226 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



Can we stop — in fact, absolutely prevent — 

 the building of droncj-cells, and so put it be- 

 yond the power of bees to swarm at all 'i for 

 I conceive that it would be impossible to 

 make bees swarm unless drones were in the 

 hive, in some condition. They seem to say 

 to themselves, ' No chance for the young 

 queens to mate, unless drones are in the 

 hive. ' Mind, too, they do not know that 

 other hives have drones — they only know 

 what is in their hive. 



All the spacing of combs in a natural hive 

 proceeds on the idea that room may be need- 

 ed to make drone comb whenever the bees 

 are so minded. Do we need to follow this 

 rule ? Certainly not. The British bee-keep- 

 ers follow 114-inch spacing for brood comb 

 — many do this, I believe, and find it profit- 

 able. This does not absolutely prevent the 

 building of drone comb, although it does to 

 some extent. The best authorities say a 

 brood comb is ''s inch, and in actual prac- 

 tice it certainly is not more than this, as we 

 shall see presently. I have spaced to some 

 extent as close as !}« , and yet the bees suffer- 

 ed no inconvenience — not the slighest ; and 

 by making the width of the frame ''y, one 

 can see that the comb is even a little less 

 than ''g, and the bees have room to move up 

 and down, back to back, at 1^8 inches, cen- 

 ter to center. This spacing insures beauti- 

 ful combs, flat as a board — nothing bnt 

 worker comb. 



Yet there still lingers the possibility that 

 drones can be raised around the bottom of 

 the comb, or even in a corner. The only 

 way to prevent absolutely a single drone- 

 cell coming would be to adopt some sort of 

 backing, say wood, for our foundation, and 

 so prevent this undesirable possibility. 

 Gleanings contained an account not long 

 ago of foundation that had a wooden back- 

 ing. This sort of thing ought to be encour- 

 aged. We could, by this means, render the 

 production of drones an impossibility. 



One easily sees the immense importance of 

 this matter. Complete control of our bees 

 would then be possible. Some of your cor- 

 respondents talk of hives that secure to 

 them complete control of their bees. They 

 surely do not mean it, as the bees get up 

 and swarm, or raise drones, whenever they 

 are so minded. This question will have to 

 be looked at squarely, and conscientiously 

 worked on by a number of good bee-keepers, 

 to secure tangible results. If the experi- 

 ment stations would try something of this 

 sort they would deserve more fame than 

 they now receive. 



All these discussions about burr and brace 

 combs simply show that the hives containing 

 such are improperly constructed. Thick 

 top-bars are only a makeshift. Put your 

 combs close enough so that the bees do not 

 have to build bridges across to the next 

 comb. Some people seem to think that a 

 bee can reach over about ^^ inch. I can 

 handle my frames with the same facility 

 that a person handles a book. Formerly I 

 needed a screwdriver to pry every frame 

 apart. It seems to me the whole question of 

 hive-making rests on accurate measure- 

 ment. People think they are wonderfully 



accurate when they get it down to 1-16 inch ; 

 but is it not probable that a bee looks at 1-16 

 with eye that we do a yard ? My measure- 

 ments of the combs are something like this : 

 Thickness of comb, 85-100 inch ; space re- 

 (luired for the body presence of two bees, 

 35-100 inch ; added together this makes just 

 1 15 inches. The bees are wonderful econ- 

 omists, and they abhor more space than this 

 unless drone comb is intended. Finally, if 

 you do not desire swarming ( and who does?) 

 don't raise a drone. 



I will defer the account of my experi- 

 ments in this line to a future period, hoping 

 that some of your readers will test the mat- 

 ter fully, and report." 



The editorial foot note is as follows. 



["Some five years ago, when I advocated 

 self-spacing frames, I concluded from the 

 reports as well as from private experiments 

 we have been making, that the ordinary 1)2 

 inch spacing from center to center was too 

 wide : and accordingly I began to advocate 

 the I'^g distance, particularly because it 

 seemed to be a compromise between wide 

 spacing and the very narrow 1^4 and I 1-8. 

 At this time I asked for reports from those 

 who had tested the narrow, medium, and 

 wide spacing ; and the testimony at that 

 time gathered seemed to show that I34 and 1 

 1-8 would largely if not altogether prevent 

 the rearing of drones. It also seemed to 

 show that these narrow spacings were a 

 little too much of a good thing. It appear- 

 ed also that the 1 3-8 was a nice golden 

 mean ; and now that self-spacing frames of 

 this width are so generally adopted among 

 progressive bee-keepers it would be difficult 

 if not impossible to get down to narrower 

 distances. 



At all events, I should like to hear from 

 our readers who are in position to know 

 whether the entire absence of drones will 

 prevent swarming. I am rather of the 

 opinion that it will not. If it does not pre- 

 vent will it discourage swarming ? I 

 should like to hear from a number of our 

 readers on these and other points brought 

 out in Mr. Morrison's able and excellent 

 article. — Fd.J " 



Mr. L. A. Aspinwall, of Jackson, Mich- 

 igan, has entirely prevented the rearing of 

 drones by using wooden combs, but, if I re- 

 member aright, swarming was not prevent- 

 ed. It was lessened, but not entirely pre- 

 vented. I believe Mr. Aspinwall said that 

 drones got into such colonies from other 

 hives. Of course, if there rvere no other 

 hives in the apiary, drones could not get in, 

 but I believe we have no positive proof that 

 bees will not swarm unless there are drones 

 present, although it is pretty well demon- 

 strated that their presence is an encourage- 

 ment to swarming. Mr. Aspinwall has had 

 excellent success in preve ting swarming by 

 spreading the combs apart and putting 

 wooden, perforated dummies between the 



