404 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



sugar syrup thin enough to prevent 

 granulating, I cut up pieces of cheese- 

 cloth about five inches square, and tie a 

 piece over the top of the jar, or hold it 

 in place, and screw the zinc rim about 

 one-half on. This makes a little space 

 between the cheese-cloth and the 

 blanket over the bees. Then cut a hole 

 through the blanket just over the clus- 

 ter, about an inch square, and set the 

 glass jar over the hole, bottom side up, 

 and they will cluster up in the little 

 space, and nurse the syrup through the 

 cheese-cloth as quiet and undisturbed as 

 though nothing had happened, after 

 they have first found their new lunch, 

 and become used to it. ' 



The rubber and glass top can be laid 

 aside, and later wash up the cans and 

 use them for putting up extracted 

 honey. The smallest colonies can feed 

 in this way, when the other feeders 

 work only on large colonies, unless they 

 are very warm (too warm for the rest). 

 I also use this way of feeding in the 

 yard, both spring and late fall, too, 

 sometimes. It brings the honey nearer 

 to the bees than any other way directly 

 over the cluster. 



Manchester, Vt. 



How Far Do Bees Go for Honey 

 and Do Well « 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY F. X. ARNOLD. 



How far do bees go in search of honey 

 and still do good work ? is a question 

 that seems to have received some atten- 

 tion of late, and bee-keepers differ 

 widely in their opinions, some limiting 

 the distance to IX or 2 miles, while 

 others go to the opposite extreme, and 

 say they will go as far as 12 miles. 

 However, when honey is plentiful, the 

 former figures may be nearly right, and 

 but very few bees work outside of that 

 distance ; while, if honey was scarce in 

 their immediate vicinity, they would 

 probably go a far greater distance than 

 that, although I never saw bees over 3% 

 or 4 miles from their homes. 



Well, last summer was the first time I 

 had a chance to test the matter a little, 

 as last year was the poorest of the sev- 

 eral poor seasons we have had in suc- 

 cession, and the bees were in a starving 

 condition all summer, until the fall 

 blossoms yielded their precious sweets, 

 which gave the bees more than they 

 could do for about five weeks. 



The main part of our fall crop of 



honey is from smart-weed ; now this 

 smart-weed, or whatever they call it, 

 has its peculiar ways of blooming, and 

 also a decided difference in the amount 

 of honey it produces ; that which grows 

 on hilly regions has usually small bloom, 

 and sometimes yields sparingly, while 

 that in the bottoms blooms from one to 

 two weeks earlier, and has larger and 

 more perfect blossoms, and gives a good 

 supply of nectar before a bee is seen 

 working on the same plant on the hills. 



As my apiary is located about two 

 miles from the bottoms, the bees began 

 working very briskly for several days, 

 and I noticed not a single bee working 

 on the smart-weed near the apiary; so 

 I immediately went to the bottoms, and 

 found the smart-weed in full bloom, and 

 just literally alive with bees. This sat- 

 isfied me that my bees were working at 

 least from 2 to 2>^ miles from home, 

 and doing good work at that. 



The next thing I wanted to know was, 

 how long it would take a bee to get a 

 load of honey at that distance, as no 

 other honey was heing gathered at that 

 time, and the working bees could be 

 seen in the morning going in a steady 

 stream towards the bottoms — like a 

 swarm that is hurrying off to get to bet- 

 ter quarters than they had at home. So 

 I sprinkled flour on a good many of the 

 bees that emerged from a certain colony, 

 and waited for their return. 



The first bee returned in 13 minutes, 

 and was well loaded with pollen from 

 corn-tassels, which it evidently gathered 

 in some of the neighboring corn-fields. 

 The second returned in 32 minutes, and 

 had a load of honey, and a little smart- 

 weed pollen. Several entered at 34 

 minutes, and a few at 37, and all the 

 way up to 40 minutes. All those that 

 returned after 30 minutes were well 

 loaded with honey, and some carried 

 small pellets of smart-weed pollen. The 

 average length of time it took them to 

 go to the bottoms, load themselves and 

 return, was about 36 minutes. 



To tell just how much more honey 

 they would have gathered if they had 

 the flora near by, is hard to tell — un- 

 doubtedly a good deal more honey; but 

 bees can do good work at the above- 

 named distance. 



Deer Plain, Ills. 



Please Send XJs the Names of your 

 neighbors who keep bees, and wo will 

 send them sample copies of the Bee 

 JouBNAL. Then please call upon them 

 and get them to subscribe with you, and 

 secure some of the premiums we offer. 



