194 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



March, 1917 



nies, it is cheaper to melt (hem up also. If 

 a number of colonies have it, then treatment 

 may be the most desirable. If you do not 

 know disease when you see it, get your in- 

 spector to help you. He will willingly do 

 it, for that is his business. 



* * * 



There is some agitation favoring barrels 

 for honey in California. Go slow, boys. 

 The trade is looking for California honey 

 to be delivered in the usual cans and cases, 

 and there would be some very suspicious 

 customers if the same package were tried 

 that brings cheap honey from other parts 

 of the world to our markets. Besides, the 

 cans and cases are far more desirable to 

 handle. Loading a barrel of honey would 

 make "quite a little chore" for two men; 

 then you might want to bring in a few 

 hundred pounds on your " tin lizzie " as you 

 come in from the apiary each night, and you 

 would find it rather uphill business loading 

 a barrel of it yourself. 



* * * 



There seems to be an impression prevail- 

 ing that a queen raised under swarming con- 

 ditions, which may be said to be natural con- 

 ditions, is superior to one raised thru other 

 inducement. Personally I cannot see whv 

 that should be the case. If larvee are trans- 

 ferred at the proper age, and a colony given 

 cells after all of their brood has been re- 

 moved, the nurse bees will literally flood 

 them with royal j.elly, give them every at- 

 tention desired, and draw the cells out long 

 enough for the most particular persons. It 

 must be true that the majority of queens 

 sold on the market are raised outside of the 

 swarming season, yet the beekeeping public 

 seems to be very well satisfied with them, 

 and they seem to be giving good satisfaction. 



* * * 



Did you ever spend an entire hour watch- 

 ing the bees work on the flowers? Try it 

 once and you will find out how long an hour 

 really is. Don't wander around looking at a 

 bee here and there, but pick out a bee and 

 stay with it until it is ready to go home, then 

 take up another one. Last summer I watch- 

 ed thirteen hours, an hour or more at a time, 

 attempting to prove that a bee would gather 

 pollen from more than one kind of flower on 

 one trip. But I did not prove it. Once I 

 was sure that I was going to see one mix its 

 pollen. Down, down it came until it almost 

 touched another kind of flower, but not 

 quite, for it refused to alight. I went into 

 the subject fully convinced that I would find 

 that a bee would mix the pollen from two 

 diffei'ent kinds of flowers on a single tri]). 

 I chose, for my observation, places where 



numerous wild flowers of various kinds and 

 colors were growing with each other. At 

 one time I had four different bees under my 

 immediate view, all of which were gathering 

 a different color of pollen ; but not one slip 

 did they make that I was able to observe, 

 each remaining true to its color until the 

 load was completed. 



Many beekeepers are waking up to the 

 fact that their bees have consumed more 

 than the average amount of honey during 

 the past four months, while many colonies 

 were left with only the average amount to 

 begin with. The result is what might be 

 expected — reports of heavy losses ffrom 

 various localities, which losses are due en- 

 tirely to the lack of sufficient stores to feed 

 them properly. It should be an object- 

 lesson to those who have been the sufferers ; 

 but the chances are they will soon forget and 

 be caught in the same trap before many 

 years pass by. Better think the following 

 over and write it on the honey-house door: 

 " Nothing is lost by leaving plenty of honey 

 in the fall ; for if your bees do not need it, 

 it will be there the following spring, and 

 you will get it any way. If they do need it, 



they need it bad." 



* * * 



A bulletin has just been issued by the Col- 

 lege of Agriculture at Berkeley, entitled 

 " The Common Honeybee as an Agent in 

 Prune Pollination " (Bulletin No. 274). It 

 treats of experiments made on this line dur- 

 ing the past season. I advise beekeepers to 

 write for a copy of this report. 



A pair each of French prunes and Im- 

 perial prunes were enclosed under mosquito- 

 bar. One of each variety was furnished a 

 colony of bees within the enclosure, while 

 from the other one all insects were excluded. 

 The results were as follows: Amount of 

 matured fruit on the French prune - tree 

 under tent with bees, Aug. 1, 18.05 per cent. 

 French prune-tree under tent from which 

 bees were excluded 1.04 per cent. French- 

 prune average orchard set 3.59 per cent. 



Imperial prune-tree under tent with bees, 

 1.G9 per cent. Imperial prune-lree from 

 wliich bees were excluded set nothing. Av- 

 erage orchard set of Imperial prune, 7.20 

 per cent. The following conclusions are of- 

 fered : 1. That the French prune may be 

 aided in setting a satisfactory crop by the 

 presence of bees in tlie orchard during the 

 blossoming period. 2. Without the aid of 

 bees or other insects the set of fruit on the 

 French prune is often light. 3. The Im- 

 perial prune does not seem to be able to set 

 fruit unless pollinated by insects witli pollen 

 from other trees. 



