AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



573 



Topics of Interest. 



datlieriiii Honey and Pollen, Etc. 



G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



" When bees go out in search of honey 

 and pollen, do they visit more than one 

 kind of plants and flowers? In other 

 words, do bees gather honey and pollen 

 indiscriminately, or do they gather 

 wholly from one species ?" 



On this point there has been no little 

 discussion, a few claiming that the bee 

 gathers indiscriminately,while the larger 

 part of the fraternity claim that only 

 one species of plant is visited at each 

 trip. 



Those that claim that bees gather 

 pollen indiscriminately must not have 

 been very close observers, it seems to me, 

 for I have carefully watched for the 

 past 23 years to see whether Mr. Quinby 

 was right in his assertion, when he said, 

 "A bee is never seen with different- 

 colored pollen in her pollen baskets ;" 

 and if 23 years are to be a test, then 

 Quinby was right, for in all that time I 

 have never seen a bee entering any hive 

 bearing variegated or different-colored 

 pollen. 



We often find pollen of different colors 

 packed in the same cell, but if pollen of 

 different colors are ever carried by any 

 bee at the same time, it is something I 

 have failed to notice. 



If the above is a fact, which I believe, 

 then it is conclusive proof that bees only 

 visit one kind of flowers while out after 

 pollen. 



When it comes to honey, we cannot go 

 by color, for we cannot see what colored 

 honey the bee has in its sac as the bee 

 flits into the hive. The only way in this 

 case is to watch the bee while it is out 

 after honey. I have many times watched 

 bees in this way, and while I have seen 

 bees go from one kind of raspberry to 

 another, and from one kind of clover to 

 another, and from a currant bush to 

 that of the gooseberry, yet only once 

 have I seen a bee go from one fixed type 

 or kind of plant to that of another kind. 



Once while watching bees at work in 

 a field having nearly equal proportions 

 of Alsike, red and white clover in bloom, 

 I came near a raspberry bush which was 

 in bloom at the same time, and although 

 it was no uncommon thing to see bees 

 going from one kind of clover to another, 

 yet I staid in this one place nearly one- 

 half hour before I saw a single bee go 



from the clover to the raspberry. In all 

 of this time, not a single bee went from 

 the raspberry to the clover, though bees 

 were going and coming to the raspberry 

 bush very often. 



From the above, I conclude that in 

 rare exceptions bees do go from one 

 species of plants to others for honey, 

 but not often enough to warrant us in 

 saying that bees gather honey indis- 

 criminately. 



SEVERAL EGGS IN A CELL. 



" Do good, prolific queens ever lay 

 more than one egg in a cell ? I procured 

 a Carniolan queen and introduced her 

 by giving her two frames of hatching 

 brood. After a few days I examined the 

 little colony, and found four and five 

 eggs in a cell. Does that signify that 

 the queen was a poor one, or a drone- 

 layer, or what ?" 



Under the circumstances, as the 

 querist gives them, it signifies that the 

 queen was a good, prolific one, and as 

 he gave her only two combs, she showed 

 her prolificness by going her rounds at 

 egg-laying over the combs a second, 

 third, fourth, and even the fifth time. 

 The bee-keeper must not decide hastily, 

 but take all the facts into consideration. 



If his hive had been full of bees, with 

 plenty of empty cells in the combs, and 

 he had such a state of affairs as he 

 speaks of, then he coald have concluded, 

 upon seeing several eggs in a cell, that 

 if there was a queen in that hive she 

 was a poor one, or, what would have 

 been more probable, that the queen was 

 gone, and the hive was infested with 

 laying-workers. 



A good queen in a full colony of bees 

 lays her eggs in regular order, one in a 

 cell, while a drone-laying queen, or a 

 laying worker will " bunch " their eggs 

 in a few cells, leaving the rest empty. 

 If there is a laying worker in the hive, 

 her eggs are apt to be bunched near or 

 around one or more embryo queen-cells, 

 while these embryo cells will contain 

 many eggs, and often eggs and larvae 

 together ; but so far as I have observed, 

 a drone-laying queen does not place 

 several eggs in an embryo queen-cell. 

 In this way I can decide at sight of the 

 embryo queen-cells, whether there is 

 anything in the line of a queen, in any 

 hive where work is not going on as it 

 sliould be. 



In early Spring, when there are few 

 bees in a hive, or by any division of 

 brood or bees, where there are few bees 

 with any queen, the finding of several 

 eggs in different cells does not argue 

 that the queen is necessarily a poor one 



