72 
DR. MILLER'S 
comb or comb-foundation, only it will be easier to do it in spring, 
when the comb is empty. 
Q. Do you think bees will rear workers if shaken in a hive 
with a queen, in a full set of all drone-combs? 
A. I tried that once, and the bees wouldn’t stay; swarmed out. 
In other cases, where there was an excess of drone-comb, they 
reared an excess of drones*; but in some cases they narrowed 
the mouths of the drone-cells and reared workers. 
Drone-Eggs.— Q. How can I get the queen that I want, to lay 
drone-eggs? If I give drone-comb they rear workers just the 
same. 
A. A little before harvest time, strengthen the colony by 
giving it additional scaled brood from other colonies, and if there 
is drone-comb in the brood-nest she’ll lay in it. 
Drone-Layer*.— Q. Does an old queen ever get so she will lay 
only drone-eggs? 
A. In many cases the contents of the spermatheca become 
exhausted, which will be shown by part of the brood hatching 
out of worker-cells as drones, finally there being only drones. 
Drone-Trap.— Q. I have a drone-trap or swarm-guard. I don’t 
have any success with it. How should I use it, and why should I 
catch the drones? 
A. A drone-trap attached to the entrance catches the drones 
as they attempt to leave the hive, when you can maltreat them 
in any way you wish. The intention generally is thus to sup- 
press the drones of the poorer colonies, leaving the chances in 
favor of having your virgin queens fertilized by drones from 
your best colonies. In the same way you may catch the queen of 
an issuing swarm, should one issue when you are not present, 
thus preventing the swarm from going off with the queen, and 
allowing you to remove the brood and leave the swarm with the 
queen. But this does not settle matters, for the bees may go on 
swarjning so long as the queen is with them, and when a young 
queen emerges from her cell the bees will swarm again, and if 
the young queen is prevented from going out with a swarm she 
will also be prevented from going out to be fertilized, and then, 
if she lays at all, she will be a drone-layer. 
Drone-traps should be used only in extraordinary circum- 
stances, and are rarely used by practical beekeepers. 
Drone*.— Q. At what time do bees begin to rear drones? 
