502 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Aug. 15 



brella over him, and yet the bees were not a 

 bit cross. 



Alfalfa is also one of the flows when bees 

 will not rob. During any alfalfa flow that I 

 have ever seen it was safe to leave honey 

 exposed for any Ipngth of time. I have 

 known of supers of finished sections that had 

 been missed stand leaned up against a hive 

 for a week, and not a capping cut. 



Ft. Collins, Colo. 



[It is no doubt true that the source of hon- 

 ey (that is, the manner it is secreted from 

 the nectaries of the blossom) has very much 

 to do with the temper of the bees. We have 



FIG. 1.— LOSSING'S EXHIBIT OF A POWER EXTRACTING-OUTFIT AT THE TERRITO- 

 RIAL FAIR. 



With this outfit was included, as shown, one of Mr. Lossing's automatic covers for a 

 comb-carrying box attached to a Daisy wheelbarrow. This very practical invention for 

 preventing robbers was fully described on p. 1257, Oct. 1, 1906. 



been in a number of large buckwheat yards, 

 and observed that bees while gathering buck- 

 wheat seem to be very much crosser than 

 when working on clover. The fact is, buck- 

 wheat is a tremendous yielder of honey — so 

 heavy, indeed, that bees get almost crazed 

 by the very abundance of it. 



The honey-dew, to which we referred edi- 

 torially, came in copious quantities while it 

 yielded; but it would stop almost within an 



hour, due either to a heavy dash of rain 

 washing the leaves clean, or to the hot sun 

 drying up the saccharinematter on the leaves, 

 so that the bees were unable to get it. A 

 heavy dew or a light rain would start them 

 to going again. The sudden flow and then 

 sudden stoppage could hardly have any oth- 

 er effect than to make bees exceedingly irri- 

 table. 



Buckwheat has a tendency to yield heavily 

 in the morning and let up during the middle 

 hours of the day, and it is probable this let- 

 ting up and stopping is what makes bees 

 crosser. 



It would be 

 our opinion 

 that it IS not 

 the source 

 that has any 

 thing to do 

 with the cross- 

 ness or gen- 

 tleness of the 

 bees, but rath- 

 er the manner 

 in which that 

 source gives 

 up its nectar. 

 Take, for ex- 

 ample, clover. 

 Unlike buck- 

 wheat or hon- 

 ey-dew, it 

 yieldsasteady 

 flow during 

 all hours of 

 the day — not 

 heavy enough 

 to make the 

 bees crazy, 

 but just suffi- 

 cient to keep 

 them quietly 

 busy. Such a 

 flow from any 

 source will 

 make them 

 good - natur- 

 ed, while a 

 sudden stop- 

 page of any 

 honey or nec- 

 tar has the 

 very opposite 

 effect. For 

 example, if 

 we let bees 

 get to robbing 

 on a set of 

 combs during 

 a dearth of 

 honey, that honey, while it comes in, comes 

 in so rapidly that the whole apiary is stirred 

 into an uproar. Then when that supply be- 

 gins to fail, and especially after it is all gone, 

 the bees are fighting mad. It is then that 

 horsrs and other stock should be kept away. 

 On the other hand, we have given bees 

 honey or syrup both, very slowly, by outdoor 

 feeders. If it takes them a rather long time 

 to get a little they will be quiet. — Ed.] 



