362 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15 



as he needs them and can keep them in, when 

 he so desires. The workers have access to 

 both stories, and fly from their regular en- 

 trance. Having drones he is ready to make 

 swarms, which he does in the old way by 

 taking three frames of brood and bees from 

 strong swarms. 



When I ventured to say that his drones 

 were not well sexed and not natural ones, he 

 shrugged his shoulders and said, "Well, I do 

 him that way ebery year. You go try him. 

 You don't hab believe me; can do it your- 

 self." 



" But your queens and cells will be small, " 

 I said, "from mere nuclei." 



"Oh, no! I make him just so big as I want 

 him," said Ling. 



Here again I engaged him with interroga- 

 tions of how he did and what he meant by 



He says, "I no like any more book, for I 

 make him from my own head" 



He has manuscript piled a foot high in his 

 Chinese hieroglyphics to prove his determina- 

 tion. 



It was late, and a cloudy hour when I pro- 

 posed to photograph him as well as his bees. 

 He readily gave his consent; but his poses 

 are his own. His swarm-catcher, which I 

 failed to see, and from lack of time did not 

 get a full idea of, is made of burlap and 

 wood strips, and he says it is a success. 

 Ling uses no foundation starters in his one- 

 pound section supers, but uses full sheets of 

 foundation in his brood- chambers, and of his 

 own make, I have been informed. He uses 

 bait combs in his outside rows of sections, 

 thereby getting his sections all filled at the 

 same time, so he says. He remarked that 



SAM LING AMONG HIS BEES. 



making large queens. He proceeds as fol- 

 lows, but said that I "must not tell some- 

 body." He takes any small queen cell; and 

 jast before it is capped over he cuts from 

 the opening with a sharp razor as small a 

 piece or strip as he can. The bees then, he 

 says, will build on to this opening, or extend 

 i c the fraction of an inch. When they again 

 start to cap it over he uses the razor again, 

 and even a third time. In this way he gets 

 large cells and correspondingly large and 

 better queens. Again he said, "Don't hab 

 believe me, you can do it. I do it tbery year 

 all time." 



He, like all Celestials, intends to return to 

 his native land; and his hopes now are to 

 * ' heap rich in four more years, and then 

 make one bee book for my own country." 



his customers preferred comb honey not 

 made on foundation sheets or even starters. 



One thing sure, his honey is sought for, 

 and his success as an apiarist is attested by 

 his snug bank account and good credit at 

 home. 



I have given your readers the facts as I got 

 them. Some of his ideas are new to me, 

 but may have been tried and exploded by 

 the older ones of the fraternity. 



Ling has had no experience with foul 

 brood, but believes an ounce of precaution 

 is worth a pound of cure, so he has buried 

 in a near-by mud-hole a sack containing rock 

 salt and sulphur. 



"Some bees there all the time in warm 

 time," he says. "You see, you no let him 

 start you no hab him— all same smallpox." 



