108 APPENDIX. 



with _^ honey, and in this way robberies arc effectually pre- 

 vented. Should it be asked how the bees can enter to depo- 

 sit their load, and if such a method will not impede their 

 operations, we answer that these robberies usually occur 

 wheii no honey can be procured from other sources ; hence 

 at this time no bee enters its hive laden with the produce of 

 the fields, and during these seasons of aggressive warfare, 

 they are otherwise employed than in gathering nectar from 

 the flowers. This appendage is so constructed that the 

 supernumerary drones may be easily destroyed, thereby 

 saving about twenty pounds of honey and saccharine matter 

 for the winter's store, besides many cells which would oth- 

 erwise be monopolized by them during the season. Some 

 may object to killing them, upon th^ plea that nature would 

 not have committed so palpabie a blunder as to have created 

 a larger number of males than is essential to the well-being 

 of the swarm ; but we maintain that they are not required 

 by hundreds any more than a like proportion is necessary 

 among the animals with which we " stock" our farms ; at 

 any rate, the drones may be destroyed after their flight with 

 the queen has taken place. This usually occurs during the 

 first twenty days of her existence, after which their services 

 are no longer required, as every candid reader will readijy 

 admit. The drones are usually out about one o'clock on fair 

 days. If the passages into the hives are all closed save the 

 . graduated entrance, and this be adjusted to the size of the 

 working bee, as it ordinarily passes to and fro, the drones 

 may be made to pass under the bottom board, and being 

 shut out, can be egsUy destroyed by inverting a screen over 

 j;hem and exposing them tp the fumes of sulphur. By d& 

 stroying them at the time when the second apd third swarms 

 lisually appear, a great amount pf hpney may j:;^ saved 

 ^liich would ptherwise be consumed by them. 



