240 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc 



tiiuber, one may do fairly Avell with ten days of L irvcst, even if 

 not a diop of surplus comes from any other source. Its u»u.,'. season 

 is July. 



Buckwheat is the chief source of dark honey. In some locdtious 

 it is (luite reliable, yielding a rich harvest of dark honey, quite 

 strong in taste and smell, while in others it is capricious, failing 

 entirely to yield in some years. The daily yield from buckwheat 

 is only in the forenoon. As it is not usually sown until July, it is 

 classed as a fall honey-plant. 



Fruit bloom and dandelions are important, not because they yield 

 a large amount of surplus, for it is a rare thing to obtain surplus 

 from them, but because they come early in the season to help fill 

 up the hive with brood for young bees that shall be ready for the 

 white honey harvest. 



For the same reason the maples and the different varieties of wil- 

 lows are valuable. 



Kear the last of May the tulip-tree, which is also called whitewood 

 or poplar, puts forth its beautiful flov/ers, which yield much dark 

 honey. 



Space forbids consideration of many other plants of more or less 

 importance as honej'-yielders, among which may be mentioned bone- 

 set or thoroughwort, catnip, cucumber, elm, figwort, ground-ivy, 

 service-berry, locust, mustard, pleurisy-root, pumpkin and sun-ilower. 



noney-dew is a secretion of the aphids or p]ant:lice, which the 

 bees gather from the leaves of hickory and other trees. Some honey- 

 dew is of fair flavor, but generally it is unfit for the table and 

 disastrous to the bees if used for wduter stores. Fortunately, the 

 bees do not care to gather it w-hen better stores are to be had. 



POLLEN. 



Pollen, the fertilizing dust of flowers, is gathered in large quanti- 

 ties by the bees, and although generally little valued by the bee- 

 keeper, is indispensable to the bees. In the spring, if all ])ollen has 

 been removed from the hive, no brood will be found until there is 

 a supply of pollen from the early floAvers, although adjoining colonies 

 may have started brood-rearing in March or February. The nurse 

 bees must have pollen or bee-bread, as it is often called, to prepare 

 the iiaji that is fed to the baby bees. In order to carry pollen from 

 the flowers to the hive, bees pack it in the pollen baskets on their 

 bind legs. Then it is packed in cells at the outer part of the space 

 occujtied by the cluster of bees. The color of pollen varies according 

 to the flowers from which it is taken, as yellow from dandelion and 

 brown from white clover. 



