1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



993 



Cowefsatioos 



with 



Doolittlt 



HONEY FROM RED CLOVER, ETC, 



"Hello, there! Is this Mr. Doolittle?" 



"Yes, that is what they call me when I 

 am at home. ' ' 



"My name is Mills, and I want to talk 

 with you a little about honey from red clo- 

 ver. I see by the papers that some claim 

 that red clover is a honey- producer, while 

 some of my reighbors tell me that the hon- 

 ey-bee does not work on this plant at all. 

 Which is right? " 



' ' Well, perhaps both, as they view it from 

 different standpoints." 



"How can that be?" 



' ' Red clover is certainly a honey-producer. 

 In fact, I believe that red clover gives more 

 nectar than any other plant or tree that I 

 know of, not excepting that famous honey- 

 producer the basswood, or licden." 



"That is saying a good deal, is it not? 

 when I have heard of your saying that you 

 had shaken honey out of the basswood blos- 

 soms on certain occasions." 



"Yes, it is. But it is not often that you 

 can shake the honey out from the basswood 

 bloom, while I have yet to see the time 

 when I could not find honey in the bloom of 

 the red clover. In fact, I never pulled the 

 blossoms from a head of red clover yet but 

 there was honey or nectar in them in great 

 profusion, no matter at what time of the 

 year it was, nor what the season was; and 

 the result is always the same, year after 

 year; so I think that the question should be 

 settled by this time by the fact that red clo- 

 ver always secretes nectar, or produces hon- 

 ey, if you please." 



"Well, what am I to think of my neigh- 

 bor's statement, then, if this be a fact?" 



' ' This fact does not clash in the least with 

 the statement of your neighbor, who claims 

 that the honey-bee does not work on red 

 clover. A plant may secrete honey pro- 

 fusely, and yet the blossom be so shaped 

 that the honey-bee can not reach this nectar 

 without the aid of something outside of it- 

 self to help it obtain the coveted sweet. ' ' 



"Oh! I begin to see. But what is there 

 to aid the bee in securing honey under such 

 conditions?" 



' ' I have often seen the wasps and hornets 

 bite open the flowers of the comfrey, whose 

 corolla is so shaped that neither they nor 

 the bees can get at the nectar in these 

 flowers, and after the holes were made in 

 the flowers the honey- bees would swarm 

 about these bitten flowers as long as they 

 kept in bloom. And I have seen the same 

 thing with the cup-shaped bloom of the com- 

 mon whitewood. However, the whitewood 



would in time open so that both wasps and 

 bees could obtain this nectar; but the wasps 

 will not wait, so they tear open the blos- 

 soms at the side before they open, and in 

 this way the season is prolonged to both 

 parties." 



' ' But neither wasps nor hornets work on 

 red clover, do they?" 



"Not that I know of." 



"Explain, then." 



"In certain seasons, and in some sections 

 of our country, the corolla of the red clover 

 grows so short, from drouth or otherwise, 

 that the honey-bee can reach the nectar se- 

 creted by the blossoms, to a greater or less 

 extent, in which case large yields of red- 

 clover honey are obtained, as has been the 

 case in this Iccality two or three times dur- 

 ing the past thirty years. One year I ob- 

 tained fully sixty pounds to the colony, on 

 an average, of section honey from this 

 source. In other seasons the secretion of 

 nectar is fully as good as it was then; but, 

 owing to the weather being favorable for a 

 rank growth, the corolla was so long that the 

 bees could not reach the nectar to any great 

 extent. ' ' 



"I see." 



"Yes, and any person viewing the fields 

 of red clover during one of these years of 

 rank growth, which years greatly predom- 

 inate, would be apt to decide that honey- 

 bees never work on red clover." 



"But does it not yield honey of ten enough 

 so you can expect to secure good results 

 from it?" 



"As a whole we can hardly calculate on 

 much honey from this plant, for there are 

 far more years in which the bees obtain lit- 

 tle or nothing from it than there are of 

 those when the hives show a gain while it 

 is in bloom, unless some other honey- pro- 

 ducing flora is in bloom at the same time." 



"But I see that some claim there is a dif- 

 ference in bees, some having long tongues, 

 or those long enough so that they can reach 

 the nectar in the clover, no matter how long 

 the corollas are. These are styled red- clo- 

 ver bees, I believe. What do you think of 

 these bees?" 



"Well, the matter makes good advertis- 

 ing for a great many breeders of queens, 

 although there is not quite the rage along 

 that line that there was three or four years 

 ago." 



' ' Then you think such claims can not be 

 substantiated?" 



"I do not say that I think any thing 

 wrong is intended, for it is expected that all 

 know there are years when no honey-bee 

 can secure any nectar to speak of from red 

 clover. It is a fact that the Italian bees 

 will reach this nectar within the red- clover 

 blossoms when the black bees or hybrids do 

 not do so; and from this has come the claim 

 for red- clover bees; but, so far as I know, 

 nearly all Italian bees are red- clover bees." 



"Why do you say that? " 



"Because I have had many different 

 strains of Italian bees; and when it was a 

 season that the bees could reach the nectar 



