72 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



March. 



could build their cells whatever size 

 they chose. 



To clear up the matter Mr. Pincot 

 ordered from a French queen-breeder 

 who has apiaries both in France and 

 in Italy, a colony of Italians on natur- 

 al combs. As the box hives are still 

 common in both countries, the queen- 

 breeder (Mr. Bellott) sent^him a colo- 

 ny of Italians that had been in a box 

 hive bought in France and in which 

 nearly all the combs had been built 

 by the black bees previous to the in- 

 troduction of the Italians. 



When the bees arrived, Mr. Pincot 

 was quite astonished to find that they 

 were Italian bees sure enough, but of 

 two different sizes, some notably larg- 

 er and some in less quantity decided- 

 ly smaller than the ordinary black 

 bees. A small piece of recently con- 

 structed comb had cells rather larger 

 than usual, while the old combs had 

 cells smaller. Evidently the first 

 occupants of the hive had been some 

 degenerated undersized black bees and 

 the small Italians had Keen raised in 

 those cells, while the large ones were 

 those imported from the Italian api- 

 aries. 



This gave him four types of bees all 

 of different origin and all of different 

 sizes, and four different sizes of cells. 

 The cells built by the Italians count- 

 ed (one side only) 382 to the square 

 decimeter. By the Burgundy bees, 

 399. By the ordinary blacks, 427. By 

 the degenerated blacks, 462. One 

 square decimeter contains very nearly 

 IS 1-2 square inches. 



The following spring a Rietsche 

 press specially made was procured 

 making 400 cells to the square deci- 

 meter instead of 427 as usually made. 



The bees were transferred to a 

 new hive furnished with this founda- 

 tion (the 400 cells to the square deci- 

 meter). Four nuclei were also form- 

 ed, three of which accepted Italian 

 queens and the fourth raised one of 

 its own, all furnished with the same 



foundation. The three with Italian 

 queens raised large bees altogether, 

 but the fourth raised a mixture of 

 large and small bees for a time. Even- 

 tually though the small bees disap- 

 peared entirely. — L'Apiculteur. 



SAGGING OF FOUNDATION. 



Mr. Pincot has used both the roller 

 and press styles of foundation. The 

 roller product sags under the in- 

 fluence of the heat of the bees. A 

 sheet eight and a half inches sagging 

 one-half inch, or bulges more or 

 less when wired. The foundation made 

 on the Rietsche press will at first 

 shrink slightly when cooling, and af- 

 ter being put in the hive, regains, un- 

 der the influence of the heat, its or- 

 iginal size, that is the size of the press 

 but no more. A sheet eight and one- 

 half inches wide does not stretch more 

 than one-eighth of an inch. — L'Api- 

 culture. 



WHAT ARE THE DRONES FOR? 



Only to propagate the species is 

 the general verdict. Nevertheless, 

 some insist that they help in keeping 

 the brood warm, thus releasing that 

 many more workers for outside work. 

 Some accuse them of helping to feed 

 the brood. Some discussion on the 

 subject has taken place in the Api- 

 culteur. Among the facts stated, it 

 was said that last spring, about the 

 time of swarming, a very cold spell 

 of weather happened — even some 

 snow in a few localities. Messrs. 

 Tricoire Bros, say that their bees 

 threw out a considerable amount of 

 brood. They thought it was a case 

 of starvation, but inspection revealed 

 that there was plenty of honey in the 

 brood-nests and that the dead brood 

 was that which the bees had been un- 

 able to cover sufficiently to keep it 

 from chilling. The strongest colonies 

 had plenty of drones and had their 

 supers on with a little bit of honey 

 in them. To their surprise, they dis- 



