FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 109 



DRONE-LAYING QUEENS. 



Drone-brood iu worker-cells may be present with no laying 

 workers — the work of a drone-laying or failing queen. The 

 brood in that case, however, will not be so scattering as in Fig. 

 59. Such a colony is more amenable to treatment, and can be 

 well utilized by uniting with a weak colony having a laying 

 queen. 



BEEAKING UP FAULTY COLONIES. 



When fruit blossoms are about ready to burst forth, and 

 bees are carrying pollen whenever it is warm enough, I do not 



Fig. 37 — Painted Tin Hive-covers. 



expect to lose any more colonies except those that are queenless 

 or have faulty queens. But I do expect to have the satisfaction 

 of breaking up every colony that does not have a good queen, 

 for when I find a colony that is queenless or one whose queen 

 is more or less a drone-layer, it is no longer any satisfaction to 

 me to nurse it and coax it along for the sake of saying I have 

 not lost that colony. The real satisfaction is in having it out of 

 the way. Time was when it seemed a nice thing in case -of 



