44 
BEE-CULTURE. 
danger of being stung now than there is at other sea- 
sons of the year); with a light hammer rap on the hive and 
the bees will all in a few minutes enter the upper bivo. 
Now set the hive with the bees on the usual stand, and pro- 
ceed to get out the old combs. The bees may then be run 
back into their hive as in hiving a swarm, or invert the hive 
containing the bees and set the one they had been in on top 
of it, and leave them standing thus until the next morning; 
against this time the bees will have all gone into the upper 
hive. 
REMOVING DRONE COMBS. 
It is often advisable to break out a portion of the drone 
combs when a colony produces too many drones. From a 
great many of my hives all the drone combs have been re- 
moved. It is poor economy to have a colony rearing a great 
horde of drones to eat honey instead of workers to make it, 
since a half dozen hives may raise enough for a whole neigh- 
borhood, and we know of no use for them except as a male 
bee, except it would be a few in each hive for the sake of 
company. When drone combs are broken out they frequent- 
ly build the same kind in their place. If a movable comb 
hive be used when such a comb is taken out, a piece of empty 
worker comb may be fitted iu its stead. In this way a hive 
can forever alter be prevented from rearing drones, as they 
will have no cells suitable lor rearing them in. Small or me- 
dium sized hives have much less drone combs than large 
ones. 
TOOLS FOR CUTTING COMBS. 
Two tools for cutting combs can bo made by any black- 
smith. They are convenient for cutting combs out ot hives 
or honey out of honey boxes. To make a tool for cutting 
down the sides of the hive, take a three-eighths inch rod of 
steel, two feet long. Bend about two inches of the end of 
this at right angles, making a thin blade, both edges sharp, 
the side to go next to the hive flat, the other side beveled ; this 
tool may be called the verticle. 
Another tool, called the horizontal, is made in the same 
manner, except that the blade is made to lie flat on the bot- 
