THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



23 



111 the flowers of the Pen, False ludiijo, Yel- 

 low-wood, (C'/ad(i<riit,) Ked-bud or Judas-tree, 

 lied and White Clover, Locust, and others of 

 lliis large and important family, (Legu7ninof(V,) 

 anthers surround the stigma, and are closely 

 covered b}^ the corolla. Tliis certainly looks 

 like a very clear case of self-fertilization, but I 

 doubt not the reverse is very often the case. 

 Many of the flowers as the Pea and Locust, 

 have one petal much larger than the rest, called 

 the standard iKiuner. Opposite this is another 

 part composed of two petals sometimes united, 

 termed the keel. On this keel bees uniformly 

 ulight, and crowd the head dowu next to the 

 banner-petal. To enable them to do this, they 

 kick the keel and {<idc petals (wings) with their 

 hind legs, and push them back so that the an- 

 thers and stigmas come out from their conceal- 

 ment and meet the underside of the insect where 

 pollen may be left or received. Why the style 

 should be uniformly curved upward, and all 

 sliould be brought against the abdomen of in- 

 sects, I cannot well conceive, unless it be of 

 some use to the plant. 



Lupine, another species in this family, has a 

 remarkably long keel which makes a close 

 sheath for the inside parts. On the style, just 

 below the extremity, is a circle of long stiff 

 bristles. As the keel is pushed down, only the 

 stigma, with the bristles below, appears outside, 

 and this pushes out a mass of pollen which gen- 

 erally hits some part of the insect. When left, 

 the flower resumes its former position again. 



For about six times pollen can be i:)ushed out 

 in this way, when the supply becomes exhausted. 

 Insects begin on the lowest flowers, and so go 

 up the spike to others which are higher and 

 younger. No experiments have been made on 

 Lupine to show whether it will produce more 

 seeds when visited by insects than when pro- 

 tected. 



— ^ 



Bee-keeping and bee management are in 

 common with agriculture and the proper treat- 

 ment of soils, yet in their infancy. But the 

 time is probably not far distant when hundreds 

 of colonies will be kept on improved systems in 

 many districts w^here dozens of them cannot at 

 present be found. 



It is conceded that those localities which are 

 suited to the cultivation of white clover and 

 buckwheat, are also suited to the production of 

 honey, and that where a poppy will prosper, a 

 bee will prosper also : consequently there are 

 few situations where bee-keeping might not be 

 successfully prosecuted. 



In all plans and operations with bees, the 

 laws of nature should be attentively observed 

 and assisted, by which much may be experienced 

 and acquired from attention and perseverance 

 and the results aimed at attained at less trouble 

 and expense than if an opposite course be pur- 

 sued. 



For tbo American Bee Journal. 



Experience of a Novice in Bee-Keeping— 

 No. 5. 



Bees usually work more from eight o'clock 

 in the morning till noon, than during the rest 

 of the day. 



I had read and re-read the instructions on 

 Italian queen raising until I almost considered 

 myself an expert in the business before trying 

 it, and was impatient lor the season to arrive to 

 try my hand. About the 1st of April, I com- 

 menced by removing the best frames of brood 

 from my Italians, who were yet far from strong, 

 although healthy and doing well. The frame 

 was put in my observatory hive so that we 

 could inspect operations, and wo were much 

 gratifled to And several queen cells had been 

 started the next morning. As the weather 

 was bad it became necessary to feed them, and 

 all went on well until about a Aveek after, when 

 I forgot them so far as to let them get out of 

 honey, so much so that they were mostly on the 

 bottom board. The cells had been torn open 

 and the brood sucked dry even to the queen 

 cells. 



I fed them a little honey at first to observe the 

 effect, and observed that as soon as one got a 

 taste he liurried to his suffering companions, 

 giving each one a little, who, in his turn, per- 

 tbrmed the same office, until all became lively 

 again, and then such a rejoicing and whirling 

 about. I doubt if human beings rescued from 

 starvation could have expressed more joy at the 

 sight ot plenty of food than did my bees. 



This lot of queen cells w^cre given up, and so 

 they had a piece of first brood comb inserted. 



This time we did not let them starve, but 

 somehow their queen cell (they started but one) 

 produced, after about 18 days, only a dead bee, 

 having something in the shape of a queen, but 

 only the size and appearance of a worker. 



Another trial produced a similar result. I 

 was considerablj' discouraged then, as far as 

 early queen was concerned, and could not ac- 

 count for it, but now suppose it was owing to 

 the small number of bees, as they had thinned 

 down considerably, and the wa-ather was so bad 

 they perhaps could not get a sufficient supply of 

 the proper food to furnish the royal jell^'. 



To make a sure thing of it next rime, as it had 

 got to be about the 2oth of May, I removed my 

 Italian queen from her hive and introduced her 

 to another. In ten days I had eleven queen 

 cells, and was much puzzled as to what I should 

 do with them. 



To get a very strong nucleus, I removed two 

 frames each from each of my old hives, six in 

 all, and put them into empty ones, looking them 

 over carefully to avoid getting the old queens, 

 as the books directed. But I Avasso bewildered 

 by having to open so manj' strong hives, that I 

 probably could not have seen them if they had 

 half of them been queens. After having had si.x 

 queen cells destroj'ed as fast as I inserted them, I 

 finally discovered that I had removed the black 

 queens from three of the six hives. I w'as ad- 

 vised to return them, but I thought as it was so 

 much trouble to find them I would keep them 

 out, and give them Italian qiieeus when they 

 became fertile; which operation took so long 



