296 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 1 



from long-tongued stock will be duplicates of 

 their mothers. The young queen may have 

 been mated to a drone whose bees would be of 

 the short-tongued kind. 



It is only proper to sound a note of warning 

 that the general bee keeping public must not 

 be disappointed if they get some untested 

 queens that do not come up to thtir expecta- 

 tions. The breeder who sells an untested 

 mother of long-reach stock sells her for just 

 what she is — a queen that has not yet been 

 tested. If none of her bees have hatched, 

 there is no possibility of knowing what the 

 length of her bees' tongues will be. 



Again, we are not positively sure that the 

 amount of honey a colony will gather is in di- 

 rect proportion to the length of the tongues of 

 its bees. There have been a number of re- 

 ports that seem to point that way ; but this 

 season's experiments may show that the yield 

 of honey is dependent on some other impor- 

 tant characteristic. In any case, let's not lose 

 our heads. 



Unfortunately, the buying of queens, even 

 from the best of breeders, is something of a 

 lottery ; but if one will pay enough, and get 

 tested s:ock, he then has some reasonable as- 

 surance of getting what he orders. The A. I. 

 Root Co. will, if desired, sell tested queens 

 whose bees will have a tongue reach of a cer- 

 tain specified length — the longer the reach, 

 the higher the price, of course ; and I have no 

 doubt that other breeders will do the same, 

 providing they learn how to measure the bees' 

 tongues, or get some one who knows how to 

 do it for them. We will undertake to mea- 

 sure the tongues of any bees of our subscrib- 

 ers for ten cents per cage of one dozen bees. 

 Our Mr. Robert G. Calvert, who does the 

 measuring, very rarely knows whose bees he 

 is measuring. He brings in his report, and I 

 send it out just as I get it from hmi. Some- 

 times I measure the bees m)'self , but more oft- 

 he does it. 



OLD BLACK COMBS AND HOW TO RENDER ; 



THE USE ."i-ND ABUSE OF THE SOLAR 



WAX-EXTRACTOR. 



Owing to the prevalence of brood diseases 

 in many localities, such as foul brood, black 

 brood, and pickled brood, many bee-keepers 

 have been casting about for some simple, ef- 

 ficient, and reliable method by which old 

 combs, diseased or of doubtful infection, may 

 be safely and economically rendered, at the 

 same time getting all the wax out. Else- 

 where in this issue I have presented the very 

 latest and best methods that have been in 

 vogue, not only in this but other countries as 

 well. 



In every apiary, besides combs that are pos- 

 sibly infected there are scores and scores of 

 crooked combs, combs with a large number of 

 drone-cells, combs that have been disfigured 

 from csll-cutting, and combs that to some 

 may be too old to get a really nice article of 

 extracted honey, or too old to get full-sized 

 bees. While I believe this last statement is 

 erroneous, yet there are some who believe in 

 , and for that reason would prefer to melt 



up all such. It comes to pass, then, that, in 

 every well-regulated apiary, in the course of 

 a few years there will be a very large per- 

 centage of old combs that for one reason or 

 another ought to be rendered up. To put 

 these in the solar wax extractor is a long job^ 

 and necessarily wasteful in its results, for 

 sun heat will get only a part of the wax out 

 of such combs, as I know by experience. We 

 could put them through the solar machines 

 and afterward put the refuse into steam wax- 

 presses, or we could put them in boiling wa- 

 ter, pressing out afterward, a la Gemmill. 

 But better, tar better, not use the solar wax- 

 extractor for old combs at all. Such machines 

 are useful only in the handling of new wax, 

 like burr-combs and new combs. W^hile we 

 still sell solar wax-extractors, and are glad to 

 see the sale increase, yet it is only fair to say 

 that their use is limited. For the handling of 

 old black combs, steam or hot water, and a 

 good p)ess, should be used — otherwise there 

 will be an enormous waste. Mr. Ferris gives 

 a set of figures in favor of a press that are 

 something of an eye-opener ; and from some 

 tests we have made here at the Home of the 

 Honey-bees I do not believe his figures are 

 very far out of the way. 



THE NEW CALIFORNIA FOUL-BROOD LAW. 



While the bee-keepers of Michigan have 

 been and are nov/ working for a foul-brood 

 law, the bee-keepers of California, through 

 their State Bee-keepers' Association, have not 

 been idle. A year ago the California State 

 Bee-keepers' Association, writes Mr. Mclntyre^ 

 appointed a committee to draft a new bill for 

 the suppression of foul brood. This was done, 

 and a copy sent to every bee-keeper in the 

 State, with the request to either see or write his 

 Senator and Assemblyman, asking their sup- 

 port. The bill was placed in the hands of the 

 Hon. Robert M. Clark, of Ventura Co., who, 

 although a man only 21 years old, yet, on ac- 

 count of his energy and ability, was thought 

 to be the man to see the measure through. 

 The bill passed the House, but the Senate pro- 

 posed to amend it ; but Mr. Clark, on being 

 informed that the bee-keepers opposed the 

 amendment, insisted, even at the risk of de- 

 feating the bill, on its passage just as it came 

 from the House. The Senate receded, and 

 the bill became a law without amendment. 



This law provides for county inspectors, who 

 shall be appointed by the Board of Supervi- 

 sors, and who shall receive $3.00 a day and ex- 

 penses. In this respect the measure is very 

 similar to the one now in force in Michigan,, 

 and which it is intended to repeal, substitut- 

 ing the proposed law providing for a State in- 

 spector. It was found in Michigan that the 

 county law was largely inoperative, as no one 

 felt personally responsible for ferreting out 

 the disease wherever it might exist. But we 

 must remember that the counties in California 

 are as large as some of our Eastern States, 

 and what might not be operative for Michi- 

 gan would be just the thing for California. 

 According to the California law there is no 

 limit to the funds that may be used for the 



