THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



G77 



plus harvest. If they previously 

 swarm, I should accept their increase 

 so far as they do so.— James Heddon. 



It depends upon the locality some- 

 what, and a great deal upon the 

 honey seasons. As a general rule I 

 prefer natural swarming. In your 

 locality— which is nearly the same as 

 niy own— you must increase your bees 

 (it you want increase) during the 

 wliife clover honey harvest, and any 

 way you may proceed to get your in- 

 crease will cost you something in the 

 way of loss of honey, and I have 

 found that swarms made by division 

 lose more time getting ready for work 

 than do the bees when permitted to 

 follow the natural laws of increase. 

 Dividing should be done as early as 

 the strength of the colonies will admit 

 of it in your locality .—G.W.Demaree. 



Position of the Apiary and Bloom. 



<tuery, No. 145. —What would be the differ- 

 ence, if any, in tiie quantity of honey gathered 

 from basawood or bucltwheiit if my apiary is right 

 among the blooms, or 2^ miles from them ?— H. S. 



Very little if any, according to my 

 experience.— G. M. Doolittle. 



I doubt if any one can give a relia- 

 ble answer without trying the experi- 

 ment with a considerable number of 

 colonies apparently equal in both 

 locations. He might then guess at 

 the truth.— C. C. Miller. 



I dc not know, but I think not very 

 much. Bees fly very rapidly, and the 

 exercise seems to invigorate. The 

 way basswood honey comes in, even 

 when the apiary is quite a distance 

 from the forest, is amazing, — A. J. 

 Cook. 



The difference would be very great. 

 We have had apiaries just two miles 

 apart that would yield crops altogether 

 different in quality and quantity, 

 showing that the bees did not pasture 

 on the same grounds. A hive whose 

 bees will all travel 2% miles for their 

 crop, will soon become depopulated. 

 We are absolutely positive of these 

 facts from personal experience. — 

 Dadant & Son. 



Xo definite answer can be given. I 

 have had bees gather honey at least ten 

 times as fast from basswood as from 

 buckwheat.— W. Z. HurcniNSON. 



.Judging from other honey sources, 

 I think an appreciably larger quantity 

 of honey would be gathered in an 

 apiary surrounded by bloom, than in 

 one 214 miles away' from it.— J. E. 

 Pond, Jr. 



I think the colonies of bees near the 

 bloom would gather at least twice as 

 much as those located 2J^ miles from 

 a good field.— G. L. Tinker. 



I do not think there is sufficient 

 difference to pay you to move your 

 bees to and fro each year, unless you 

 are very favorably situated for such 

 removal.— James Heddon. 



In view of the fact that bees do not 

 know instinctively to go directly to the 

 nectar-bearing flowers in the vicinity 

 of their homes, but must depend upon 



industrious search for profitable em- 

 ployment, it stands to reason that 

 less time will be lost getting the whole 

 force at work on the flowers if the 

 latter are plentiful near the apiary, 

 than would lie the case if the pasture 

 was 2}i miles away. Every young 

 bee that enters upon the degree of 

 " field worker," must learn where the 

 best forage grounds are. These hints 

 throw some liglit upon the perplexing 

 question why one colony will some- 

 times beat aiiother so badly, when all 

 things, to the eyes of the apiarist, 

 seem to be equal.— G. W. Demaree. 



Bearing Q,aeens. 



Query, No. 146.— Is it a fact beyond reason- 

 able question that queens reared by natural 

 swarming are superior to those reared from eggs 

 laid in worker cells ?-S. H. 



No.— C. C. Miller. 



No.— W. Z. Hutchinson. 



As a rule, yes ; still with proper 

 care good queens can be reared by 

 the latter plan.— G. M. Doolittle. 



No queens reared by swarming by 

 division are just as good as those 

 reared by natural swarming, provided 

 they are reared in strong, healthy 

 colonies.— Dadant & Son. 



By no means ; I doubt if it is a fact 

 at all. I cannot see why the mere 

 place of deposition, all other things 

 being as favorable, should make the 

 least difference.— A. J. Cook. 



No ; if the cells are not completed, 

 some sealed and others just ready to 

 seal up, before a swarm issues, the 

 resulting queens will not be any 

 better than can be reared in a 

 strong nucleus. Theconditions being 

 favorable, any very strong colony will 

 rear from just-hatching eggs as tine 

 queens as by natural swarming.— G. 

 L. Tinker. 



No, indeed, nor never will it be.— 

 G. W. Demaree. 



Most certainly not. The whole 

 question is tlieoretical. A queen 

 reared from the egg in a full colony, 

 well fed, if no honey is being gath- 

 ered, is equally as valuable, and in 

 many cases more so than the majority 

 of those reared after a natural swarm 

 issues.— J. E. Pond, Jr. 



No ; I have proven to my satisfac- 

 tion that I can produce better queens 

 at will than we get through natural 

 swarming, as a rule. Much poorer 

 ones ciui be artificially produced, and 

 will be unless the work is done just 

 right. I used to think differently, but 

 we live to learn. — James Heddon. 



i^~ The New Jersey and Eastern Bee- 

 Keepers' Association having accepted an 

 invitation to meet with the Mei'cer County 

 Board of Agricultui-e, of Trenton, N. J., 

 wfll hold their semi-annual convention in 

 the Grand Jury Room of the Court House 

 at Trenton, N. J., on Thursday and Friday, 

 Nov. 5 and 6, 188.5, at 10 a. m. A full attend- 

 ance of the members is requested. To all 

 persons interested in our voxjation, we ex- 

 tend a cordial welcome. The committee of 

 arrangements have secured hotel accommo- 

 dations at reduced rates. 



Wm, B. Treadwell, Sec. 



Insect Fertilization of Flowers. 



The following article is from the 

 " Text-Book of General Botany," by 

 Dr. W. J. Behrens, of (iottingen,. 

 Germany. Translated from the sec- 

 ond German edition, for the Popular 

 Science Monthly. Revised by Patrick 

 Geddes, F.R.S. E. Ediuburg : Young 

 J. Pentland, 1885 : 



Of insects the Coleoptera, the 

 Lepidoptera. the Diptera, and the 

 Hymenoptera are the orders most 

 concerned in the fertilization of 

 flowers. More rarely, fertilization is 

 effected by one or other species of 

 Hemiptera, Neuroptera, and Orthop- 

 tera, but these are not of sufficient 

 importance to demand further atten- 

 tion here. We shall therefore confine 

 our remarks to the orders constitut- 

 ing the former group, and consider 

 the various physical peculiarities by 

 which insects belonging to them are 

 enabled to effect the end in question. 

 Such peculiarities chiefly take the 

 form of special structures (invariably 

 confined to the head), by means of 

 which the insects are enabled to reach 

 and abstract the honey contained in 

 the flower. We shall also have to 

 consider the organs concerned in the 

 transport of the pollen. 



The order Lepidoptera comprises 

 many species of great importance in 

 effecting the process of fertilization. 

 Their large wings are well adapted 

 for rapid flight from flower to flower, 

 and their long proboscis enables them 

 to reach the honey even when the 

 nectary lies at the bottom of a very 

 long and narrow corolla-tube. 



The position assumed by the butter- 

 flies when engaged in abstracting the 

 honey deserves notice. The wings, 

 which during flight flutter to and fro 

 with a rapid motion, are folded to- 

 gether perpendicularly over the body, 

 in which position they are maintained 

 so long as the insect remains poised 

 on the flower. The butterfly is thus 

 enabled more readily to escape detec- 

 tion by its many enemies (e. g. birds) 

 than if, when resting, its brilliant 

 wings were outspread. The under 

 surface of the wings is usually of a 

 much less striking color than the 

 upper, and consequently does not 

 prove so attractive. It even happens 

 in many instances that butterflies 

 only visit such flowers as are of the 

 same color as their own wings, this 

 precaution, of course, rendering de- 

 tection extremely difficult. Many 

 blue butterflies show a marked pref- 

 erence for blue meadow-flowers, while 

 in the Alps the scarlet lilies and many 

 of the orange-colored Compositce are 

 visited almost exclusively by butter- 

 flies of like hue. The moths, while 

 extracting honey, do not assume a 

 position similar to that of the butter- 

 flies, but hover over the flowers, 



