AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



75 



continuous rain with low temperature it 

 yielded no nectar. The result was that 

 the sections were unnoticed for more 

 than two weeks, except for loafinpf. 



One other possible, but to me improb- 

 able, factor: I had, last fall, about 

 400 partly-filled sections, mostly strong 

 honey, which I fed to the bees. These 

 were leveled, shaved down, and used 

 freely as baits, putting from 8 to 12 in 

 each case. The brood-chamber contains 

 in no case less than 7 frames, generally 

 8, occasionally 9, sometimes 10 — no 

 system, but I aim to adapt to the 

 strength of colony at the time. This 

 season I could not examine and add a 

 frame as needed, but at the time they 

 were overhauled, some 75 or 80 empty 

 combs were distributed among 40 colo- 

 nies, partly to save them, and fearing I 

 would not be able to give them as 

 needed. The season opened well the 

 first few days of May, then daily rains 

 with low temperature, continuing until 

 June 1st ; not a pound of honey to the 

 hive, and bees destroyed much brood. 



White clover is still in full blast, but 

 yielding sparely. I have had a rush 

 only on two or three days : BO of my 

 40 colonies have cast swarms. A dearth 

 from drouth exists now. I have perhaps 

 600 pounds, possibly 700, almost ready 

 to cap. A good rain with electrical 

 accompaniment is with us to-night, 

 which insures a return of the flow. 



Now, the whole thing is this : 



1. What am I to do with this " pollen- 

 ated" honey? Some sections are hor- 

 rible — the lower half being thickly pep- 

 pered. It can't be sold, it won't keep, 

 or might be kept and fed back this fall 

 — cut out the comb and burn the wood, 

 or, if I had an extractor, I might ex- 

 tract ; then the honey would be badly 

 tainted, and would not sell except for 

 use in the arts. 



Right here allow me to say that I 

 have an enviable reputation for produc- 

 ing gilt-edge comb honey. So I am 

 jealous of impure honey. 



2. What is the cause of this anomaly, 

 and how can I prevent its repetition? 



Guy's, Md., June 25. W. S. A. 



Answers. — 1. I never knew the time 

 when honey to feed in the spring was 

 not a valuable thing, and, all the bet- 

 ter, honey with pollen. You say, " It 

 won't keep," but I'm sure I don't know 

 why. Are you not mistaken in that ? 

 It could be fed and then the combs 

 melted up ; or, if after the honey was 

 fed out, the sections were left where all 

 the bees of the apiary had free access to 



them, it is possible the pollen might be 

 cleaned out. Certainly I wouldn't spoil 

 my market by selling it, although it 

 might do to sell to neighbors at a low 

 price, with a distinct understanding 

 that it was an Inferior article. If you 

 could get the bees to clean out the pol- 

 len without darkening the combs, they 

 might be used over again. 



2. I'm sorry to say I can't give a bit 

 of light on the second' question. If any 

 of the correspondents of the Bee Jour- 

 nal can do so, I hope they will. Put- 

 ting on the sections before needed I 

 feel pretty sure has nothing to do with 

 the case. I've done that often with 

 no such results. The drone-brood in 

 small quantity is nothing so very 

 strange. Your brood-combs probably 

 had few or no drone-cells, and the anxi- 

 ety for drone-brood made the bees fill 

 out the sections with drone-comb, and 

 then the queen explored till she found 

 these. 



I should think it just possible that the 

 presence of drone-brood, or indeed of 

 any brood, in the sections, might induce 

 the bees to put pollen there, but as I 

 understand you, some of the cases had 

 no brood in. 



Drone-brood in sections can be pre- 

 vented by filling the sections with work- 

 er foundation, but worker foundation 

 will not keep pollen out. 



I don't think the use of bait sections 

 had anything to do with the trouble. 

 Who can help us out ? 



Sweet Clover and. Lucerne. 



1. How would I manage to get one 

 patch to yield nectar from sweet clover 

 every year ? Or can't it be done ? 



2. Will lucerne clover bloom the first 

 year ? At what time does it begin to 

 blossom ? M. W. G. 



Bankston, Ala. 



Answers. — 1. Sweet clover comes 

 from the seed one year, makes a small 

 growth, then makes a big growth its 

 second or blooming year, then dies root 

 and branch. To get a patch to bloom, 

 therefore, every year, it will be neces- 

 sary to sow two years in succession. In 

 the fall or early spring you can get the 

 second sowing in by scattering on the 

 surface of the ground, then letting 

 horses or cattle tread in the seed. 



2. I don't know, but I am under the 

 impression that it does not bloom till the 

 second year. July is given in the bot- 

 any as its time of blooming, but in Colo- 

 rado they claim from June till Septem- 

 ber. 



