THOUSAND ANSWERS 69 



Q. How far will a drone fly from a hive? How far will a 

 virgin queen fly from a hive? 



A. I don't know, and I'm afraid you'll never know. I think 

 it has been said that a drone may meet a virgin whose home is 

 four or five miles from his home, although as a rule such long 

 flights are not made. Some think that a mile is as far apart as 

 the two homes usually are. But if you knew exactly how far 

 apart the two homes are, you are still in the dark as to how 

 much of the distance is made by the drone and how much by the 

 virgin. 



Dividing (See Increase.) 



Division-Boards. — Q. Of what use are division-boards, and 

 how often should they be used? 



A. A division-board, properly so-called, is a thin board more 

 or less tight-fitting that divides a hive into two separate compart- 

 ments, as when a hive is to be used for two or more nuclei, or 

 when a colo-ny is too small to occupy the whole of the hive. In 

 this sense there are very few division-boards, but a dummy is 

 really the thing that is meant. A dummy is loose-fitting, not 

 longer nor deeper than the frame of the hive. It may be less 

 than that. Dummies are in use in my hives all the time, winter 

 and summer. The frames do not entirely fill the hive, and the 

 dummy fills up the vacant space at one side. It is much easier to 

 get out the dummy than to get out the first frame where there 

 is no dummy, and after the dummy is out it is easy to get out the 

 frames. If less than the full number of frames is in the hive, one 

 or more dummies are placed next to the exposed frame. 



Doolittle System of Honey Production. — Q. What is the Doo- 

 little system of comb-honey production? 



A. A book called "A Year's Work in an Out Apiary" gives in 

 full the system that Mr. Doolittle follows, which is a combination 

 of good things more or less in general use, given by the author 

 in an interesting way. Of course, it would be out of the question 

 to give details here, but only one special feature may be men- 

 tioned, and that is that early in the season he puts over the hive 

 a second story containing combs with more or less honey, an ex- 

 cluder between the two stories, and then when the time comes 

 that there is danger of swarming, or just before the honey-flow, 

 he takes away the brood of the lower story, giving the colony 

 the combs of the upper story. 



Drone-Brood. — Q. Is it common to find considerable drone- 



