Nov. 24, 1904. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



791 



grown there in immense quautities, somewhat as alfalfa is 

 grown in the irrigated plains of the West. It was in Gati- 

 nais that the custom of inverting hives began, in order to 

 secure the largest possible iiuantity of honey from the bees, 

 regardless of future conseijiiences. For that reason the 

 bee-keepers of Gatinais were compelled to replenish their 

 apiaries every season with bees brought from away, as their 

 only aim was to secure the largest possible quantity of sain- 

 foin honey during the short period of its bloom, and many 

 of their bees perished during the following winter. 



Although sainfoin has already been tried in the United 

 States with unfavorable results, I believe it is worth while 

 to try it again, especially in the countries where the alfalfa 

 succeeds well. It might prove a useful honey-plant. 



We must, however, not close our eyes to the fact that 

 honey- plants do not yield honey in the same proportion in 

 all localities. White clover, which is the source of so large 

 a crop of white honey in this country, is absolutely useless 

 as a honey-producer in some other countries. Edouard Ber- 

 trand, the editor of the Revue Internationale, told me posi- 

 tively that there never had been any white clover honey 

 harvested in Switzerland by any of his friends, although it 

 is quite common in the Swiss meadows. 



The Caucasian Prickley Comfrey, introduced years ago 

 in America by Arthur Todd, as a very profuse producer of 

 honey, has been tried and cast away in disgust. No bees 

 are even seen upon its blossoms in this section of the coun- 

 try. The Echinops spherocephalus, " Chapman honey- 

 plant ", has proven a fake, after having been in such demand 

 that its seed was selling at $5 per pound. 



While I was in Swizerland I was shown a plant which 

 had been nicknamed the "Bee's Bar-Room" — "cabaret 

 des abeilles " — because bees were constantly upon its bloom 

 without securing any results. 



The goldenrod, so highly prized for its honey in New 

 England is of no value on the shores of the Mississippi as j 

 a honey-plant, in Illinois at least, for neither I nor any of 

 my friends interested in bees have ever noticed the bees 

 securing any surplus from it. 



We must, therefore, be very cautious in recommending 

 a plant as a honey-producer, unless it has been thoroughly 

 tested. But in the case of the sainfoin, if it can be grown 

 at all, there is no risk to run of its causing any loss of time 

 or money, for its yields as a producer of " healthy hay " 

 would be sufficient to recommend it to the farmers of the 

 land. 



Such plants, however, as the Prickley Comfrey and the 

 Echinops would better be left out entirely, for they are 

 noxious weeds not even fit for cattle to consume. A plant 

 which is useful to the farmer is acceptable at any time, but 

 a weed which cattle will refuse ought not to be grown for 

 honey-production. Hancock Co., 111. 



Bees in Jamaica— Other Subjects. 



BY ROBERT WEST. 



I HAVE been very busy preparing for the perishing sea- 

 son (hard times, as the natives call it), from September 

 to December; yet stole time enough to look over the 

 "Old Reliable", to see how the rest of the bee-world is 

 moving. 



We may not profess to be vain, and may even repudiate 

 the idea, yet all seem to like to be noticed, and probably no 

 one but a luna wishes to talk while nobody gives attention. 

 Your " comi-critic " has cast a glance across to Jamaica; 

 and while we have much to thank him for, not only in the 

 little whipping up, but in calling our attention to many 

 good things from others, which, in our haste, we have over- 

 looked ; yet he is getting \.oo Hasty, or he would not call 

 those few rays from this island " brilliant ". I wish he 

 would come to live here awhile, where we have not only the 

 little "fire-flies" from the North, but huge "lightning 

 bugs " one to two inches long, with eight electric lamps 

 around each eye, which, when the current is turned on, 

 light up their course for several yards ahead, and they dart 

 through the air like meteors. 



When I came here even the stars seemed four times as 

 numerous, and four times the magnitude, so that starlight 

 was as moonlight ; and when the moon cast in her reflec- 

 tions we could sit on the lawn and read without a lamp, and 

 the bees would come as if to see if we were eating comb 

 honey ; and ere daybreak the blooming thorn-bush sang, 

 '■The hum of the bees 

 In the logwood trees ". 

 But when that great luminary " Sol" arose from his 

 slumbers, and. with face unveiled, peeped over the moun- 



tains down the western slope at us, we looked up and said 

 " that is beautiful ", and stood watching the everchanging 

 scene of light and shade as he searched the green herbage 

 on each hillock and along each ridge and valley till, with 

 feeling of rapture, we exclaimed " this is grand !" and both 

 we and our little workers toiled away. We enjoyed his light 

 till about 10 o'clock, when the magnificence of his glory be- 

 came so great we could not look up at his brilliant face, and 

 the beams came through this clear atmosphere so forcibly 

 that both the bees and we sought shelter, some of them 

 under the hives, while others wore their wings out fanning 

 to keep their combs from melting, and their mother, with 

 her young babes, from suffocating ; and in a common box, 

 without glass top, we saw our fragments of comb turning 

 into cakes of wax. Even our "red" wax was bleached white. 



COLOR OF WAX. 



Pure wax, as made by the bees, I always thought was 

 white till I came here, and saw that while some colonies 

 were building white combs, others beside them built yellow. 

 The cause I know not. Perhaps some of the readers can in- 

 form us. In the North, where cattle were confined in stalls 

 and fed to grossness, the fat of some was yellow, when 

 others from the same stable dressed white. The former, 

 some epicures said, was the better meat — more juicy, sweet, 

 and enjoyable ; while some pathologists said this color was 

 caused by bile, and this meat was not fit for food. Now is 

 the color of bee-fat caused by the color of pollen each colony 

 is in the habit of dining upon, or are some colonies 

 " bilious "7 



FEEDING OF ODEENS AND DRONES. 



Queens, as well as drones, feed themselves. We have 

 done a little more " trifling ", watching numerous drones 

 feed not from flowers but combs, and one day I uncapped 3 

 queen-cells about hatching, and put the young queens at 

 open cells of nectar. Two drank a few moments, the other 

 a quarter of a minute. It looks like the suggestion of your 

 correspondent, " that they are only seeking drink", may be 

 true, for there is a surplus of royal jelly, but no juice, in the 

 cell after the queen emerges. 



A worker seemed to ofi'er food to the one that drank so 

 much, which she refused. After the third refusal it handled 

 her roughly a few seconds when she reciprocated a moment 

 and was allowed to go in peace. 



YOUNG QUEENS IN DRONE-CELLS. 



In the midst of drone-comb was one cell built horizontal, 

 but a little longer than the surrounding ones. The cap got 

 rubbed off and a young queen was extracted whose abdo- 

 men was folded under the thorax ; otherwise she seemed 

 perfect, and the bees might have cut away the cell and let 

 her out. But how came this queen-larva here — by the 

 mother laying, porters carrying, nurses feeding and hous- 

 ing, or how 7 



QUEENS WITH RUDIMENTARY WINGS. 



We have seen 2 queens born with only rudimentary 

 wings, and could not fly. Full sisters in adjacent cells are 

 all right. What is the cause 7 Their mother was bought 

 from a breeder who has practiced clipping for years. Could 

 such malformation by art in time cause " sports " to be 

 produced by Nature 7 Will mating in confinement become 

 a necessity with the " scientific" queen-breeder 7 



QUEENS' OUTINGS AFTER LAYING. 



The actions of young queens were watched in a small 

 nuclei with about a handjul of bees each. Of six, 2 were 

 absent at midday after laying. A few days later one had 

 not returned ; the other had layed some more eggs and was 

 again absent. A few days later she, too, had not returned. 

 Now their final disappearance is easily accounted for in this 

 country where they have so many bird, reptile, and insect 

 enemies, but how about the one returning and laying 

 fresh eggs ? Again, from another set of large nuclei, where 

 queens were put to mate, some were missing. Later we 

 found some of these in hives that were queenless and in 

 colonies that had superseded their queens, preferring these. 

 They were imported stock, and no other bees on the island 

 like them. It looks like young queens, like drones, were 

 free commoners. 



Again, to make room for an imported Cyprian, we took 

 a golden queen from her hive with two combs and a few 

 bees. A week later, in looking up our Cyprians, we found 

 the golden, although her bees were still in the nucleus 

 where the two combs were put with her. It 5^f>«i she had 

 gone out alone, and on her return went to the old hive. 

 Does Nature keep in working order muscles without exer- 



