118 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



April 



The honey from apple bloom is much the 

 same. It is excellent for starting brood 

 rearing, but it is of little or no value for 

 table use. I once extracted about 10 lbs. of 

 honey from fruit blossoms, by putting two 

 fair colonies together early in the spring, 

 thus giving about the working force of a col- 

 ony in June. 



Although it will not be advisable to try to 

 get surplus honey from the fruit bloom, it is 

 sometimes an excellent idea to put a frame 

 or two of sections in the lower story, that 

 tliey may get the fdn. nicely built out ready 

 for the clover season. If they should store 

 some of the dark honey in the sections, it 

 will all be removed, in all probability, during 

 tlie interval between the fruit bloom and 

 clover. 



DO BEES INJURE THE FRUIT, BV TAKING 

 THE HONEY FROM THE BLOSSOMS. 



This is an idea that has been advanced 

 over and over again, and will probably be 

 many times more, by those who take only a 

 casual view. If I am not mistaken, the 

 matter was carried so far in a town in Mass., 

 that an ordinance was passed obliging a bee- 

 keeper to remove his bees to another local- 

 ity. After a year or two had passed, the 

 fruit growers decided that they would rather 

 have the bees brought back, because so little 

 fruit was set on the trees, in proportion to 

 the mount of blossoms appearing. As it 

 was a fruit growing district, it was a matter 

 of considerable moment, and the bees were 

 brought back. Of course, with the bees, 

 came fruit in abundance, for many kinds of 

 fruit absolutely depend on the agency of 

 bees in fertilizing the flowers, to enable 

 them to produce fruit at all. It seems that 

 the small drop of honey which nature has 

 placed in the flower, is for the express pur- 

 pose of attracting bees and other insects, 

 that the blossoms may be surely and proper- 

 ly fertilized. It has been stated that unless 

 we have a few hours of sunshine when early 

 cherries are in bloom, w^e shall have no cher- 

 ries at all ; and occasionally we have a sea- 

 son when cold rain storms so prevent the 

 bees from getting out, that not a cherry is 

 produced. 



It is well worth while, I believe, for an 

 apiarist to locate near extensive orchards, 

 even if he should not think of planting fruit 

 trees, with tlie especial end in view, of hav- 

 ing his bees benefitted thereby. A large 

 yield of honey from fruit bloom is pretty 

 sure to lay the foimdation of a good honey 

 season. 



The verv best time to transfer bees, is 



when the honey just begins to come in from 

 this source, for they are then all busy and 

 happy, and but little honey is in the way to 

 run down and hinder the work. I have look- 

 ed at populous colonies during fruit bloom, 

 that had not a dozen cells full of honey in 

 the hive, in the morning, but by night the 

 hive would seem very well supplied; the 

 next day would show the same aspect of af- 

 fairs, indicating how rapidly they consume 

 stores, when rearing brood largely. Should 

 a stormy day intervene, stocks in this con^ 

 dition will be injured very much, if they do 

 not starve, by being obliged to put the un- 

 sealed brood on such short allowance. A 

 friend once came to me, in May, to have me 

 come and take a look at his bees ; he said 

 they were sick. It was a box hive, and as I 

 turned it over, I agreed with him that they 

 rcere sick, and no mistake. I called for a 

 bowl of sugar, and after stirring in some 

 water, I sprinkled it all over the bees and 

 combs. In less than an hour, they were all 

 perfectly well, and he paid quite a tribute to 

 my skill in compounding medicines for sick 

 bees. My friends, be sure that your bees 

 do not get '■'■sick''^ during fruit blossoming 

 time, nor afterward either. 



GIXiIi-OVISIl-THE-GIlOUin). ( Xepata 

 Glechoma). Some 40 or 50 years ago, when 

 this county was mostly woods, my father 

 and mother commenced life on a little farm 

 near where I am now living. Woman like, 

 my mother wanted some flowers around the 

 log house that they called home, and going to 

 a neighbor's a few miles away, she took up 

 vaiious roots and plants. It was just about 

 the time, or a little before fruit trees bloom, 

 and amid the shrubbery, she found a little 

 blue flower, growing on a vine. As blue has 

 always been my favorite color, I can readily 

 excuse her for wanting to take home a root 

 of this humble looking little vine. The vine 

 grew and throve "•mightily.'" So much so, 

 that when my father moved back to the old 

 farm after a dozen years absence, he found 

 my mother's blue flower all over, every 

 where, and giving fair promise of being able 

 to choke all the grass and almost everything 

 else out entirely. When '-we boys," com- 

 menced trying to make a garden, we scold- 

 ed so about this "pesky weed" that my fath- 

 er said it must be thoroughly "dug out," be- 

 fore it went any farther. After some feeble 

 and ineffectual attempts at getting it out, 

 lie finally offered a younger brother a fine 

 •'olt, if he Avould rid the farm of the weed. I 

 do not know how hard he ti'ied, but I believe 

 he never got tlie colt. 



