126 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



April 



work on the stalks, sucking the juice 

 from the corn wherever a stalk was 

 broken or cracked, and I always 

 thought that they took the sweet 

 juice from broken stalks and con- 

 verted the sugar to honey, and I 

 know that my bees gather a large 

 amount of pollen from the corn tas- 

 sels. GAROLD PETTYS. 

 Chase Mills, N. V. 

 A Word From Missouri 

 I will answer your inquiry in re- 

 gard to "Do Bees Get Honey From 

 Corn?" I think that I know some 

 thing about that. I was raised in a 

 corn country and have been a keeper 

 of bees for several years. A great 

 many times the honey flow would be 

 short about the time Indian corn 

 would tassel out. I always thought 

 when the Indian corn tasseled out 

 and silked that my bees would be all 

 right; but I was sadly disappointed. 

 By close observations, which I con- 

 ducted many a morning, I would 

 find my busy little Italians going to 

 and from the hives, working very 

 hard in a near by cornfield; but on 

 examining the hives I would find no 

 nectar and worlds of cream-colored 

 pollen ; so that convinced me that 

 they do not get anything off of In- 

 dian corn but pollen. 



P. J. CRAFT, Liberal, Mo. 



From Georgia 



"Do Bees Get Honey From Corn?" 

 You asked the readers to answer the 

 question. My answer is they do not 

 get honey from corn ; they do get 

 pollen. I have ten outyards in a rich 

 corn section, big swamp land and 

 rich loam made or covered bottom 

 land, and if it yielded honey I would 

 get some. I do get honey at that 

 time which comes from the button- 

 wood bush, also from the marsh lily 

 or a marsh flower that blooms at the 

 time that corn is in tassel; it is a 

 low grade of honey. I used to be- 

 lieve that it came from corn, but a 

 search proved that it did not. 



\Y. L. WILDER, Macon, Ga. 

 Wisconsin Says No 

 Replying to your query as to bees 

 gathering honey from corn, will say 

 I believe for the past 40 years I have 

 been as close and careful an ob- 

 server as anyone, and I have the first 

 time yet to see a bee working on 

 corn silk or any othi r pai I ol corn 

 iting the tassel, from which they 

 gather pollen in large quantities. 

 So sure am 1 thai I hey do i 



from it at all, and notwith- 

 standing the reports of bees storing 

 quantities of honi \ 1 1 om corn 

 I wil pay $1 per pound tor a 

 60-pound can of pure corn tassel 

 honey. Now don't all you corn honey 

 men run and rush in your crop, as 

 nay swamp me. 

 I II VS FOX, Union Center, Wis. 

 A Word From Texas 

 The tassel of tin corn •>• Id pi '1 

 len early, and sonic honey later on 

 If the weather is favorable for the 

 reproduction of plant lice, we may al- 

 ways expect them to attack th 

 sel, making the top leaves "sticky" 

 and disi i ha\ e seen bi 



1 until you could scarcely 

 see anything but the bees gathering 

 this honeydew. The honey thus ob- 



tained is dark, but of very fair flavor. 

 Win. K. Howard, White Rock. Tex., 

 American Bee Journal, page 225, May, 

 1880. 



"Springing" Bees 



By D. A. Macdonald 



MUCH has been written about 

 wintering bees, as the pages 

 of all bee papers, j ea 

 year clearly testify. Less, too little 

 space, has been devoted to the sub- 

 ject of "springing" bee 

 nothing else does success or failure 

 more strongly depend. With the ad- 

 vent of spring the cares and worries 

 of bees and beekeepers manifest 

 themselves. Hitherto the winter 

 cluster kept warm and dry, with 

 plenty of bees and ample stores, the 

 problem has been a simple one. 

 Henceforward it will become more 

 and more complex, because so many 

 side factors intrude. Happy now are 

 all who did their spring stimulation 

 in autumn, who fed their bees with 

 abundance of stores well matured, 

 well made and well sealed, for they 

 can now fold their hands and feel 

 calmly content. Stores present, a 

 good queen heading the colony, 

 plenty of young bees breeding will 

 go on apace. Early in spring, some- 

 time in February, the brood area 

 will be small, at first only a tiny 

 patch or two on the central frame. 

 No anxiety need be felt as yet, for 

 this is the natural routine , of each 

 successive spring in every hive. With 

 March, however, activities develop at 

 a different pace in different localities, 

 depending principally on various alti- 

 tudes, and different degrees north or 

 south of the Equator. Many side 

 factors arise — the bees, the queen, 

 the quantity and quality of stores, the 

 available supply of pollen, the near- 

 ness of the water required, all affect 

 beneficially or prejudicially. 

 Here, at the very outset, we find 

 a sharp cleavage of both opinion and 

 practice over this problem of "spring- 

 ing" bees successfully. One set of 

 advocates preaches the doctrine of 

 "let 'em alone," holding that right 

 through the spring months i 

 ruary, Mar h and April bees are best 

 left to their ov\ n .K \ ii es, and that 

 i he pres ient little worker bi 

 the ci il know what is tor the 



present best interests and future 

 well-being of the community as a 

 whole, ("liven, they say, ample Stores, 

 30 to 40 pounds in late September, to 

 be well matured and carefully sealed 

 in early October, left under the care 

 of the bees in a well-made hive, and 

 you have the very best provision and 

 guarantee for bringing each colony 

 safely through not only the winter 

 months, but also the three succeeding 

 months of spring without any out- 

 side aid. Not only that, but they con- 

 tend any interference would be detri- 

 mental to the bees. They, in their 

 spirit of forethought, have so ar- 

 ranged their stores and their brood- 

 nest that everything is in apple-pie 

 order for even the severest winter 

 and early spring. The beekeeper's 

 meddling, they contend, would not 

 work for good, but evil. Interference 

 from outside would break up the 

 cluster, disturb the quiet and orderly 

 arrangements presciently maintained 

 by the "spirit of the hive," while the 

 agitation produced would prema- 

 turely encourage a start in breeding, 

 thus producing young bees untimely, 

 with all the consequential drain in 

 stores, premature search for both 

 heat-forming and flesh-forming food 

 for the nourishment of the young 

 larvae. The search for water, too, 

 overtaxes the strength and endurance 

 of the diligent workers, and they age 

 before their due time. One of the 

 most earnest advocates of the first 

 system of spring treatment has sum- 

 marized the whole procedure in the 

 graphic phrase, "millions of honey 

 in our house," and another leading 

 light, still with us, says, "The most 

 satisfactory way of stimulating 

 brood-rearing, for me, is to see that 

 the bees have plenty — yes, more than 

 plenty, abundance — of stores in au- 

 tumn, and then leave them entirely 

 alone. Queens do their best without 

 the lash." 



Those who preach and practice 

 stimulation in spring are fully as 

 confident and enthusiastic in com- 

 mending and advocating their own 

 special tenets and doctrines. Bees, 

 they contend, want a rousing up in 

 spring, a sort of that shaking up 

 whose beneficial influence is pleaded 

 for by many successful beekeepers in 

 many lands. Therefore, they start in 

 spring to stoke the bees in their de- 

 sire that they should Moke the queen. 



Apiary built up fr 



i colony caught in bee-trcc. Fred W. Krome, 

 Black River Falls, Wis. 



