170 



Gleanings in Bee Culture 





The three best industries of Pecos Valley, New Mexico, iruit, bees, and alfalfa. 



combs. I have known this souring to be so 

 bad that the combs would "burst" in the 

 hive and the honey would run out freely. 

 But these extreme cases have been largely 

 confined to weak colonies. It is certain 

 that the bees were bent on gathering all the 

 nectar possible during the day, and were 

 not numerous enough to fan it dry at night 

 nor to create sufficient heat. 



THE FIELDERS DEPOSIT THE HONEY IN THE 

 CELLS. 



In the editor's footnote, p. 24, Jan. 1, he 

 says that it has been repeatedly stated that 

 bees on returning from the field do not de- 

 posit their nectar directly in the cells, but 

 pass it around to bees in waiting which cure 

 it before depositing it. Allow me to give 

 contradictory evidence. 



Five years ago I had a yard of 100 stands 

 of bees without food, and on the point of 

 starvation. It had been raining for eight 

 days, and all the colonies had been kept 

 indoors. The weather had been dry for five 

 weeks previous, and for ten days before the 

 rains the bees had been gathering just 

 enough honey to live on day by day. 

 Brood-rearing had entirely ceased. I was 

 watching, and was in readiness; but hoping 

 that the weather would become fair I delay- 

 ed feeding as long as possible. 



I observed that the bees were carrying out 

 their last cells of drone and worker brood, 

 for they had a little; so I took 25 pounds of 

 sugar and 3 gallons of water and made a 

 thin syrup, placed it out for the bees, and 

 in 30 minutes it was all in the hives. I made 

 an examination 35 minutes after placing 

 out the food; and what did I see? I found 

 this fluid in varying amounts in the cells in 

 the brood-box from the deformed cells on 

 the top bar to the imperfect cells on the bot- 

 tom bars. The sole idea of the bees seemed 

 to be to get the stuff in the hive. 



That night a great humming was heard, for 

 it was in May. Now notice! Twenty-four 

 hours later the queens had begun to lay, 

 and this nectar in the meantime had been 



gathered up and placed in proper rings for 

 the brood nest just above the eggs. 



The next day, 48 hours after the first feed, 

 I gave them 1 lb. a colony instead of half 

 a pound, as at first, and the bees made a 

 worse scattering of it in the hive than be- 

 fore, but by the next day all was gathered 

 up and placed in proper order. No, bees do 

 not pass the stufT around, but deposit it at 

 once and go for more. 



It doesn't take much of a shake to scatter 

 new nectar all over, then if combs are tilted 

 too much the nectar will run out on the 

 ground; but it tastes unlike honey, being 

 watery and of strong flavor. 



DO BEES "roar" WITH THEIR WINGS? 



Mr. Miller doubts whether the great roar- 

 ing could be caused by the wings of one col- 

 ony of bees. I emphatically disagree. A 

 good swarm of bees on the wing (and the 

 bees do not all go with the swarm) can be 

 heard plainly 100 yards away on a still day; 

 but the hum of a colony at night would not 

 seem so loud 50 ft. away. 



Bartlett, Tex. 



[That laden bees give their loads to other 

 bees was not our statement, but an old cur- 

 rent notion. We merely mentioned it in 

 our footnote as an illustration of how old 

 theories have to give way to later and more 

 careful observation. Your statement on the 

 point supports that made by A. C. Miller, 

 which is doubtless right. — Ed.] 



A 200-COLONY 



APIARY IN A 

 ORCHARD 



NEW MEXICO 



BY J. S. HIGHSMITH 



The illustration shown herewith is a pic- 

 ture of my apiary of 200 colonies of fine Ital- 

 ian bees. In 1910, by the 1st of September 

 we had over 8000 pounds of surplus comb 

 honey from alfalfa, which was very fine, be- 

 ing clear and white. I began with only a 

 few colonies in the spring of 1908. 



