WEIGHT OF BEES. 



475 



WHITEWOOD. 



In a nutshell, and speaking in round 

 numbers, we may say that it takes 4800 bees 

 to make a pound ; and that, while 10,000 bees 

 may carry a pound of nectar, twice that 

 number, or 20,000, is probably more nearly 

 the average. During basswood bloom, the 

 first figure should be considered as the near- 

 er correct one because the bees drop down 

 at the entrance; but from almost all other 

 sources of nectar the twenty-thousand mark 

 is the one to accept. 



Let us now look at these interesting fig- 

 ures in another way : A bee can carry half 

 its weight in nectar ; and perhaps, under 

 certain circumstances, a trifle more ; but, 

 generally speaking, one-fourtli its weight is 

 the amount. A single strong colony has 

 been known to bring in a trifle over 20 lbs. 

 of nectar from basswood in one day ; * but 

 usually f'^ur or five pounds is considered a 



the latter of the Ohio Experiment Station, 

 conducted a series of experiments which 

 closely approximate figures of Prof. Coons, 

 so we are sure they are correct. 



WEAK COLONIES, TO STRENGTH- 

 EN. See Uniting, sub-head Alexan- 

 der Plan ; also Nucleus. 



^VHITIiWOOD ( Liriodendron Tulip- 

 ifera). This is often called the tulip-tree, 

 we suppose from its tulip-shaped flowers. 



xlfter writing the foregoing, we concluded 

 we did not know very much about the white- 

 wood, especially the blossoms. So we travel- 

 ed ofE into the woods, where we found a tree; 

 but there were only buds to be seen, not blos- 

 soms. It must be too early in the season; but 

 hark! whence come those sounds of hum- 

 ming-birds and humming beesV Whence, 

 too, that rare and exquisite perfumeV We 



LEAF, BUD, AND BLOSSOM OF THE WHITEWOOD, OR TULIP-TKEE. 



remarkably big day's work. If we figure that 

 there were, say, in the first instance (20 lbs. 

 per day), 8 lbs. of bees, there would be 38,400 

 bees. If 20,000 of these were field-bees (es- 

 timating 10,000 necessary to carry a single 

 pound of basswood nectar), those bees must 

 have made forty trips. On the same basis 

 of calculation, a colony of equal strength 

 that brought in 5 lbs. would make one- 

 fourth as many trips, or an even ten. This 

 would leave for each trip one hour for ten 

 hours ; or, in the case of 20 lbs. a day, twen- 

 ty minutes. 



Both Profs. Gillette and Lazenby, the for- 

 mer of the Colorado Experiment Station and 



* We had one colony tliiit brought in over 4.S lbs. in 

 three days; and Doolittle GO lbs. in the same time 

 from basswood. 



looked higher, and, away in the misty top 

 of the tree discerned, by the light of the set- 

 ting sun, multitudes of bees flitting about. 

 Oh that we were just up there ! We looked 

 at the rough trunk of the tree, and meditated 

 that we were boys no longer, but forty years 

 of age, or would be in a few months more. 

 We might get up to that first limb: after a 

 good deal of kicking and putting, we did. 

 The next was a harder pull yet; but soon the 

 limbs were thicker, and finally we began to 

 crawl upward with about as much ease as 

 our year-and-a-half-old baby goes upstairs 

 whenever she can elude maternal vigilance. 

 Up, up, we went, until, on looking down, we 

 really began to wonder what that blue-eyed 

 baby and her mamma would do should our 

 clumsy boots slip, or a dead limb break un- 



