Fublisht Weekly at 118 Michigan St. 



George W. York, Editor. 



$1.00 a Year — Sample Copy Free. 



38th Year. 



CHICAGO, ILL., DECEMBER 8, 1898. 



No. 49. 



Moving Bees to the Basswood Bloom. 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



A correspondent writes me that he wishes to fix during 

 the winter, for moving his bees some 10 or 12 miies to where 

 there is plenty of basswood timber, he having none nearer 

 than that to his bees, hoping thereby to receive a larger 

 amount of honey from his apiary than he would by allowing 

 it to remain in one place, as he has formerly done ; and he 

 wishes me to tell through the columns of the American Bee 

 Journal what I think of the idea. He also wants to linow if 

 there are any seasons when basswood blossoms in profusion, 

 when there is no nectar secreted in the blossoms ; and finally 

 asks if the blossom-buds are not formed on the trees a little 

 previous to the time of their opening, so that he can tell 

 whether there will be enough prospect of bloom to pay him 

 for moving his bees. 



I have often wondered why more people did not think of 

 moving their bees to the basswood flow, when they were so 

 situated that such flow was beyond the range of their bees' 

 flight, for I can see nothing against such a course, except the 

 expense. From the experience of the last 30 years, I believe 

 basswood to be one of the greatest honey-producers in the 

 world, if not the greatest. I have secured a yield of 22 

 pounds of honey a day from it for three days, and reports of 

 20, 15 and 10 pounds daily have frequently been reported 

 from this source during a series of days, while this beautiful 

 tree was in blossom. If I mistake not, no such yields have 

 been reported for any length of time from any other honey- 

 producing plant or tree, altho there paay have been reports of 

 20 pounds from other sources for a single day. 



Where bees can be moved to the basswood and returned, 

 at an expense of $1.00 per colony, it will be seen that 10 

 pounds of honey from each colony will pay the cost, counting 

 honey at a reasonable figure, if they should secure that sur- 

 plus in sections. By going back over my diary, kept during 

 the time I have kept bees, beginning with the year 1869, I 

 find that my average from basswood has been not far from 45 

 pounds of comb honey per colony each year. So if we call 45 

 pounds what we may expect one year with another from bass- 

 wood, and if it costs lO pounds of that for moving the bees to 

 the basswood, we shall have 35 pounds left for profit ; or 

 calling the honey at 10 cents per pound, as above. It would 

 give us $3 50 per colony as clear money on each colony, over 

 what we should have had if we had not moved them. Thus 

 we see, if we move 100 colonies we shall have $350 free of 

 all expense for our undertaking, which is no small or mean 

 sum. 



Taking up the next part of the matter presented by our 

 correspondent, I will say that I never knew a season when 

 basswood did not furnish some honey. The shortest season 

 that I ever knew gave a three days' yield, in which honey was 

 so plentiiul that the bees could not prepare room fast enough 

 to store it, with a gradual tapering off of two days more, 



making five days in all. The longest gave a yield of 25 days, 

 with three of them so cold that the bees could not work, ex- 

 cept a little in the middle of the day. The State of the atmos- 

 phere has much to do with the secretion of nectar in the bass- 

 wood flowers. The most unfavorable weather is a cold, rainy, 

 cloudy spell, with the wind from west to northeast. If bass- 

 wood came at a time of year when we were liable to have 

 much of such weather, there might be such a thing as an en- 

 tire failure of honey from it. But, as a rule, we have very 

 little such weather at this time of year. 



The condition the most favorable for a large yield of nec- 

 tar is when the weather is very warm and the air filled with 

 electricity. At times when showers pass all around, with a 

 great display of lightning, yet no rain falls in our immediate 

 vicinity, the honey will almost drop from the blossoms; and 

 even when light showers are present nearly every day, I have 

 known bees to store honey very fast. At these times of 

 greatest yield I have seen nectar in the blossoms after they 

 have fallen to the ground, so that it sparkled In the morning 

 sunshine. 



Then, this nectar is nearly the consistency of honey, and 

 not like sweetened water, as in clover, teasel, buckwheat, etc., 

 which makes basswood doubly valuable over most other honey- 

 secreting plants and trees. One bee-load of nectar from bass- 



Pro/. Lawrence Brunei: — See page 772. 



wood In a dry, warm time is equal to three from white clover 

 or buckwheat, or five from teasel, and some of the other 

 honey-producing flowers. I have taken two or three stems of 

 basswood blossoms, when the yield was great, and jarred them 

 over the palm of my hand, when I could turn two or three 

 drops of nice honey out of the hand. 



All of these things point toward a success in moving bees 

 to a basswood locality, above what it would be to try to do 

 the same when other blossoms were to be the source' from 

 which honey was to be secured. cz; 



Replying to the last question, I will say that the fruit- 

 buds and leaflets of all trees with which I am familiar are 

 formed in June and July of the preceding year ; so the result 

 of next year's honey-yield, so far as buds and flowers are con- 



