THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



109 



now TO KNOW WHEN BEES ARE 

 GATHERING HONEY. 



Constiintia, y. V. 

 Cnn a person know wlu-n liccs are Ratlier- 

 ing (ilenly of lioiicy, or wlien they are not? 

 Mhs. W. O. C 



ANSWKR BY G. AV. DKMAREE, « 



To say the least, this is a pleas- 

 ing question. Nothing pleases the 

 apiarist iietter than to be assured 

 that his bees are gathering in the 

 precious nectar with the greatest 

 rapidity. How may we know this? 

 If our hives were not so constructed 

 that we could satisfy our curiosity 

 by examining the combs and seeing 

 with our own eyes the rapidly-filled 

 cells and the gilt edged combs 

 fringed with virgin-white wax, a 

 sure sign of the inflowing honey, we 

 should be left entirel}' to our best 

 judgment and untiring observation 

 when we are called on to answer 

 the question " are bees gathering 

 honey rapidl}' to-daj'?" 



Let me illustrate here. Last fall 

 after the long weary drought, we 

 had some light showers and the 

 nights becanie more pleasant. This 

 started the fall bloom and the bees 

 began to gather some hone}'. One 

 day a friend in the bee business, 

 visited me while 1 was looking 

 througli my apiary, and after some 

 compliments said : " Are the bees 

 galheiing any hone}'^ of consequence 

 to-day?" I answered, yes. Well, 

 said he, " I hardly see how it can 

 be, there are very few flowers yet." 

 " Few flowers or not," I went on to 

 say, "■ don't you see how those bees 

 strike the alighting board short of 

 the entrance and drag their bodies 

 as they glide into the hive? Tliey 

 fairly glisten with their well-filled 

 sacs. Some of them fall short of 

 the mark and drop on the ground. 

 This proves that they are heavily 

 loaded. Now stand at the ends of 

 the rows of the hives and look 

 steadil}^ down between the rows 

 and you will see the bees as they 

 leave the hives shoot out through 

 the circling throng of returnin*); 



bees, like beans shot from an old 

 musket." "Yes." "Well, bees never 

 leave their hives in that way un- 

 less they are gatheriiig lioney 

 rapidly or carrying on a system of 

 robbery somewhere." "Well," said 

 my friend, " that is very feasible, 

 but let us open some hives and see 

 what they are doing." So we 

 opened hive after hive and found 

 the freshly gathered nectar in abun- 

 dance. 



By close observation and long 

 experience we may learn to know 

 at a glance when bees are short of 

 stores, or when they are queenless, 

 or when they are gathering honey. 

 This sort of knowledge saves the 

 apiarist a great deal of manual 

 labor and many times saves his 

 property. Let me suggest here 

 that nearly all of us look at things 

 in a too general way. We must fix 

 our attention on the things we wish 

 to learn and probe them to the bot- 

 tom. In no other way can we rea- 

 sonably hope to become experts in 

 any calling or in any practice. 

 Right along this line we find pleas- 

 sure in bee culture. It is a deep 

 and fascinating study, and lifts the 

 bee student high above the general 

 thinkers in particularities. 

 Christiansburg, lu/. 



FEEDING TO STIMULATE DRONE 

 REARING. 



How early (in southeastern part of New 

 York) can I with safety, commence the stim- 

 ulative feeding of colonies selected for build- 

 ing a few early queen cells, and rearing pure 

 di-ones before it will be i)ossible lor the 

 drones of colonies not so fed to appeal-, so 

 that all queens will be purely mated with se- 

 lected drones before inferior drones besia to 

 fly? L. 



ANSWER BY J. E. POND. 



I confess I am unable to answer 

 this query as fully as I could if I 

 knew the exact conditions of the 

 case, such as temperature, etc., but 

 I apprehend it will be impossible 

 for any one to give a positive rule 

 by which it may be governed, as 



