T^HE SMERICar* BEE JOURNJStr. 



135 



bees having exhausted their stores ia 

 brood-rearing, starve to death unless 

 cared for. The careful apiarist, how- 

 ever, will see that his bees at this 

 critical time are fed, knowing that in 

 a verj' short time everything will be 

 changed, and his bees will be boom- 

 ing. Just at this starvation-time, bees 

 will eat pollen until they get the diar- 

 rhea as badly as they ever get it in 

 the North in winter, and that, too, 

 when they can fly every day ; as soon 

 as they are fed, however, they get 

 well. It is almost marvelous how 

 soon they will get well on a proper 

 diet. 



While the honey crop fails in some 

 parts of Texas quite often, where my 

 apiaries are situated — 13 and 16 miles 

 north of the city of Austin — there has 

 been no failure for many years. It is 

 the rich, black-land prairie, with nar- 

 row strips of timber along the streams. 

 The honey is from hoarhound, horse- 

 mint, wild marigold, asters, different 

 kinds of fruit, cotton, corn, wild 

 morning-glory, milk-weeds, and va- 

 rious other plant of lesser note. All 

 of our honey is pretty good. 



We have had a great deal of rain 

 this winter — more than almost ever 

 known — roads almost impassable, and 

 all business is at a stand-still ; but little 

 farming is done yet. The rains appear 

 to be over at present, and the ground 

 dry enough to work. 



Bound Rock, Tex., Feb. 14, 1889. 



SWARMING. 



How to make a Box for Hiving 

 Sivariiis. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY J. E. WALKER. 



tree, and soon all the bees that have 

 missed falling into the box, will settle 

 on it. If any come back to the place 

 where they settled, I keep shaking 

 them off, and they all will soon setttle 

 in and on the box. 



Then I lower the box slowly to the 

 ground, take the snap from the bail, 

 and carry the box and bees slowly to 

 the hive. By going slowly, all the bees 

 that are on the wing, will follow the 

 box. 



I have the hive ready where it is to 

 remain, leveled with a spirit level. In 

 front of the hive is a loose bottom- 

 board, placed level, and close up to 

 the entrance. I then turn the box up- 

 side down slowly, and pour the bees 

 out, when they make a stampede for 

 the hive-entrance. I think that this 

 plan is perfect. 



Clarksville, Mo. 



As the time for swarms is drawing 

 near, I will desci'ibe my swarming- 

 box. I make it of light material, 12 

 or 14 inches square, and 10 inches 

 deep, with several small auger-holes in 

 the sides. A strong wire bail is put 

 on, and by bending the wire once 

 around in the centre, a ring is formed 

 in the bail. 



I have two or three of these boxes in 

 my apiary, and as many straight, light 

 poles of different lengths, made of 

 poplar. I tack a strip of leather to 

 each side of these poles, and over one 

 end, and put on a common harness-snap. 

 This I snap into the ring on the bail of 

 the box. I have other poles with a 

 limb left on each, to correspond in 

 length with the one I wisli to use. 



I push the box up under the swarm 

 or cluster, and puncli the limbs, when 

 most of the bees fall into the box. I 

 put the end of the pole on the ground, 

 and lean it away from the limbs of the 



ODOR AND COLOR. 



Their Influence upon the Honey 

 Oathering: Insects. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY MAHALA B. CHADDOCK. 



On page 838 of the American Bee 

 Journal for 1888, Prof. L. H. Pammel, 

 speaks of insects wasting their time 

 when visiting flowers where their ser- 

 vices are no longer needed to pollenize 

 the blossoms. The insects know noth- 

 ino- about the needs of the flowers. To 

 prove this, I have only to quote from 

 Prof. Pammel's article on pages 634 

 and 635 of the same volume, viz : 



" Muller records the most interest- 

 ing case of Salvia Sclarea, in which 

 the tube of the corolla is so long that 

 the honey-bee is not able to get the 

 nectar in a normal way. It made sev- 

 eral attempts, but did not perforate 

 the corollas. When, finally, it found 

 several in which the corollas had just 

 loosened, it began immediately to sip 

 the little drops of nectar which still 

 adhered to the base of the corolla." 



Now, here was a flower that was too 

 far along to need the services of the 

 bee, but the bee kept on trying to get 

 at the nectar until it found some 

 flowers so ripe that the corollas were 

 loosened and falling oft"; from these it 

 sucked the little drops of nectar. There 

 is always a diflVrence in the color of 

 flowers at tlie diflerent stages of their 

 development, and the signs that the 

 insect would need to tell them that 

 their services are no longer needed, 

 ought surely to be hung out by the 

 tin?e the corolla is loose enough to 

 fall off ! 



The fact is, when a flower begins to 

 fade, the coloring-matter seems to col- 

 lect in the thicker parts of the petals. 



and makes darker spots or stripes 

 there ; but it is only Nature doing her 

 own work, in her own waj", and is not 

 a " signal" nor a "sign" of anything. 

 The fact tliat bees work on flowers 

 when the corolla is so loose that it 

 falls off, proves that bees do not look 

 for " signals" in flowers. 



On page 838 (1888) Prof. Pammel 

 says : " Most naturalises agree that 

 color is an important factor, in at- 

 tracting insects to flowers, and that 

 thej" have done much to develop the 

 colors in flowers." 



Well, in a note in the Popular 

 Science Monthly, on page 718, we read : 

 " Dr. Schweinferth has obtained speci- 

 mens which were originally deposited 

 in the forms of offerings from Egyp- 

 tian tombs, 4,000 years old, which are 

 as satisfactory for the purpose of 

 science as any collected at the present 

 day, and which, consequently, supply 

 means for the closest examination and 

 comparison with their living represen- 

 tatives. The colors of the flowers are 

 still present — even the most evanes- 

 cent. The chlorophyl remains in the 

 leaves, and the sugar in the pulp of 

 the raisins. Dr. Schweinferth has de- 

 termined 59 species, some of which are 

 represented by fruits, others by flowers 

 and leaves, and the remainder by 

 branches. 



" Mr. Caruthers also referred to the 

 deposits discovered at Cromer, and 

 the remains which exist of pre-glacial 

 flora, and came to the conclusion that 

 the various physical conditions that 

 necessarily affected those species in 

 their diffusion over such large areas 

 of the earth's surface in the course of 

 say, 250,000 years, should have led to 

 the production of many varieties, but 

 the uniform testimony of this pre- 

 glacial flora, so far as the materials 

 admit of a comparison, is that no ap- 

 preciable change has taken place." 



So, then, we find according to va- 

 rious authors, that color was given to 

 flowers to attract insects to fertilize 

 them, and that insects have done much 

 to develop the colors in flowers. But 

 here, these eminent naturalists examine 

 these flowers from Egyptian tombs, 

 and find them true to the flowers that 

 Ave know ; and these deposits at 

 Cromer carry us back 250,000 years, 

 and as far as the materials a<lmit of 

 comparison, there has been no appre- 

 cialilc change .' 



The insect world has done it best for 

 the floral kingdom, for vast periods of 

 time, and still they are about the 

 same ! The Ijrightly-colored flowers 

 that Prof. Pammel mentions, contain 

 either nectar or pollen, or both, and 

 the insects are attracted by tin: same ; 

 but the hazel, walnut, oak, grasses and 

 sed"-es are odorless, and that is why 

 they are not visited by insects. For if 



