1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



661 



A VISIT TO SAM LING'S BEE-RANCH. 



The Only Chinese Bee Specialist in California, 



and Probably the Only Ore 



in the World. 



BY TRANSIENT. 



Hearing of Sam Ling, the bee-rancher (all 

 apiaries in California are bee- ranches), the 

 Chinaman who produces honey by tons; he 

 who could increase his bees in winter and 

 get the first honey- flow as early as May; of 

 the Celestial who, rumor said, was producing 

 large queens from every queen-cell started; 

 of the oriental who has drones the year 

 round for emergencies; of the "pig-tail" 

 who never loses a swarm of bees with his 

 own invention, a swarm- catcher; of the 

 foreigner from the Flowery Kingdom whose 

 perfect, straight comb- honey sections were 



for business, for Sam Ling attends to his 

 business— the production of comb honey. 



Instead of a "pig- tailed Celestial" we 

 met a man who greeted us in fair English, 

 and made us welcome to his home made with 

 his own hands from timber growing near by. 



Our time being limited to one day we 

 made our business known to Mr. Ling, and 

 soon had him in his apiary, where the first 

 thing noticed was quite a commotion in front 

 of two or three hives in different parts of 

 his apiary. All other swarms were remark- 

 ably quiet, for it was a cool day, and as late 

 as two o'clock. 



* ' What is the meaning of the excitement 

 there?" 1 asked of Ling. 



" Some queen fly to- day," he said. 



" What are queens out for to day?" I ask- 

 ed. "There is no honey coming in, and no 

 swarms are coming on, surely, thus early." 



SAM ling's bee-ranch. 



produced without foundation starters; of the 

 ■'yellow peril" whose quantities of honey 

 would overstock our markets, made the 

 writer determined to seek out this Asiatic 

 apiarist and learn for himself and Gleanings 

 readers the truth or fiction of Dame Rumor. 

 Early in January after a long ride by buck- 

 board over hills and through vales, yet fol- 

 lowing the shores of the Pacific for fully 

 twenty miles, we found it necessary, in reach- 

 ing our destination, to push on by trail. So 

 a mustang (a Mexican horse) was procured, 

 and we pushed on boldly from the ocean, 

 back into the Coast Range Mountains, some 

 I leven miles to where our foreign bee- rancher 

 was. supposed to be located. Suddenly we 

 came upon a clearing in the mountain vast- 

 ness, and, to our surprise, found before us, 

 not an ordinary California bee-ranch, but a 

 veritable up- to- date apiary. Yes, here, hun- 

 dreds of miles from a factory, and miles 

 from a road, we saw well-made, well paint- 

 ed Dovetailed hives, all leveled and in shape 



"Yes," said Ling, "I make more bees 

 (swarms) ebry day now." 



"But you can't do that now, Mr. Ling; 

 you have no drones at this season of the 

 year. Your queens will be no good." 



"Oh! you no sabe him" (Ling talks a mix- 

 ture of Spanish, English, and Portuguese). 

 "I make him drones one month ago; keep 

 him in those big hives over there." 



Interested beyond our imagination I pro- 

 ceeded to question him about the business. 

 He is not up-to-date in bee terms, and it was 

 very hard to get a good understanding of his 

 procedure. As nearly as I can understand, 

 and from an examination of his drones, they 

 are the product of fertile workers. He 

 makes several swarms queenless, and then 

 waits for fertile workers to appear, when he 

 puts the frames of brood, bees, and all over 

 a strong colony, with a queen and drone ex- 

 cluder between the stories. In this way, 

 with an entrance in the rear of the upper 

 story, he lets fly his drones at such times 



