490 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



August, 1921 



March 11. — 11:30 a. m. Temp. 80°F. Partly 

 cloudy. Bees flying a little, but not visiting blos- 

 soms. Bees just set in the greenhouse. No re- 

 cording thermometer here. But the owner of this 

 plant keeps a higher night temperature. 



March 13.-5:00 p. m. Temp. 60°F. Cloudy al- 

 most all day. Nectar dried down to mere crystals. 

 Bees working slightly. 



March 14. — 10:00 a. m. Temp. 79 °F. Sun 

 bright. Minimum preceding night at 7 p. m. 58°F. 

 Nectar easily visible in blossoms on the nectaries, 

 and in liquid condition. By 11:00 a. m. tempera- 

 ture had reached 82 and bees were still working, 

 but the number of flying bees had decreased. 



March 15. — Plant A, Range 3. — 8:00 a. m. 

 Temp. 68°P. Minimum preceding night at 7:30 

 p. m. 62 °P. Only dried crystals of nectar in llos- 

 soms examined. Bees flitting from flower to flower 

 freely, Imt not stopping to enter the blossoms ; 

 searching rather than getting. Partly cloudy. Plant 

 A, Range 4. — 8:15 a. m. Temp. "73°P. Nectar 

 just beginning to exude in nectaries. Bees flying 

 only slightly, but there are no normal colonies in 

 the house. Plant X. — 8:45 a. m. Temp. 72°F. 

 Minimum preceding night 60 °P. Nectar in crys- 

 tals and just showing liquid. Bees working free- 

 ly, and dipping into almost every blossom but not 

 lingering long on any one. Noted, that after in- 

 serting tongue into one or two blossoms the bees 

 halt a moment on the side of the flower and seem 

 to wipe off their tongues on their legs or over their 

 heads, as if to scrape off adhering substances ; the 

 nectar seems too thick and sugary. R. W. G. New 

 Plant. — 10:30 a. m. Temp. 80°F. Nectar exuding 

 freely. Bees working fairly well. R. W. G. Old 

 Plant. — 10:45 a. m. Temp. 80°. Nectar seeming 

 to be just starting in blossoms, bees working slowly. 



March 16. — 8:15 a. m. Temp. 74°P. Plant A, 

 Range 3. Minimum preceding night, 1:30 a. m. 

 was 61 °F. Temp, rising rapidly. Nectar exuding 

 rapidly in nectaries. Partly cloudy. Bees working 

 well. Plant X. — 8:30 a. m. Temp. 72°F. Mini- 

 mum preceding night 60 °F. Partly cloudy. Bees 

 flying and gathering nectar freely. 



March 17. — Plant X. — 9:30 a. m. Cloudy. Temp. 

 81°F. Minimum preceding night 59%°F. Chart 

 showed rapid rise in temperature from 60° to 81°. 

 Nectar very abundant in nectaries and bees just 

 beginning to fly. Remain long on individual blos- 

 soms. (Note: The cloudy morning seems to have 

 held bees back, even tho the nectar is exuding 

 freely ; or the rapid rise in temperature may have 

 made the nectar more copious ; at any rate, the bees 

 tarry longer than usual over the blossoms.) Plant 

 A, Range 4. — 11:00 a. m. Temp. 78y2°F. Mini- 

 mum preceding night 2:30 p. m. was 61°F. Bees 

 working well. Partly cloudy. 11:30 a. m. temper- 

 ature has dropped to 71 °F. Nectar not very abun- 

 dant and bees flying very little. Plant A, Range 3 

 — 9:00 a. m. Temp. 73°. Nectar abundant. Mini- 

 mum preceding night 61 °P. Bees working freely. 

 2:30 p. m. drop of 2° to 71. Bees still working 

 and nectar still abundant in nectaries. 



March 18. — Plant A, Range 3.- — 8:30 a. m. Temp. 

 71°F. Minimum preceding night was 62° at 3:00 

 a. m. Bees beginning to fly freely. Sunshine. 

 R. W. G. Old Plant. — Low-roofed houses. Vines 

 thick. Aisles narrow. Temp. 84 °F. Ventilators 

 not opened yet Bees dropping to ground or clus- 

 tering on rafters and roofs, seemingly confused and 

 lost. 



March 18. — Plant A, Range 4. — Temp. 2:30 

 p. m. 90 °F. at hive level. Bees dropping to ground 

 in clusters from the glass roofs. Ventilators still 

 closed for some reason. 



March 19. — Plant A, Range 3. — 8:30 a. m. 

 Temp. 69 °F. Minimum preceding night 62 °F. 

 Raining hard outside. Nectar just beginning to 

 exude in nectaries. Bees working fairly well but 

 not tarrying long on blossoms. Plant A, Range 4. 

 — 8:15 a. m. Temp. 66°F. Minimum preceding 

 night 02 °P. Raining hard. Nectar mostly crystals, 

 very little in liquid form. Bees hardly flying at all. 

 (Note. — Plant A, Range 3. — Last night the mana- 

 ger of this plant fumigated his ranges with Nico- 

 fume, an insecticide, for thrips on his cucumber 

 vines. Entrances of hives were not closed nor con- 

 tracted. Bees do not seem any the worse for the 

 fumigating.) 



March 21. — Plant A, Range 4.-1:00 p. m. 



Temp. 94 °F. Sun bright, and weather fine out- 

 side. Minimum preceding night 64°F. Ventilators 

 opened and temperature dropped to 76° by 3:30 

 p. m. Bees worked fairly well all day, better early 

 in day and late in the afternoon, when tempera- 

 tures were between 70 and 80°. 



March 22. — Plant A, Range 3. — 8:30 a. m. Temp. 

 70°P. Minimum preceding night 60°F. Warm and 

 sunny outside. Nectar showing in tiny drops in 

 nectaries and bees working well. Worked well till 

 5:30 p. Tu. Ventilators opened soon after tempera- 

 ture got to 82 °P. and closed when outside tempera- 

 ture dropped enough to keep house temperature at 

 80°F. 



March 23. — Weather balmy and springlike out- 

 side. Bees outside working on soft maples and 

 flying freely. Ventilators open much of day, and 

 bees passing out and in thru them. 



March 25. — Fine weather. Soft maples and 

 pussy willows all in bloom. Ventilators opened 

 much of day. Bees working well, partly on outside 

 and partly within greenhouses. 



March 31.- — Elms in bloom. Bees flying and 

 working outside and in. Notes ended. 



Altho these observations are fragmentary 

 and imperfect, it seems to me that there 

 were three recognizable factors at work in 

 influencing the nectar secretion, namely, 

 minimum temperature the preceding night, 

 actual temperature at time of examination, 

 and rapidity of rise of temperature from 

 minimum to normal. Besides there were 

 some factors that were not noted or recog- 

 nizable at the time. 



Sunshine seemed to have some effect; but 

 it was impossible to determine whether it 

 was the more rapid rise in temperature in- 

 duced by the sun on the glass — a thing that 

 always happened — or the actual rays in in- 

 ducing better secretion. It was pretty clear 

 from the notes made that bees did actually 

 work better when sun shone; but it may 

 have been partly the brightness which in- 

 duces bees from the hives, whether they are 

 outside or in. The observations seemed to 

 indicate tliat the nectar in the blossoms was 

 usually more copious when the sun shone 

 or had been shining a little while; but that 

 long-continued, all-day sunshine sent the 

 temperature too high for the best secretion 

 of nectar, or dried it up often before noon. 

 Humidity may play a part, but no data on 

 that were collected. All the soils were fer- 

 tilized much alike for the cucumbers; and 

 tho some soil tests were available for some 

 houses, none were at hand for the others, 

 and so no data were attempted on that line. 



Some Conclusions. 

 In the main the data gathered seemed 

 fairly consistent and suggested the follow- 

 ing deductions: 



(1) A rise in temperature from a mini- 

 mum to a maximum brings the nectar over 

 into the nectaries. Owing to the night and 

 day temperatures best for growing cucum- 

 bers, -the rise was daily, and usually oc- 

 curred, under normal conditions, between 

 7:30 a. m. and 9:00 a. m. (The cucumbers re- 

 quire about 60° at night and about 80° dur- 

 ing the day.) 



(2) The minimum should not be higher 

 than 60° nor the maximum higher than 80° 

 for tlie best results in nectar secretion. 



