1903 



GLEAN'INGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



-95 



some of the combs filled with droue brood, 

 did the queen prove a drone-layer." 



" Yes, I see that point; but a thought 

 comes to my mind. How does any one 

 know that all the drones are killed off in 

 his section of the country previous to Octo- 

 ber 15th or November 1st? " 



" That is a question I have felt like ask- 

 ing several times. One or two years I have 

 been quite sure there was not a drone with- 

 in reach of my queen's flight, and yet the 

 spring proved that ever}' one of my late- 

 reared queens had found drones from some- 

 where, as the}' were all prolific layers of 

 worker-eggs. In fact, every time I have 

 tried to winter over virgin queens, bj"^ way 

 of experiment, all proved to be fertile in the 

 spring, except in spring following a fall 

 during which the weather gave the bees no 

 chance for late flights; and only as I have 

 clipped the wings of the queens for these 

 experiments, thus making it impossible for 

 the virgin to fly out in search of any drone, 

 have I been at all certain of success. From 

 this experience I have ceased to worry over 

 late queens failing to become fertile." 



"Then you think there would be little 

 risk in mj' trying to rear queens the latter 

 part of September almost any year? " 



" 1 so think. But no bee-keeper should 

 trj' to rear queens late in the season unless 

 several hundred drones are preserved from 

 the verj' best stock he has in his apiary." 



" But how are such drones to be kept? 

 The bees are verj' persevering in killing 

 drones in my locality after all of the honey- 

 flows are over." 



"It is quite an easy matter to keep choice 

 drones, even as late as December 1, by tak- 

 ing frames of drone brood from choice colo- 

 nies just before drone-rearing ceases, and 

 putting said brood in a colon}' from which 

 you now remove the queen. Ten days after 

 the queen is removed, cut off all queen-cells, 

 and such a colony will keep its drones as 

 long as any are desirable in the fall." 



" How is the strength of such a colony to 

 be kept up as regards worker-bees?" 



" If a frame of sealed worker brood is 

 given to these colonies occasionally, its 

 strength will be kept up, also the flight of 

 drones will be more profuse late in the season 

 than would be the case if the workers be- 

 came few in number. Then if an upper 

 story, filled with combs of honey, be placed 

 on the colony which is to retain the drones, 

 the drones will fly still stronger, for. to fly 

 strongly, drones need plenty of honey with- 

 in easy access. " 



"Thanks for this last suggestion. Have 

 you any more that would be of help to me?" 



"If you do not think it too much trouble, 

 drones can be made still more active by 

 feeding the queenless colony containing 

 them plenty of warmed syrup or honey at 

 about noon the latter part of September, 

 half-past eleven during October, and at 

 eleven o clock during November, feeding 

 only on such days as bees can fly. If, in 

 addition to this, you go to this drone-keep- 

 ing colony on some day during the latter 



part of September, when it is still, and yet 

 so cool that you will not be troubled by 

 robbers, and carefully go over every frame 

 in the hive, killing every drone that is at 

 all inferior as to size, activity, length of 

 wings, shape, marking, or in any other 

 way, you will have something along the 

 line of drones for your late-reared queens 

 to meet that will very materially enhance 

 the value of every colony having a queen 

 which may chance to mate with such a 

 drone." . 



"About what would be the chances, do 

 you think?" 



" My experience says about 50 per cent 

 in September; 75 in October, and 90 in No- 

 vember. During the latter part of October, 

 and all of November, neither drones nor 

 queens seem desirous of making long flights 

 as in summer, and are not from the hive 

 more than a few minutes on their flights, 

 hence the mating takes place almost in your 

 own apiary; and where you are sure that 

 you have no drones save those hand-picked 

 and preserved by yourself, you are almost 

 absolutely certain of results. The course I 

 have outlined is the one I have pursued for 

 the past few years, and I think it has paid 

 me fully as well as any work I ever did in 

 the apiary. If we are to keep up with the 

 times and the close competition of these days, 

 we must strive for the best bees as well as 

 the best honey, put up in the most market- 

 able shape." 



" Well, I must be going now, and I wish 

 to thank you very much for this interview, 

 Mr. Doolittle." 



NOTICE TO MEMBERS OF THE NATIONAL 

 BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION. 



General Manager N. E. France, of the 

 National Bee-keepers' Association, is pre- 

 paring his annual report, and desires to 

 include the replies from members in ans- 

 wer to certain questions that he sent out on 

 a slip. He says if any have not received a 

 set of these questions he will send another 

 set if they will write him. Those who 

 have received the questions, and who have 

 for some reason or other neglected to send 

 in their report, will confer a favor on Mr. 

 France by filling out the blank and return- 

 ing it to him as soon as possible. When 

 the entire report is compiled it will make a 

 very valuable document. But in order to 

 make it complete he desires to hear from 

 every member. 



General Manager France has been hard 

 at work on several cases ; and when the 

 time comes he will probably make them 



