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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Drones— Are they Auxiliaries? 



Mr. Wm. Maxwell, Edgeiton, Kans., 

 furnishes the following information 

 regarding his experience with the bar- 

 berry bush, which will be read with 

 interest by all horticulturists : 



In the American Bee Journal 

 of June 7, page 361, 1 see an inquiry 

 by P. J. Swam, concerning the bar- 

 berry plant, and Prof. Burrill's re- 

 marks thereon. Now, I want to re- 

 late a bit of experience that I have 

 had with this shrub. I have had it a 

 great many years on my grounds, and 

 much admire its beauty, and find it to 

 be considerable help to the bees dur- 

 ing the short time it remains in bloom ; 

 it also makes a good inside hedge, but 

 is not strong enough to be depended 

 upon for an outside inclosure. Some 

 6 years ago I planted one side of my 

 peach orchard with it, intending to 

 hedge it all around ; three years since 

 it began to bloom finely (it seldom 

 bears any fruit in this locality), and 

 was truly " a thing of beauty." About 

 the 15th of May I discovered that my 

 peiich trees were peculiarly affected, 

 the leaves were covered with a sort of 

 mildew, turned white, and crimped 

 and twisted ; the fruit turned white 

 and dropped badly, and the whole 

 tree had a leprous appearance ; the 

 fruit was not all destroyed, but was 

 badly damaged ; tlie next year the 

 same thing occurred. Well, in con- 

 versation with an eastern man he re- 

 marked that the barberry caused 

 wheat to rust, and the farmers did not 

 tolerate it; I at once concluded I had 

 the key to my peach disaster, and ac- 

 cordingly ordered every barberry on 

 my premises cut down, and now my 

 peach trees and fruit look as fine as I 

 could wish, and are perfectly free 

 from leprosy. I am satisfied that the 

 profuse light pollen caused the trou- 

 ble. I have not discovered that my 

 wheat was affected by it, but 1 have 

 never had any wheat within less than 

 80 rods of the barberry. Let me hear 

 from others. Now, as I am a novice 

 in the bee business, I want to make 

 an inquiry or two. I have a few colo- 

 nies of bees— some Italians and some 

 hybrids— all the queens pure, but 

 some impurely fertilized. The drones 

 of the impurely fertilized are darker 

 than the nure ones, with shining 

 black heads, while the pure ones are 

 lighter colored, with claret-colored 

 heads. This peculiarity of the color 

 of the head I never discovered in any 

 other instance, and would like to 

 know whether it is a characteristic of 

 pure drones V My observations with 

 my drones seem to disprove the com- 

 monly received theory of pure queens 

 producing pure drones, although im- 

 purely fertilized. 



Scientists and theory hold that the 

 drones of pure queens will be them- 

 selves pure, regardless of how the 

 queens were mated ; but many bee- 

 keepers of long and close observation 

 have of late years cited many excep- 

 tions to the rule. We have often 

 thought there is much yet to learn re- 



garding drone production and their 

 functions in the hive. It sometimes 

 seems almost improbable that nature 

 would be so lavish with drone pro- 

 geny, if one only was conducive to the 

 prosperity or perpetuation of the 

 colony, while the queen progeny, 

 upon which existence itself depends, 

 should be so exceedingly limited, and 

 the instinct of the first emerging 

 should impel her to immediately de- 

 stroy all possibility of succession. 



Who that is familiar with the inner 

 economy of tlie bee hive, has not ob- 

 served the hundreds of drones in a 

 strong colony, during a rapid honey 

 flow, apparently as busy on the combs 

 in which honey is being stored as are 

 the worker bees, and it is quite a 

 common occiu'rence to observe them 

 thickly congregated on the cells in 

 which are freshly deposited eggs and 

 newly hatched larvee, as though by 

 their presence they assisted in incu- 

 bating the eggs, or furnished the 

 natural heat necessary for the larvse. 

 More particularly have we observed 

 this when, after a season of rapid 

 breeding, a cold windy spell of several 

 days' duration visits us, and our bees, 

 as if with one general impulse, flock 

 to the grocery stores in hordes, often 

 in two or three days depleting a ten- 

 frame colony to one or two spaces. 

 We have within the past month had 

 colonies containing seven frames of 

 eggs and brood in all stages, depleted 

 to two frames of workers, and " pow- 

 erful weak " at that. If drones do no 

 "family duty '" in the hive, how is it 

 possible to rear a hive full of drones, 

 when the queen is but a drone-layer V 



It is a curious fact, when honey is 

 coming in most rapidly, when the 

 glad, joyous midnight roar can be 

 heard rods distant from the hive, 

 when the bees during daylight with 

 frenzy rush over each other pell-mell 

 in their eagerness to go for fresh loads 

 of nectar, and returning wearily drop 

 on the alighting-board close to the 

 entrance and crawl in, then can be 

 found the drones thickest in the hive 

 or among the boxes where the new- 

 est, thinnest honey is being deposi- 

 ted ; but let the honey-flow altogether 

 cease, and the work of the drones be 

 no longer required, and they will be 

 herded on the outer or sealed combs, 

 and if the dearth continue, they will 

 be driven from the hives entirely. 

 Who can assert that they do not per- 

 form an important function in assist- 

 ing to ripen the honey, or extracting 

 the water from it, quite as necessary 

 as tlie gathering of it ? That hordes 



of drones are necessary we do not 

 think ; but we are not certain that 

 they may not be too rigorously exclu- 

 ded from the hives. That they are 

 extraordinary gormandizers we do not 

 think, for we have never been able to 

 discover on the outer combs, where 

 the honey has been once capped or 

 sealed over, and where the drones 

 have been all herded perhaps for days, 

 a single cell which has been uncapped 

 by them, and robbed of its store of 

 sweet. There is much concerning the 

 drones which is not yet understood, at 

 least by us, but we have no doubt a 

 great deal will in time be learned, and 

 perhaps many theories held at the 

 present time be modified. 



"Red-headed'" drones, though in the 

 minority, are by no means exceptional, 

 and are frequently found in large 

 apiaries of Italians, all apparently 

 equally pure. 



Since the above was in type, the 

 British Bee Jounud for June has been 

 received, in which we find the follow- 

 ing remarks on the subject of drones 

 by its editor : 



In the forthcoming translation of 

 Dzierzon's Rational Bee-Keepivg will 

 be found a remark by the author to 

 the effect that drones serve no pur- 

 pose beyond the fertilization of 

 queens, and to this we have taken ex- 

 ception, as follows : " We cannot ac- 

 cede to the author's assertion that the 

 fertilization of queens is the ' the sole 

 purpose ' of drones' existence. It is 

 well known that when a swarm has 

 left a hive there is often but a hand- 

 ful of worker bees left at home to 

 care for the huge mass of brood in all 

 stages that the hive contains, and 

 should a cold night follow a swarm- 

 ing day, as is often the case, this 

 handful of workers would find it im- 

 possible to maintain the necessary 

 heat in the hive, and there would be 

 great loss of brood and bee life. In 

 this condition of things, the drones, 

 the great majority of which are stay- 

 at-homes (fewaccompanyingaswarm) 

 are of immense service, maintaining 

 heat which otherwise the few workers 

 would be compelled to generate for 

 themselves, and setting the latter 

 free to nurse the newly-hatching 

 larvse. It is true that when the young 

 queen has hatched, and been ferti- 

 lized, and the weatlier becomes cold, 

 the drones are slain ; but at that time 

 there will be little, if any, unsealed 

 brood in the hive, while thousands of 

 young bees will have hatched into 

 life, rendering the hive populous, and 

 the drones unnecessary. Nor must it 

 be forgotten that drones are not usu- 

 ally slain until " cool weather sets 

 in," or, in other words, until the honey 

 harvest has ceased, a fact upon which 

 is hinged a belief, in our mind, that 

 they are of service in helping to 

 evaporate the honey prior to its being 

 sealed for winter store. Many have 

 noticed the large number of drones 



