1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



487 



From these two kinds the bees obtain large quanti- 

 ties of pollen, but, so far as I can ascertain, no hon- 

 ey. As this pollen comes the first of any which we 

 have which amounts to any thing, I esteem it of 

 great value to the bees. Skunk-cabbage gives pol- 

 len a little earlier, but we do not have enough of it 

 to amount to much, compared with what these 

 willows give. The flowers are of a rich orange col- 

 or, and consist of a center out of which? spring 

 hundreds of little thread-like filaments, upon which 

 the pollen is supported. It is very interesting to 

 see the bees work on these flowers, as you can see 

 their motions so plainly, for the tree or bush does 

 not grow so high but that some of the lower limbs 

 are about on a level with the eye. Here is a pecul- 

 iarity of the willows, for all those in this section 

 which give pollen grow in a bush form, while all of 

 those which yield honey grow to be quite large 

 trees, often reaching six feet in circumference. 



PUSSY WILLOW. 



The pussy willow naturally grows on low swampy 

 ground; but with a little culture to start, it will 

 grow readily on dry ground. They grow readily 

 from cuttings put in the ground in early spring, as 

 does all of the willow tribe. The above are often 

 6et down as "honey-plants;" but according to 

 Quinby and my owu observation, they produce no 

 honey. As they grow very plentifully about here, 

 I have had much observation regarding them. To 

 be sure, the bee is continually poking its proboscis 

 into the blossoms, the same as they do when suck- 

 ing for honey; but after killing many bees and dis- 

 secting them, I have been unable to find the least 

 bit of honey in their sacs. This way, if used when 

 the bees are at work on any of the honey-bearing 

 flowers, never fails to reveal honey accumulating 

 in their sacs. 



HONEY-PRODUCERS. 



Of these we have three kinds— the golden willow, 

 the white willow, and the weeping willow, and they 

 are of value as honey-producers in the order 

 named, although the weeping willow blossoms 

 about three days earlier than the others. This 

 would make it of more value to the bees, even did 

 it not yield honey quite so profusely, if there were 

 enough trees to keep the bees busy; but as there 

 are very few trees of this kind about here there is 

 not enough to make any account of. None of the 

 three willows mentioned here give any pollen that I 

 ever could discover, for none pf the bees nf work 



on these trees ever have any pollen in their pollen- 

 baskets. If there is any species of willow which 

 yields both honey and pollen, 1 am not acquainted 

 with it. The flowers are similar to those which 

 grow on the birch and poplar, being of a long tag- 

 like shape, as large as a slate pencil, and from one 

 to two inches long. Those on the golden willow are 

 the longest, and yield honey abundantly. 



GOLDEN WILLOW. 



The engraving presented herewith so nearly rep- 

 resents the golden willow that any one should know 

 it in connection with its yellow bark, which dis- 

 tinguishes it from the other kinds of honey-yield- 

 ing willow, as all of the rest, so far as I know, have 

 a light-green bark. When these willows are in 

 bloom, and the weather is warm, the bees rush out 

 of their hives at early dawn, and work on it all day 

 long as eagerly as they do on clover or basswood. 

 The blossoms often secrete honey so profusely that 

 it can be seen glistening in the morning sun, by 

 holding the blossom between you and that orb, 

 while the trees resound with that dull busy hum, so 

 often heard when the bees are getting honey, from 

 morning till night. As this is the very first honey 

 of the season, I consider it of the greatest of value 

 to the bees, for the brood is now crowded forward 

 with great " vim," which brood gives us the bees 

 which work on the white clover, while the honey 

 often helps very greatly in piecing out the depleted 

 stores of the hive. These willows blossom a little 

 in advance of the hard maple, and hold out as long 

 as they do; and from the fact that, when I kill a 

 bee at work on these willows I always find honey 

 in its sac, while when I do the same with a bee 

 which is at work on the maple I never find any hon- 

 ey, I have been led to think that perhaps those re- 

 porting honey from maple might be mistaken, and 

 that the honey really came from the willows. 

 Again, maple blossoms only every other year with 

 us, while the willows never fail; and I have noticed 

 for years that I got fully as much honey in the 

 years when the maples did not bloom as I did the 

 years when they did. From the few trees along a 

 small creek near here, my bees frequently make a 

 gain of from six to ten pounds of honey while the 

 willows are in bloom, and one season they made a 

 gain of 15 pounds. This present spring some of my 

 best colonies gained X pounds, while on apple-blopm 

 they did not get more than a living, with apple-or- 

 phards white with bloom all about. The honey 



