86 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



filled with drone brood. Some of the 

 colonies swarmed before the}' had com- 

 pleted the drone combs that they were 

 building-, but when the svvarms were 

 hived in empty brood-nests, empty ex- 

 cept starters in the fraines, everj' 

 swarm built zvorkcr comb. Bees that 

 were building- drone comb in the parent 

 hive in the morning-, were building- 

 worker comb in tlie afternoon, in the 

 new hive. In the old hive there would 

 soon be young- queens to be fertilized, 

 hence, the need of drones. In the new 

 hive there was a fertile, laying- queen, 

 and no probability of rearing- an}' 

 more young- queens that j'ear. 



If the bees have an old queen, and 

 the bees g-et the start of her in comb- 

 building-, so that it is used to store 

 honey in, I have found them building- 

 drone or store-comb for this purpose. 

 In an article published in Gleaning-s 

 of Dec. 15th, 1903, I find that Mr. M. 

 A. Gill, of Colorado, does not take ex- 

 actly the latter view, viz., that bees 

 build drone comb for store comb, 

 and, in g-iving his views, he incidental- 

 ly mentions how he sometimes shakes 

 two colonies into one, when he cares 

 more for hone}' than for increase. The 

 way in which he manages this seems 

 to me the most valuable information 

 that he gives, but, in order to make it 

 all plain, I will copy his entire article. 

 He says: 



Mr. Root: — I see quite often that 

 some writer advises against tlie use of 

 starters, claiming that it can not be 

 done without filling the hives with 

 worthless drone combs. Now, I prac- 

 tice forced swarming; but when I 

 make a swarm I make a rousing big 

 one, and usually hang over one or two 

 frames from the parent hive that are 

 filled with honey, larvae and eggs, so 

 the queen does not get any immediate 

 relief from those combs. I am not one 

 of those who believe that bees prefer to 

 store honey in drone comb, and I think 

 the facts will bear me out. 



Who has not noticed that any time 

 before swarming, and after a colony 

 has become quite prosperous, if a 

 frame with starter only is given either 

 at the side or in the center of the 



cluster, the bees will almost invaria- 

 bly build drone comb? It is not be- 

 cause the bees need the room to store 

 honey, but it is because they, true to 

 instinct, want drones, as they intend, 

 perhaps, to swarm later on. The time 

 is ripe for them to do so, and they will 

 build at least three-fifths drone comb 

 in all the room yon will allow them to 

 have at this time. They do it bscause 

 they want drone3, not bscause they 

 prefer it for storage purpjses. Now, 

 take this same colony that is building 

 so much drone comb. It may, perhaps, 

 have cell cups, with eggs in (but it 

 matters not if it doesn't), and shake it 

 into an empty hive; hang in one frame 

 of eggs and larvie, and hang in frames 

 with only starters, and see what the 

 bees will do. 



These bees have swarmed, and no 

 one knows it better than they do. 

 They have a fertile queen, hence no 

 use for drones; but they want workers 

 for the season's work, and the same 

 bees that were so persistently building 

 drone comb last week are now just as 

 persistently building worker comb, 

 and will continue to if the flow is good, 

 until the body of the hive is full of 

 comb, which it will be in from eight 

 to ten days, and 95 per cent will be 

 worker comb; atid if the queen is a 

 good one, from five to seven of these 

 combs will be well filled with brood. 

 The time is ripe for raising workers, 

 just as last week was for raising 

 drones. Of course, this swarm was 

 given the super oflf from the old colony 

 at the time of making that was full of 

 bees, bait-combs, and full starters; so 

 if they needed storage room they had 

 it. 



Friend Morrison, in criticising my 

 plan, tells how much better I would 

 like his plan of using a half-depth 

 story filled with wired foundation; 

 then, he says, in four or five days they 

 are ready for a super. I will ask Mr. 

 Morrison to g^o with me while I niake 

 a swarm, and bring along his little 

 half story to put the swarm in. 



Here is this pair of hives. They are 

 eight-frame hives, full of bees from the 

 bottom-board to the top of the super, 

 and I will warrant them to have fifteen 

 frames of brood. One colony is very 

 nearly ready to swarm, and the other 

 has eggs in the cell cups. I am going 

 to shake all the bees from both colonies 

 into one, and take the queen from this 

 one with one frame of brood to give 

 the new swarm. Say, Mr. Morrison, 

 you will have to set that little "rig- 



