66 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



mould. How would you treat such col- 

 onies, in order to save the bees, if the 

 weather was not warm enough for 

 them to take a flight? 



2. How would you treat such conil)S 

 in case only the lower portion of each 

 one was damaged? If the mouldy 

 part is removed and the vacant place 

 not filled with other comb or founda- 

 tion, would not the bees utilize such 

 places for rearing drone brood? 



3. Do you think that drone-rearing 

 can be wliolly prevented i)y removing 

 all the drone comb from a hive and 

 substituting foundation or worker 

 comb in its place? Have you ever 

 tested the matter? 



4. Is it advisable to prevent the 

 rearing of all drones when not needed? 



QUESTIONS BY U. D. AVEUY. 



1. What is the best and quickest 

 way to Italianize twenty-five or thirty 

 colonies of native bees? 



2. What advantage do the Carnio- 

 lans possess over the Italians, and their 

 drawbacks? 



ANSWERS BY WILL. M. KELLOGG. 



1. If a stock comes through strong 

 in bees, they will take care of them- 

 selves till a day does come warm enough 

 for them to fly. They will be better 

 off let alone, at any rate, till a warm 

 spell does come. Then take a clean 

 hive, change over such combs as have 

 brood in them with the adhering bees 

 carefully brushing dead bees and tilth 

 from the bottom part of comb as far up 

 as the bees will admit; shake the bees 

 off of the remaining combs and place 

 them where they will get dry, either 

 out in the sun or in a warm room. 

 When dry, use a whisk broom and brush 

 off all the mould, etc., that you can. 

 Take the chance to sort the combs, cut 

 out all the drone and poor comb. If 

 the stock is strong put the combs with 

 the others which the bees already have, 

 they will clean them up; a clean hive 

 seems to encourage them. If the stock 

 be light give them clean combs from 

 some other, giving the mouldy combs 

 among clean, strong stocks. 



2. It depends on how badly damaged 

 they were, or how good, as combs. 

 Clean worker-comb (aside from the 

 mould) I would keep, and cut out drone 

 comb and take the chances of its being 

 replaced with worker-comb; even if 

 drone comb be bnilt it will be new and 

 clean, and the chances are greatly in 

 favor of its being worker comb. 



3. No. I have many times seen 

 drones raised in worker cells, both by 



queens and fertile workers. Of course 

 they were small but I suppose they were 

 drones ca[)able of fertilizing a queen, 

 though I never had a chance to know 

 for sure. Have tested it many times 

 and the result was almost total lack of 

 drones in those stocks; it was done in 

 trying to restrict drones to my pure 

 Italian stocks. 



4. Never having it proven that drones 

 were of any use except for procreation, 

 I would most assuredly say yes. 



ANSWEliS TO R. D. AVEKY. 



1. For myself, I would buy twenty- 

 five or tiiirly tested, warranted, Itali;m 

 queens from a reliable breeder and re- 

 place the black queens with them. I 

 would buy in preference to raising, for 

 I consider that successful queen- rearing 

 can best be carried on l)y those well 

 fitted for it and the money saved by 

 raising at home, can be fulfy over-bal- 

 anced by the lionej' received from 

 stocks kept strong, to say nothing of 

 the vexation, loss, and time taken. 

 Of course I raise my own queens, but 

 I am talking now of pure Italians. I 

 would change queens when only a mod- 

 erate flow of honey was coming, say 

 August or September. 



2. I have liad no experience except 

 with natives and Italians. 



Oneida, III. 



ANSWERS BY J. E. POND, JR. 



1. I should let them alone till 

 weather was warm enough. It would 

 hardly be possible for such a state of 

 things to exist. On the first day when 

 Avarm enough to do so safely, I should 

 remove the combs, clear out the hives 

 and contract space so that the bees 

 would be crowded somewhat, giving 

 the best combs found; the others I 

 should wash clean, dry out, and use as 

 needed. 



2. 1 should brush the mould off sim- 

 ply unless the combs were excessively 

 moist. Much depends in the matter 

 of bees building drone cells. Some- 

 times they will, and sometimes not. 

 If I cut out any comb I should replace 

 with Avorker foundation, or comb if I 

 had it. 



3. It is impossible to prevent drone 

 rearing in its season. I always allow 

 a small amount of drone comb in all 

 my hives, if I do not find that nature 

 assLMts itself by rearing drones in 

 worker cells and such drones are 

 smaller than I like, although I have no 

 positive proof that they are any less 

 effective than those reared in regular 



