438 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1. 



"Yes," said he, "that is so. There was 

 Signal's Lilly Flag that produced 1047 lbs. in 

 a twelve month. We have not been slow to 

 see the value of improved dairy stock here in 

 our State, and, too, we have the proud distinc- 

 tion of knowing to day that the yield of but- 

 ter per cow here is larger than in any other 

 State in the Union. We raise more corn to 

 the acre, too, and more maple sugar to the 

 tree. Yes, sir ; not another State produces so 

 much maple sugar as ours Our mountain 

 forests and mountain pastures and river bot- 

 toms are the glory and — " but the excessively 

 exhilarating effects of our air set him to cough- 

 ing, and he subsided, and we shall never know 

 the rest, as at this moment Johnnie Fasset and 

 his sister came in to call their father to din- 

 ner. 



We had been so busy talking and discussing 

 the deep problems of bee culture that none of 

 us had noticed how fast the time had fled, or 

 that the sky had cleared and the wind had 

 quieted and the snow was melting about the 

 shop door. Johnnie was seven and his sister 

 four years old — bright and fair. 



"Them's beautiful children," said Jonas 

 Jenkins. " They sort o' lift oue's thoughts 

 up like." 



" Of such is the kingdom of heaven," said 

 Deacon Strong. 



" I must tell you what I saw last spring," 

 said I. "It was Sunday evening. I was go- 

 ing by Fasset's on my way to prayer-meeting, 

 and the children were out under an apple-tree 

 just in bloom. Johnnie was in a hammock, 

 and his sister was sitting near by in an old 

 rocking-chair, curling dandelion stems, and 

 they were playing Sunday-school. As I pass- 

 ed I heard him ask her, ' What will become of 

 good folks when they die ? ' ' They will all 

 go to heaven,' she replied. ' And what will 

 become of bad folks when they die?' he 

 again questioned. ' They will all be spanked,' 

 she answered thoughtfully." 



DRONE COMB. 



On my way home from the out-apiary last 

 evening I met Mr. Charles Brown, a man who 

 has kept bees in a small way for some years, 

 and who is now about to establish quite an 

 apiary by taking bees on shares, and making 

 hives for another bee-keeper, trading the hives 

 for bees, the apiary to be located a short mile 

 and a half from me. Among other things we 

 talked about was that of having too much 

 drone comb built by the bees ; and as this 

 drone-comb problem is one that confronts 

 many a beginner, I will give something of our 

 conversation, as nearly as I can remember it. 

 Mr. B. does not feel like buying much comb 

 foundation and wishes to get his hives filled 

 with worker combs without the use of it, so 

 " fires " at me this question first. 



" What makes bees build so much drone 

 comb, any way .-' " 



" All observing apiarists know that, as the 

 day of swarming draws near, the queen ceases 

 her prolificness, so as to be able to fly and go 

 with the swarm, so that, when swarming oc- 

 curs, said queen is scarcely larger than a vir- 

 gin queen. Nature has so ordained things 

 for two reasons ; the first of which is, that 

 the queen may fly ; for, if taken from the 

 hive or colony when no such preparation has 

 been made, she can not fly at all, as she is so 

 heavy with eggs." 



"Yes, I know that to be a fact; for only 

 to-day, in trying to catch a queen to clip her 

 wing, I was so nervous that I got clumsy, and 

 knocked the queen off the comb. I expected 

 to see her fly away ; but, instead, she, trying 

 to fly, sank down to the ground. She made 

 two or three more efforts to fly, but could not 

 rise, so I held the comb of bees down and she 

 ran on it, when I finally succeeded in getting 

 her and clipping her wing. But what about 

 the second reason ? " 



" The second reason is that the queen need 

 not be damaged by an over-accumulation of 

 eggs before there is time for the bees to con- 

 struct combs in their new home for her to de- 

 posit eggs in. For these reasons we find that 

 all good queens do not become fully prolific 

 again until about a week has elapsed after any 

 swarm is established in its new home." 



"Well, what has all this to do with the 

 building of drone comb?" 



"During this week comb has been built 

 rapidly, especially if honey is coming in 

 plentifully ; while, for the reasons given, the 

 queen has not been able to keep up with the 

 workers in filling the comb built with eggs, 

 the result of which is that the bees commence 

 to build store comb, which is of the drone 

 size of cell." 



" But when filled with honey there can be 

 no drones reared in it ! " 



" Correct ; but the trouble comes the next 

 spring when the combs are emptied of honey. 

 Only a year or two ago I saw hives in a neigh- 

 boring apiary nearly half filled with drone 

 comb where good laying queens went out and 

 were hived with the swarms." 



" Why do you bring in that ' good laying ' 

 part? " 



" Because some seem to think that no drone 

 comb is built under any circvimstances unless 

 the queen is old or beginning to fail. By in- 

 quiry I found that the swarms were hived a 

 full week before the surplus arrangement was 

 put on, this making it necessary for the bees 

 to do all their work in the hive during the 

 time before the queen could get back to her 

 full prolificness again. In these reasons I 

 have given what causes the bees to build drone 

 comb for the majority of bee-keepers." 



" But how is such a state of affairs to be 

 avoided? " 



"The way I manage is to give new swarms 

 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 it with dummies, while a part 

 of the surplus for section honey is placed over 



