602 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



separately without the loss and waste that was inevitable 

 when the honey was cut and torn out of the old 

 style hives. 



Machines have been invented and put to use by which 

 the liquid or rendered honey can be removed from the 

 comb without breaking it, and when thus emptied the 



frame and the 

 comb may be 

 replaced in the 

 hive ready to 

 be filled again, 

 and thus the 

 same comb may 

 be used two or 



THE INDUSTRIOUS BEE KNOWS THIS 

 FLOWER WELL 



Wild cherry bloom, and the bloom of 

 tame cherry, too, for that matter, may 

 be listed with the most reliable pasture 

 for bees, provided the supply of trees is 

 not too small. The tree blooms profusely 

 and at a time when bees are very anxious 

 for the harvest. 



THE WILD CRAB 



Blossoms most beautiful and fragrant, and in 

 May time, when the flowers are at their best, 

 they attract the bees by the hundreds. 



more times. The bees are thus 



spared the labor of making new comb 



and can devote their whole energies 



to honey making. It is believed that 



the manufacture of comb involves as 



much work on the part of bees as the 



gathering of the honey that fills it, 



and the use of the same receptacle a 



second time is economical. Comb 



manufactured of aluminum has been 



found practicable and manufacturers 



of bee supplies advertise it, but the use of aluminum 



comb promises neither to increase nor diminish the use 



of wood in the honey business. 



The small frame in which the bees build their comb 

 requires little wood. Perhaps a cubic inch suffices for a 

 frame, for the stock is quite thin and the strips are 

 little more than an inch wide; yet, in the aggregate, a 

 rather respectable bill of lumber is required to supply 

 bee keepers with honey frames for a single year. A 

 wood of white color and light weight is wanted, and 

 basswood is one of the best, but pine, yellow poplar, 

 spruce, and cottonwood are in demand, particularly that 

 species of cottonwood known as balm of gilead. The 

 number of woods suitable for hives is larger than are 



those suitable for honey frames. White pine is a favorite 

 wood for hives, but many others are in use, both soft- 

 woods and hardwoods. 



Bees make full use of the forests. No class of workers 

 derives greater benefit from the trees and their products. 

 To begin with, the hive and most of the apparatus of the 

 honey business is of wood. Bees live in wooden homes 

 in most instances, and have always done so, whc'.'.cr 

 those homes have been hollow trees or hives made <.( 

 lumber. They resort to the bloom of plants for honey 

 and for the wax with which they build their comb, and 

 also for the special food which plays so vital a part in 

 the hive economy. Bees collect a little honey from 

 sources other than flowers, but not much ; and what they 

 take from other insects, mostly origi- 

 nates in flowers, even if the bees do 

 not take it firsthand from the bloom. 

 Bee raisers who engage intelligently 

 in their business must be well ac- 

 quainted with the principal sources of 

 honey, but the honey resources are 

 not the same in all regions, nor is 

 the honey made in one district always 

 of the same quality as that made in 

 another district. It depends on the 

 sources of the honey. Persons accus- 

 tomed to the honey of the Allegheny 

 Mountain region often express disap- 

 pointment when they taste that pro- 

 duced in the prairie country where a 

 wholly different kind of pasture sup- 

 plies the bees. The tree bloom of the 



THE WILD PLUM 



The bees love the beautiful white blossom sprays 

 of the wild plum. 



mountains im- 

 parts a richness 

 and flavor to 

 the honey made 

 there that is 

 not recognized 

 in some regions 

 where the bees 

 have resorted to other sources. Most flowers furnish 

 something to the bee, and no small part of the annual 

 crop of honey comes from plants which live but a single 

 year, or which, at least, spring up each year from the 

 roots. But the industrious insects work the same trees 

 year after year. Of course, the same bee never works 

 the same tree or plant the second year, for the working 



