40 



Tmm MMERicjtN mmn joiirhmit. 



wing, is that produced by the return- 

 ing laborer, when it comes home at 

 evening laden with that delicious nec- 

 tar, collected from some flowering 

 field. Who has not been charmed by 

 the sweet, mellow tones, as they died 

 away in the entrance of the hive, like 

 the wind that blows through the 

 boughs of the tall pines of the mighty 

 forest, during a summer sunset in 

 August ? 



The shrill note of the pugnacious de- 

 fender of the hive is familiar to every 

 bee-keeper. The sharp sound of bees 

 just beginning to lead out a swarm, 

 heralds its advent to the bee-master, 

 and is very diSerent from the two 

 sounds mentioned before. 



The coarse, bass roaring of the 

 swarm is heard only when they are 

 locating their mother, and is kept up 

 by both workers and drones, until the 

 queen is found, and then the bass 

 sound becomes silent. 



Next is that sharp, cutting sound, as 

 they begin to cluster in some shady 

 tree, to call the colony together, which 

 is well known to the apiarist, as the 

 signal of congregating. Then comes 

 that shrill, hissing sound of the escort, 

 that led them to the woods ; hence the 

 sounds are blended with the roaring 

 of the swarm, making a yet diflerent 

 sound than has been mentioned, and 

 is heard only from absconding swarms. 



Again, in that happy hour, when 

 the bees have found or selected a habi- 

 tation that is suitable for their brood- 

 rearing, and storing the golden nectar, 

 we then hear the happy sound made by 

 hurling the wings in fantastic circles ; 

 this sound indicates that %ll is peace 

 and harmony. 



Another sound may yet be located, 

 and that is the sound of distress. This 

 sound is heard only when annoyed 

 and frightened by the black volume 

 after volume of smoke poured in 

 upon them without mercy ; and no 

 wail of distress or misery, made by 

 any other insect, can equal it. 



There is another sound that I will 

 call attention to, and that is the " ven- 

 tilating" sound, made at the entrance 

 and all through the hive, which in hot 

 weather may be heard some distance 

 away ; hence all the difierent sounds 

 are instinctively associated with cer- 

 tain purposes, and the movements of 

 the queen are to a great extent gen- 

 erally governed by them. She thus 

 follows certain sounds, as do the whole 

 colon}'. She never leads the swarm, 

 but the swarm leads her by their 

 sounds. Bees do hear ! 



In the year 1885, the two queens 

 that missed my attention swarmed 

 from a populous colony at about 10 

 a.m., owing to their prolificness. They 

 were unable to take wing, hence were 

 obliged to retire to the parent colonies. 



I expected them to come out again 

 about 3 p.m., but to my surprise, when 

 the sun was near the meridian, out 

 they came, filling the air with those 

 distinguishable sounds, circling high, 

 and each revolution becoming larger 

 and larger, when they took a bee-line 

 west, and away they went over the 

 woods, old and young, queen, woi'kers 

 and drones. Again that shrill, hissing 

 sound was in advance, leading the ab- 

 sconders to a place of abode ; but 

 owing to the prolificness of the queen, 

 she was obliged to alight. As she 

 happened to select a small sappling, 

 I brought them back to the apiary, 

 and hived them on drawn combs, and 

 the result of that colony was 19.5 

 pounds of beautiful white comb honej'. 

 Newbury, Ohio. 



FREAKS OF BEES 



Noted the 



Pa§t Season- 



for 1§S8. 



-Report 



Written for the American Bee Journal 

 BY A. E. AULT. 



It is my custom to make a record of 

 anything unusual that I may notice in 

 the apiary. I will give a few such 

 items that were new to me, and which 

 I think will be new to the greater part 

 of the readers, as follows : 



On June 14, I saw the bees attack 

 and kill several cicadas, or locusts, as 

 they are commonly called, which were 

 very plentiful at that time. The same 

 day I saw a queen return from a flight 

 after she had commenced to lnj. 



On July 5 I saw a sealed queen-cell 

 that contained a worker-bee, and a 

 young larva. On July 13, I saw a 

 sealed queen-cell that contained a 

 queen in the pupa state and a worker- 

 bee. In both cases the queens and 

 bees were dead. On July 19 I saw a 

 queen-cell with a seemingly well-de- 

 veloped queen, within about two days 

 of hatching. The remarkable feature 

 was, that the queen was in a reversed 

 state, with her head in the bottom of 

 the cell. 



If an}' one else has noticed'the same 

 freaks of the bees, I shall be glad to 

 hear of them. 



In the fall of 1887 1 had 47 colonies 

 of bees, which I wintered without loss, 

 although I united 3 colonies that were 

 queenless, thus leaving 44 colonies. 

 During the past season I increased 

 them to 82 colonies, and obtained 

 3,500 pounds of honey, of which 300 

 pounds was in the comb, and the re- 

 mainder was extracted. 



Linden commenced to bloom on July 

 4, and lasted ten days ; in that time my 

 bees stored 2,000 pounds of honey. I 

 also obtained 2G pounds of beeswax. 



North Liberty, Iowa. 



THE CLOVERS. 



Different Clovers Considered a» 

 Honey-Producers, 



Written for the Prairie Farmer 



BY MRS. L. HARRISON. 



Every bee-keeper should look ahead 

 for pasture for winged stock ; and 

 among the sources of honey supply, 

 the clover family stands first. 



Of the forty native vai'ieties, white 

 or Dutch clover is at present most 

 valuable, the amount of honey gath- 

 ered from this variety being greater 

 than from any other member of the 

 Trifoliums, and the quality unexcelled. 



Next in value, and one which will 

 likely crowd its half-sister for a place 

 in the front rank in the near future, is 

 Alsike or Swedish clover {Tnfolium 

 hybrida). 



Following this I should place our 

 common red clovei', which is so val- 

 uable for hay and pasture. The one 

 and only reason why red clover does 

 not occupy the first place is the depth 

 of its honey-cells, which, in the ma- 

 jority of instances, prevents the honey- 

 bees from reaching the nectar. 



Some of our fraternity are endeav- 

 oring by judicious selection, aided by 

 the law of the " survival of the fittest," 

 to produce a strain of honey-bees with 

 longer tongues, which can reach the 

 rich nectar of the red clover. Any 

 skillful bee-keeper could to-day well 

 aflord to pay $10,000 for a healthy and 

 prolific queen, which would produce 

 worker-bees able to woi'k freely on the 

 large heads of the first crop of the red. 



Next as a honey-producer I would 

 place sweet clover {Melilotus alba), and 

 its field proper is not one-tenth oc- 

 cupied, nor its value one-half appre- 

 ciated. It is a biennial, does not blos- 

 som the first year, blooms freely the 

 second, and dies root and branch. It 

 produces honey of fine quality, similar 

 to that of the white clover ; fowls pas- 

 ture on it in the early spring, and 

 sheep much of the season. Its capacity 

 to withstand drouth, and to thrive 

 upon rough, broken and gravelly 

 ground, and its great value as a fer- 

 tilizer and renewer of worn-out land 

 should recommend it to every farmer 

 who has land, particularly rough land, 

 which needs renewing. Lastly among 

 those which I shall consider in this 

 article is : 



Alfalfa {Medkacjo saliva). This was 

 introduced many years ago on our 

 Pacific slope from t'hili ; it has proven 

 its great value as a hay and forage 

 crop in California and Utah, and is 

 fast coming to the front in Central and 

 Western Kansas and Colorado. 



Mr. Wni. Muth-Rasmussen, a reliable 

 bee-keeper of Independence, Calif., 



