there was 

 none below. It is the bees that are boss, not the 

 queen. Most people think worker comb handsomer 

 than drone comb. I do not, but the querist will 

 remember that he is raising honey for most people 

 and not for me. No, we have no use for comb 

 foundation, nor drone comb either, except in stock 

 hives. James Heddon. 



The statement with which this question closes is 

 not true, by a long way. My honey is all built from 

 very narrow starters; and about one-third of it, 

 this year, is of worker sized cells. I have just been 

 looking over a box of unfinished sections put by 

 for next seasen's use. There were ~1 with worker 

 comb, while those with drone comb, counting in 

 with them those that had the two sizes, about half 

 and half, numbered only 26. I can not give any ob- 

 jection drawn from actual practice. A theoretical 

 objection is, that bees seldom incline to build drone 



