14 



GLEANINGSVIN BEE CULTURE 



Jan. 1 



LEWIS P. TANTON'S APIARY IN PRINCE EDWARD'S ISLAND. 



any of them took flight in the cage they 

 struck the screen and fell to the bottom 

 where they clustered together to keep warm. 



This method of advertising is just the kind 

 that pays, and, in my opinion, it is worth 

 ten times the cost of any other kind. After 

 a sensation is created, no one talks about 

 the purity of the honey or questions the 

 price. If people like honey at all, it is nec- 

 essary only to show that you are the "hon- 

 ey-man, " and prove it by exhibiting the pic- 

 ture of the float. 



I have never yet been afraid to tell others 

 about bees for fear they would go into the 

 business for themselves. The fact is, most 

 people are afraid of the stings; and unless 

 they are so interested that they stay up 

 nights to read and study, they make a fail- 

 ure in the beginning, and quit. Then if, by 

 chance, one happens to master the situation, 

 he will soon find out that overstocking is a 

 bad thing, and he will buy out some bee- 

 keeper or seek an unoccupied territory. 



Chih, N. Y. 



THE EFFECT OF COLOR ON BEES. 



The Strongest Colonies Found in Blue 

 Hives. 



BY LEWIS P. TANTON. 



I was interested in the article on page 543, 

 Sept. 1, covering experiments as to the pref- 

 erence of bees for particular colors. Wheth- 

 er or not they have any particular tastes along 

 this line I will not undertake to determine. 

 That blue hives, under certain conditions, 

 are more profitable than white, I must admit 

 that I entertain very strong and perhaps 

 well-grounded suspicions. Being rather 



cramped for room I hnve had to keep my 

 hives very close to each other. In order to 

 prevent confusion of the bees in recognizing 

 their homes I have all my hives painted al- 

 ternately white and blue. I find a tendency 

 to be that they work stronger, both in bees 

 and honey, in the blue hives. 



In 1908 I chanced upon a fairly good evi 

 dence in this direction. June 13th I placed 

 a three-frame nucleus in a white hive, and 

 on the same day a two-frame nucleus in a 

 blue hive, both upon the same stand, not two 

 feet from each other. The white hive gave 

 me about 80 lbs. of surplus honey and one 

 natural swarm, on Aug. 16. My two-frame 

 blue hive produced over 100 lbs. of surplus 

 honey, also one colony, by division July 28, 

 and a natural swarm Aug. 15. But some one 

 will answer, "One of your queens was su- 

 perior to the other." This is also true; but 

 the poorest queen, as shown by after-per- 

 formance, was in the blue hive. This year 

 I have had to feed her and all her increase 

 to fit them for their winter rest, with the one 

 exception of the daughter remaining in the 

 old blue parent hive, which is full of her 

 own honey and bees, and in good wintering 

 condition. All her other stock are in white 

 hives. On the other hand, the queen in the 

 three frame white hive and all her progeny 

 have turned out to be prolific layers and 

 princely workers — the best in my garden 

 From one of her daughters in a blue hive I 

 have this season taken more honey and more 

 brood than from any other two hives in my 

 apiary combined. This queen I lost by acci- 

 dent early in the season; but every one of 

 her issue nas given me a fair surplus of hon- 

 ey and an increase, in spite of a very poor 

 honey season. 



My apiary has a sheltered and shaded loca- 



