478 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1 



threw on the screen a picture of our Mr. War- 

 dell, who has charge of our apiary, in the act 

 of measuring a bee's tongue, and I now show 

 the same thing in half-tone. A queen-cage is 

 shown near the left hand. Between the two 

 hands is a steel rule having hundredths of an 

 inch graduated off on one side. In the left is 

 a pair of tweezers, and in the right a knife- 

 blade. In front of the right hand is a bottle 

 of chloroform and a handkerchief. Mount- 

 ed on a standard, standing directly over the 

 rule, is a magnifjing-glass. 



The cage of bees is chloroformed by putting 

 the spot in the handkerchief, dampened with 

 a few drops of the anesthetic, over the wire 

 cloth. In a minute, more or less, the bees 

 will be " laid out," but still quivering with 

 evidences of life. In this condition the wire 

 cloth is pried back. With the tweezers the 



as fruit-bloom is beginning, they show i-^^^xr- 

 It would appear that the tongues of the bees, 

 in order to show their greatest length, must ' 

 be developed by straimvg to reach the depth 

 of certain flower-tubes. Use has a tendency 

 to develop any organ among the vertebrata, 

 and why should it not in the case of the in- 

 seda ? ! 



And, again, it seems possible and probably 

 that bees that have been sent through the 

 mails will not show as long a tongue-reach as 

 before they started. 



We shall shortly conduct some experiments 

 that will either prove or disprove some of these 

 propositions. 



In the mean time let us not jump to the 

 conclusion that long tongues inevitably mean 

 large crops of honey. We must not forget 

 that long tongues constitute only one factor. 



MR. WARDEI^L MEASURING A BEE'S TONGUE. 



operator takes out one bee, and holds it while 

 the head is removed with the knife-blade. 

 The head is then laid on the steel rule, direct- 

 ly over the hundredths rasr'ks, /ace upwajd. 

 A needle combs out the tongue, which the 

 chloroform has caused to be extended, and 

 lays it carefully in a straight line. The op- 

 erator then counts off the hundredths with 

 the glass, beginning from the end of the 

 tongue and ending at that point at the end of 

 the mandibles. 



A good deal of evidence has come in of late, 

 going to show that the length of tongues of 

 any particular colony of bees varies according 

 to the season, and also according to the age 

 of the bees themselves. Early in the spring, 

 mature bees will show from y|^ to ^f ^ shorter 

 tongue-reach than they will later in the season. 

 Bees that last j ear showed a reach of i%\ dur- 

 ing the height of the honey-flow, early this 

 spring showed only ^V^ and jV^. Now, just 



A tall man has the advantage of seeing over 

 his fellows, and of being able, perhaps, to take 

 longer steps, but he may not be able to ",get 

 there " as soon as his shorter brother, ^..^j,,^,™. 



STRONG COI.ONIES ONI,Y ARE PROFlTABI,E 

 AS HONEY-GATHERERS. 



The buckwheaters do not need to have their 

 colonies in working order till the month of 

 August, and there is no use in having them 

 overflowing with bees in June. Colonies just 

 arriving at their maximum strength at the 

 beginning of the honey-flow will accomplish 

 much more than other colonies having reached 

 that state a month or two sooner. The buck- 

 wheaters would do better to divide the strong 

 colonies in the early part of the season. With 

 doubled stock, and all just coming into their 

 prime, the honey crop can be doubled. 



