Bee-Keeping Simplified for the 



Drones are the male bees ; they are reared in the early Spring 

 which is the natural swarming season. Their sole work is to 

 perpetuate the species by mating with the young queens. 

 JJulky in appearance and heavy in flight, they are easily 

 distinguished. About August, when no longer needed, they 

 are killed o£E. Having no sting they are an easy prey to the 

 attacking workers. The presence of drones from October to 

 March is an indication of queenlessness, or the presence of 

 an unfertilised queen. 



Comhs, Fig. 3, are made of beeswax, and a small quantity 

 of pollen. Wax is not gathered, but is secreted in eight little 

 pockets on the under side of the worker bee. Fig. 4. It is 

 made from honey ; for its secretion the bees gorge them- 

 selves with food, and 

 then hang in 

 festoons in the hive 

 perfectly quiet for 

 twenty-four hours ; 

 during that time the 

 food is changed by 

 chemical action into 

 wax, and exudes in 

 a liquid state into 

 the pockets, where it 

 hardens, and is then 

 plucked out, mixed 

 with saliva to make 

 it plastic, and 

 Fio. 4. moulded by means of 



the jaws into cells. 

 The cells of which the combs are made up consist of five 

 kinds — worker, drone, queen, attachment, and transition. 

 The worker cells are the smallest, being one fifth of an inch 

 between the parallel sides. They are six sided, this being the 

 only shape that will fit together without waste of space in 

 which a round body can grow. They are built out hori- 

 zontally from the midrib, and have a slight upward inclina- 

 tion, so that they retain the grub during its growth, and also 

 the honey when it is stored. 



Drone cells are larger, being one quarter of an inch between 

 the parallel sides ; in all other respects the}- are built in the 

 same manner as the workers. 



Queen cells are only built during the swarming season, or if 

 by accident the mother is killed or lost. Instead of being 

 horizontal they are pendulous, being about one inch in 

 length, one third of an inch in diameter, and have the 



