90 



old worker bees, arid absent in the drones and queens. From analogy, 

 then, we would reason that the queen, drones, and older workers — 

 the bees that do the outside work — as well as the larvse, are fed the 

 digested pollen, which is rich nitrogenous food. If this is true, and 

 there can be no longer any doubt, then we have double reasons to re- 

 duce the number of drones in the apiary, to save honey and pollen and 

 also the energy of the nurse bees. 



To prove this point we repeated the previous experiments of caging 

 drones in the hive behind a single wire gauze, a double wire gauze, the 

 space between being more than 0.26 of an inch, which is the maximum 

 length of the worker's tongue, and a perforated zinc cage. Honey was 

 placed in each cage in such a manner as not to daub any bees. In the 

 first kind of cage the bees could reach the drones through the single 

 gauze, though at some inconvenience, so as to feed them the digested 

 food. In the second cages this would be impossible and the drones 

 could only get honey for food. In the third cages the drones were con- 

 fined, but could be and were freely visited by the worker bees, as the 

 workers could pass freely through the zinc, which the drones could not 

 do. In the single wire-cloth cages the drones appeared somewhat neg- 

 lected after several days. They lived from four to seven days, while in 

 the cages with double wire cloth none lived over three days, and they 

 generally died inside of forty-eight hours. Those confined in cages cov- 

 ered with perforated zinc lived for over two weeks and would probably 

 have lived much longer. 



These experiments agree very closely with those previously tried. 



THE CONDUCTIVITY OF WAX. 



It is a common practice among bee-keepers to confine the bees in 

 winter to a portion of the hive, thus to economize heat and the better to 

 preserve the health and vigor of the bees. Some experiments by Prof. 

 Gaston Bonnier, of Paris, France, seem to show that the combs are as 

 good a protection as is a division board, especially if fastened to close- 

 fitting frames, or, as in nature, to the side of the hive. To test this 

 matter we used a common division board, a close-fitting empty comb, 

 and a close-fitting comb full of honey These were used successively 

 to confine the bees to one part of the hive and leave a vacant space on 

 the other side. A thermometer was suspended in this empty space 

 and the temperature observed several times daily, and estimates 

 made with reference to the outside temperature. The averages showed 

 no difference with respect to the division board and the empty comb, 

 but did show a slight difference in favor of the comb full of honey. 

 We then used an empty hive, dividing it into three compartments by 

 means of a division board of wood and of empty comb, and again by the 

 use of the wooden board and a full comb of honey, the combs being made 

 equally tight-fitting with the wooden division board. A small lamp 

 was placed in the middle apartment and thermometers in the other 



