116 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 15. 



ly. One of our apiarists, speaking of it, said, 

 " When the bee works on the resin-weed it hies 

 itself home quickly to unload before the honey 

 candies in its sac." 



CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH THESE PLANTS 

 YIELD HONEY. 



There seems to be something in weather con- 

 ditions that none of us understand, that seems 

 to stop all secretion of nectar when we would 

 expect it to be otherwise. Such times we seem 

 to have right conditions, yet no secretion takes 

 place. This I can not at all explain. Aside 

 from this I will speak only briefly of conditions. 

 J find alfalfa yielding well in steady settled 

 warm weather, preceding thunder storms, and 

 right through local thunder-showers; but im- 

 mediately following a ge?ierai storm the secre- 

 tion is very light. Cleome yields best early in 

 the morning, and when the weather is slightly 

 cool and damp. Work begins much earlier in 

 the morning on cleome than on alfalfa, and 

 ceases earlier in the day. This would indicate 

 that heat is necessary for alfalfa, and cool 

 weather for cleome. Sweet clover seems to be 

 less affected by either heat or cold, though I 

 am inclined to believe that it does best with a 

 good degree of moisture. I know bees will 

 work it in damp heavy weather. Sweet clover, 

 I thinu, is not worked so early in the morning 

 as cleome, the latter being worked promptly as 

 soon as the bees can get out in the morning. 

 There Is one thing that I have observed for 

 many years — that bees are eager for pollen in 

 the morning. There is considerable primrose 

 in my neighborhood, and the bees will rush for 

 that in the very early morn, and come In with 

 great trailing loads of pollen. Corn is also 

 visited in the early morn. I do not know 

 whether or not it is a provision of nature that 

 the pollen-bearing plants should yield in the 

 morning more than at any other time, but I do 

 know that more pollen Is gathered in the early 

 part of the day. 



The past two years have been very poor hon- 

 ey seasons in Colorado. Both years we had a 

 good bloom. I thought each season that the 

 prospect was good for a crop of honey, yet it 

 seems there have not been poorer years since 

 the country was settled. The year 1895 was 

 what is called there a wet one. A wet year 

 means one in which there is almost sufficient 

 rain to grow crops without irrigation. Neigh- 

 bors continually asked if the bees were doing 

 well. I would reply they were not. Why? 

 What is the matter? Is it too wet? Then 1896 

 was dry and hot— not unusually dry, but un- 

 usually hot. For Colorado there was a reason- 

 able amount of rain, but a shortage of snow in 

 the mountains to supply irrigating-water, hence 

 many farms suffered for water, while others 

 had a plenty. Again, the people would ask the 

 same que^lon, only this time it was " too dry " 

 instead of too wet. There is yet that some- 



thing which we do not understand that causes 

 the bloom to secrete or withhold its nectar. I 

 believe that good growing conditions are neces- 

 sary in all cases, but I can not get rid of the 

 thought that electricity has much to do with it. 



OBSERVATION AND EXPERIMENTS. 



I wish there could be a concerted action on the 

 part of a number of stations throughout the 

 United States, each station to keep a daily 

 record of barometer, thermometer, precipita- 

 tion, clear or cloudy, whether storms are local 

 or general, both general and particular weather 

 conditions throughout the year; and at all 

 times during the honey-flows, or when there 

 ought to be flows, have two or more colonies on 

 the scales, and a daily record of gain or loss. I 

 say two or more colonies, because I am satis- 

 fled that, when there are different kinds and 

 Jields of bloom at the same time, bees of differ- 

 ent colonies will be working in different flelds. 

 I believe this because certain colonies will rob 

 at certain places, and other colonies in the 

 same yard not know where the honey is, or 

 even flnd it at all. I believe there is some sort 

 of manner of communicating or imparting the 

 whereabouts of sweets, and one colony may get 

 started in one field and another in another 

 field; then if the one on the scales should be on 

 a certain field that is cut down, there would be 

 an interruption in the work of that colony that 

 would not appear in another. If we are to get 

 at the truth promptly and definitely, we must 

 do both comprehensive and detail work. 



I believe that soil has some influence on the 

 secretion. It may be that certain plants must 

 have certain elements in the soil that are pe- 

 culiar to their health and growth in order that 

 they may yield well. As before explained in 

 these articles, there is a great diversity of soils 

 and climate in Colorado. Loveland is in the 

 Big Thompson Valley. Fort Collins is in the 

 Poudre Valley. These places are only about 

 15 miles apart, yet there is considerable differ- 

 ence in the soils. Each valley is watered by 

 the stream of the valley. My observation for 

 the past seven years is that the honey- flows in 

 the Poudre Valley have been better than in the 

 Thompson Valley. The climate is the same, 

 for it is an open country, and very similar in 

 nearly all respects. 



Now as to some method of getting these ob- 

 servations accomplished. I do not know how 

 we can do it; but I have no faith in govern- 

 ment work, because there is too much patron- 

 age to get the proper persons to do the work. 

 If the government does undertake it, it takes a 

 long time to get the thing a going, and we lose 

 interest before it is accomplished. We must 

 wait and work for appropriations. After the 

 work is done we must wait for all the red-tape 

 business before it is reported. I am not attack- 

 ing the government, nor saying that it is not 

 able to do such work. It is able, and should do 



