July. 1915. 



237 



times during the flow. 



A little judicious feeding is done 

 early in spring, u^ing old tough combs 

 and pouring thin honey in a small 

 stream on the cells; the honey will all 

 run in, and if placed in the super in 

 the evening, it is cared for before 

 morning, and no robbing occurs. This, 

 with keeping them well quilted until 

 hot weather, stimulates brood-rearing. 



Another point not practiced by many 

 beekeepers is this : Plenty of water 

 right at home for your bees. A wash- 

 tub nearly filled with w;)ter, and an 

 inch of cork chips on top, that you can 

 get from your fruit men, chips that 

 come from Italy in kegs of grapes. 

 Your bees do not have to go half a 

 mile for a cold drink, but have it right 

 in the yard; no chilled bees lost in 

 their long flight, and not a drowned 

 bee. The tub will be brown with bees 

 on a hot day. and they learn the place, 

 just the same as stock go to the water 

 tank to drink. I know we save thou- 

 sands of bees by my method. Try it 

 and see. 



By keeping our " think tank" busy, 

 and when puzzled trying to study out a 

 remedy, we often run against some 

 good things. Thus I hive found it in 

 the 40 years of my beekeeping. 



Grand Meadow, Minn. 



[Mr. Greening says: "You rather 

 doubt my plan, giving as a reason 'too 

 much room before honey llow.'" Beg 

 pardon, you are putting things together 

 that I didn't put together, and that don't 

 belong together. I said, " It seems 

 there might be a little too much of a 

 good thing by giving so much room 

 over the brood nest for the bees to 

 keep warm before tbe honey-flow. 



That had no bearing on the case as 

 to any difference between sections and 

 extracted honey, and certainly it was 

 no objection to the plan in general as 

 a prevention of swarming, for the 

 more room the less inclination to 

 swarming. The only point in the case 

 was that with so much space overhead 

 to keep warm the bees would not build 

 up quite so rapidly. 



The only thing upon which "doubt" 

 can be based, Mr. Greening must have 

 found in these words, "All I say is that 

 I should not have faith enough in the 

 plan to give it a trial for comb honey." 

 I said Mr. Greening did not say how 

 he adapts his plan to comb honey, and 

 as I now understand him he does it by 

 using ofcn-top sections. That doesn't 

 give me any more faith in it. A num- 

 ber of times I have tried brood over 

 sections, and every time the capping 

 of the sections has been darkened by 

 what I suppose to be bits of dark wax 

 carried down from the brood-combs. 

 Mr. Greening says he has not practiced 

 it thoroughl; yet. so he may not have 

 noticed this darkening. If he can pro- 

 duce faultless sections in that way, his 

 bees must do differently from mine. 

 Cork-chips for the bees watering 



American ^ee Journal 



place are excellent. The plan was 

 given in the American Bee Journal a 

 few years ago, and will be found also 

 in "Fifty Years Among the Bees." I 

 know of nothing better ; but for those 

 who cannot readily obtain cork-chips 

 Arthur C. Miller's plan of using pieces 

 of old comb may serve equally well. — 



C. C. M ] 



No. 7.— The Honey-Producing 

 Plants 



BY FRANK C. PELLETT. 

 {Pholograt>hs l>v the author.) 



THIS number continues the consid- 

 eration of the early sources of 

 nectar and pollen, which occupied 

 our space in the June issue. A location 

 near a considerable area of forest land, 

 especially if the variety of trees be 

 large, will insure plenty of pollen for 

 early brood rearing, as a great many 

 different forest trees contribute to this 

 end. 



BLACK WALNUT. 



The black walnut { Juglans nigra') is 

 a well known forest tree in the eastern 

 United States. Its usual range is from 

 Ontario and New England west to 

 Nebraska, and south to Florida and 

 Texas. The wood is very valuable for 

 the manufacture of gunstocks, furni- 

 ture, etc.. and is becoming somewhat 

 scarce. The tree leaves out somewhat 

 later than most forest trees, not devel- 

 oping its full foliage until May or June. 

 Fig. 31 shows the pollen-bearing blos- 



soms. These blossoms are long cat- 

 kins borne on the wood of the preced- 

 ing year. The blossoms appear before 

 the leaves. Quantities of pollen are 

 produced, and, at times, the bees seek 

 the trees in such numbers as to make 

 a continuous roar. The walnut blooms 

 after the maples and willows, and is 

 not as valuable as ealier blooming 

 trees, because it comes at about the 

 same time that the dandelions are in 

 bloom. May is the month of blossom- 

 ing in most northern localities. 



The white walnuts or butternuts of 

 the eastern States, and the English wal- 

 nuts. Japanese walnuts, and California 

 walnuts grown in the warmer parts of 

 the country, especially in California, 

 are relatives of the black walnut, and 

 probably equally valuable for pollen. 



OAK iQucrcus). 



There are said to be about 2-50 spe- 

 cies of oaks, which are widely distri- 

 buted over the northern hemisphere. 

 Some species are to be found in nearly 

 all sections of North America, Asia 

 and Europe'. Like the walnut, the oak 

 trees produce pollen freely, and they 

 are thus of some value to the beekeeper 

 in furnishing this food so essential to 

 early brood rearing. 



Figure 31 shows the pollen-bearing 

 blossoms of the red oak (Querctis 

 rubra), which is a common tree from 

 Canada to Georgia, and west to the 

 Missouri river. Oaks are the predomi- 

 nating forest trees in many of the 

 south central States. In Alabama 24 

 species are recorded. Iowa boasts of 

 15 species. The list of forest trees 

 which furnish pollen might be extended 



FIG. 3I.-POLLEN-BEARING BLOSSOMS OK THE BLACK WALNUT 



