416 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



December 



easily determined by their position in 

 the cells, a newly-laid egg being stuck 

 point downwards, and gradually leans 

 over until the third day, when it is 

 quite flat. It will be interesting if 

 Dr. Phillips or Mr. Pellett will try this 

 out, and give the results of their in- 

 vestigations. 



Sheffield, England. 



(Parthenogenesis is no longer a 

 theory, because it has been proven 

 so many times over. But the above 

 experiment is interesting, neverthe- 

 less, because it gives us a new idea, 

 something which we believe has never 

 been tried before, or at least never re- 

 corded. Fertilizing drone eggs in this 

 manner looks plausible, at least for 

 the sake of experiments. We trust 

 our investigators will give it a fair 

 trial. — Editor.) 



Temperature and Nectar Secretion 



By Kennith Hawkins 



THAT high night temperatures 

 are not conducive to the secre- 

 tion of nectar by honey plants, 

 is indicated in the data collected at 

 Watertown, Wis., during the sum- 

 mer of 1919, from a careful study of 

 honey plants, by the G. B. Lewis 

 Company's apiary and the records of 

 the U. S. Weather Bureau here. Sci- 

 entists know that relatively low 

 night temperatures with considerably 

 higher day temperatures are valuable 

 to enable many honey plants to effect 

 the change of starches to sug?r 

 within their systems, preparatory lo 

 nectar secretion next day. The tem- 

 perature effect in slowing down nec- 

 tar secretion in white clover, rasp- 

 berry, basswood and sweet clover, in 

 the order named, is noticeable. 



On the graph accompanying this ar- 

 ticle, the heavy line (see Note 1) 

 shows the gradual increase in the 

 mean daily temperature from May I, 

 1919, to July 31, 1919, beginning st 

 52 degrees F. and ending at 75 de- 

 grees F. The dotted line (see Note I) 

 repn sents the storing strength of the 

 colonies, which arrived as 3-pound 

 packages from Texas on May 7th, 

 the date represented on the graph as 

 A. The point B, on the dotted line, 

 shows June 6th, the first day the bees 

 began work in the supers. C. repre- 

 sents the peak of storing of surplus, 

 :: I D. the greatest decline regis- 

 on July 31st. The bees were 

 released on brood-frames with full 

 sheets of medium brood foundation 

 and the colonies had to draw out thin 

 super foundation in the extracting 

 frames. They were not fed. as they 

 arived here in a good dandelion flow. 

 Note that the point L., on the top 

 horizontal line (see Note -4) repre- 

 sents the date when the first white 

 clover bloom appeared, and M. the 

 ii the first raspberry bloom, and 

 X. the date of the first basswood 

 bloom. O represents the first sweet 

 doom. The heavy graphs. X. 

 V., and /., (see note 3), represent the 

 rainfall for the three months, 

 May, 2.45 in; lime, 1.49 in., and July 

 4.00" in. 



Blooms Last — Nectar Stops 



The writer wishes to emphasize 



that sweet and white clover re- 

 mained in bloom long after the bees 

 stopped storing surplus honey and 

 that sweet clover was still in bloom 

 here August 27, with the bees work- 

 ing on it heavily, but with no signs 

 of the nectar in the supers. Please 

 note that the heaviest rainfall of the 

 months was in July, cutting off the 

 drying-up theory relative to the fail- 

 ure of the honey plants to yield nec- 

 tar. Robbing began to be noticeable 

 here August 1, and the bees have 

 since placed no surplus honey in the 

 supers. 



This indicates that something other 

 than the condition of the bees, the 

 rainfall or the number of honey 

 plants affected the cessation of nec- 

 tar secretion. The writer believes 

 the cessation is due to the constantly 

 increasing mean temperature, which 

 was particularly noticeable at night. 



The following table is of interest: 



May 7 — Bees here. 



May 10 — First eggs noted in frames. 



May 26 — First white clover bloom. 



May 28 — First red clover bloom. 



June 6 — First colony begins in super. 



June 9 — Locust blooms. 



June 9 — Raspberries bloom. 



June 17 — Heavy flow from white 

 clover. 



June 20 — Basswood buds begin open- 

 ing. 



June 21 — First sweet clover bloom. 



July 3 — Bees desert basswood. 



July 15 — Last supers on filled 

 slowly. 



August 1 — Bees robbing badly. 



August 10 — Sweet clover, toad flax, 

 goldenrod, red clover, dandelions 

 bloom. 



August 27 — Bees still robbing badly 

 on opportunity. 



Explanation of Graph 



I. — Heavy line shows average mean 

 temperature increase from 52.9 de- 

 grees F. 



II. — Dotted line shows: Arrival of 

 bees at A. (May 7) ; begun super 

 work at B. (June 6); peak of storing 

 at C. (July 15), and robbing at D. 

 (August 1 ). 



III. — Heavy graphs represent com- 

 parative rainfall for the months of 

 May, June and July; May, 2.45 in.: 

 June, 1.49 in.; July, 4.00 in. 



IV— Dates marked on the top hori- 

 zontal line marked to indicate the 

 beginning of honey-flows from: L. — 

 nli te clover; M — raspberry ;N — bass- 

 wen id ; ( ) s »veel clover. 



Y. — Daily night temperatures not 

 shown for lack of space. Daily mean 

 temperature increase adopted since 

 complete figures show daily increase 

 in night temperatures, which are 

 relative. 



Watertown, Wis. 



What Beekeeping Offers for Dis- 

 abled Soldiers 



By Frank R. Townsend 

 Vocational Educational Student, Kan- 

 sas State Agricultural College 



THE question of securing employ- 

 ment for disabled soldiers is 

 one that would ordinarily cause 

 a great deal of concern and no little 

 worry to the men themselves. How- 

 ever, since the creation of the Fed- 

 eral Board of Vocational Education, 

 the solution of this problem has been 

 greatly simplified. I am one of these 

 men, and wish to say a few words as 

 to the benefits I think I am going lo 

 receive from this work. 



On the 28th day of September, 

 1918, I was struck by a machine gun 

 bullet, which caused a compound frac- 

 ture of my right leg. After the 

 wound was healed the leg was 

 shorter than before the injury. I do 

 not believe that a man is crippled un- 

 less the injury is in the head, or, in 

 other words, if he has any ambition 

 there are great opportunities open 

 for him to obtain an education, and 

 lit himself for business. Even though 

 a man may be so disabled that he 

 cannot do all of the heavy work 

 about the apiary himself, yet, if he 

 understands the nature of bees well 

 enough, he will find beekeeping will 

 pay enough income so that he can af- 

 ford to hire someone to do the 

 heavier work for him whenever nec- 

 essary. This is especially true in the 

 case of a disabled soldier who has an 

 opportunity of taking advantage of 

 the education offered by the Federal 

 Board of Vocational Education. 1 

 am taking advantage of it myseif, 

 and attending the Kansas State Agri- 

 cultural College at Manhattan, Kans., 

 where, since the first of May, among 

 other studies, I have been taking 

 beekeeping under Dr. J. H. Merrill. 

 and have become greatly interested 

 in what this beekeeping business 

 holds as a future for disabled sol- 

 diers. 

 When I was a boy at home my fa- 



