290 
Annual Report of the 
poses in the hive, and are armed with stings to defend the commun¬ 
ity. The drones are like some of the human family, eating much 
and doing little; hence, when the drone season is over, the work¬ 
ers kill the drones or drive them out to starve. If the workers make 
a mistake and form too many drone-cells, the drones will sometimes 
be so numerous as to eat the honey as fast as the workers can pro¬ 
cure it; but by the improved method of bee-keeping, in the use of 
movable frames, the drone can be removed, and comb for raising 
workers inserted in its place. In fact the whole breeding department 
can be regulated in the same manner. The wax is produced for build- * 
ing comb in which to store the honey and pollen and for the deposit 
of eggs. 
The workers which produce the wax do nothing else. The wax 
exudes from their bodies in scales; is a costly matter in the way of 
time for the bees, as only in the honey-season can they make one 
pound of wax, while they can procure twenty pounds of honey. 
Dr. Kirtland says they consume twenty-five pounds of honey to pro¬ 
ducing one pound of comb. Pollen, or bee-bread, is gathered from, 
and is the fertilizing dust of flowers. The color and quality varies 
with the different plants. It is never stored in drone-cells but used 
to feed the young in early spring before flowers appear. If flour of 
rye is placed near the hives, the bees will obtain from it a similar 
substance, and are stimulated to brood early in the spring. Each 
swarm will profitably use two pounds of flour before vegetation is in 
bloom. 
Bee-keeping has been so simplified, the science has been reduced 
to such an art, that any one who chooses can keep bees and manage 
them well, and the land described as flowing with milk and honey 
can be realized in Wisconsin, and honey become abundant for home 
use and profit in the market. 
Honey in clear white comb, still commands the highest price, but 
is not the most profit to the producer or consumer. By a cheap 
aparatus the honey is driven from the comb by centrifugal force 
without injuring the comb, and the entire comb restored to the 
hive to be refilled, and in the best of the honey-season can be suc¬ 
cessfully done every third or fourth day. Those who eat honey in 
the comb also eat the wax which is indigestable and unwholsome, 
which is not the case in the use of extracted honey. By this pro¬ 
cess we can have clover, linden, or buckwheat hone}' as we choose; 
