BLACK COMBS: The whitest comb will become almost black when used by the bees for brood raising for a season or two. So black combs are all right. Given the choice between new white combs and old black ones, the queen will select the black ones to lay in every time. There is however a limit to the useful age of a brood comb. This limit is fixed by the cocoon matter which gradually accumulates in the cells and eventually so reduces the size of the cells so that they are no longer suitable for brood raising. Eight to ten years is generally conceded to be the useful life of a comb for the brood chamber. After that, they may be used indefinitely for super combs.

HIVE BRANDING: Stealing bees at one time became so common in California that something had to be done about it. So, a law was passed authorizing the State to issue serial numbers to bee men who wished to brand their equipment. Applications should be made to the State Bee Inspector, care of the State Department of Agriculture, Sacramento, California. The number may be cast on a branding iron which is made to clamp on the burner of a tinner's blow torch. In this way it is kept continuously heated. It does the work very fast.

FLIGHT RANGE OF BEES: Many tests have been made to determine the maximum flight of bees. Bees located four miles from the nearest orange grove have been known to store orange honey in moderate quantities. The direction and velocity of the winds are important factors governing bee flight. Natural barriers, such as mountains and bodies of water greatly restrict their radius of action. California bee men, in selecting bee locations, usually consider two miles as the maximum distance that bees will travel with profit to their owners.

QUEEN CANDY: Queen candy is used chiefly for provisioning queen cages and in introducing queens. It is made from starch-free pulverized sugar and honey mixed up into a stiff dough. Set it away for a day or two and then give it the following test. Work it into a ball about the size of an apple. Set it on a plate in a warm room for two hours. If it is the right consistency it will not spread out to more than twice its original diameter. Most pulverized sugar contains three per cent starch and is therefore not suitable. It may be tested by dissolving some of it in water and dropping In a drop of iodine. An indigo reaction indicates the presence of starch. Of course you must be careful to use honey that is known to be absolutely free from disease. The law requires that all candy used in queen cages shipped by mail must not contain any honey. So commercial queen raisers use invert sugar syrup in place of honey. It is sometimes difficult to get the right kind of invert syrup. Honey does as well, or better, provided it is disease free.

CLUSTERING OUT: Bees often form clus ters on the outside of the hive during warm weather, especially if the colonies are strong. This is perfectly normal. It may be relieved by shading the hives with shade boards and by giving more ventilation at the entrance. Pry the brood chamber up a half inch from the bottom and slip in a small block to hold it there. Clustering out during the swarming season is an indication that the colony is strong and preparing to swarm.

SHADE PROTECTION: Once in a great while the California sun gets hot enough to soften the combs so they break loose from the frames and give up their honey. When this happens, the colony perishes quickly. The amount of heat that hives will endure without melting down varies widely, according to the elevation, humidity, etc. New combs melt much easier than old ones. One hundred and ten degrees is considered the danger point, but if the nights are cool it is not necessarily dangerous. Shading the hive removes the danger of melting. In Imperial and Coachella Valleys, the apiaries are covered with a lath shade high enough to work under. Elsewhere in the state, one seldom sees any shade protection, more than a light board cover, two feet square. It is a bad policy to open colonies that are suffering from excessive heat. They seem to lose control of the situation when disturbed.

COMB BUILDING: Beeswax is the secre tion of the wax glands which are located on the underside of the bee's body. It forms in small particles near the apex of the abdomen. These particles are apparently cemented together by the bees to form the comb. Comb building is not a regular activity of the hive.

Combs are built as needed and only when the food supply is ample. Do not expect your bees to work on frames of foundation when there is no nectar coming in or in the fall of the year after the active season is over.

QUEEN CLIPPING: Clipping the wings of the queen so that she cannot fly was once widely practiced. It was advocated as a means of preventing swarming. It does retard swarming, but not for long. Comes the day when the colony is ready to swarm. If the queen is unable to fly, the swarm must return to the hive. They will just try it again the next day and the day after and so on until the swarming cells hatch and then one of the virgin queens will head the swarm and the clipped queen will be ignored. Some bee men still hold this to be an advantage as it gives them warning of what is going on in the hive, and this enables them to apply some form of swarm control.

Queens may be ordered "clipped" by the breeder, or it may be done with a pair of fine scissors. Hold the queen by the thorax between the thumb and forefinger. Carefully clip off one half of the two wings on one side of the body.

ABSCONDING: When a beeman complains of "absconding, " he means that some of his colonies have deserted their hives. Absconding is invariably due to some extremely adverse condition. Bees will often abandon their hive in the face of starvation even though they starve to death while clustering on a bush outside. Excessive summer heat will sometimes cause weak colonies to abscond. The reason seems to be that the colony is unable to control the temperature of the hive by evaporating water and fanning, like normal colonies do, and so give up in despair. Weak colonies that are headed by virgin queens sometimes abandon their hives and fly about the apiary in an aimless sort of way, usually winding up by trying to go into another hive. A fight takes place at once with the result that the invaders are promptly killed. Absconding may be likened to rats deserting a sinking ship. Prevention is the only cure. Bees will never abandon their home until their morale is completely gone. Prevent starvation by feeding and you will eliminate the chief cause of absconding.