AIDS TO SUCCESS. 77 



the size of the cells. It may therefore safely be said 

 that five or six years is a sufficient length of time to 

 allow combs to be in regular use. 



In advising the use of foundation, full sheets must 

 be insisted upon as the most economical, for if 

 starters, that is, sheets only an inch or two in depth, 

 be given, drone cells in abundance will be produced, 

 particularly if the hiving of the swarm takes place in 

 the middle of the honey-flow. In an apiary several 

 stocks were examined by an expert in 1893. Two or 

 three in movable-comb hives had for several years 

 done literally nothing ; while from one close by, a 

 very satisfactory quantity of honey each year had 

 been taken. The owner, a lady, could not account 

 for this difference, as she took little interest in the 

 apiary ; it was, therefore, left to the expert to explain 

 matters. His task was an easy one, for visiting the 

 apiary on a fine summer day he saw, before opening 

 the hives, the bees freely on the wing. Prom the 

 hives that had such a bad record issued hundreds of 

 drones, while matters were exactly reversed when the 

 hive with the good record was examined. On opening 

 the former hives nearly the whole of every comb — that 

 is, excepting about two inches from the top made from 

 the starter of foundation — was composed of drone 

 cells. In such hives good returns could not be 

 expected, for there always was a superabundance of 

 drones instead of the desirable workers. In the 

 other hive the swarm had been provided with full 

 sheets of foundation, simply because the preparations 

 were made by a friend, a clergyman living near by, 

 who was a successful bee-keeper. 



