1904 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



133 



ORANGE BLOSSOMS AGAIN. 



Bv C. S. Harris. 



EDITOR HILL: To your question 

 "What do you Ivuow about or- 

 ange blossoms from the stand- 

 point of a honey producer?" I could 

 most truthfully use Dr. Miller's favor- 

 ite reply, "I don't know;" and yet, 

 from past experience I am inclined to 

 believe that orange bloom is an almost 

 sure yielder of nectar under favorable 

 conditions, and certainly I know of no 

 bloom which the hee>^ seek more ea- 

 gerly. 



Previous to the freezes of 1894-5 we 

 were able to extract freely during or- 

 ange bloom. Th6se freezes destroyed 

 the orange trees and not until this year 

 has there been any bloom of conse- 

 quence and the increased amount 

 stored by the bees I feel satisfied came 

 from orange blossoms. 



I have several times seen it stated 

 that orange honey was very light in 

 color, while that which we formerly 

 harvested was amber. It was, per- 

 haps, mixed with honey from other 

 sources, although season and locality 

 might be responsible for some varia- 

 tion in color. It was, if I remember 

 correctly, of good body and fine flavor. 



Mr. Horn's Drone Cell Counts for Naught. 



On page 91, May number of The 

 Bee-Keeper, Mr. Henry E. Horn, under 

 the head," One on Deckel," calls atten- 

 tion to a single cell raised and capped 

 as if containing a drone, on a comb 

 of worker brood which had been giv- 

 en to a queenless colony. He says, 

 "There was a drone iu that cell with- 

 out the least doubt." If he did not 

 open that cell and find a drone, there 

 is a doubt, for it sometimes occurs 

 that a cell lacks the necessary depth, 

 through a heavy deposit of wax at 

 the bottom or because some foreign 

 substance, accidentally in the cell, was 

 waxed over instead of being removed, 

 and in such cases, if the queen uses 

 the cell, it must necessarily be length- 

 ened to make room for its occupant 

 and consequently has much the ap- 

 pearance of a drone cell. 



Also, it is not uncommon to find a 

 single drone cell, or perhaps two or 

 three of them on the face of an other- 



wise solid comb of worker brood, un- 

 der some conditions, in a queen-right 

 colony, and Mr. Horn might very read- 

 ily have overlooked this when giving 

 a comb of unsealed brood, in fact, it 

 could not be distinguished if it was a 

 case of a drone egg having been de- 

 posited in a worker cell. 



In either case there is no proof of 

 the Dickel theory. But I may be "run- 

 ning wild," after all, and Mr. Horn 

 have written oaly in a sarcastic vein. 



Holly Hill, Fla., May. 18, 1904. 



ORANGE BLOSSOM HONEY. 



By Henry E. Horn. 



FRO:m the bee-keepers' point of 

 view, the orange bloom of the 

 season just past promised much, 

 but, not unlike some other features of 

 this passing show, failed to live up to 

 it. And yet it was not the bloom really 

 that was at fault, either; for there was 

 more of it than ever before and it last- 

 ed longer; but it was scattering, and 

 the weather was mostly cold and 

 windy. Twice the San Bernardino 

 mountain range was whitened with 

 snow and hail. And for variety's sake 

 there was sandwiched in between it 

 all a three-day norther, during which 

 a southern sun pulled the thermometer 

 up to 90 and 100 degrees in the shade. 

 Of a consequence our poor little bees 

 didn't gain much headway, though 

 they tried hard enough. 



In producing bloom the orange tree 

 is simply immense. There are thou- 

 sands and thousands of blossoms on 

 every tree that never come to any- 

 thing at all; there are other thousands 

 that open, set a tiny orange and then 

 drop off. There are, finally, a few, 

 comparatively speaking, that open, set 

 a fruit and eventually grow into the 

 golden apple of the market. Now, if 

 one examines orange flowers for nec- 

 tar, he will find some rich with it, some 

 showing a trace, and some none at 

 all; though just how closely these two 

 sets of facts are related to one another 

 is probably exactly known by nobody, 

 but it is certain that the totally dry 

 flowers are barren in their vexy na- 

 ture and drop oft" fruitless. There is 

 a text for a practical sermon hidden 

 in this. 



