160 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



Mar. 



tical article. I have liurited bees some my- 

 self, and I have worked them the way you 

 state, altliough I never timed them with the 

 view of gelling distances as accurately 

 as you dill. As the bees took sometime 

 to get under way and stop in your experi- 

 ments, and as they were all pretty well 

 li>a(ied with honey, probably, it seems quite 

 likely that their average speed on a long 

 flight would be toward 40 or 50 miles per 

 hour ; but I am inclined to thuik they do not 

 often go much beyond this. 



URONES AND QUEENS. 



POSITIVi!; PUOOF THAT DRONES DO COLLECT IN 

 BODIKS IN SWARMtNG-TlME. 



\^^r bees, near a hundred stocks, together with 

 jjwl about fifty nuclei, stood near the house in 

 ' dense shade during the past summer. 

 About 3 o'clock in the afternoon one day in July, I 

 left the house and started around the apiary, look- 

 ing: tor swarms in the trees. When I got about the 

 middle of the north side I stopped to pick and eat a 

 few raspberries. As soon as I stood still, I could dis- 

 tinctly hear overhead that peculiar roar so readily 

 heard where drones congregate in great numbers. 

 Never before had I heard it near an apiary— gener- 

 ally some half-mile or more away. I continued eat- 

 ing, listening and meditating quite a good while. 

 Presently the sound indicated that the drones were 

 comintr nearer and nearer, and that they were unus- 

 ually excited, and very angry. This caused me to 

 turn half around and look, whether I might not see 

 them, they seemed so near. And, sure enough, 

 about a rod to the northwest, there they were in a 

 cluster, the shape cf a balloon. The cluster re- 

 tained its f )rm, but moved rapidly eastward, about 

 ten feet from the ground. 1 hardly know how to 

 describe to you how agitated they seemed, and how 

 each particular drone seemed to exert himself, and 

 whiz and whirl as though he expected by his bluster 

 to bluff every other drone, and every other one 

 seemed to be trying to do the Eame thing, till all 

 was a perfect medley cf confusion and anger. Aft- 

 er they had got some four or five r< ds from me, a 

 few ef the lower ones fell to the ground, while the 

 greater number would disperse and become invisi- 

 ble, except now and then one would whiz past close 

 to me, sounding f jr all the world as though he had a 

 notion to sting. In a few minutes more, another 

 cluster would form, and go through the same per- 

 formance, and disperse as before. . 



I then walked out into a clover patch, and called 

 my son to witness what I thought to be a rarefcene. 

 I was amused to see him dodge, as I had felt like do- 

 ing, when one of those angry drones would come 

 near his head. It was hard to believe they would 

 not sting. We both saw the same phenomenon 

 repeated several times in a few minutes. Finally, 

 as we were looking toward the sun, with a piece of 

 timber for a background, we saw a few drones fall 

 from a cluster, and now and then one fiylng past 

 where they fell. When Ave went to the spot we 

 found one live drone on a stalk of red clover, and in 

 the same bunch a queen, evidently a virgin, and 

 with her five woi'ker^bees. She was brushing her- 

 self with her leges as if preparing for flight, while 

 the workers were carefully watching her with an 

 flppearenpe of anyAety, J 8«n,t for ftcage, ptJt the 



queen in, sent her to the house, directing that she be 

 fed, intending to clip her and ittroduce her to 

 hatching brood. Just then I was called away; and 

 when 1 returned at evening, I forgot all about my 

 queen. Next morning she was dead. I was sorry. 

 I felt as though 1 had neglected a rare chance to 

 prove that she had been fertilized. I wish I could 

 have the opportunity again ! J. S. Hughes. 



Mt. Zion,]ll., Feb. 14, 1884. 



Friend II., you have given us another link 

 in the chain of evidence, showing that drones 

 congregate in such bodies during the after- 

 noon of every pleasant day in the proper 

 season. When a young queen goes out, she 

 by instinct seeks this great body of drones, 

 and is soon fertilized, and returns to her 

 hive. If she does not find this body of 

 drones, she perhaps makes another trip some 

 other day, and so on. I have often heard 

 them in the air, and have tried to see them, 

 but they always seemed too high up for sight. 



BASS\«'OOD. 



DOOLITTLE TALKS TO US ABOUT IT. 



N page 44 of Gleanings for Jan. 15, 1884, 1 see 

 friends Stehle and Knowles are thinking of 

 moving their bees to where there is plenty of 

 mber, after the clover-bloom has gone, 

 or is about to fail. The plan is a good one, and I can 

 see nothing against it, except the expense. I believe 

 basswood to be the greatest honey-producer of the 

 world. In fact, no report has ever been given (if I 

 am correct) of an average jield of 20 lbs. per day 

 from a single colony for 30 days in succession, except 

 from basswood. Gallup had a colony do this. 1 had 

 one which gave that for about 10 days, the best yield 

 being 66 lbs. in 3 days. Now, if the above friends can 

 move their bees to the basswood, and return them at 

 an expense of $1 00 per colony, it will be seen that 10 

 lbs. of extracted honey from each colony will pay 

 the cost, if they should get that much surplus; and 

 if the cost should even come up to 12.00 each, 20 lbs. 

 would make it good. 



By going back over my account with my bees for 

 the past 12 years, I find that from basswood alone 

 my yield of cumh honey has not been far from 70 lbs. 

 on an average, from each colony, each year, the 

 lightest yi€ld being about 45 lbs., and the heaviest 

 120 lbs. This is the average yield of the yard, not the 

 yield of individual colonies. Now, if we call 70 fts. 

 of comb honey what we can expect one year with 

 another from basswood. and allow that li more in 

 !bs. can be obtained where we work for extracted 

 honey, we shall have 105 lbs. as an average yield of 

 extracted honey. If we allow 20 fts. of this as the 

 cost of moving our bees to the basswood, we shall 

 have 85 lbs. left, or f8.50 per colony, calling the 

 honey worth 10 cents per ft. So if 100 colonies are 

 moved, we have $850 free of all expense for our un- 

 dertaking. But we will suppose the year we move 

 to the basswood to be one ef the poor years, and on- 

 ly 45 fts. of comb honey is obtained. This would 

 give 67 fts. of extracted honey, or 47 lbs. after pay- 

 ing for moving, equaling $470 for 100 colonies. 

 Hence I should consider it a very safe investment to 

 move my bees to a basswood region, if I lived where 

 there was none. 



On page 44 I notice these words : " If I am correct, 

 the basswood-trees form the buds and leaflets 3 or 4 

 weeks Ibpfpre they opei> and gecrete boney, wjjiclj 



