GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURL' 



POPPIES YIELD POLLEN ONLY 



BY JOHN H. LOVELL 



In reference to the editorial in the Feb. 

 1st issue of Gleanings regarding bees 

 and poppies, I should like to explain that 

 the poppies are pollen flowers, and are 

 absolutely devoid of nectar. There is no 

 such thing as poppy honey. An acre of 

 poppies would not yield a drop of honey. 

 Honeybees visit the poppies for pollen 

 only, of which there is an abundant supply. 

 During the past summer I repeatedly 

 watched the bees at work on the poppy 

 flowers in my garden. Not a single bee was 

 stupefied or injured in any way. Once I 

 saw a bee visit a flower which had just 

 opened. It could obtain as yet no pollen, 

 for the anthers were elill closed, and so it 

 searched the flower at the base of the petals 

 for nectar; but, finding nothing, it gave up 

 the attempt in about a minute. 



" Poppy juice," or latex, as you know, is 

 milky white. If bees could obtain this, and 

 would feed upon it, possibly the ei¥ects de- 

 scribed might be produced ; but under ordi- 

 nary conditions this would seem to be im- 

 possible. If, however, the poppies were 

 cut down, the milky sap would exude more 

 or less from the cut stems, and might then 

 be obtained by the bees. It seems very 

 doubtful if they would touch it even then. 

 This story, if I mistake not, has several 

 limes before been in circulation. It is easy 

 to understand how a beekeeper who sup- 

 posed the poppies to yield nectar might 

 easily imagine it to be somniferous; and if 

 thei'e were such a thing perhaps it would be. 

 In the case cited, manifestly the bees would 

 have recovered in less than a week or they 

 would have been dead. 



Waldoboro, Maine. 



WHAT THE SCALE HIVE SHOWED 



We have had a hive 

 on scales each season 

 for many years, and 

 we would not like to be 

 without it. We know 

 every day just what 

 the bees are doing. The 

 record of 26 lbs. men- 

 tioned by Mr. Pellet in 

 the Canadian Horti- 

 culturist last fall was 

 made on July 3, 1912. 

 Last year the highest 

 was 25 lbs. on June 16. 

 Some twenty years ago 

 the hive gained 23 lbs. 

 in one day, and that 

 stood as the record 

 until 1912. 



I am sending a vieAv 

 of the apiary. The 

 scales can be seen at 

 the right of the center. 



Niagara Falls, Ont. 



BY U. H. BOWEN 



Apiary of U. H. Bowen, Niagara Falls, Ont., where the scale hive on the 

 16th of June, 1913, showed a gain of 25 pounds. 



POETS UNDER THE CHERRY-TREES 



RY GRACE ALLEN 



1 linger for h^urs among my books, 

 Where the friendly sun so often looks 

 Across the pages and seems to say, 

 "What! Reading your poets again to-day?" 



And then when the letters liave tired my eyes 

 And I'm thirsty for breezes blown out of the skies, 

 I close up my books and go out to my beep, 

 My poets under the cherry-trees. 



