238 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



How to Rear Drone-Bees. 



Mrs. Atchley:— In making a hive 

 queenless to rear drones, do you depend 

 upon a laying-worker for the eggs ? If 

 so do you give them drone-comb to lay 

 in'? Please answer through the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal. J. B. Ryburn. 



Waxahachie, Texas. 



Friend Ryburn, I fear you have a 

 wrong conception of the idea. I place a 

 drone-comb in the hive with one of my 

 finest breeders, and when she has de- 

 posited it full of eggs, I take it out and 

 place in a strong queenless colony to let 

 them take care of them, as they will do 

 so without destroying them, when it lett 

 in the hive with the breeder, the bees 

 may keep them all right, and they may 

 not, as in a little slack off in the honey- 

 flow, they will likely destroy the drones. 

 So if you wish to have them well taken 

 care of without any risk, it is better to 

 put them in a queenless colony, unless 

 you intend to feed the colony to keep 

 them going, which is expensive. ihe 

 drones from a laying-worker I consider 

 worthless. Jennie Atchley. 



Visitors to Texas, Etc. 



J W. Taylor, of Ozan, Ark., is visit- 

 ing' me this week. He is looking at 

 Texas, and is well pleased. 



Bee-keepers coming to visit us have no 

 hotel bills to pay. If they can live on 

 what average bee-keepers eat, there will 

 be no hotel bills. 



I have also had other visitors, but Bro. 

 Taylor is an old friend, and one of our 

 queen-rearers. He has gone to my books 

 and counted up the queens sent out to 

 date, and«they number a good many 

 over 4,000 so far. Jennie Atchley. 



Laying Several Eggs in a Cell. 



Mrs. Atchley :— Please tell me what 

 is the matter with a queen that lays 

 three or four eggs in a cell ? I had one 

 that would walk around with two or 

 three eggs hanging to her body, and 

 then she would deposit them all in one 

 cell; then, again, she would place her- 

 self in a cell as though she was laying, 

 and when she pulled her body out of the 

 cell there would not be any egg in the 

 cell. Please tell me what was the mat- 

 ter with the queen. 



Deland, Ills. A. W. Richolson. 



, Friend R., the cause of the queen 

 acting as you describe is a sign of weak- 

 ness, and she was " no good " physically. 

 She is weak, and has either been injured 

 in the mails, or reared from an egg too 

 old, which, most likely, causes the 

 trouble to overtake such queens, ur 

 course, such queens are worse than use- 

 Iggg, Jennie Atchley. 



Increasing the Number of Colonies. 



One of my neighbors kindly loaned me 

 a copy of the Bee Journal for Feb. 

 23 1893, in which I read an article 

 purporting to be one of a series instruct- 

 ing young bee-keepers in the art of api- 

 culture, but I think one of her state- 

 ments is very misleading, viz. : ihe 

 method she advises to increase the num- 

 ber of colonies. , , , 



She advises leaving the old queen on 

 its usual stand, and taking the " divide 

 to some other part of the apiary. Now, 

 all my experience in bee-matters has led 

 me to believe that it is just the opposite 

 course that should be pursued, as, if the 

 old queen is left on the old stand, all— 

 at least the major portion— of the bees 

 that are taken away will naturally re- 

 turn to the old home, whereby leaving 

 the queenless "divide" almost in a bee- 

 less condition, quite unable to rear a 

 queen that will amount to anything; 

 but if the old queen is removed with 

 some hatching brood, and a goodly num- 

 ber of bees, there is not much danger ot 

 too many bees returning to the old 

 home, as their natural instinct is to re- 

 main with the queen-mother. 



I must apologize for sending in this 

 letter, as I am not a subscriber to the 

 Bee Journal, but I thought as a bee- 

 man it would not come amiss. 



Friend K., my plan of leaving the old 

 queen on the old stand is the only plan 



