No. 4.] BE1-: KEKPING. 89 



on the west side. We do not go to the trouble of putting up a 

 fence, but heap the snow as a fence for them. I don't think 

 wintering bees in a barn is very good policy. 



Mr. WiiEEi>ER. I should like to know about the drones, 

 how many are necessary, and the control of them when they 

 seem to get too numerous. 



Mr. Stewart. Of course a colony, under nornuil condi- 

 tions, will vary greatly in the amount of drone condj they 

 build. If you allow them to build their own combs entirely, 

 especially if there is an old queen and a strong colony, they 

 will build a great amount of drone comb, for the reason that 

 they build it much more quickly than they can the worker 

 comb. And after they have built it, they begin spreading out 

 a little, and this drone comb is in the way. The drone flies 

 out and comes in with a great apjietite, and you raise these 

 drones with a great deal of expense, and after you raise them 

 you have got them on your hands ; and the bees will keep them 

 right along up to the time the honey is cut off, and then, of 

 course, they push them out, and worry them until they drive 

 them out and starve them. The drone has no pollen basket or 

 honey sac ; no means of labor, I try to impress that on my 

 wife, — • that man was never intended to work any way, citing 

 this as an instance. On the drones' account a colony has all 

 it can do to build its own combs, and for that reason we use 

 full sheets of condi in the frame. Of course the bees will get 

 all the drones they need ; even at that they will build more 

 drone cells on to the worker comb, but they will get all they 

 need, you need not fear. 'Now, as to controlling the flight of 

 drones ; that is a pretty hard matter. The queens go but a 

 little way from the hive, but the drones go two miles often; 

 and that is the reason a long series of experiments have been 

 conducted for mating. That, of course, is another branch, 

 and a lot of work is being done in the experimental line on it. 



Prof. J. B. Paige (of Amherst). Mr. Chairman, have Mr. 

 Stewart give us the best methods for the prevention of swarm- 

 ing. Our difficulty here in Massachusetts is this: when our 

 bees reach a certain stage of thriftiness in the hive, just as the 

 white-clover flow starts in, they get the swarming fever, and 



