632 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug 1. 



100 colonies you will probably have drones 

 enough, though you make no special provision 

 to rear them. 

 Wisconsin. S. W. S. I. Fkkehokn. 



No: the bees will always build ^^nough when 

 they need it. I n>e di'onc combs only in tiie up- 

 pei' stoi'y for ixtiucted honey, with a queen- 

 excluder. 



Louisiana. E. C. P. L. Viai,i,on. 



No: you will always have more drone comb 

 than you wish, in the average colony. But we 

 do furnish whole sheets of drone comb to our 

 choice colonies, so as to raise good breeding 

 diones. 



Illinois. N. W. Dadant & Son. 



Very little or none, except in one or two of 

 th(i best colonies. Drone comb and drones are 

 not piolitable. Better prune the comb closely, 

 so as to exclude the diones. 



Michigan. C. A. J. Cook. 



No. I just wouldn't. They'll have a few cells 

 in #pite of you: but if I could help it I wouldn't 

 have a bit of drone conii). except in one or two 

 hives in which were best queen.x. 



Illinois. N. C. C. Mii.i.ek. 



It is the normal condition of a colony to raise 

 some drones. The most prosperous colonies I 

 have ever seen had considerable drone-brood 

 during the swarming season. I practice remov- 

 ing only an excess of drone comb. 



Ohio." N. W. H. R. Boardman. 



Why, yes: I'd leave drone comb in a hive un- 

 less I wanted to make it into wax: but I'd ptit 

 it above a queen-excluding honey-board. If I 

 wanted to raise drones to use in iminegnating 

 queens, I'd raise them in choice colonies, and 

 raise none in other colonies. 



Ohio. N. W. A. B. Mason. 



I leave just as little as possible, which is 

 enough. I don't mean to say that I go over the 

 hives every week to remove drone comb, but 

 all my colonies are originally all woikei; and I 

 try to keep them so. The bees will almost al- 

 ways find some place to put a few cells of di'one 

 comb, and this is all they need. 



Illinois. N. C. J. A. Gkeen. 



I should much prefer not to have all drone 

 comb rigidly excluded from a hive. Let each 

 of the outside brood-combs have a piece four or 

 five inches square. In that position it will not 

 be used unless they eagerly want some drones: 

 and when they do it is better to yield to them. 

 I should expect brood in the sections, and re- 

 fusal to build worker comb anywhere, of a col- 

 ony denied their wishes to proceed according to 

 nature. 



Ohio. N. W. E. E. Hasty. 



Heads of Grain 



FROM DIFFERENT FIELDS. 



THE UPPER STORY FOR BUILDING OUT CELLS 

 NOT ALWAYS A SUCCESS. 



I have had a large lot of cells torn down — or, 

 rather, since honey has ceased to come— in the 

 uyper stories. Bees have gone back on me. 

 ^\hile they will work out cells they fail to per- 

 fect them in some way, which I have not exact- 

 ly caught on to yet, but I have lots of valuable 

 experience. When the cells are within two or 

 three days of hatching, they tear them down. 



It will not do in all seasons to risk an upper 

 stoiy as a nursery to keep cells in. I have 

 tried it to my satisfaction and sorrow and dis- 

 apijointmint. which 1 regret more than any 

 tiling else. 1 have about overcome the disap- 

 pointment, and now have a fiiu- lot of cells 

 ready to hatch, which I hope to have and 

 (iuee'n up every thing for the August rush. 

 Coronaca, S. C, July 17. J. D. Fooshe. 



[We have been using the upper story for the 

 real ing of cells with very good success in our 

 apiary, and so lar we have not experienced any 

 bad results: but you are no doubt right in say- 

 ing we can not always rely on it, especially 

 after the honey season. I believe Doolittle ad- 

 mits as much: but he says that, when the bees 

 refuse to complete the cells, feed them a little 

 daily, so as to put them in the condition ot a 

 colony that is I. ringing in honey. By the way. 

 feeding a colony always puts it into a normal 

 condition — tiiat is, if no honey is coming in 

 Iron) natural >-ources. It is a good plan, in in- 

 troducing, you know, after the hoiu'y-flow. to 

 feed the colony a little to make them good- 

 natured. Bees are quite disposed to be con- 

 trary and to do things not in the regulation 

 w av. alter n( ctar has siopped'coming in.] 



E. R. 



FULL SHEETS VS. STARTERS IN THE BROOD- 



NEST. 



I have been watching the discussions in 

 ([leanings about full sheets vs. starters in the 

 brood-frames. I have no ax to grind, as I never 

 made a pound of foundation. I always hire 

 my wax worked up or buy my foundation if I 

 have not enough wax to make what I want. I 

 have come to believe that, if there ever was an 

 honest man. you are the one: but how you come 

 to think that it does not pay to use full sheets 

 of foundation is more than I can understand. 

 There must be a great difference in locations. 

 Here in Vermont 1 am very sure it pays to use 

 full sheets. In 1888 I tried the experiment to 

 my own satisfaction. I hived a swarm of bees 

 on full sheets one day, and the next day I hived 

 a swarm on starters equally good as the first. 

 for any thing I could see. The swarm on full 

 sheets filled the hive and four clamps. (i4 one- 

 pound sections, and nearly finished the whole of 

 it. The swarm on starters did not fill all the 

 frames with comb, and barely had enough to 

 winter on. V. V. Black.mer. 



Orwell,* Vt., May 5. 



YOUNG BEES AND LARV.E CARRIED OUT; WHY. 



I have a swarm of bees that brings out young 

 dead bees, some in the larval form, some in the 

 shape of a bee. only white: some almost full 

 grown. Last summer they did the same thing. 

 I examined them last summer when they were 

 doing that. There were no moths, and. if I re- 

 member right, some bees that were full grown, 

 or nearly so. were alive. D. A. Gaylord. 



Rockland, Wis., May 9. 



[W'e usually trace such results to the work of 

 moth-worms: but in your case we should have 

 to guess that the brood had at some stage been 

 chilled or overheated.] 



HONEY-DEW DRIPPING OFF THE LEAVES. 



I inclose you a clipping in regard to honey- 

 dew. W. G. McLendon. 



Gaines' Landing, Ark., July 10. 



I met a young lady who told me that she had been 

 engaged in teaching a school up on the Boston 

 Mountain, and that she had seen places where the 

 pure honey was dripping off the green leaves in 

 such abundance that on one occasion she dipped 

 her bread in it and got honey enough in this way to 

 make a good dinner of bread and honey. 



