GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jax. 1. 



niense crop of honey may be gathered. Scarcity 

 of bloom is no indication that there will be no 

 honey crop. 



Some seasons are a great deal better than 

 others. In California we depend to a great ex- 

 tent on the amount of rainfall for the abundant 

 secretion of nectar. In irrigated alfalfa dis- 

 tricts the secretion of nectar is about the same 

 one year with another. 



Some plants yield honey every season, some 

 every other season; and, again, some once 

 every three or four yeais. Among this latter 

 we may mention the locust: the apple- blossom 

 yields nectar only about once every third sea- 

 son; holly, every other season: manzanita and 

 the sages, every other season, although the 

 manzanita yields a little honey every season, 

 enough to start them to building comb pretty 

 lively. The wild cofl'ee. so far as my experience 

 goes, yields about as much nectar one season as 

 another. 



There are some seasons when every plant, 

 tree, and shrub seems to yield an abundance of 

 honey. We frequently hear the following: 

 "Mr. A. never had a better honey crop: every 

 thing is filled to completion; hives running over 

 with bees." Mr. B., but a few miles away, 

 reports bees on the verge of starvation; will 

 have to feed them all unless prospects change. 



Now, why this wonderful difference? Some 

 seasons bee-flowers in certain localities yield 

 nectar profusely, and the next season very 

 sparingly. The chances are that the next 

 season Mr. B. will have the big honey ci'op and 

 Mr. A. will not do half as well with his bees. 



In regard to the proliticness of nectar secre- 

 tion in bee flowers on the Great American 

 Desert, it is certain that the more fiery portions 

 of it tend to dry all the moisture from the air; 

 and this moisture produces that favorable at- 

 mospheric influence necessary to the secretion 

 of nectar. 



Still, perchance the soil plays a prominent 

 part in nectar secretion. Most of the desert 

 soil lacks a certain per cent of humus, or vege- 

 table mold, and is best supplied to this soil by 

 turning in a crop of alfalfa or sweet clover. 



Sweet clover is beginning to be considered an 

 excellent forage and honey plant, and is also 

 very valuable for enriching alkali soils. In 

 Utah and Nevada it flourishes without the 

 least care and attention, and year by year it 

 is steadily increasing the fertility of the land. 

 It is stated by good authority, that a good deal 

 of lioney that is accredited with being gathered 

 from alfalfa is in reality gathered from sweet 

 clover. In Calfornia, white and red clover do 

 not amount to any thing as honey-plants. The 

 climatic influences here are not favorable for 

 honey secretion, as in the Eastern States. 



I once sent to A. I. Root and obtained a few 

 small packages of the seeds of honey-producing 

 plants. The seven-top turnip, Simpson honey- 

 plant, and spider flower, all came up and grew 

 well, and in time bore a profusion of bloom. 

 The seven-top turnip blossomed at a time when 

 a multitude of superior honey-bloom predomi- 

 nated, and, of course, was neglected by the 

 bees. The Simpson honey-plant blossomed at 

 a favorable season of the year, but attracted no 

 bees. The cleome, or spider-flower, was a de- 

 cided success. Every morning, from the interi- 

 or of each flower depended a small crystal ball 

 of nectar, and it was music to the bee-keeper's 

 ears to hear and watch thfe bees as they hum- 

 med and quivered around these scented blos- 

 oms with their crystal sweets. 



A Southern California bee-keeper sent to 

 Cuba and obtained the seeds of the great Cuba 

 honey-plant, the bellflower. The plants flour- 

 ished well in this climate, but were a failure as 

 regarded nectar secretion. 



In California, honey-plants yield best when 

 the temperature i^egisters about between 80 to 

 90°. Cold winds are very unfavorable for honey 

 secretion; but the warm winds bring the right 

 temperature and atmospheric conditions. 



When the unfavorable winds are blowing, 

 bees are very vindictive and cross, and difficult 

 to manage; but let the winds change, and in a 

 marvelously short time bees are remarkably 

 gentle and quiet. 



Taken all in all, the laws governing the 

 secretion of nectar are somewhat shrouded in 

 mystery; but in due time they will all be clear- 

 ed up. S. L. Watkins. 



Grizzly Flats. Cal. 



BEE-ESCAPES. 



THE I'RINCIl'LES OF THE PORTER AND OF OTH- 

 ERS COMPARED: THE TIME REQUIRED 

 TO RID BEES OF A SUPER. ETC. 



In Stray Straws for Nov. 1, Dr. Miller asks: 

 ■• Will an escape make quicker work in daytime 

 or at night?" 



With your permission. Mr. Editor, I will try 

 to answer Dr. Miller's inquiry: and. for the 

 benefit of all parties concerned, give some of 

 the details of the experiments with bee-escapes, 

 and the facts gleaned thereby. 



Many of the readers of Gleanings remember 

 that the writer had the pleasure of testing 

 what has proven to be the only practical and 

 convenient bee-escape now before the public 

 (the Porter spring bee-escape), before it was 

 placed upon the market. All the forms of es- 

 capes known at that time were tried, and all, 

 except the one so widely known now. from the 

 defects of the little machines or the peculiar 

 habits of the bees, proved to be unsatisfactory. 

 The spring escape was tried in all conceivable 

 forms — perforated tin tops: perforated tin tops 

 and bottoms: two or more exits: with springs 

 closing up to side walls or partition in the es- 

 cape, similar to the so-called Hastings escape. 

 Several escapes were placed in one board to 

 ascertain whether or not the bees would leave 

 the supers quicker through several exits than 

 through a single one. These tests were made 

 both night and day. through good and bad 

 weather, both cold and hot. and when there 

 was an abundance of nectar in the flowers, and 

 when there was neither nectar nor flowers: and 

 the facts gleaned from these experiments, we 

 believe, will ever remain unchanged. 



The present form of the Porter spring escape 

 is the best that can be devised for thorough, 

 practical work. Escapes with single springs 

 pressing against the side walls or partitions in 

 the escape clog up with dead bees, where double 

 springs do not. simply because the double 

 springs give a larger opening with less pressure 

 than can be had with single springs. To an 

 observing mind it would naturally appear that 

 escapes with several openings, or perforated 

 tops and bottoms, would give better satisfac- 

 tion in the matter of ventilation; but many 

 practical tests in this direction show that a 

 single exit, together with the cracks at the 

 joints of the hives, made by adjusting the 

 escape-boards, give all the ventilation that is 

 necessary or desii-ed. 



As to the rapidity of the working of escapes, 

 when they work best, etc.. I give the following 

 from a small circular published by the Messrs. 

 Porter: 



"Owing to the varied dispositions of the bees 

 of different colonies under the same conditions, 

 there is a great difference in the length of time 

 occupied by them in passing from the super; 

 and with the bees of the same colony, the size 



