American Bee Journal 



EDITED AND PUBLISHED BY SAMUEL WAGNEK, WASHINGTON, D. C. 



Vol. III. 



AI»KIL, ISOS. 



No. 10. 



[From the Hanover Ceatral Blatt. 



Practical Bee-Culture. 



Can the brooding chamber of moveable comb 

 hives be kept free from drone comb without 

 rcguUxrly cutting it out ? And how are cottage 

 hives to be managed in this respect ? 



These are very important questions, which 

 have been warmly discussed, and may lead 

 to furtlicr debate. But when the purpose is to 

 ascertain and determine useful processes, it is 

 well not to shrink from ardent controversy; 

 whicb, in the case of bee-keepers, may indeed 

 be attended by a few stings, but draws no blood. 

 I will, therefore, venture to defend a practical 

 process, which I have found useful and import- 

 ant. 



It is well known that in some districts bees 

 are much more inclined, than in others, to build 

 drone comb and rear drone brood in spring and 

 carlv summer. Why this is so, I shall not here 

 inquire, contenting myself with noticing the 

 fact, and observing, too, that the Italian bees 

 are less inclined to do so than the common 

 black bees, and are therefore to be preferred. 



If in my locality the bees were allowed free 

 scope in their propensity to build drone comb, 

 the cells would be sooner or later supplied with 

 eggs, and the result would be the production of 

 such masses of drones that we could never calcu- 

 late on securing any surplus honey. Drones are 

 notoriously not producers, but consumers of 

 honey. They gather none, but simply live on 

 that gathered by the workers. Hence the more 

 drones a colony contains the less honey may it 

 be expected to produce; and drone comb situ- 

 ated in a hive where it may serve as brood-comb, 

 is decidedly disadvantageous and injurious. 



But drone-comb is injurious onlj' in the bix>od- 

 ing chamber. Where, on tl)e ctmtrary, honey 

 is stored, drone comb is not dieadvajitagous, 

 but rather beneficial, inasmnch as the larger 

 sized drone cells will contain more honey, 

 and their construction involves less labor 

 and a smaller expenditure of material. In hives 

 containing a separate storeroom for the deposit 

 of honey, and from wliich the queen is excluded, 

 bees may be allowed to build drone-comb freely, 

 because there it will be useful rather thftn other- 



wise. Drone-comb which happens to be built 

 in the brooding chamber, should also be trans- 

 ferred to the storeroom — thus removing it from 

 where it would be injurious, and placing it 

 where it will be beneficial. 



Now, how is the object aimed at to be most 

 easily accomplished ? We all concur in the 

 conviction that it is of the utmost importance 

 to keep the brooding chamber free from drone- 

 comb. They arc two modes by which the de- 

 sired result may be secured. The one, which 

 may be called the old method, consists in per- 

 sistently cutting out the drone-comb as regular- 

 ly as it is budt, and so long as it is built. This 

 is the method employed by those who keep bees 

 in cottage hives, and is the proper method for 

 such hives. The second or new method is avail- 

 able only when movable comb hives are used, 

 and is based on this fundamental principle, not 

 to permit bees to build comb in the brooding 

 chamber, so soon as they begin to build drone- 

 tomb ; but to insert therein immediately frames 

 containing empty worker-comb, and transfer- 

 ing to the storeroom or surjjlus boxes any drone- 

 comb which may have been built. 



The questicui now recurs, which of these two 

 methods is most advantageous in practical bee- 

 culture ? Where cottage hives are used, the 

 first method is the only one that can be em- 

 ployed ; but those are evidently wrong who re- 

 gard it as the most profitable also, because they 

 are thus enabled to sell a proportionately larger 

 quantity of wax. • It is undoubtedly true that 

 he who has much wax to sell can realize a hand- 

 some sum of money. Nevertheless, I cannot 

 but regard the wax production and wax selling 

 incidental to cottage bee-culture, as an unavoid- 

 able evil, and by no means as an advantage. 



This leads to another important inquiry : 

 Can the old method, or the regular cutting out 

 and removal of drone-comb, bo recommended 

 as advantageous to those who employ movable 

 comb hives ? Because of its importance, let us 

 examine the mtittcr a little more closely, and in- 

 vestigate in what relation comb building stands 

 to the consumption of honey, and what are its 

 effects on the progress of the colony as regards 

 the production of brood and the accumulation 

 of stores. 



