THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



359 



but amongst wliich two are the most 

 common — viz., the anthers ripen lirst, 

 and not till all their pollen is gone 

 does the stigma become receptive 

 (protandrous), or the stigma is first 

 produced, the anthers not ripening 

 till after an opportunity for fertiliza- 

 tion by other pollen has been given 

 (protogynous). 



It is a general rule that honey con- 

 tinues to be secreted till fertilization 

 takes place, when a diversion of nutri- 

 tion occurs, and with the ceasing of 

 the honey the petals, nature's colored 

 flags huiig out to attract the insect 

 visitant, drop. Tlie netting of the 

 greenhouse or conservatory against 

 insects is of course right, because here 

 bloom and not seed is the object de- 

 sired. 



The scattering of Clover and borage 

 seeds, and sucli like, in waste places 

 on railway banks and disregarded 

 corners, or in our grounds if extensive, 

 is very useful, because here we con- 

 form to a natural instinct which we 

 neglect if our blooms are made to nod 

 their heads in tlie very face of the 

 bees as they start from the alighting 

 board. I have been told not a few 

 times by disappointed purchasers of 

 seed packets j)otentially containing 

 wliole supers of honey that the plants 

 represented to be so suited to bees 

 were quite unvisited.. I hope I have 

 now made the reason apparent. This 

 year, in watching my clierry trees 

 about 70 yards from my hives, I found 

 I but few yellow-banded bees amongst 

 them in comparison with the number 

 seen on those of a neighbor at four or 

 five times tlie distance. It is thus by 

 wide diffusion that the multitudes of 

 bloom get in the main their needed 

 attention, and that their honey is not 

 provided in vain. 



London, Eiig. 



Canadian Farmer. 



Management of Bees in Spring'. 



S. T. TETTIT. 



Allow me to say one word with re- 

 gard to the. management of bees in 

 spring. Some few prominent bee- 

 keepers with more zeal than wisdom, 

 recommend feeding bees at this season 

 of the year, large quantities of sugar 

 syrup," so that when they begin to 

 work on clover, the hives are already 

 full of syrup, and consequently the 

 first, and in fact all the clover honey 

 must go to tlie surplus boxes. INow, 

 all this sounds very nice, and possibly 

 some beginners may follow such a 

 course until a little more knowledge 

 on the subject convinces them of the 

 folly of that kind of practice. I will 

 give my reason why not to do so. 



When the surplus boxes are put on 

 to make room for the queen, the bees 

 will usually move a large part of the 

 stores from" the brood chamber to the 

 surplus apartments, and thus you see 

 you have an adulterated instead of a 



Eure article for the market. But it 

 as been said that a little sugar won't 

 poison any body. Very true, it will 

 not. But to do so, will poison your 

 conscience ; lower yourself in your 

 own estimation, blast your reputation. 



and injure the honey-producing in- 

 terests of the country. The people 

 want a pure article, and will buy it 

 and use it liberally, when convinced 

 of its purity. Every business man, or 

 nearly so, to whom you offer honey, 

 will ask you if it is pure. Now, if 

 there is the least taint of sugar about 

 it you must say so or lie. But if you 

 begin to explain tliat there may be a 

 little, etc., why, the game is up and 

 you are out, for no respectable dealer 

 will touch it, unless you can vouch 

 for its purity. True, you could make 

 a big report at the close of the honey 

 season ; but I am proud to believe 

 that no Canadian bee-keeper would 

 feel very happy over a crooked report, 

 however large, consisting of sugar and 

 honey. 



Let us most religiously see to it that 

 Ontario honey shall stand extra No. 1, 

 in the markets of the world. Work 

 hard and make your honey crop as 

 large as possible ; but never sacrifice 

 quality for quantitv. 



Belmont, Out., May 4, 1882. 



From the Bienenzeitung. 



A Pecnliar Incident. 



T. ZINCK. 



I am always pleased to look at queen 

 bees, but Tuesday, the 12th July last, 

 formed an exception. On that day, 

 between .5 and 6 o'clock in the after- 

 noon, 1 discovered a queen in my gar- 

 den about fifteen paces from the 

 place where my hives are kept, rest- 

 ing on the ground and surrounded by 

 a cluster ot bees, to which my atten- 

 tion was directed by a number of 

 workers hovering over the queen. 

 The bees behaved exactly as they do 

 when a swarm looses its queen, but I 

 was quite certain that no swarm had 

 issued from any of my colonies. I at 

 once thought of a colony from which 

 the queen had been removed twenty 

 days previously. In this hive a young 

 queen appeared on the 7th July, but 

 the bees did not tear away the super- 

 fluous royal cells until the 10th July. 

 On that day the weather was most 

 unfavorable, nor did any drones ven- 

 ture out of their hive on the 11th, 

 but I confidently expected the young 

 queen of this colony to become im- 

 pregnated on ttie 12th July, which was 

 a lovely day. I picked up the poor 

 queen, and finding that one of her 

 wings was dislocated I put her into a 

 queen cage, which I fixed inside the 

 hive above the comb bars. The bees 

 surrounded the cage joyfully ; and as 

 the queen did not try to get away 

 from them, butevidently allowed her- 

 self to be fed, I liberated her a few 

 minutes afterwards, and I soon saw 

 her walking about among the bees. 



It had to be ascertained now 

 whether tlie queen was incapable of 

 flying when she left the hive or 

 whether she had met with an accident 

 after the act of impregnation. Un- 

 fortunately the fonn'er turned out to 

 be the case, for on the following day 

 ( Wednesday) I found her again in the 

 garden at the same time running 

 backwards and forwards alone, but 

 some workers were hovering over her 



again, which attracted my attention. 

 I picked up the queen, who was now 

 minus one of lier wings, and allowed 

 her to enter the hive by the entrance. 

 She was again well received by the 

 workers. 



On the following day (Thursday) I 

 noticed notliing unusual in the morn- 

 ing, and in the afternoon I was obliged 

 to leave home. When I returned late 

 in the evening I did not think it 

 necessary to examine the interior of 

 the hive, as the outside presented its 

 customary appearance. I looked for 

 the qu" en on the ground in the garden, 

 but she was not to be found there. At 

 half-past seven the next morning I 

 paid a visit to my colony whose ex- 

 istence was in danger, and as soon as 

 I opened tlie hive I knew at once that 

 it was without a queen. I found the 

 queen on the ground in the garden 

 for the third time, surrounded again 

 by a few workers. Of course she had 

 not left the hive the same morning, 

 but the previous afternoon, which ac- 

 counted for the colony being in such 

 an excited state. Knowing that it 

 was impossible for the queen to be- 

 come fertile on account of her being 

 unable to keep on the wing, I placed 

 her in a queen cage among the bees, 

 and a few hours afterwards I intro- 

 duced a fertile queen in her place. 



Though this is a case of rare occur- 

 rence, nevertheless it will show that 

 when a queen leaves the hive on her 

 wedding trip she remains in com- 

 munication with hercolonyby worker 

 bees which accoiiipaiiy her. This was 

 the interesting part" of the affair, 

 which inclines me to hope that queen 

 bees do not so easily lose their way 

 and perish, as is often stated. 



It was the first time that I lost a 

 young queen, and in this case it was, 

 perhaps, through some fault of my 

 own, as I performed some operations 

 on the colony between the time of the 

 queen leaving the cell and her wed- 

 ding excursion. The exterior of the 

 hive was, indeed, not interfered with, 

 but I made some alterations in the 

 interior, during which the wing of 

 the queen may have become damaged 

 by the workers or otherwise. The 

 queen certainly appeared faultless to 

 me when I saw her immediately after 

 she was hatched. 



" One misfortune seldom comes 

 alone," and this saying seems to be 

 true with regard to bees also. Last 

 summer this same colony killed their 

 own queen— the best one I possessed 

 —after I had deprived them of all 

 their honeycomb, which was replaced ' 

 by empty combs, of which 1 had a 

 sufficient number from previous bad 

 times to enable me to make artificial 

 swarms. When I gave them a new 

 queen and liberated her after two days' 

 confinement the bees immediately 

 attacked her, and would have killed 

 lier if { had not rescued her from their 

 fury in time. After tliis a royal cell 

 was inserted, which was very late in 

 hatching, and when at length the 

 queen made her appearance she first 

 laid drone eggs only, but afterwards 

 she also produced workers. She did 

 not prove verv fertile, however, so 

 that her population increased but 

 slowly this spring. I therefore re- 



