single one of them is chosen. What a use- 

 less multitude of mouths ! I do not know, 

 it is true, how much these idlers consume 

 daily, hut as perfect insects as males in 

 every sense of the term, and considering 

 their flourishing corpulence, it is easy to 

 comprehend that the honey which falls to 

 their lot is equivalent in value to double 

 what many a bee owner obtains from his 

 hives. Doubtless the workers make them 

 pay dearly for their four months of feasting, 

 but after all what has been consumed does 

 not return. 



The intellgent apiarist has more than one 

 string to the bow by which he decimates 

 this ruinous army. Sometimes he lies in 

 wait at the entrance for the drones when 

 they are in full flight, and crushes them 

 without pity ; then again he decapitates 

 the developing bees in the cells themselves; 

 or he sometimes hangs frames of drone 

 comb at the back end of the hive, and inserts 

 between, one or two empty frames. All 

 three methods are insufficient, however. In 

 the first case, time is lacking to bring about 

 an appreciable result ; in the second case, 

 when the cells have been cleaned the queen 

 turns all her attention to depositing eggs in 

 them, and the execution must be commenced 

 again ; in the third case, the empty frames 

 will generally be filled with drone-comb, 

 which only serves to increase the evil. By 

 decapitating the drone brood and sliding the 

 combs to the back of the hive, the bee-keeper 

 hopes that the honey-gatherers will hasten 

 to deposit honey in the condemned cells, and 

 thus prevent the queen's getting at them. 

 Such will be the result during a good yield 

 of honey, but sometimes it does not turn out 

 so. This difficulty is only successfully en- 

 countered by the use of comb-foundation. 

 The bases of the worker-cells will be fol- 

 lowed, and the drone-cells will only appear 

 at the sides and the bottom— the small spaces 

 left vacant in order to give the sheet of foun- 

 dation a chance to stretch. The bottom is 

 of little account, for the queen does not 

 often lay there ; the same is true of the up- 

 per quarter of the lateral spaces, which the 

 bees fill with honey. There remains then 

 on each side a strip only as long as three- 

 fourths of the depth of the frame, and wide 

 enough for a single row of cells. Here we 

 will find drones in five cases out of ten, say 

 20 at each side, which gives 80 to the comb, 

 counting both surfaces. Now, supposing 

 that we give to a hive four combs in the 

 spring, which number is enough, we will 

 have then, at the most v 320 males, if it is ad- 

 mitted that all the large cells have been oc- 

 cupied with brood. But there is no cer- 

 tainty of this : for, as 1 have just said, five 

 times only out of ten the portions built by 

 the bees are composed of drone-cells ; be- 

 sides it is very seldom that brood is found 

 at the extremities of the combs next to the 

 side-pieces of the frames. 1 therefore be- 

 lieve myself correct in affirming that, on the 

 average, a comb built on comb foundation 

 never produces over 50 drones in a whole 

 year. You still find this figure large. Well, 

 would you not decapitate them here a hun- 

 dred times faster and a thousand times more 

 easily than if the combs were wholly com- 

 posed of drone-cells? Another correction, 

 if you please : After the swarming-season, 



give each one of your powerful colonies a 

 sheet of foundation to fasten and build out, 

 and even the finishing cells will be of small 

 size. You will remove this frame when the 

 foundation has been fastened and one-third 

 completed, which will be little more than 

 six or seven days, and put it away for use 

 during the following spring. In order that 

 the queen mav not lay in it at once, suspend 

 it outside of the brood-nest, next to the out- 

 side comb. But observe well that I have 

 said the strong colonies. In weak or simply 

 medium colonies you would run a great risk 

 of finding the foundations scarcely covered 

 with workers, sometimes not covered at all. 



However well you may succeed, do not 

 count upon suppressing entirely the laying 

 of drone-eggs. When the queen fails to find 

 large cells in her domain, nature, wisely 

 tenacious of whatever concerns the perpet- 

 uation of the species, impels the queen to 

 lay here and there unfecundatedeggs in the 

 first cells she finds ; the workers lengthen 

 out these cells, or give them a curved cap- 

 ping, in order that the insect may be able 

 to develop easily. 1 have in my possession 

 a sheet of foundation made by Otto Schulz, 

 where, on five centimetres square (23 sq. in.) 

 in the middle, the bees have even gnawed 

 away the ridges forming the bases of the 

 worker-cells and then constructed on the 

 surface drone-cells. This occurrence, which 

 is only exceptional, took place in a first-class 

 colony, ready to swarm, and in which all 

 the combs, save tue inserted foundation, 

 were composed of old worker-cells, only 

 offering, doubtless, cells too contracted, in 

 consequence of the successive hatchings of 

 many years, for a drone to attain perfect 

 growth. 



Louis Huber, according to my information 

 one of the most experienced apiarists in 

 Germany, states in the Eichstwdter Blenen- 

 zeitung, May, 187S, that out of about 300 

 sheets of comb-foundation which he used 

 during the past year, only two presented 

 drone-cells in the middle. This deviation 

 from the rule was due in one instance to an 

 accidental break in the sheet of foundation, 

 and in the other to the fact that the founda- 

 tion was suspended in the back part of the 

 hive at a time when the bees were not flying 

 much. 



A passing remark. Had one said to Mr. 

 Huber, some five or six years ago, that the 

 latter would one day buy large quantities of 

 artificial comb-foundation, he would only 

 have received a smile, as a joker. If a man 

 of this sort, who formerly considered the 

 use of artifical comb-foundation Spielerei 

 (mere play), has come to use 300 a year, it 

 must be, doubt not, that they offer decided 

 and superior advantages. These advantages, 

 my friend, are not wholly included within 

 the two principal points "which we have just 

 considered. I will call your attention to 

 some other advantages of our method of 

 management, which, though secondary, nev- 

 ertheless are of considerable importance. 



1. We obtain combs perfectly straight and 

 of a very uniform construction, which 

 points, in glancing through the hives, and 

 especially in manipulations, are not to be 

 undervalued. The more uneven the sur- 

 faces, the greater the indentations, so much 

 the worse the combs stick together. 



