264 



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NECTAR. 



The Gathering 

 Pollen 



of Honey and 

 by Bees. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 

 BY CHAS. DADANT. 



In answer to the wishes of Prof. 

 Cook, expressed in his article on page 

 217, 1 give here some remarks on the 

 above subject. 



Bees are attracted to the nectar by 

 its odor, mainly. Then, after having 

 unloaded their honey - sacs in the 

 hives, they use their eyes to find more 

 quickly and more surely their way back 

 to the spot where they had completed 

 their last load, and continue, on the 

 same kind of flowers, as long as they 

 find something in them to take. 



I have noticed the bees of a colony 

 gathering a kind of honey, while the 

 bees of another colony, placed near by, 

 gathered at the same time, honey dif- 

 ferent in color and savor. 



I have seen Italian bees, exclusively, 

 working on red clover; while black 

 bees, exclusively so, worked on buck- 

 wheat. 



Some of our colonies had dark honey- 

 dew in their hives, while others had 

 only white-clover honey ; some had 

 fruit-juice, while others had dark honey 

 from the fall blossoms. 



As the same kinds of some flowers 

 vary a little, bees are soon accustomed 

 to visit their diversely-tinted varieties. 

 For instance, a bee will go from a pure- 

 ly-white head of clover to another 

 which is rose-colored; for there are 

 hardly two plants of white clover 

 whose flowers have exactly the same 

 tint. 



Having watched bees working on a 

 patch of diflerently-colored blue-bot- 

 tles, I saw one bee stick to the white 

 variety and pass by the other colors 

 without paying any 'attention to them ; 

 while another bee visited, one after an- 

 other, the white, the blue, the purple, 

 etc. I noticed the same when watch- 

 ing bees on the asters, tlie knot-weeds, 

 etc. 



There is, consequently, no wonder to 

 see bees visiting several kinds of ap- 

 ple-trees during the same trip. This 

 reminds me of something unusual that 

 I noticed in France long ago. There 

 was an apple-tree loaded with apples, 

 very similar to the kind known here as 

 " Bellflower." Some of the apples, in- 

 stead of being entirely white, had ribs, 

 like muskmelons, colored in gray. Xot 

 far from it was another tree of a vari- 

 ety known in France as " Gray Rei- 

 nette." ]S'o doubt the bees of an apiary 

 placed in the same orchard had brought 

 the pollen of the gray apple to the flow- 

 ers of the white, and the fecundation 

 had not remained confined to the seed 

 alone, but had extended through the 

 pulp to the part of the skin correspond- 

 ing to the heterogeneously-fecundated 

 kernel. 



When the crop of honey is scarce, 

 bees visit all kinds of nectar-yielding 



flowers, passing from one to another, 

 without seeming to mind the difference. 

 But we do not think that they act the 

 same when they are in quest of pollen, 

 if we notice the regular color of the 

 lumps thai they bring to the hives. 



How llie Xoads Eat. 



In reply to Mr. Hovis in regard to 

 toads eating bees, on page 216, 1 would 

 say that, although the toad eats small 

 insects, its mouth is very large. To 

 get its prey it does not act like the aut- 

 eaters, whose heads are elongated, and 

 which thrust their tongues— that are 

 coated with a viscid saliva— among the 

 ants, and retract them in their narrow 

 mouths. 



As soon as an insect is within the 

 reach of the toad, its tongue is thrown 

 out by a kind of springing motion, the 

 back part of it forward, and returned 

 as quick as lightning ; as the tongue 

 is coated with a viscid substance, the 

 lightest contact suflices. This motion 

 is so quick that it is about impossible 

 to notice it, except by the swift open- 

 ing of the mouth, and the smack which 

 is heard when the tongue jumps back 

 and the mouth shuts up. 



Hamilton, Ills. 



IN" COUNCIL. 



Report of the N. E. Ohio, IV. Pa. 

 and S. W. N.' ¥. Convention. 



The 5^'ortheastern Ohio, Northern 

 Pennsylvania, and Southwestern New 

 York Beekeeper's Association met at 

 Franklin, Pa., on January 30, 1889, at 2 

 p.m., with President D. H. Lefever in 

 the chair. 



Secretary C. H. Coon, of Xew Lyme, 

 O., called the roll, and the treasurer, 

 George Spitler, of Mosiertown, Pa., 

 read his report after the secretary's re- 

 port was read. 



The President's address, in a humor- 

 ous and semi-serious vein, came next. 

 H. M. Erwin, editor of the Franklin 

 Arw.s, made the address of welcome in 

 behalf of the executive committee and 

 the citizens of Franklin. The address 

 was impromptu, and those who listened 

 to it were highly pleased. The re- 

 sponse was by M. E. Mason, of Ando- 

 ver, O. 



Some time was given for the enroll- 

 ment of names and paying of annual 

 dues, after which the first question on 

 the programme was discussed as fol- 

 lows, viz.: 



" The Best Method of Disposing of 

 First Swarms, when Increase is not 

 Desired." 



Mr. Mason said that as his whole aim 

 was to get the most honey possible, he 

 had tried to find some method by which 

 increase could be prevented as much as 

 possible; for bees will swarm. By his 

 method, bees are allowed to swarm nat- 

 urally, yet with little increase of colo- 

 nies. They first swarm in an empty 

 hive, and he hives them in the usual 

 manner on from six to eight frames 

 filled with comb, or foundation, using 

 division-boards to contract the brood- 

 chamber. Then put the next swarm 

 into the hive from which the first 



swarm issued. The third swarm is put 

 into the hive from which the second 

 swarm issued, and so on. By this 

 method he had large colonies— a thing 

 so desirable and necessary to secure 

 comb honey, and yet the bees' propen- 

 sity to swarm is satisfied. 



Sir. Reynolds hived his swarms In 

 hives from which swarms issued the 

 previous day, or in hives whose colonies 

 are queenless; puts sections for surplus 

 honey in the hive in about 12 hours, if 

 he has lots of comb in the brood-nest ; 

 if not, he waits a day or two. He said 

 that he had no trouble from bees 

 swarming out, unless a swarm had is- 

 sued from a hive three or four days ; 

 in such cases he would destroy the 

 queen-cells previous to putting in the 

 swarms. 



Mr. Pettis, of Lake. Pa., related the 

 experience of a neighbor who made it 

 pay to have increase of swarms ; he 

 sold his swarms at from $3 to $~ each. 

 If he had too many he sometimes made 

 a sale, and generally secured good 

 prices. 



D. W. Burnett, New Vernon, Pa., 

 has had no reason to prevent increase 

 of swarms, for he has ready sale for his 

 bees at §6 a colony, in a simple body of 

 the hive, which he thinks pays him for 

 all trouble. 



Consiimptioii of n'inter Stores. 



A member said that he could see but 

 little difference in out-door or cellar- 

 wintering in the consumption of stores. 



Mr. Sutton thought that out-door 

 wintering was best, because the bees 

 have opportunity for cleansing flights 

 —a thing very desirable. They will 

 also breed sooner. 



Mr. Reynolds had at one time 12 col- 

 onies—six of them he put into a cellar 

 (a dry one), and six were packed in 

 straw on the summer stands. Those 

 out-doors came through all right, and 

 built up rapidly in the spring ; those 

 in the cellar came through the winter, 

 but he lost all of them in the spring by 

 dwindling. 



C. H. Coon packs part of his bees out- 

 doors, and part in the cellar. Those 

 out-doors are quiet, while those in the 

 cellar seemed to be very uneasy the 

 past winter; there are many of them 

 coming out of the hives ; the hives are 

 damp, though the cellar is dry. He 

 has oil-cloth on top of the frames. His 

 cellar was well ventilated. He loses 

 his bees alter putting them out in the 

 spring. Last spring he kept the bees 

 in the cellar very late, and they did well. 



Mr. Mason said that the average cel- 

 lar was not the right place to winter 

 bees. The temperature ouglit to be 

 kept at 40'^ to id-'. He does not believe 

 it advisable to carry bees out of the cel- 

 lar to give them a cleansing flight. He 

 has always been more successful by 

 out-door wintering. 



Mr. Lefever thinks that the want of 

 proper stores is the cause of more fail- 

 ures than any other method of winter- 

 ing. He has had much trouble from 

 stores gathered at cider-mills by the 

 bees. He related how a friend put out- 

 side combs to the inside or center of 

 the hives, and the center combs to the 

 outside of the hives, with good results. 

 Another neighbor had ciit a bee-tree, 

 and, the combs being badly smashed. 



