1902 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



545 



diseases — are ver}' difficult to Icill. Thie 

 bacilli, or the org^anisms produced from the 

 spores, are very easily killed and can be 

 handled by any of the g-ermicides. — Ed.] 



Gekstung saj's the long^-tong-ued bee is 

 an American humbug', the length of tongue 

 depending upon the nourishment during' the 

 period of development. The same colony 

 that in April produced short tong-ues will 

 in June produce long tongues. Another 

 problem for Prof. Gillette. [While the long'- 

 tongued bee is somewhat under the ban, 

 they are by no means a humbug. A few 

 days ago we received a letter from J. D. 

 Fooshe, stating- that some virg^in queens he 

 g-ot of us, and which were reared from our 

 long'-tongued queen that was killed bj^ poi- 

 son, were something- remarkable — remarka- 

 ble for honey, for energ-}^ and for general 

 work. Of course, this does not prove defi- 

 nitely that it was the long tongues that 

 made such results possible. But in our 

 apiary we have so far found that the good 

 workers usually have long-er tongues than 

 the average. While long tongues are not 

 theonly desideratum b\- any means, yet I am 

 confident that the future will prove there is 

 something in them after all. But there 

 may be something in what Gerstung says 

 about tongues being longer at some seasons 

 of the year than at others. While I have 

 found this to be true, the difference is so 

 very slight that one would hardly take ac- 

 count of it. But I should question whether 

 the nourishment had any thing to do with 

 it. We know that our own muscles will de- 

 velop by use. During the height of the hon- 

 ey-flow the bees are constantly straining to 

 reach to the bottom of the deep flower-tubes; 

 and that constant straining might have 

 some effect in developing and elongating 

 tongues slightly. — Ed.] 



"I DID NOT KNOW," quoth ye editor, p. 

 499, "that there was anj^ plan that was a 

 sure preventive of swarming.'" That de- 

 pends a little on our understanding of mat- 

 ters. When a colony has swarmed once, 

 and has no desire for after-swarming, we 

 consider it practically safe from swarming 

 again that year. Any plan that makes it 

 as safe as that I should call "a sure pre- 

 ventive," even if it might not be entirely 

 satisfactory. With that understanding I 

 think there are at least two plans aside 

 from Demaree's. One is to take away all 

 brood about swarming time, and the other 

 is to get the bees to rear a j'oung queen 

 about swarming time. Giving a young 

 queen reared elsewhere will not answer. 

 I've had a swarm issue with a young queen 

 that I had given not a week before, she hav- 

 ing just begun to lay; but when a colony 

 has itself reared a young queen, and that 

 queen has begun to lay, I never knew or 

 heard of such a colony swarming till the 

 next year. Gravenhorst gave this as relia- 

 ble without being able to explain why the 

 young queen must be reared in the hive it- 

 self. [I meant by ' ' sure preventive ' ' a plan 

 that is absolutely infallible. I know there 



are plans that are practically a success; 

 but they have some objectionable features 

 that prevent them coming into general use. 

 In large apiaries it would not be practica- 

 ble for all colonies to have a young queen of 

 their own rearing; neither would it be ad- 

 visable, in the other case, to take all the 

 brood away. Caging the queen is a suc- 

 cess, but it has its objectionable features. 

 Reducing the colon 3^ down below its normal 

 strength will prevent swarming; but a weak 

 colony will not gather honey. After all, is 

 there a general satisfactor}' plan for pre- 

 venting all swarming — even first swarms? 

 The bee- keeping world would give thou- 

 sands of dollars to get hold of a plan by 

 which it could put strong colonies with 

 small brood-nests at out-yards, and leave 

 them there with a reasonable assurance 

 that those colonies would not swarm. I 

 have demonstrated to my own satisfaction 

 that I can control swarming with large 

 brood-nests; but the surplus must be some 

 extracted as well as comb honey. Where 

 one desires to run for comb honey only, it 

 is desirable to have a small brood-nest, and 

 little brood, so that when the harvest is 

 closed there will not be a large force of use- 

 less consumers. 



The wintering problem, I believe, is solv- 

 ed, either the outdoor or indoor plan. Al- 

 though there is much to learn, yet we do 

 •not have the heavy losses we had years ago. 

 But the swarming problem — can we say 

 that is solved? — Ed.] 



^icKiJsrG& 



<i//lOMOU/i NEIGHBORS mLDS. 



Hovering 'twixt life and death — 



'Twixt coronation and the grave. 

 King Edward still maintains the fight, 



With gallant heart and brave. 



The Revue Eclectique says that in the 

 museum in Cairo, Egypt, there may be 

 seen a bee in a sarcophagus, its wings 

 stretched out, its feet stuck fast to the bands 

 enveloping the mummy. The insect proba- 

 bly alighted on the bands just as the ern- 

 balmer was putting on the preserving oil 

 according to the customs of those times. 

 Time has paid great respect to the fine 

 structure of the bee, and it even now seems 

 just ready to fly — a beautiful type of the 

 soul. 



BRITISH BEE JOURNAL. 

 Concerning the value of bee-keepers' as- 

 sociations to bee-keepers themselves, the 

 following editorial in our London contem- 

 porary for June 5 covers the ground so ably 

 that the only condensation of it I care to 

 make is to reprint it in smaller type. It 

 will open the eyes of bee-keepers if any 

 thing will : 



