700 T'H]© MMERICSrf BEE JOURIfSEr. 



associates iu Germany, the art of bee- 

 keeping has been wonderfully develop- 

 ing, and every candid reader will 

 agree with the " good book," that in 

 the latter days many shall run to and 

 fro, and knowledge shall be increased, 

 and the wise shall understand. 

 Maiden Rock, Wis. 



FLOWER COLORS. 



Are Bee§ Attracted by the Colors 

 of Floiverst 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY MRS. MAHALA B. CHADDOCK. 



Among the many good and interest- 

 ing things in Mr. L. H. Pammers arti- 

 cle on page 633, on " The Pollination 

 and Perforation of Flowers," there is 

 a wrong idea put forth. He takes it 

 from Muller, but also 'seems to adopt 

 it as his belief. It is in regard to the 

 changes in color of Howers of closely 

 related species. After quoting from 

 Muller, and giving examples of some 

 of the species thatshow the color-range, 

 he saj-s : 



" Slight changes of color must there- 

 fore be of great use to an insect ; just 

 as changes in color of parts of a 

 flower after pollination are of use to 

 the insect by indicating that its ser- 

 vices are no longer needed." 



Color is no guide for the insect 

 world. They visit flowers for the nec- 

 tar and pollen which they contain — 

 not for the good of the flower ; and if 

 color is of no account at any time, how 

 can a change in the color of a part of 

 a flower tell an insect that its services 

 are no longer needed ? 



Bees and other insects work by in- 

 stinct, and all their labor is for the 

 good of their own kind ; they know 

 nothing about " pollination," and a 

 change in the parts of all the flowers 

 in the universe would tell them noth- 

 ing. Insects cannot reason. If they 

 could, they might alight on a flower, 

 and, if the inside of the petals had 

 turned dark, say, " This flower has 

 already been poUenized. I know by 

 this dark stripe, so I'll not go in, but 

 will go to other flowers where no 

 change in the color has taken place, 

 and then I'll do the work that was in- 

 tended for me to do. It matters not 

 that I have a thousand empty mouths 

 at home, waiting to be fed. I'm around 

 just now pollenizing flowers, and the 

 babies at home will have to wait until 

 I find a flower that needs me." 



But we all know that insects do not 

 reason, but go by an instinct that 

 makes them seize everj'thing that will 

 contribute to their own prosperity. 

 That in working for their own good 



the insects do unconsciously pollenize 

 flowers, is true ; but that thej' are con- 

 scious of what they do, can never be 

 admitted, unle.ss we admit that they 

 are endowed with reason. 



There never was a wilder notion 

 than that bright-colored flowers attract 

 insects. One of my neighbors has 

 masses of zinnias, two long rows reach- 

 ing from the house down to the road ; 

 and as I walk among them I look out 

 for bees. Not a bee is to be seen ; but 

 up near the house is an insignificant 

 little bunch of mignonette, with half a 

 dozen bees at work on it. Bees and 

 other insects are attracted by the scent 

 of flowers, not.by the color. Here is 

 the S&' 



Vermont, Ills. 



AUTUMN. 



Hints About Fall Work in the 

 Apiary. 



Written for the Western Plowman 



BY C. H. DIBBEBN. 



As predicted last month, the fall 

 yield of honey has been very fair, and 

 the quality is unusually good. I have 

 never before seen such white honey 

 produced so late in the season. Bee- 

 keepers are now in much better con- 

 dition than a year ago. Then there 

 were hives that contained not a single 

 pound of honey, and the only thing to 

 do to save the bees, was to buy sugar 

 and make it into syrup and feed them. 

 This required mone5^ work and pa- 

 tience. Now all is changed. The 

 bees are well supplied with honey, in 

 fact man}' have too much, and some 

 extracting from the brood- chambers 

 will have to be done. Bee-men can 

 keep their money in their pockets, if 

 they have any, and perhaps add to it 

 considerably from sales of honey. 



Preparing Honey for Iflarket. 



October is usually a busy month, as 

 all the work of removing surplus ar- 

 rangements, and putting the bees in 

 the best possible condition for winter, 

 should be done now before the weather 

 gets too cold. Then the honey has to 

 to be prepared for market. Cases for 

 shipping have to be made, and if any 

 are on hand from previous years, they 

 should be taken apart, and planed so 

 all will look nice and inviting. We 

 should alwa3-s remember that we can- 

 not have anything too neat about 

 honey — the bees themselves set us a 

 very good example, when they put 

 nectar into snow white waxen cells. 

 Perhaps from this has come the old 

 saying, " Neat as wax." 



To the bee-keepers that have honey 

 to sell I want to say a word or two. 



Of course you want to get the most 

 money you can out of the crop, which 

 is a very short one at best. If j'our 

 honey is nice and white, or dark and 

 yellow, be sure and scrape every sec- 

 tion clean of propolis, and pack in , 

 neat shipping-cases, with clean glass 

 on at least one side. Your name- . 

 should be on the case, with the kind of 

 honey, weights, etc. 



Now do not put nice white comb 

 next to the glass, and dark, poor stufl' 

 hid away back of them, as your cus- 

 tomers will certainly find it out, and 

 perhaps not buy any more from you. 

 There is no use to try to sell a thing 

 for what it is not, to saj' nothing of 

 the dishonesty. Some people would ; 

 call that smart, but such practice will 

 soon be found out, and the man be 

 marked as one to be avoided. It is all 

 well enough to put nice combs next to 

 the glass, but the balance of the case 

 must grade nearly the same. 



If you have dark honey, put that 

 into cases by itself, and sell for a few 

 cents less, for just what it is. We are 

 making three grades of ours this year : 

 choice white, heart's-ease and buck- 

 wheat, which we expect to sell at a 

 dift'erence of 5 cents per pound be- 

 tween the poorest and best. I have 

 noticed in previous years that some 

 bee-keepers bring in their honey in 

 the cases just as they come oft' the 

 hives, with the sections all stuck fast, 

 and the propolis still sticking to them, 

 without bottoms, so that every particle 

 of honey leaking out will run on the 

 counter, where it attracts flies, and 

 very often the neighboring bees. I 

 have seen grocers literally driven out 

 of their stores in this w.ay. Is it any 

 wonder that after such experience 

 some grocers will not bother with 

 honey ? 



Our cases are close fitting, with glass 

 on one side, and a cover that fits per- 

 fectly. Before the sections are put in, 

 a neat fitting pan, made of stout wrap- 

 ping paper, is placed in the bottom to 

 catch and hold every particle of honey 

 that may leak out. Honey in such 

 shape can be handled as easily as 

 sugar. Do not be in too great a hurry 

 to sell. Honey this year should bring 

 1.5 to 20 cents per pound for comb, and 

 10 to 1.5 cents for extracted. 



Honey of Different Colors. 



We have noticed one thing this year 

 that struck us as. rather odd. Some 

 cases contained as nice white honey as 

 any white clover, while perhaps the 

 very next hive would contain sections 

 stored at the very same tim3, that were 

 quite dark. This at first puzzled us, 

 but after thinking over the matter, we 

 concluded that bees from certain hives 

 work on one kind of blossoms, while 

 others work on a different kind. I also 



