456 



THE AMER1CA]S1 BEE JOURiNIaL. 



queen is liberated, which immediately 

 runs in and the swarm is hived. The 

 next day a just-hatched virgin queen 

 is dropped iu honey and put into the 

 hive having the frames of brood. 

 Reader, try it. 

 Borodino,© N. Y. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



Pollen in tlie Sections. 



W. Z HUTCHINSON. 



Before me lies a letter from Mr. 

 Dwight Furness, in which he says : 



" I have just had a few days visit at 

 home in the bee-yard, and send you a 

 bit of my experience which may serve 

 you as a text for another article in 

 the Ajlerican Bbb Journal. 



" Clover is yielding very little, and 

 the combs are filling up very slowly 

 from sumac and tulip or whitewood. 

 The honey is rather dark. Basswood 

 is budded full, and may partly serve 

 to prevent a total failure of our honey 

 crop. Bees are swarming at the rate 

 of two or three swarms per day. 



" Up to the present time I could 

 heartily endorse your article in regard 

 to ' Pollen in the Sections,' on page 

 328 of the American Bee Journal, 

 but ' trouble ' has come to me at last. 



"During the past week we have 

 hived some 15 swarms on empty 

 frames in single. Heddon brood-cases, 

 with queen-excluding honey-board, 

 and a case of sections on each— sec- 

 tions either full of comb or partly 

 drawn foundation. Nearly all of these 

 swarms have deposted more or less 

 pollen in the sections. Where foun- 

 dation only is used in the sections, 

 little or no pollen appears. I practice 

 the Heddon method of preventing 

 after swarming. Now, when the 

 swarm issues, pollen is coming in at a 

 lively rate ; hundreds of workers are 

 returning from the field laden with 

 pollen, which is carried into the new 

 hive upon the old stand. All of the 

 bees that leave the old colony the first 

 day are also thrown in with the new 

 swarm, and carry with them the pol- 

 len gathered for the brood in the 

 parent hive. So that even if it be true, 

 as you suggest, ' that new colonies 

 gather little or no pollen for several 

 days after hiving,' a good deal of 

 pollen comes in, and is of necessity 

 placed in the empty section cells. 



" Locality will not change this re- 

 sult unless there be places where very 

 little pollen can be found during the 

 swarming season. But the amount of 

 honey being gathered is an important 

 factor. If the sections taken from the 

 parent colony and placed over the 

 new swarm were partly filled with 

 honey, it would tend to keep out the 

 pollen. 



" It is perhaps but proper to state 

 that honey is coming in very slowly, 

 and an unusual amount of pollen "is 

 being gathered." 



As I stated in my former article, 

 this matter of pollen in the sections 

 is something I know but very little 

 about, having had almost no trouble 



from this source. In the early spring 

 my bees have always gathered large 

 quantities of pollen from willows, 

 fruit-bloom, dandelions,8ugar maples, 

 raspberries, etc. ; the two outside 

 combs often being nearly one-half 

 filled with bee-bread upon the eve of 

 the swarming season ; but from white 

 clover and basswood very little pollen 

 is gathered. In the early spring it 

 seems as though one-half of the bees 

 come in loaded with pollen, while 

 during the honey harvest from white 

 clover and basswood not more than 

 one bee in twenty bears pollen to the 

 hive. 



I think, however, that Mr. Furness 

 has struck upon a very important 

 point in this problem when he says 

 that the amount of honey being gath- 

 ered is an important factor. I can 

 very readily understand that the in- 

 ducement to store pollen iu the sec- 

 tions would be much greater if they 

 were filled with empty combs, than it 

 would be were there honey in the 

 combs ; and this reminds me that I 

 have never hived a swarm and placed 

 over it sections filled with empty 

 combs, the combs always having con- 

 tained honey, and herein may lie one 

 great secret of my success. Did I 

 have the trouble mentioned by JVIr. 

 Furness, I would try putting one 

 frame of comb in the brood-nest. 



I am very much obliged indeed to 

 Mr. Furness— in fact to all who have 

 written me so many kind, encourag- 

 ing and instructive letters. 



Rogersville, c! Mich. 



Read at the Maine Convention. 



TlieBee-Pastage Of Maine. 



DR. J. A. MORTON. 



To the bee-keepers of Maine the 

 subject of bee-pasturage is a very 

 important one, and volumes might be 

 written upon it, but an essay of this 

 sort must of necessity be brief, and 

 the writer can only hope to give some 

 general ideas and plans of increasing 

 the nectar-bearing flora of his own 

 immediate locality and State. 



Most of the profits of bee-keeping 

 come from the sale of surplus honey, 

 and if we expect to reap much profit 

 from this source in this part of the 

 country (especially in Maine), when 

 the honey-gathering season is short, 

 uncertain and variable ; when Spring 

 is such a fickle maiden, more frequent 

 in pouts and tears than in sunshine ; 

 when Summer with blushing cheeks 

 and flashing eyes, rushes past with 

 railroad speed, scorching with her hot 

 breath bee and blossom; when Au- 

 tumn with his " sere and yellow leaf," 

 hastens in the footsteps of his more 

 youthful sisters, and last of all. Old 

 Winter puts his seal of ice on forest, 

 field and stream— we must give our 

 faithful little "servants" every 

 facility for securing the sweet harvest 

 in its season. 



And after securing the best bees 

 and best appliances in the apiary, we 

 must lengthen and strengthen that 

 season by endeavoring to produce an 

 unbroken succession of honey-produc- 



ing flowers from spring to fall, thus 

 making a strong chain from the 

 golden willow in April, to the golden- 

 rod and frost-weed in October. The 

 question is, can this be done in 

 Maine V I think it can : Let us see. 

 Let us take a glance at Maine from 

 a bee-keepers' stand-point. She is 

 equidistant from the equator to the 

 pole, the 45th parallel of latitude run- 

 ning through her very centre. From 

 her geographical situation she is too 

 cold to be the natural home of the 

 honey-bee ; and her native trees and 

 plants are of hardy, rugged varieties, 

 and can produce but few nectar- 

 yielding flowers ; but what they do 

 yield is of first quality. Like the 

 sweet corn of Oxford, the honey of 

 Aroostook cannot be beaten, if it can 

 be equalled. 



In our pioneer settlements of wood- 

 ed countries, men have been to free 

 with the axe, too prodigal of the 

 forest. It seems a great shame that 

 so few of our ancient pines— the pride 

 and glory of our State — should be left 

 standing; still their destruction is 

 not an unmitigated evil. In their 

 stead has come forth another creation, 

 as marvelous if not as majestic. New 

 varieties of trees and plants have 

 taken the places of those that per- 

 ished ; the wild woods became fields, 

 clothed with tender grass and beauti- 

 ful flowers, and with them came the 

 bees. And as civilization spread 

 from the ocean to the Northern lakes, 

 the flowers and bees followed in its 

 onward course. 



Probably Maine to-day yields more 

 honey to the acre than she did five 

 hundred, two hundred, or even one 

 hundred years ago. But in many 

 places the fertility of the soil has 

 been exhausted, the honey-bearing 

 flowers are running out, and the bar- 

 ren pastures and fields are producing 

 only barren plants. This has been 

 brought about by wrong methods of 

 agriculture. On many of these once 

 fertile valleys and hills cattle have 

 grazed more than a hundred years. 

 Not only have the natural grasses and 

 flowers been destroyed, but even the 

 very shrubs and trees have been 

 browsed down to the ground, so that 

 now neither flocks nor herds, neither 

 birds nor trees can subsist; and if 

 we would have them, we must re- 

 juvenate, re-fertilize, and re-plant the 

 same old pastures and fields. There 

 is no better method of doing this. 



But I return to my subject, and will 

 try to give the best method of improv- 

 ing our bee-forage. I will give a 

 short list of our trees and plants most 

 esteemed for this purpose, as many as 

 I can in the order of their flowering. 

 They are : the willow, poplar, maple, 

 sugar plum, horse-chestnut, cherry, 

 gooseberry, plum, and apple blossoms; 

 dandelion, raspberry, blueberry, black- 

 berry and other small fruits, and the 

 honey-locust tree. This will take us 

 nearly if not quite through June ; at 

 which time the white clover begins to 

 come, and with sweet, Alsike and red 

 clover and basswood, fire weed, golden- 

 rod and frost-weed, and other late 

 fall flowers, besides many others,such 

 as motherwort, catnip, white alder, 

 and others producing honey only, and 



