BEE-KEEPING. 159 



sugar in water and then boiling it to evaporate the water. 

 Honey is the best food, but is generally (unless " Southern" or 

 West India honey be used) too expensive ; and, in fact, as a 

 matter of profit, feeding should never be attempted. 



5. Killing the Drones. Knowing that the drones consume 

 an immense amount of honey without producing any, and be- 

 lieving that a few of them will answer all the purposes required, 

 Mr. P. J. Mahan, of Philadelphia, recommends getting rid of 

 them, and thus saving the honey that they would consume. 

 His plan for accomplishing this is to cut out the comb contain- 

 ing the cells in which they are to hatch. This, he says, is dif- 

 ficult in the common or box-hive and quite impossible in nearly 

 all patent hives; but quite easy in Rev. L. L. Langstroth's 

 Movable Comb Hive, in which the combs are built in a frame, 

 similar to a slate or a picture in a frame, which being suspend- 

 ed on a narrow rabbet do not touch or ct>me in contact with 

 the hive at the top, bottom, or sides. Old combs can be put 

 into the frames and be given to the bees to fill for their own 

 use or for breeding combs. 



" By cutting out the combs referred to," Mr. Mahan contin- 

 ues, "the bee-keeper makes a saving of all the honey fed to 

 them before they are matured ; the time occupied by the bees 

 in feeding and nursing them ; and last, though not least, assum- 

 ing one foot as the average, which is capable of producing over 

 4,000 drones, by destroying this there is space sufficient to build 

 combs in which T,200 cells for hatching the workers will be 

 erected ; which, as we have done away with the drones, is fully 

 equal to an accession of 14,400 working bees."* 



This matter is certainly worthy of the attention of bee-keep- 

 ers, and should be fully investigated.! 



* Southern Planter. 



t A large portion of the matter in th s chapter, not credited to other sources, 

 has been condensed from the excellent articles on " Bees and Bee-Keeping," 

 in the " New American Encyclopedia." 



