TJic Country Gcntlcnians Magazine 



153 



^h^ ^jjiarian* 



THE PASTURAGE OF BEES. 



IN his excellent little " Handy Book of 

 Bees," published by the Messrs Black- 

 Avood & Sons, Edinburgh, Mr Pettigrew, 

 makes the following interesting and instruc- 

 tive remarks :-:- 



Crocuses in early spring receive great at- 

 tention from bees. Much pollen and some 

 honey are collected from their flowers. 



In some places there are two kinds of 

 willow (salix) which bear yellow flowers, 

 beautifully conspicuous, in early spring, which 

 are much visited by bees. 



The border hyacinths of our gardens — the 

 same sort as are forced to decorate and scent 

 our conservatories — furnish bees with many a 

 sweet mouthful. 



Single wallflowers — grown largly in some 

 localities for cut flowers and seed — are ex- 

 ■ cellent for bees. 



The flowers of gooseberry and plum trees 

 are super-excellent, yielding honey of the 

 finest quality in great abundance: 



Apple, pear, and currant trees are also of 

 great value to bees, furnishing the bees with 

 rich and large stores of honey. Cherry, 

 peach, and apricot are honey-yielding plants. 

 Field-mustard (sinapis arvensis), which is a 

 weed, superabounding in some districts, fre- 

 quently covering our corn fields with its yellov/ 

 flowers, is an invaluable thing for bees. In 

 Derbyshire this plant is called ketlock, 

 in Lanarkshire it is called skellock, and 

 in Wigtownshire it is termed ranches. Here, 

 in Lancashire and Cheshire, it is called the 

 yellow flower. It continues a long time in 

 flower, and the honey gathered from it is very 

 clear and excellent. The flowers of turnip, 

 cabbage, and all the brassica tribe, are ex- 

 ceeding tempting to bees, and yield them 

 large supplies. 



Field-beans are about as rich in honey as 

 they can be — rich in quantity and rich in 

 quality. There is some mystery as to the 

 means employed to extract it from the flowers 

 of beans, which are tubular in shape, and of 

 considerable thickness. The honey, of 

 course, lies at the bottom of these flowers — 

 deeper than the length of a bee's proboscis. 

 The tubes are pierced or tapped near their 

 bottoms, and through the holes thus made 

 the bees extract much rich pasture. It has 

 been said that bees are unable to pierce the 

 tubes of the flowers, and that the holes are 

 made by humble-bees, which have greater 

 powers. No one can watch humble or earth 

 bees at work in a field of beans, and remain 

 in doubt that they do some work in this way. 

 They do push their trunks through the petals 

 of the flowers with a view to reach the honey ; 

 but the question is, Can bees make holes for 

 themselves, or do they merely make use 

 of the holes made by humble-bees ? Wo. have 

 never seen a honey-bee make a hole through 

 the petal of a bean-flower ; but from the 

 scarcity of humble-bees in some neigtotu:- 

 hoods where bean-flowers are found well 

 pierced, we are ready to believe that the "jem- 

 mies " of our own friends are used for breaking 

 through the thick walls of bean-flowers. 



Maple, sycamore (or plane), and lime trees 

 are of great value to the bee-farmer. Maples 

 are not so abundant in this country as syca- 

 mores and limes. Honey is not distilled 

 from the flowers of the sycamore, but it lite- 

 rally lies on them, and is clammy and sticky 

 to the touch of human hands. Elsewhere we 

 have said that the honey gathered from the 

 flowers of scycamore and gooseberry trees is 

 of a sea-green colour, rich and highly 

 flavoured. 



