1901 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



521 



tions should be sent. He is in direct couimunication 

 with the Agricultural College, and will inform Mr. 

 Rankin what is expected of him. We have but $500 

 to use this sea.son; but as the uecessity of the work 

 becomes apparent we shall be able to get more. The 

 disease has an alarming foothold in our State, and it 

 behooves every bee-keeper here to do his whole duty 

 in assisting to exterminate this dread malady. 



Trusting the above will make every thing plain, 

 and save me many personal letters, I am 



Very respectfully yours, 



May 20. Geo. E. Hilton, 



Pres. Mich. State Bee-keepers' Ass'n. 



Just after the above was put in type we re- 

 ceived the following: 



To the bee-keepers of Michigan: — I take this method 

 of informing the bee-keepers concerning a few points 

 in regard to the Michigan foul-brood law. A locality 

 must be reported to the Dairy and Food Commission- 

 er, Lansing, before it can be inspected; and as our 

 funds are limited it would be a great saving if the 

 bee-keepers would work with the Inspector by re- 

 porting all localities where foul brood exists, or 

 where it is thought to exist, as soon as possible. If 

 this is done it will enable the Inspector to plan a trip 

 through the State, and cover the whole territory to be 

 inspected at a much smaller traveling expense. Lo- 

 calities first reported will receive first attention; and 

 those who neglect to report their localities until late 

 will, in all probability, be obliged to wait until next 

 year for assistance. J. M. Rankin. 



COST OF DRONE COMB. 



Probably the majority of bee-keepers dis- 

 courage the presence of much drone comb. 

 Just as probably the majority have a good 

 deal more drone comb than is profitable. The 

 bee-keeper who has supplied his bees with full 

 sheets of worker foundation is not safe for all 

 future time. Here and there a mouse will 

 nibble a hole in a comb in winter, and by one 

 means and another there will be holes that the 

 bees must fill in, which holes will almost in- 

 variably be filled with drone comb. If no at- 

 tention is paid to the matter this will increase 

 from year to year, but the bee-keeper perhaps 

 gives it little thought. If his attention is 

 called to it, he will say, "Yes, there is some 

 drone comb in most of my hives that have 

 comb of any age, but it doesn't amount to 

 much. There isn't an average in each hive of 

 more than enough to fill a pound section." 



Let us figure up the cost of a piece of drone 

 comb of that size — 4 inches square, or 16 

 square inches. Counting 18 cells to the square 

 inch, or 36 for the two sides, 16 square inches 

 will contain 576 drone-cells. Suppose only 

 one brood of drones is reared, and that each 

 drone lives 60 days : what will be the cost of 

 those 576 drones? Taking the estimate that 

 it costs .0141 oz. of honey to rear a drone, and 

 that it consumes .00635 ounce of honey daily, 

 it will consume in 60 days .381 oz. of honey, 

 which, added to the cost of rearing, makes 

 .3951 oz. of honey that each drone costs. Mul- 

 tiply this by 576, and you have 227.5776 oz., 

 or 14.2236 lbs. of honey that it has cost to rear 

 and support the drones from that piece of 

 comb the size of a pound section. 



" But," you say, " I don't stand all that ex- 

 pense, for I slice off the heads of the sealed 

 brood every time I go over them, so I stand 

 only the trifle that it costs to rear them." 



Suppose we figure on that. Multiply .0141 

 by 576, and you have 8.1216 oz. of honey that 

 each slicing has cost you. Remember that 

 this cost has occurred before the cells are 



sealed ; and as fast as you slice off the heads 

 of the brood a fresh lot will be started so long 

 as there is a moderate degree of storing. Sup- 

 pose you begin slicing June 1, and slice every 

 two weeks, iriaking the last slicing July 13. 

 That will make four times, costing you a tri- 

 fle more than 2 lbs. Don't you believe you 

 could go over 25 colonies in a day, cutting out 

 the drone comb and putting patches of work- 

 er comb in place thereof ? That would give 

 you a payment of 50 lbs. of honey for the 

 day's work, to say nothing of the saving in 

 future years. Cut out the drone comb. 



DEEP FLOWER -TUBES — ARE THEY CONFINED 

 TO RED CLOVER ? 



The matter of the depth of the flower-tubes 

 of honey-plants is an unexplored region. "We 

 know that red clover secretes a Kirge amount 

 of nectar, and we know that the tubes are too 

 deep for the tongues of hive bees in general. 

 That is about as far as our knowledge about 

 deep flower-tubes goes. Without having made 

 any investigation, there has come to be a gen- 

 eral belief among bee-keepers that might be 

 formulated in a few words : ' ' All honey-plants 

 have flower- tubes of such depth that bees can 

 get all the nectar from them with the single 

 exception of red clover." Red clover is set 

 off in a class all by itself. Why is that belief 

 so general ? What ground is there for it ? 



Suppose one lived on a barren rock, who 

 "knew nothing of the vegetable world except 

 by reading, and were told that some speci- 

 mens of the vegetable kingdom grow to a 

 height of 100 feet, and some are but an inch in 

 height. Would he at once conclude that eve- 

 ry plant less than 100 feet is only an inch 

 high ? Would he not be more likely to think 

 that there might be specimens at different 

 heights all the way from an inch to 100 feet? 

 Why should he not judge the same way about 

 flower-tubes ? 



We know there are flower-tubes within easy 

 reach of bees, and we know of at least one 

 kind beyond their reach. Why should we 

 not expect to find every shade of length be- 

 tween the two ? 



These thoughts were suggested by the fol- 

 lowing, from Dr. C. S. Phillips, Waco, Texas, 

 in Southland Queen: 



At this writing they are bringing in some honey 

 from primrose. The country is a beautiful carpet of 

 it. We have examined it, and find that it secretes a 

 great deal of nectar ; but the shank is long, and the 

 bees' tongues are too short to get much. So you see 

 we need long-tongued bees. 



In this case it seems that a large quantity of 

 nectar is secreted, but the bees can reach only 

 a portion of it. Is there any reason to believe 

 that such honey-plants are confined to Waco, 

 Texas ? Is it not possible that there may be in 

 most places, if not everywhere, some honey- 

 plants with flower-tubes entirely beyond the 

 reach of ordinary tongues, some with such 

 tubes that only a small part of the nectar can 

 be obtained, some in which occasional tubes 

 are too deep, and some from which all the 

 nectar can be easily gathered ? 



It would be unwise to make dogmatic asser- 

 tions ; but there may be nothing criminal in 



