THE ECONOMY OF THE HIVE 19 
to lead a swarm or to meet the drone for the 
act of fertilization. 
After the honey season breeding gradually slows 
down in the colonies, so that by the end of August 
very little brood is to be found in the hives, unless 
there is a late flow of nectar.. The bees now 
begin to think of winter, all stores are sealed up, 
and the hive is made practically air-tight, as re- 
gards the top and sides, by the use of a resin- 
ous substance called propolis, gathered from the 
limbs and branches of trees. The drones are 
usually killed off by the end of July, there being 
no further need of their services, and incidentally 
it may be noted that the presence of drones in 
a hive during the autumn or winter months is 
almost a sure sign of queenlessness. Towards the 
autumn the bees become gradually more and more 
inactive with the advent of the first frosts, until 
at the approach of winter they fall into the semi- 
dormant condition in which they exist until the 
spring sunshine rouses them to renewed activity. 
This, then, is a brief résumé of a season’s 
happenings in a colony of.bees which are left 
to their own devices. Such devices, however, 
while well enough, no-doubt, from the bees’ point 
of view, would be very detrimental, many of them,~ 
to profitable bee-keeping, so I will later endeavour 
to show how these wonderful little insects may 
be led into such paths as will benefit their owner 
without loss to themselves. 
Old-fashioned bee-keeping consisted almost 
