590 



July, 1907. 



American Vae Journal 



der if the bee-keepers of the northern 

 part of the continent fully appreciate 

 the value of alsike clover. In a recent 

 issue of Gleanings, Editor Root says 

 that those bee-keepers will be fortu- 

 nate who have had lots of alsike clover 

 scattered around their apiaries. He ad- 

 vises bee-keepers to buy the seed for 

 the fariVters free, believing that in the 

 end the investment would be a paying 

 one. Be that as it may, I am thank- 

 ful that we live in a locality where 

 alsike is grown for seed, as I know if 

 it were not for alsike we might as 

 well pull up stakes at once. 



As to white clover, we have a little 

 in old pasture-fields and on the road- 

 sides, but in dry seasons it is cropped 

 so closely bj' sheep that it hardly gets 

 a chance to bloom. Occasionally a field 

 is grown for seed, and from observation 

 I am quite sure that it is not at all 

 equal to alsike as a honey-yielder. I 

 wonder if about ^ of the white clover 

 honey produced throughout the coun- 

 try is not gathered from the alsike ! 



If thought advisable later on, these nu- 

 clei can be united and good results ob- 

 tained during the flow, or, as I contem- 

 plate doing, the nuclei can be made 

 strong in double-quick time by the giv- 



ing of brood from extra-strong colonies. 

 Colonies made up like this, headed by a 

 young queen, are in an ideal condition 

 to take advantage of any flow that may 

 happen to come. 



A Swarming' Surprise 



Bee-keepers in this locality were caught 

 napping this spring. With steady cold 

 weather prevailing right through April, 

 May, and the first week of June, with 

 scarcely a day fit to open hives, swarm- 

 ing was hardly thought of. Imagine our 

 surprise when on starting queen-clip- 

 ping during the early part of fruit- 

 bloom, we found about 1-3 of the colo- 

 nies starting queen-cells. One colony 

 had swarmed about the middle of May 

 when pussy-willows were yet in bloom. 

 The queen being clipped, the bees re- 

 turned, and when the young queens 

 emerged, away went the whole force of 

 bees. This happened at an out-yard, 

 and the loss was not discovered until a 

 couple of days after the bees had left. 

 This is the first time I have ever lost a 

 swarm in the spring, and what makes 

 the itiatter particularly aggravating is 

 the fact that the queen was an extra- 

 good one, and I was contemplating rear- 

 ing a number of young queens from her. 



Having said so much, I may as well 

 tell the whole joke. The da}' I discov- 

 ered the loss I had made a trip to the 

 out-apiary for the express purpose of 

 bringing that colony to the home-yard 

 so as to give it closer attention when 

 rearing those young queens. It has been 

 rather a boast of mine that I have not 

 in 5 years allowed a colony to swarm in 

 fruit-bloom, but after this spring, I guess 

 I would better keep "mum" when the 

 subject is mentioned. All colonies found 

 with queen-cells were treated to. a thor- 

 ough over-hauling, cells cut out, supers 

 put on, and although the weather was 

 cool, brood was put in the supers over 

 the strongest colonies. Returning 10 

 days later 6 colonies were found to have 

 swarmed, and 3 more were again start- 

 ing cells. As fruit-bloom was just over, 

 after cutting out cells again the 3 were 

 considered safe, but with those that had 

 swarmed and lost the old queens, noth- 

 ing short of breaking up the colonies 

 into strong nuclei would answer the 

 purpose — queen-cells nearly all sealed, 

 and also most of the brood ; and the 

 bees in that noticeable broody condition. 



Conducted by L<.)UIS 11. bCHULL, .New Brauntels. lex. 



" Snowy White " Drones 



Some S or 6 years ago I had a large, 

 prolific queen that would produce a 

 drone every now and then almost pure 

 white. These were not the so-called 

 "Albino" strain, but were dark hybrids, 

 and these sports were not of the white, 

 ashy color usually found in the so- 

 called "Albinos," but were almost of a 

 "snowy" whiteness; even their wings 

 having a milky cast. The few that I 

 saw of these strange freaks of nature 

 were never able to Ry, and were soon 

 dragged or driven from the hives by 

 the bees. 



Distance Bees Forage Profitably 



How far will bees fly for honey? This 

 is a question often asked, and, strangely 

 enough, you will hardly find two apiar- 

 ists who will give the same answer. 

 I think it should not be so much a 

 question of how far bees will fly for 

 honey, but rather a question as to how 

 far will bees fly and gather honey at a 

 profit. 



I know that bees will fly from 5 to 7 

 miles for honey, and G. M. Doolittle 

 once said they would fly from 3 to 5 

 miles from choice, when plenty of bloom 

 was to be found near by. Let that be 

 as it may, I will tell how I know they 

 fly from 5 to 7 miles for honey. 



Away back in the '8o's I lived in John- 

 son Co., Texas, and was the first one to 

 get the yellow-banded bees in that local- 

 ity. The following spring a neighbor 

 that lived at least 5 miles distant from 

 my apiary told me those yellow bees 

 worked freely on the fruit-bloom on his 

 place, and that he lined them within 

 less than 2 miles of my apiary with the 

 hope of finding some of the improved 

 bees wild in the woods. 



The same year I was six or seven 

 miles from my apiary and saw those 

 same yellow-banded Cyprians at work 

 on horsemint. This was on the high 

 prairie, and only a skirt of timber be- 

 tween those bees at work on the mint 

 and my apiary. They would rise high in 

 the air and make a direct line for my 

 apiary. I searched the woods thoroughly 

 with the hope of finding wild bees of 

 the improved kind, but became fully 



convinced that they were bees from 

 my own apiary. I do not mean to say 

 that bees will always fly that distance. 

 I am sure that the locality and season 

 have much to do with it, and, I might 

 add, the "lay" of the country also. 



At another time (and a very dry year 

 — the rain that we did have was just 

 local showers), I had my colonies gather 

 about 30 lbs. of comb hony each from 

 wild marigold, zV^ to 4 miles away. 

 How do I know this? I'll tell you. As 

 stated, it was a dry j'ear, and every- 

 thing was dry and parched in my local- 

 ity. But 4 or 5 miles away there had 

 been plenty of showers to make the 

 wild marigold do its best, and there 

 was nothing for bees to work on in my 

 locality at the time. Besides, it is easy 

 to tell when bees are at work on the 

 marigold, by their bodies becoming dust- 

 ed over with a deep yellow pollen. 



Rescue, Tex. L. B. Smith. 



Yes, it is easy to tell when bees are 

 at work on the flowers of what is com- 

 monly called "wild marigold" — Gaillar- 

 dia pulchella Fong. Besides the golden- 

 yellow pollen-dust on the bees, the honey 

 has a characteristic flavor, very sweet, 

 and of a heavy body, dark amber or 

 golden in color. These- plants extend- 

 ing from the plains of Arkansas and 

 Louisiana through Texas and to Ari- 

 zona and Mexico, are often much influ- 

 enced by local rains ; that is, where rains 

 do not come at the right time there 

 will be no " marigold," while several 

 miles away a fine crop of bloom may 

 be open where rains prevailed. In such 

 instances it is well that our bees should 

 go several miles from home. But will 

 they always do so? I remember an in- 

 tance where 2 apiaries were located only 

 l'/2 miles apart. Near one of them lo- 

 cated on low land, a composite came 

 into bloom in abundance during July 

 when there was no other bloom any- 

 where. The bees of this yard stored the 

 combs heavily with honey, there being 

 the roar of a big honey-flow on in the 

 apiary during the time of the yield. 

 The bees at the other yard did nothing 

 all the summer; they knew absolutely 

 nothing of "the good time their neigh- 

 bors were having," and that only l}4 

 miles away. Now why didn't they find 

 those flowers? There was a "whole val- 

 lev full of them." 



