27 
season, they are excluded from the hive by the workers, 
and destroyed. This wholesale drone-slaughter extends 
to the whole drone-brood in the hive, which is torn 
from its cells. The time for this drone-slaughter varies 
with the abundance or deficiency of forage ; if wet or 
dry weather causes a deficiency in forage, the killing of 
drones will at once begin, while under an abundant 
supply of forage they are frequently retained until Sep- 
tember, and ancient bee-keepers relied on a good honey 
harvest when the drones were tolerated until late in the 
season. Queenless colonies, however, do retain the 
drones in their hive, even through winter, with the 
hope of obtaining a fertile queen. A stock of bees re- 
taining the drones after all others aae destroyed may be 
noted as having lost its queen. As drones live upon 
pure honey from the hive, but gather none, a large 
number in every hive would be a great loss to the bee- 
keeper ; and as a single one will impregnate a queen for 
life, but few need be reared. Where several colonies 
are kept, a few dozen in each hive would be enough, in 
the aggregate, for the intended purpose. 
The amount of drones can easily be regulated by the 
use of movable-comb hives, for by removing nearly all 
the drone-comb, and having its place occupied by comb 
with worker cells, the over-production of drones is 
prevented ; thus not only the amount of honey usually 
consumed by the drones is saved, but the additional 
number of worker-bees raised instead will greatly aid 
