486 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 1 



bee clinches another. It is, ' sting as quick 

 as possible.' I have known from a quart 

 to a peck of bees to be killed in less than 

 fifteen minutes when a real fight was on." 



"Then you think what I have seen is only 

 fooling ? ' ' 



"If the bee the two were pulling at was 

 one that had been hovering' about the hive, 

 hoping to sneak in and get^a load of honey, 

 being caught by^the home bees when so do- 

 ing, they pulled 'at it to tell it that, if the 

 thing were insisted in, harsher methods 

 would be used. In other words, the bee 

 was being 'flogged' to keep it from trying 

 to enter the hive for thieving purposes. But 

 if you ^ see this pulling being done when no 

 bees are hovering about the entrance, as if 

 trying to slip into the hive, and especially if 

 the bee which is being pulled at is shiny, 

 with a somewhat swollen abdomen, you may 

 know that the colony has a touch of that 

 disease known as 'bee paralysis;' and when 

 such disease is well settled on any colony 

 you will see scores of bees being thus hauled 

 and pulled about, while the diseased ones 

 will look as if the hair of down had been all 

 scraped and pulled off from them." 



"Will there be other bees that will be 

 shaking, and down in the dirt in front of 

 the hive, kicking their legs about (some 

 nearly dead, and others being able to get 

 up and then tumble down again), when the 

 colony has this disease ? " 



"Yes. And there will be dead bees with 

 swollen abdomens and shiny bodies down in 

 front of the hive— at first, only a few; but 

 as the disease increases, these dead bees 

 will accumulate; and if the case is severe so 

 the colony does not recover, the ground will 

 be nearly covered with those dead and de- 

 caying bees, while the colony dwindles down 

 to a mere handful and finally ceases to ex- 

 ist. But brood-rearing will be kept up re- 

 markably and out of proportion to the num- 

 ber of bees in the colony as they grow 

 weaker and less in numbers." 



* ' That accounts for the actions of one of 

 my colonies. I could not tell what ailed 

 them. But I must be going now. I may 

 come again with some more questions on 

 the same subject." 



DOES DRY WEATHER AFFECT THE COLOR OF 

 SOME HONEY? 



Does dry weather affect the color of hon- 

 ey? This question is given in Stray Straws, 

 page 1099; and according to my experience 

 I must answer this question by saying yes. 

 The weather affects the color of all honey 

 gathered in this locality except linden. This 



honey is always water- white, whatever the 

 season may be— hot and dry, or cool and wet. 

 The weather has no effect on the color of 

 this honey. 



But clover honey, dandelion, and especial- 

 ly goldenrod honey, are always colored darker 

 in a hot dry season than in a moderate or 

 wet ore. 



As I read the above question in Stray 

 Straws it reminds me of the season of 1895. 

 That was a very poor honey year; and what 

 little honey was gathered was of a very 

 dark color. After the clover bloom was all 

 gone in July or August (I do not remember 

 exactly) we had some good showers. This 

 brought up the goldenrods around the small 

 lakes which are in reach of my bees; but by 

 the time the goldenrods were in bloom the 

 weather became hot and dry again, and the 

 honey from this blossom was almost as dark 

 as molasses, and tough and gummy as honey 

 used to be after boihng an hour or two. I 

 noticed this coloring of honey in several sea- 

 sons, but not as badly as in 1895. The cause 

 of this color I explain in the following way: 

 I don't know whether I atn correct in this 

 or not. It is only what I believe about it. 

 In a moderately good season the raw nectar 

 in the flowers is more diluted with water, 

 and the water repels the sun's rays in such 

 a way that they have no power to burn and 

 stain the honey. The nectar is carried to the 

 hive by the bees, and the water is evaporat- 

 ed in the hive by the heat of both the sun 

 and the bees, but without the reach of the 

 sun's rays. In a dry and hot season there is 

 not so much water contained in the nectar, 

 and the rays of the sun reach the honey di- 

 rect in the flower-cups, and burn and discol- 

 or it in the same way they do it with honey 

 in a solar wax-extractor. Now, this nectar 

 is taken to the hive and dried out by the heat 

 of the bees. This double drying gives the 

 honey the gum-like consistency that we find 

 in honey gathered in a dry poor honey 

 season. The fact that linden honey is 

 never colored dark is because of the po- 

 sition of the flowers. The opening of these 

 flowers is downward, and both the leaves of 

 the tree and the flowers protect the nectar 

 from the sun's rays. 



I should like to hear reports from bee- 

 keepers in sections where raspberry bloom 

 is plentiful as to whether they ever find 

 raspberry honey colored by the action of the 

 weather, for these flowers are in the same 

 position as basswood-blossoms. 



John H. Classen. 



Manitowoc, Wis., Dec. 12. 



[It is not entirely clear to me that the sun 

 itself would affect the color of honey. Some 

 substances it darkens and others it bleaches. 

 I know this: That in a dry season we are 

 more apt to have honey-dew than at other 

 times. This article is generally dark, and a 

 little of it mixed with white honey would 

 tend to darken it. Over against this prop- 

 osition is the fact that your basswood al- 

 ways remains light- colored. I give it up. 

 Perhaps some correspondent can give us a 



