BEE CULTURE. 33 
experiment for themselves, and ascertain whether the bees do 
them any damage or not ; they may come to the same con- 
clusion as did the people of Massachusetts, who, years ago, 
thought the bees damaged their fruit, and had them banished, 
but, finding that fruit began to decrease and become of a 
poor quality, were only too glad to have the law repealed, and 
get the bees back again, when their fruit improved again.” 
CLEANSING COMBS CONTAINING DEAD BROOD, 
Brood is sometimes deserted by the bees from some cause, 
and, of course, dies—it might have been spread too much, or 
the bees were insufficient to properly care for it. It is often 
asked what to do with the combs containing such dead brood. 
We would say: Uncap those cells in which brood has died, 
then put them away in some dry place till the dead brood has 
dried and shrunken. When wanted for use, put them one or 
two ata time in the stronger colonies, where they will be 
speedily and thoroughly prepared for use. ‘In order to make 
them desirable for brood combs, it is necessary that the cells 
be ready for the queen’s occupancy as soon as she reaches the 
comb, or she will either pass over the comb entirely, or de- 
posit her cggs here and there, wherever she finds unobjec- 
tionable spots. Every close observer has noticed that the 
queen invariably makes a close inspection of the cell she 
proposes using, and unless perfectly clean she will not deposit 
an egg init. With a cell here and there occupied with dead 
larvee, it is easy to imagine how the living larva adjoining 
may be more or less liable to become chilled, as inanimate 
bodies are not possessed of the natural heat which pertains 
to those living. It is undoubtedly this natural law which 
instinctively impels a “good”’ queen to deposit her eggs com- 
pactly in an oval space in the comb, thus economizing to the 
greatest extent the heat of each ‘ndividual larva to help keep 
its neighbor warm. To what extcnt the presence of dead 
brood in the combs (which has died from natural causes) may 
have caused the death of contiguous brood, we cannot say, 
but certainly it has contributed largely to many of the theo- 
ries regarding “ foul brood” and its tendencies, and perhaps 
in rare instances has had a tendency to enfeeble many of those 
bees which survived to maturity. 
