198 AMERICAN HONEY PLANTS 



The secretion of nectar and the storing of honey are consequently 

 not quite comparable, for the activities of the honey plant are concerned 

 with the first, and the activities of the bee are concerned w^ith the second, 

 though these are largely influenced by what the plant is or is not doing. 

 This must be remembered always when comparing such records of honey- 

 storing as Mr. Strong's careful hive-weighings through a generation, with 

 Mr. Kenoyer's quantitative measurements of nectar secretion. 



Nevertheless, the most favoring conditions of nectar secretion and 

 honey storing agree in a number of respects. Vigorous early development 

 of the plant puts it in condition to do its share of the work best; what- 

 ever conditions may prevail during what for most plants is a very short 

 part of the growing season, when it is in bloom. Vigorous early develop- 

 ment of the hive bears the same kind of relation to the final result. Early 

 honey must be stored before the bees have reached the full strength of 

 the season, which may have something to do with the fact that the bulk 

 of the harvest is gleaned from plants that flower later or continue to 

 flower for a relatively long time. 



Mr. Strong's observations in Iowa show that over half of the net in- 

 crease in honey storage in southern Iowa is made in June, and over four- 

 fifths in June and July. These are the months when the most productive 

 nectar plants flower, and the hives have reached the crest of their specu- 

 lative activity and are undergoing division by that time. 



Physiological studies show that the afternoon temperature for nectar 

 secretion is high — between 90 and 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Observation on 

 the hive shows that its workers are at their active best in moderately 

 hot weather. Mr. Strong's twenty-nine-year average shows that over half 

 cf the average honey for the year is stored when the daily maximum is 

 between 80 and 90 degrees, and nine-tenths of it is stored when the high 

 temperature of the day is between 80 and 90 degrees. Nectar is most 

 abundantly secreted, other conditions being equal, in warm days following 

 cool nights; bees do not seem usually to work more actively on such days, 

 though a record day for heather honey in England began with a frost. 

 Damp air increases the quantity of nectar, as of the expulsion of water 

 through water pores; but dull, rainy weather lessens or stops the activity 

 of the bees. 



Nuptial nectar is secreted chiefly before or during the period of sexual 

 maturity of the flowers. Many, like cotton, golden currant and horse- 

 chestnut, change color as this period of sexual functioning and maximum 

 nectar secretion passes, and ;bees often are quick to catch the signal. Ex- 

 tra-nuptial nectar is secreted in greatest quantity while the near-by flow- 

 ers and foliage of the plant are young. 



Nectar differs from time to time in quality as well as in quantity. In 

 damp weather the increased quantity commonly causes a greater dilution 

 of its content of sugar, and the bees have been shown to store a greater 

 weight of honey several days after a rainy day than immediately following 

 ii. Though the greater part of nectar is water, its essential part, for the 

 bee-man, is sugar, chiefly a mixture of two kinds of sugar, that possess a 

 different molecular arrangement though containing the same number of 



