AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



431 



On Important Subjects. 



Drone-Bees and fbelr fays. 



REV. W. P. FAYLOR. 



The drone-bee is not so much looked 

 upon now as formerly as an idler in the 

 hive. From pulpit and pew, from way- 

 side and home, he has been the remark 

 of indolence. Recently a Presiding Elder 

 in the West issued a call through a lead- 

 ing periodical, for some preachers to fill 

 vacancies on his District, and concluded 

 his request by saying, "No drone need 

 apply." 



To my mind, I believe that the drone- 

 bee fills its sphere in life, and is just as 

 industrious in his mission here, as any 

 other creature. The intelligent apiarist 

 has noticed again and again that a hive 

 of bees with hundreds of drones has 

 rolled the honey into the sections, while 

 a sister colony, equal in numbers of 

 workers, without drones, has yielded 

 almost nothing. I now usually aim to 

 keep some drone-comb in every hive. If 

 I only wish drones from desirable colo- 

 nies, then I keep drone-brood shaved 

 down, and pick by hand a few dozen 

 drones for each colony. During the 

 honey season, or flow of nectar, drones 

 may be shaken into any colony, and are 

 almost always received. 



The life of the drone is very short — 

 much shorter than that of the workers. 

 I believe that many of the drones are 

 caught by birds and enemies of bees. 

 Drones are more clumsy and less rapid 

 in their flight than worker-bees, which 

 renders them a better prey for their 

 enemies in the air. It is fortunate for 

 the neuters that they can fly so fast. 



The drones aid in keeping up animal 

 heat in the hive. They assist in stimu- 

 lating activity. I have also some faith 

 that they aid in carrying honey from one 

 cell to another, and ripening the same. 

 If we place a feeder with syrup in front 

 of the hive, we will usually find drones 

 in this feeder during all hours of the 

 day, aiding as best they can to remove 

 the contents to the cells of their combs. 



HOW TO KEEP CRONES DURING DROUTH. 



A correspondent from the East wishes 

 me to give a method " for keeping 

 drones when the honey season is past."" 

 This I willingly do. 



Always aim to have some choice 



drones creeping out of their cells at the 

 close of the honey harvest. Then make 

 one or more colonies queenless, and give 

 these emerging drones to the queenless 

 colony, or colonies. Brood and eggs 

 may be added once in a week or two, 

 but look over every comb now and then 

 to be sure that no queen gets into this 

 hive, or hives, made queenless. Keep all 

 queen-cells cut out before their contents 

 emerge in the shape of virgins. Peed 

 this colony, or colonies, well, and always 

 feed about noon the colonies you wish 

 drones to fly from about the time you 

 expect virgins to come out on the wing. 

 When there is no nectar in the fields, 

 you will thus create activity among the 

 workers and drones of such colonies. 



At any time should you run short of 

 drones, you can rear drones by giving a 

 good colony nothing but drone-comb, so 

 that the queen will be compelbd to lay 

 eggs in drone-cells. All eggs layed in 

 drone-cells produce only drone-bees. If 

 we remove worker-eggs from worker- 

 cells, and place them in drone-cells, we 

 shall get drones as a result. Whether 

 the bees by blind instinct always extract 

 the sperm fluid or not from worker-eggs 

 when in drone-cells, I do not know ; but 

 one of two things must be true — either 

 all eggs from a fertile queen must be 

 alike, or the worker bees possess the 

 ability to change the eggs. Our good 

 friend, Prof. Cook, says : 



" When the workers are able to ab- 

 stract the sperm-cells, which are so 

 small that we can only see them by using 

 a high power microscope " (though he 

 acknowledges, and so do I, that sperm- 

 cells cannot be discovered in bee-eggs 

 with any kind of microscope), "then 

 we may expect to see wheat turn to 

 chess." 



That wheat will turn to chess is evi- 

 dent — a fact I have seen demonstrated — 

 a change I can produce myself ; but this 

 egg process is yet wrapped in mystery. 

 See Cook's Manual, pages 81 and 74. 



DRONES MEETING A VIRGIN QUEEN. 



It was my pleasure yesterday (Aug. 

 1st) to witness a sight I have longed to 

 see for years — thank Providence for the 

 privilege. 



About 1 o'clock p.m. a virgin queen, 

 urged strongly by the bees to go out of 

 the hive of a nucleus colony, tried sev- 

 eral times to fly, but failed. Then I 

 caught her and tossed her up into the 

 air, and discovered that she could not 



fly. 



Next I picked her up, and seeing her 

 run about on my left hand, carried her 



