PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE W. T FALCONER MANFG CO 



VOL. VIII 



Jf\NUfiRY, 1898. 



NO. 1. 



Crocuses and Bees. 



BY BESSIE I.. PUTNAM. 



Eaily in March the crocuses aj)- 

 ?aied, and eajierly the beessurround- 

 I the beautiful blossom?, bearing 

 way well filled baskets of pollen. At 

 rst only the purple ones attracted 

 lese winged visitors, the white and 

 ghtly smaller yellow blossoms being 

 fsed unnoticed or with an air of 

 )ntempt. As they seemed equally 

 ell supplitd with pollen, I wondered 

 :e distinclion, which so plainly 

 >d their ability to distinguish 

 )lor. For two or three days matters 

 ent in about the same way, and the 

 speriraents of Sir John Lubbock re- 

 ilting in a preference for blue, seemed 

 illy verified. Finally the white 

 Dwers were also visited, and I no- 

 ced that each individual seemed to 

 ive its own choice regarding color, 

 hose that had frequented white 

 awers passing by purple ones with 

 le same haughtiness shown by others 

 reviously regarding the white or yel- 

 w ones. Then came the query, why 

 Dt a difference in individual tastes, 

 in the genus homof Later I no- 

 ced that after a bee had visited and 

 Dssibly re-visited all the flowers of 



his first chosen variety, he finally, 

 perhaps, in a fit of desperation at the 

 evident lessening of pollen supply, 

 tested the other variety; finding it to 

 his liking he visited other flowers of 

 the same color with the same discrim- 

 ination as before. Thus the conclu- 

 sion is drawn that the color which at 

 first attracts each individual is the one 

 that will be almost invariably chosen 

 by it until scarcity of pollen in this 

 variety leads it to be dissatisfied and 

 cast its lines elsewhere. Late in the 

 season I saw some individuals working 

 on the yellow variety, but it seemed 

 for some reason less popular to the 

 majority of bees than the purple or 

 white sorts. 



On Wintering Bees 



BY ED JOLLEY. 



In reading the article of G. M, 

 Doolittle in December Bee Keeper, 

 I was surprised to lesrn the wide range 

 of temperature of a colony of bees. 

 I had thought that owing to their 

 clustering closer together the temper- 

 ature would be but little lower in cold 

 weather than warm. If anyone had 

 asked me I should have told them that 

 it would probably range from 90 to 



