THE AMERICAIS BEE JOURNAL. 



263 



question. We hold, with others, that 

 plants only secrete nectar tiiat they 

 may attract insects. And why, we 

 imagine you are ready to ask, this 

 need of insect visits 'i It is that they 

 may serve as ' marriage priests ' in the 



freat worl£ of fertilizing the flowers. 

 b is well know that many plants, 

 such as willows and chestnuts, are 

 dioecious. The male element, the 

 pollen, and the female element, the 

 ovules, are on different plants; and so 

 the plants are absolutely dependent 

 upon insects for fertilization. The 

 pollen attracts the insect to the stam- 

 inate flowers, while the nectar entices 

 them to visit the pistillate bloom. In 

 the case of the strawberry — of which 

 good old Isaac Walton wrote, 'Doubt- 

 less God might have made a better 

 fruit than the strawberry ; but doubt- 

 less God never did' — some varieties 

 would remain barren but for these 

 kindly ministrations of bees and other 

 insects. In some plants, we And the 

 stamens and pistils are on the same 

 flower, but so peculiar are their struc- 

 tural peculiarities that unless insects 

 were wooed by the coveted nectar, 

 fertilization would be impossible." 



Here follow a number of experi- 

 ments to prove what has been stated. 

 many of them having appeared in 

 the Bee Journal before ; it is not 

 necessary to repeat them, with one 

 exception, namely: "A member of 

 this committee cites a case which 

 came under his observation, where 

 the yield of an orange grove fell off 

 when, upon the death of the owner, 

 the bees were sold off ; and when,upon 

 the establishment of a new apiary, 

 the yield was substantially increased." 



The fruit-growers of California 

 might learn a lesson from the fore- 

 going, and if they persist in their 

 suicidal course against the bee-keepers 

 they will ere long And that they were 

 playing with a double-edged sword. 



Easton,ot Pa. 



For tbe American Bee Joamal. 



lanapment for tlie Most Houey, 



G. M. ALVES. 



I 



How may I manage my bees so as 

 to obtain the greatest amount of 

 honey ? 



At this season of the year we fre- 

 quently hear such questions as the 

 above. Now the great difiiculty in 

 properly answering them lies in the 

 act that conditions differ — an answer 

 that would be good for one locality 

 would not be good for another local- 

 ity. No man is well Htted for bee- 

 keeping who does not study the 

 conditions of his locality. To blindly 

 follow a guide- book in all cases is folly. 

 Such books are of great value, but 

 after all we must do our own work in 

 order to succeed. 



I propose to answer the above ques- 

 tion here In as short a space as possible 

 My answer is based upon repeated 

 tests of different methods, and also 

 upon what I think is a careful study 

 of my conditions. Remember, I am 

 speaking now for my own location 



and conditions. The directions might 

 or might not hold good for another 

 location. I know they would not for 

 many conditions that I could describe. 

 Readers versed in current literature 

 and opinions, may be surprised at 

 some of my directions, but, fellow- 

 bee-keepers, I have been all along 

 there in practice. 



But first let me tell how my bees do 

 when left in " unrestricted nature. " 

 Eliminating exceptionable years, I 

 have found that the apple, pear, etc., 

 bloom here about April 20. This the 

 bees use to build up on. About 

 May 15, the locust, raspberry, tulip- 

 tree and white clover bloom. The bees 

 use the first three also to build up on, 

 though sometimes they will store 

 tulip-tree honey in the surplus 

 department, but not often. After 

 these are all gone the bees commence 

 on the white clover. For a while they 

 work briskly, and if it is well filled up 

 below, they will carry the honey up- 

 stairs, but as a rule, a lazy spell soon 

 comes over them, and if permitted 

 they will hang listlessly on the shady 

 side of the hive. If driven in, they 

 hang idly in the sections brooding 

 upon " going west. " In the mean- 

 time the queen has well nigh suspend- 

 ed work, and trims herself — but in no 

 hurry, — for emigration. 



All of this idleness goes on when the 

 hive is over-flowing with should-be- 

 workers, and at a time when the white 

 clover is secreting its maximum nec- 

 tar. The bees are in no hurry to 

 work or leave. They seem to look 

 around lazily and say, " We've done 

 enough for posterity and now propose 

 to take a good rest before we start out 

 for ourselves. " But finally the time 

 does come for leave-taking. Then 

 there is activity in the comb indeed ! 

 Out they rush pell-mell, and the queen 

 among them in almost virgin propor- 

 tions. After hiving the swarm, let 

 us go and look at the parent colony. 

 Mind you, now, this hive is right 

 here— not in N ew York— not in Mich- 

 igan—not in Ohio — not in northern 

 Illinois, where those bee-books were 

 written ; but right here, here in south- 

 western Kentucky. Now what do we 

 find V Those books tell us that we 

 will find " much brood in all stages of 

 development, " but we do not at all ; 

 and let me say confidentially, that I 

 have always found just what we now 

 find — a great deal of sealed brood, but 

 very little unsealed brood. See how 

 many empty cells there are. The 

 queen has been too much occupied 

 with her corsets to lay in them, and 

 her daughters have been too lazy to 

 put honey in them. 



But for the sequel : The new colony 

 works mightily, but alas ! if they can 

 fill their brood-chamber before our 

 dry weather cuts off the clover, they 

 do full average well. We may, how- 

 ever, count on getting some golden- 

 rod honey from them after the Au- 

 tumn rains begin. The parent colony, 

 if it casts no further swarms, will 

 give, on an average, from 15 to 20 

 pounds of clover honey before the dry 

 weather comes ; and likewise a sur- 

 plus in the autumn. 



In my locality, such was " unre- 

 stricted nature ! " I have found by 



repeated tests, that art can improve 

 on nature here. 



After trying all the methods of the 

 books, I have found the following one 

 much the best; and it is one that does 

 not require the rearing of a queen : 

 First, as early as practicable, stimu- 

 late by feeding ; afterward supple- 

 ment this by uncapping sealed honey. 

 I have never tried inverting, but I 

 will. I do not like spreading the 

 brood on account of the risk. If the 

 weather is favorable afterward, you 

 have done a good thing ; if it is not, 

 you have spoilt your colony for the 

 season. 



Now with all stimulating methods 

 we must carefully watch that the bees 

 do not get short in stores, as in such a 

 case we would much better have let 

 them alone. If we have carefully 

 done our work, our hives, by the time 

 the tulip-tree blossoms fail, will be 

 running over with bees. Now we go 

 to each hive in this condition and 

 place on its stand a very contracted 

 brood-chamber (one of Mr. Ileddon's 

 cases would be excellent), filled with 

 foundation. Shake every bee in front. 

 Empty frames or frames with only 

 starters will not answer well for the 

 reason that the queen at this time 

 usually begins her resting spell, and 

 at such times the bees are prone to 

 build drone-comb in the brood-cham- 

 ber. I have tested this sufficiently to 

 accept it with me as a general fact. 



Now, on the same day, or the day 

 after, place on a case of sections, and 

 after the bees have filled it about one- 

 third full, put between it and the 

 brood-chamber another case of sec- 

 tions, and so on until the clover sea- 

 son is over. The reason I use a con- 

 tracted brood-chamber is because I 

 have found by tests that more honey 

 will be gathered than with a larger 

 brood-chamber. I rest on the fact, 

 but I presume the reason is that bees, 

 like people, are inclined to slacken 

 work when they see enough around 

 them ; whereas with the contracted 

 brood-chamber they do not see enough 

 around them, and in the necessity of 

 the case must go up-stairs for storage 

 room ; and as they continually find a 

 void between the brood-chamber and 

 the honey above, they strive desper- 

 ately to fill the gap, thus acquiring a 

 momentum of work that stops only 

 with the failing of nectar in the fields. 



By this time I presume the readers 

 are curious to know what I am going 

 to do with the old hive which has 

 honey and brood, but no bees. 



To every 4 or 5 of such hives I 

 divide out among them a forced 

 swarm procured at a distance of a 

 mile or more, or I do the same with a 

 natural swarm if I have one. They 

 are thus left to rear isheir own queens 

 on new stands, and I do not expect to 

 get any honey from them until the 

 fall flowers bloom. I find that it does 

 not pay to do more with them. 



In conclusion I will state that I 

 have not made my experiments on an 

 extensive scale, as I do not keep 

 many colonies, but I have experi- 

 mented sufliciently to convince me 

 that the method given above is the 

 best in this locality for honey. 



Henderson, 5 Ky. 



