PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE W T FALCONER MANFG CO 



VOL. I. 



JUNE, 1891. 



NO. 6. 



Drone Comb. 



BY G M. DOOLITTLE. 



A correspondent writes thus: "I 

 have many frames of comb in which 

 I find both drone and worker comb. 

 How shall I proceed to get rid of the 

 drone comb and not have the bees 

 build the same kind in again?" As 

 this is a question of interest to all 

 bee-keeper, and as many of those who 

 take the Bee-Keeper may have the 

 same trouble as does our correspond- 

 ent, I will, Mr. Editor, with your 

 permission, say a few words on this 

 subject for the benefit of your readers. 

 Too much drone comb in the brood- 

 chamber is quite a serious damage to 

 the honey crop, as drones are only 

 useless consumers, being of no value 

 except to fertilize the queens ; and in 

 these days of progression no person 

 can afford to allow a promiscuous 

 production of drones. One or two 

 square inches of drone comb is all 

 that should be allowed in any hLve 

 except in one or two containing the 

 choicest colonies, which should have 

 enough drone comb to rear all the 

 drones needed in the apiary. As all 

 colonies will have a little drone brood 

 any way, even if they have to cut 

 down worker comb to secure a place 



to build comb for this brood, it is well 

 to let each colony have about two 

 square inches of drone comb, which 

 should all be in one frame. This 

 frame should be marked, so that where 

 the production of all kinds of drones 

 is not wished, it can be lifted out of 

 the hive every twenty days and the 

 heads of the drones shaved off, thus 

 enabling us to have our queens mated 

 to the kind of drones we are raising 

 for them. I place this frame having 

 drone comb in it near one side of the 

 hive, and by doing so the queen does 

 not deposit eggs in the drone cells as 

 early in the season, nor as late in the 

 fall as she would do if it were in the 

 center of the hive ; thus saving a 

 little labor in shaving off the heads of 

 the drones and the honey which would 

 be consumed in raising them. From 

 the above it will be seen that the 

 correspondent has asked a very pertin- 

 ent question, as the bees will nearly 

 always fill the place where drone comb 

 has been cut out with comb of the 

 some sort. The only way I know of 

 to stop their doing this is either to 

 give the combs having the drone comb 

 removed from them to nuclei or weak 

 colonies having young queens or after 

 having cut out the drone coi 



