.ll'NK 15, 1915 



505 



F. Phillips spoke on " The Need of Better 

 Winter Protection." Dr. Ward and Mr. 

 Wilder gave demonstrations on handling 

 bees. 



There was a good attendance at the meet- 

 ings, and mnoli interest was manifested. 

 Franklin. Term. 



THE TEN-HOUR 



IJY C. E. FOWLER 



How far do bees flyf how long are they 

 gone? how many trips a day do tiiey make? 

 are very interesting topics, and 1 shonld 

 like to give a little of my own experience. 



Last August, when honey was very scarce, 

 a neighbor asked me to remove a swarm of 

 bees from his roof so the carpenters could 

 shingle it. I spent one day trying to save 

 the bees, using tirst two Porter escapes; but 

 the bees went right 

 through them the 

 wrong way. 



I do not condemn 

 the bee-escapes, as the 

 bees were, most of 

 them, trying to get 

 into their home. Per- 

 haps the inside bees, in 

 trying to get out, 

 wedged it open. After 

 1 got the escapes in 

 place I could not get 

 them ott" to look at 

 them, as they were 

 fastened on the inside. 

 Then I made one out 

 of watch-springs; and 

 by the time I got it 

 working the bees w-ere 

 going through the roof 

 like water through a 

 sieve, so I decided to 

 sulphur them. 



I commenced the 

 next morning about 

 seven o'clock, after 

 most of the field bees 

 were gone. After kill- 

 ing the bees in the nast 

 with sulphur 1 eoni- 

 nienced to kill the re- 

 turning bees, suppos- 

 ing, of course, that they would all be back 

 in a cou})le of horns; bnt to my great sur- 

 prise they kept coming back for ten hours, 

 and were still coming back at 5 P. M. The 

 next morning tiicre was a gill of bees in a 

 bunch hanging on the edge of the roof. 

 Xow, some of these bees made only one trip 

 in ten hours. How far did they travel? If 

 they spent a third of the lime going, a third 

 loading, and another third coming back, and 

 traveled 30 miles an hour, thev must have 



gone 100 miles. Of course they did not go 

 that distance; but how far did they go? 

 They seemed to be coming back nearly as 

 fast at noon as at 8 o'clock, and gradually 

 dwindled until 5 o'clock. 



I found that they had a great many holes 

 in the roof stopped uj) wliicli they opened 

 when they could not get through the bee- 

 escape. 



Nectar .ind pollen from apple-blossouis. Note the mass of pollen on the leg 



of the bee and the manner in which the bee spreads the stamens 



to get at the nectary of tlie blossom. 



The bees were in the gable end in the 

 Ijrojecting cornice, occupying a space about 

 C X 14 X 3G inches, and had stored about 50 

 ])ounds of honey. 



As I was closing the hole I saw a lot of 

 comb about two feet below, and thought I 

 had discovered another swarm; but red 

 squirrels had been robbing the bees, as the 

 pieces of comb were mixed with nut- 

 shells. 



Hammondton, N. J. 



