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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 15 



flow slackens somewhat), the main trouble com- 

 ing by having this store comb filled with drone 

 brood after the bees have consumed the honey 

 from these combs the n"xt spring. Why I said 

 good laying queens, is because some seem to 

 think ihal no drone cnmb is built under any 

 circumstances with newly hived swarms, unless 

 the queen is old or beginning to fail. 



Now, if we give a frame of comb or two to a 

 newly hived prime swarm, as our que-nioner 

 did. we make matt< rs doubly worse, in that we 

 furnish a place for the queen to deposit nearly 

 all the eggs she would naturally lay during the 

 first week after hiving, consequently nearly or 

 all the comb built by the bees during this time 

 will be for store comb, or of the drone size of 

 cell, as the queen had furnished for her all the 

 room in which to lay that she needs. 



In the above we have the reason why bees 

 build drone comb for the majority of bee- 

 keepers. 



Now, how is such a state of afi'airs to be 

 avoided ? The way I manage is to give the 

 colonies which are to build comb a brood- 

 chamber of only about half the size of the one 

 from which the swarm came, this smaller size 

 being made by contracting the chamber of the 

 new hive to the size I wish, by means of dum- 

 mies or division- boards, and also giving them 

 a part of the section or surplus room at the 

 time of hiving them. Where a queen-excluder 

 is used, some of the sections should have in 

 them partly built combs left over from the pre- 

 vious season, and the others supplied with thin 

 comb foundation. Unless a queen-excluder is 

 used, where no comb or foundation is used in 

 the brood-chamber, the queen may go up and 

 deposit eggs in the drawn comb which is in 

 the sections. Preparing the hive in this way 

 gives the bees plenty of room above to store 

 honey, thus not crowding them in the brood- 

 chamber, so that only comb of the worker size 

 Is built below, and that only as fast as the pro- 

 lificness of the queen demands it As her 

 ability to lay increases, more comb is built; so 

 that, at the end of the season, we have the hive 

 filled with nice worker comb and plenty of 

 section honey. 



By the above plan three important items are 

 secured — lots of section honey, no drone comb, 

 and a hive full of nice straight worker comb; 

 and as these latter will, with careful usage, 

 last nearly a lifetime, it well pays to spend a 

 little time on them while they are being built. 

 I hope those who are troubled with too much 

 drone comb in the body of the hive, and those 

 who do not wish to fill their frames with foun- 

 dation, will try this plan, on a few colonies at 

 least; for if it works as well with others as it 

 does with me it will be quite a saving to them, 

 both in vexation and in not raising a host of 

 useless drones to eat up the honey which the 

 industrious little workers gather. Of course, 



all of thi' above is applicable to only those 

 swarms which have laying queens with ihem, 

 and does not apply at all to after-swarms or 

 those having virgin queens. With colonies 

 having virgin queens there seoms to be no dis- 

 position to build drone comb, unless the swarm 

 should be so large that comb is built two or 

 three combs away from where there is any 

 brood, in which case a little drone comb may 

 be built. Nor is there much drone comb built 

 in the old colony after their young queen gets 

 to laying, because, when an old colony gets such 

 a queen, instinct teaches them that they may 

 expect this queen to meet all requirements of a 

 mother-bee for the rest of the season; while 

 drones are necessary only when a change of 

 mothers is contemplated by the bees. Hence 

 no eggs are deposited in drone comb, even 

 where such is already built in the hive, and 

 much less is comb built for this purpose. Tak- 

 ing advantage of this fact I often manage to 

 get one or two nice perfect worker combs built 

 for future use, while the bees of these colonies 

 are at work vigorously in the sections, by tak- 

 ing one or two full combs of honey from the 

 outside (storing it away for feeding-purposes 

 should any colony lack in the fall or spring), 

 and inserting empty frames in the center of the 

 brood-nest of colonies which have cast a swarm, 

 and now have a young laying queen. These 

 frames are filled, apparently, without the cost 

 of any section honey, while it seems to give 

 great energy to the colony so building comb. I 

 also place on these last-named colonies having 

 young°Queens, all sections (if I have such) con- 

 taining drone comb, where they are filled with- 

 out danger of drone brood in them, while much 

 drone brood in sections often confronts the 

 apiarist if such sections are used over prime 

 swarms where no queen-excluders are used. 

 Before I used this plan, and previously to the 

 advent of thin worker foundation and queen- 

 excluders, I was often vexed upon finding the 

 sections placed upon prime swarms, nearly half 

 filled with drone brood. It is unnecessary to 

 say that thin worker or section foundation, and 

 the queen-excluders, do away with all trouble 

 of brood in the sections. 



THE DEATH OF V06EL. 



One of Germany's most noted bee-keepers 

 has passed away of late; and since Gleanings 

 has not yet mentioned it I take it upon myself 

 to here speak of it. 



The Bienen Zeitung of April 13 brought the 

 sad news to its readers that its editor, F. W. 

 Vogel, had gone to a better world, his death 



