T14 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



and I had one colony to bring out lots of 

 dead bees, more than was usual. It was 

 a small colony, and there were 1 50 bees 

 dead with their heads to the bottom of 

 the cells, and sealed honey around them. 

 Their combs were clean, and the queen 

 was dead. M. W. Gardner. 



Bankston, Ala., May 20, 1893. 



Answers — 1. Yes, if there comes a 

 dearth after drones appear, the workers 

 may kill them off, and swarm when a 

 new lot is reared. 



2. It is nothing unusual for bees to 

 carry out their dead when a warm day 

 comes in winter. An unusually long 

 spell of confinement would make an un- 

 usual number. Sometimes a small clus- 

 ter gets separated from the main cluster 

 and are found dead. In the case you 

 mention, the number of bees may have 

 been so small that they could not keep 

 up sufficient heat. 



Keeping Bees on Shares. 



I have taken four colonies of bees on 

 shares. The agreement is that they are 

 to swarm once, and are to be worked for 

 comb honey. The question is, would 

 you, under these circumstances, put on 

 any sections before they swarm, or wait 

 until afterward '? 



The share that each gets is half the 

 swarms and half the surplus honey. 



Waupaca, Wis. Samuel, Taylor, 



Answer — One of the hard things to 

 answer is a question about bees on 

 shares. Unless everything is definitely 

 agreed upon in advance, and put down 

 in black and white, with such a variable 

 factor as a colony of bees there is likely 

 to be misunderstanding and trouble. 



Your agreement seems to be an origi- 

 nal one, that the bees " are to swarm 

 once," and one would conclude that you 

 are expected to make them swarm once, 

 but you say nothing about the penalty 

 in case you fail to make them swarm, 

 nor what is to be done in case the little 

 creatures take it into their heads to 

 swarm more than once. Doubtless all 

 second swarms can be prevented, but 

 there do happen cases — would that they 

 might happen oftener — in which bees 

 stubbornly refuse to swarm. Suppose 

 there comes one of those bad seasons 

 when bees do not make a living, to say 

 nothing about swarming, at the end of 

 the season you are bound to return the 

 four coloniiis together with' four addi- 

 tional, and not one has swarnuid, where 

 ar(! yon V We know of a (uM-tain (Mithu- 

 siastic beginner in Iowa who took bees 



on shares with a somewhat similar 

 agreement, and he actually had to give 

 up all the bees he had and buy more to 

 make good his agreement. 



So you see it's a hard matter to answer 

 your question without knowing what is 

 to happen if you don't succeed in making 

 the bees swarm. But the probability is 

 that they will swarm more than you 

 desire, and it may be your safest plan to 

 put on supers before swarming. 



Getting Rid of Black Drones. 



How do the bees get rid of black 

 drones, old and young, when Italianiz- 

 ing an apiary ? R. C. Fowke. 



Baldock, S. C. 



Answer. — The easiest answer to your 

 question is to say, "They don't." That 

 is probably the true answer in most 

 cases. Even if you get rid of all objec- 

 tionable drones in your own apiary, they 

 may come from other apiaries about you. 

 But with enough care it may be possible 

 to control the matter entirely in your 

 own apiary. 



In the first place, prevention is better 

 than cure. See that no drone-brood is 

 allowed to hatch out. Slice off the 

 heads of all sealed drone-brood. While 

 you are at it, it may be well to cut out 

 all drone-comb, putting in its place 

 patches of worker comb. 



But bees arc very persistent in rearing 

 drones, and if you leave them no drone- 

 comb they will rear a few drones here 

 and there in a very troublesome way. 

 Doolittle's plan is to leave about an inch 

 square of drone-comb in the hive to sat- 

 isfy them, then you will know right 

 where to look for drone-brood, and can 

 shave off the sealed brood about every 

 three weeks. To get rid of what are al- 

 ready hatched out, use the Alley drone- 

 trap. 



" A iWo<l«'i-ii lt<M'-l'^sirii( and Its 



Economic Management,"" is the title of a 

 splendid hook on practical bee-culture, by 

 Mr. S. Sinimius, of England. It is .5^:^x83'^ 

 inches in size, and contains ^70 pages, 

 nicely illustrated, and bound in cloth. It 

 shows " liow bees may be cultivated as a 

 means of livoliliood; as a hcaltii-giviug 

 pursuit; and as a source of recreation to 

 the busy man."" It also illustrates iiow 

 profits may be "made certain by growing 

 crops j'ielding the most honey, having also 

 other uses; and by .iudginent in breeding a 

 good working strain of bees."" Price, post- 

 jjuid, from tiiis ollice, $1.0(1; orchibbed with 

 the Bee Jouunal for one year, for $1.70. 



"Bees and Honey" — see page 707. 



