30 



DADANT SYSTEM OF BEEKEEPING 



Fig. 18. Comb built without foundation or with only a small starter. It 

 is practically all drone comb 



producing colonies, we supplied their hives with a plentiful 

 amount of drone-combs, so that the queens that we would rear 

 would be sure to mate with good sires. On the other hand, 

 we deprived colonies from which we did not desire males, from 

 the possibilities of producing a large number of drones. This 

 was readily achieved by removing from those colonies all the 

 drone-combs that we could find and replacing them with work- 

 er combs. Had we not replaced them with worker combs, the 

 bees would have rebuilt them with drone-combs, as they did, 

 in fact, wherever we neglected to do this. Bees prefer to 

 build drone-combs because the cells are larger and require less 

 material and less time, than worker-combs, so unless the queen 

 desires worker-combs in which to lay, and she usually appears to 

 make her desire known to them, they will usually rebuild the 

 drone-combs that we remove, in the same kind. There are 

 always some drone-cells, here and there, and, in the very best 

 managed hive, the bees will probably rear from 200 to 300 



