854 



EANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov.' 1. 



wisdom, o.speclally after my experience, as I 

 have in your own. I know wliat many of tlie 

 good men you quote iiave said; and I tliink it 

 may l)e J,liat some of tliem are riglit: notwitli- 

 standing. I would nnliesitatingly advise tiie 

 lielp of a trusty piiysieian wlien yon are suffer- 

 ing. I am well awar*^ people sometimes get a 

 mania of taking medicine the year round: and 

 I know, too, that other people live and get 

 along nicely, for months or even years, without 

 taking a particle of what may be called medi- 

 cine. 1 can not but think that your last quota- 

 tion, from James Johnson, is harsh and luichar- 

 itable; and when I hear such wholesale denun- 

 ciations, it makes me fear that tlie writer 

 judges othei's by himself. Sun^ly, I have rea- 

 son to agi'ee witli you in what yon say in regard 

 to pure water; but, my dear friend, pure M'ater 

 did not help my cough; and with the other 

 trouble I have told you about, a single swallow 

 of watei' acted like poison. Some of the water- 

 cure folks remind me of the good brother who 

 said that the Bible is the only Irook we need in 

 the woi'ld. Does it not become a wise man to 

 '• prove all things," and " hold fast that wliicli 

 is good ■"? 



In I'egard to a health department in our jour- 

 nal, the dii^culty is, so many things of impor- 

 tance ai'e constantly crowding on us that Er- 

 nest and I are continually called upon to decide 

 which among gi'eat piles of letters are valuable 

 and will do most good.] 



Our Question - Box, 



WITH REPLIES FROM OUR BEST AUTHORITIES. 



Question 195. T have <( tu^o-storn lO-frarne 

 L. hire super filled leith <j(><i(l drone cornh. 

 ]]'imld yon tnelt the drone c<nnb and put in 

 foundation, or put on a queen-excluder and 

 keep the drone comb f 



I save the th'one comb and u.se a queen-ex- 

 cluder. 

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



I would use the queen-excluder, and keep the 

 drone comb. 

 New York. E. Eambler. 



I would put on the queen-excluder and keep 

 the drone comb. 

 Wisconsin. S. W. E. France. 



If the comb were even and straight, I would 

 put on a queen-excluder. 

 Illinois. N. W. C. Mrs. L. Harrison. 



Keep it— but, preferably, divide it between 

 several supers instead of putting it all in one. 

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



If you are running for extracted honey, put 

 on the queen-excluder, and the drone comb for 

 extracted. 



Michigan. S. W. James Heddon. 



I would put on a queen-excluder and keep the 

 drone ccmib, as they are just as good for ex- 

 tracted honey. 



Louisiana. E. C. P. L. Viai,eon. 



I would make wax of the drone comb, and 

 put in foundation; for. so far as I have experi- 

 mented with i)e)'forated zinc, it is not absolute- 

 ly queen-excluding. 



Vermont. N. W. A. E. Manum. 



Put on an excluder, every time. This drone 

 comb is as good to hold honey as any other 



comb; and if the queen is kept from it, it can 

 be used for no other purpose than the storing of 

 honey in it. 

 New York. C. (J. M. Doolittee. 



1 would use the drone comb, and keep the 

 queen away by the use of the excluder. The 

 excluder is good, any way. 



Michigan. C. A. J. Cook. 



Melt the drone combs, unless you are short of 

 combs. ' Putin foundation, or, still better, have 

 good natural worker combs built. 



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



I want no more drone comb in my apiary than 

 is necessary in my estimation; but. having a 

 queen-excluder, it is the most profitable for you 

 to use your drone combs. 



Ohio. S. W. C. F. Mxjth. 



I would melt it up, for feai' it would some day 

 turn up where I did not want it. If you will 

 promise to look after it yourself. I have no ob- 

 jection to your using it as you propose. 



New Yoik. C. P. H. Elwood. 



I'd melt up the combs unless I wanted to use 

 them for extracting. For extracting they're 

 just as good as any. aren't they? If the queen 

 can't lay in them, I suspect I'd use excluders 

 anyhow, for extracting. 



Illinois. N. C. C. Mieeer. 



I would keep all good drone comb, but I 

 would not use supers tilled wholly or even prin- 

 cipally with drone comb. Sometimes, even 

 when ci-owded for room, bees will not put honey 

 in drone comb because they want the queen to 

 lay in it. 



Illinois. N. C. J. A. Green. 



I would use the excluder, and save the drone 

 combs. I have concluded to let my bees build 

 their own combs instead of giving them full 

 sheets of foundation, especially when honey is 

 cheap; and when they make drone comb I will 

 place it in the supei's above excluders. Ex- 

 cludei's are cheaper than foundation. 



California. S. R. Wilkin. 



I prefer mostly worker comb, upper and lower 

 story. Bees store honey a little juore readily in 

 worker comb than drone comb; still, I have 

 kept more or less drone comb because I did not 

 like to lose a season or part of a season in get- 

 ting it changed over, though no doubt it pays 

 to work it out gradually. 



Wisconsin. S. W. S. I. Freeborn. 



[Well, friends, the replies start out with a 

 surprising degree of unanimity. Friend Manum, 

 howevei-, objects, for the reason that the per- 

 forated zinc is not absolutely queen -excluding. 

 I believe, however, that most of the friends 

 have found it pretty nearly so. Friend Doolit- 

 tle contends that drone comb is as good to hold 

 honey as any other. Friend Elwood employs a 

 good deal of hired help, and he has had some 

 experience in having the help either forget or 

 ignore the instructions he has given them; and 

 J. A. Green suggests that. .after the bees have 

 prepared the drone comb for the queen to lay 

 in, they will let it remain empty, even when 

 crowdo^'d for room. I think very likely this may 

 be true, although I hadn't thought of it before. 

 Friend Freeborn strikes upon the same point, 

 and so we may conclude there must be some- 

 thing in it. I remember of using quite success- 

 fully all the drone combs we could scrape up 

 for the second story, for the extractor.] 



