.lULY 15, 1914 



559 



Meadg rf Gram fremm Different Fields 



THE BACKLOT BUZZER 



There's nothing like requeening at the right time; 

 lilt why the samhill is it carried out in high society? 

 The man who still thinks bees don't do any good to 

 his fruit-trees is the man who doesn't have his home 

 pointed out 'johen the rubber-neck wagon man goes 

 by. 



Conditions Under which Red Clover will Yield 

 Honey for the Common Honey Bees 



After reading the April 1st issue of Gleanings I 

 arrived at the conclusion that some of the articles on 

 queen-rearing smacked quite strongly of free adver- 

 tising. When any one of them will go so far as to 

 say that his queens are descendants from owe whose 

 liees stored surplus honey from red clover when all 

 the rest in his apiary were storing dark honey-dew, 

 you can size up such men as frosts. This reminds 

 me of an article that appeared in your columns years 

 ago in which a certain queen-breeder claimed that 

 his were descendants from one whose bees stored sur- 

 plus when all the rest in his apiary were starving;. 

 I wrote an article in reply to it, and oflfered $100 to 

 any man who would put a swarm of bees in ray 

 apiary that would store surplus when my bees were 

 starving; but the $100 was never called for; and I 

 will renew that as a standing offer to any man who 

 will bring or send me a colony of bees that will do 

 (hat, or store surplus honey from red clover when 

 I!!.- bees are storing dark honey-dew. Yes, I will 

 make it still stronger — give $100 to any man who 

 will bring or send me a colony of bees that will store 



surplus red-clover honey at all, or who will send me. 

 a queen that will produce such bees. Here is a 

 chance for some of those queen-breeders to get busy 

 and earn easy money. If I remember correctly, some 

 years ago you paid $200 for a queen, and I bought 

 of you two or three of her daughters; and I will say 

 that they produced good bees, but they never stored 

 any surplus red-clover honey, neither did any other 

 man's bees ever do that. I have bees that work 

 somewhat on red clover ; but as to surplus honey, 

 never. 



After reading the articles above referred to I wrote 

 one of these gentlemen, inclosing a stamp for reply, 

 and asked him to send me the address of one or tv/o 

 of the breeders from whom he received his best stock. 

 Did he do it? No, indeed. He wrote me a letter 

 stating that that would be indiscreet, and knocking 

 the other fellow's business, but very kindly inclosed 

 his queen price list and circular in which he claims 

 that no queen is allowed in his apiary whose bees do 

 not clean up foul brood immediately, and that the 

 infection is plentiful in his locality. He further says, 

 " Our main fall flow is mammoth clover, from which 

 we get a great many pounds of honey annually," but 

 note he doe-s not say mammoth red clover, though 

 that is the inference that he intends to cast before 

 the unsuspecting and amateur beekeepers. He might 

 say that sweet clover was mammoth clover because 

 it grows much taller than red clover, and all bee- 

 keepers know that all bees work well on it, and store 

 surplus honey, and also that its season is the same 

 as he refers to, and I wish to state that, in my opin- 

 ion, all such statements as referred to are mislead- 

 ing, at least, if not untrue, and they are made for 

 this purpose just as much as the ones are to which 

 .\ou often refer with reference to the so-called gold- 

 ens; and if this man's goldens are so far superior 

 to all others as per his article, why does he quote 

 prices on goldens, three-band, and leather-colored 

 all the same price? He can, perhaps, tell us. 



Union Center, Wis., April 22. Elias Fox. 



[We lannot lielieve that there was any deliberate 

 attempt by any of the writers in the Ajsril 1st issue 

 to secure free advertising, for several voluntarily 

 .' uggested that we substitute a nom de plume for 

 I heir names if we thought best. 



Mr. Pox is evidently basing his statements on what 

 lakes place in his locality. The question of whether 

 red clover yields honey or not depends very largely 

 on the season and the locality. In some places the 

 .' oil is " clover-sick " — that is, lacking in lime. In 

 other places it grows luxuriantly, especially some 

 icasons. A heavy luxuriant growth of common or 

 peavine red clover will not yield honey as well as 

 that grown on a soil or in a season that is too dry 

 to grow more. The reason of this is plain: Bounti- 

 ful and frequent rains in early spring will make red 

 clover have longer corolla tubes than in a spring 

 when the weather has been dry. In a dry season on 

 a poor soil some bees can reach the nectar from red 

 (lover because the tubes are shorter. We have veri- 

 fied this in our own locality time and time again, and 

 any one can do the same if he has the proper soil 

 conditions and a diversity of seasons. 



There is one more factor — a fact which we have 

 proved out beyond any question, that different strains 

 of bees have different tongue-lengths ; but the longest 

 tongue-length of any bees of any strain except bum- 

 blebees will not reach the nectar in the long corolla 

 tubes of red clover; in fact, a great deal of the time 

 even bumblebees can't reach it. We proved that out 

 to our own satisfaction some years ago. But they 

 reach enough of it to cause a fair seeding. 



There is another interesting fact — namely, that the 

 nectar rises higher in the corolla tubes some seasons 



