1 Sepr., 1898.] QUEENSLAND. AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 207 
when fresh the powder has a greyish colour, but by exposure to air and light 
it becomes green. It has little odour, except when powdered, in which case it 
is somewhat balsamic, and when exposed to a temperature of 185 degrees it 
melts and emits an odour somewhat resembling benzoin. Its taste is but 
slight at first, though when chewed it leaves a burning sensation in the throat. 
Tt is readily soluble in alcohol, ether, chloroform, and solutions of the caustic 
alkalies. An alcoholic solution produces a clear blue colour when applied to 
the inner surface of a paring of raw potato. Another excellent test of 
guaiacum is nitric acid ; thus if paper which has been wetted with tincture of 
guaiacum be exposed to the fumes of nitric acid, it speedily becomes blue. 
An allied species, G. sanctum Linn., a tree much resembling G. inal 
is the source of the Lignum Vite, exported from the Bahamas, & Satie aes 
of that shipped from Hayti. (B. and T. Med. Pl.; Lind. Fl. Med.; Kew 
Guide, &e.) : 
Apiculture. 
NOTES FOR BEE-KEEPERS. 
[By Brr-Master in the Farmer and Stock Breeder.] 
DRONES AND THEIR SUPPRESSION. 
Tur “G.O.M.” of American bee-keeping stated, when referring to the 
inordinate quantity of drones found in many apiaries, that if six combs of 
hatching drone brood be put into a fairly strong colony at the commencement 
of the honey-flow, the drones would consume all the honey gathered by the 
workers of that colony and none would be stored as surplus. ‘It is natural,” 
some say, ‘that drones should be produced.’ Quite so, but an unusually 
strong lot of drones in any particular hive may cause the loss of the stock, and 
their very existence is supposed to be that they may take their part in the 
inerease of bee-life and not in its destruction by a mere accident, for such a 
large array of drones very frequently is the result of what may fairly be termed 
an accident, just as we refer to events being caused by the accident of birth. 
AT THE WILL OF THE QUEEN. 
To make the whole matter understood, let me say that the queen, so long as 
there are empty cells for both worker and drone, exercises her own will as to 
whether the eggs she lays should produce a worker (neuter) or a drone (male). 
The eggs to produce workers, which are really undeveloped females or queens, 
are exactly similar in every respect. Before leaving the ege-duct they receive 
a minute portion of fertilising fluid, of which the queen has a certain quantity, 
which cannot be added to; and, therefore, the more eggs the queen lays to 
roduce workers, the shorter becomes her period of usefulness. When, there- 
fore, after depositing worker eggs for the early weeks in the new year, she 
finds vacant drone cells, she economises this valuable fluid, and places in the 
drone cells unfertilised eggs that in due course produce drones, or male bees, 
that are incapable, by their very constraction, to take part in any domestic 
duty whatever. It is often said that drones are very valuable in a bee-hive 
because they create heat. They certainly do that, but at the expense of honey, 
which would be more economically used if consumed by worker bees; they not 
only helped to keep up a normal temperature, but took their turns in the many 
duties which must be carried on by the “ workers ” of a bee-hive. 
