THE FLIGHT ACTIVITIES OF THE HONEYBEE 7 



THE CONDITIONS OF THE EXPERIMENT 



In order to care for the great rush of bees on the approach of 

 storms or to allow for possible clogging of some of the gates, it was 

 necessary to provide such conditions that the gates would be worked 

 normally much below their full capacity. This was done by employ- 

 ing a colony of bees of comparatively small size. When the taking 

 of the records was begun in April, this colony, headed by a 1-year- 

 old Italian queen, was in a hive composed of two bodies. The col- 

 ony had about 5 pounds of bees, brood to fill four frames completely 

 (Langstroth size) , and seven frames containing honey. The remain- 

 ing frames were nearly empty. When the colony was examined in 

 detail on May 25, seven frames of brood and two frames containing 

 eggs were present. A considerable number of larvse then showed 

 symptoms of sacbrood. On the termination of the experiment at 

 the end of July there were about 3 pounds of adult bees, three 

 frames of brood, and a serious shortage of honey. Some of the 

 larva? dead of sacbrood were not yet cleaned out. 



To prevent so far as possible the drifting of other bees to this 

 colony, the hive was set up in an isolated position about 36 feet from 

 another colony and about 100 feet from the main yard on the west 

 side of the bee culture laboratory, Somerset, Md. It was shaded 

 by the building until 9 to 10 a. m. and by a tall tree in the afternoon. 



During April, 1922, the hive did not show any days of gain in 

 weight due to incoming nectar. In this region the main honey flow 

 comes rather early, the two main nectar sources being black locust 

 (Rohinia pseudacacia) and tuliptree {Liriodendron tulipifera). 

 These species yield nectar in May, usually early in the month, fol- 

 lowed by a small amount of nectar from white clover (Trifolium 

 repens) and from other plants of minor value for nectar. Usually 

 by the end of June in this region a dearth of nectar occurs and lasts 

 until fall, so that there is nothing for the bees to gather during 

 midsummer, unless, as sometimes happens, there is a production of 

 honej'dew. ' 



In the season of 1922 the first gain in weight from black locust 

 occurred on May 3, but a heavy rain on the night of May 14 brought 

 this honey flow to a sudden close. The tuliptree began to bloom 

 on May 7, and the last gain from this source occurred on May 

 28. During this period of substantial honey flow there was no 

 gain on five days because of rain. Small gains in weight from in- 

 coming pollen, with some nectar, took place in this colony on June 8, 

 10, and 17. All the other days throughout June and July showed 

 a daily loss in weight, with the exception of July 16, when in the 

 evening the hive had exactly regained its morning weight. The 

 highest daily gain recorded for this colony was 1.440 kilograms, and 

 on two other days the gain exceeded a kilogram. If a colony of 

 full strength could have been employed the gains in weight would 

 have been Larger. 



Of tin; .V) days on which this colony showed a loss in weight and 

 on which rains did not invalidate the scale readings by the accumu- 

 lation of moisture on the hive, 9 days showed a loss of 10 to 90 

 grams, 15 a loss between 100 and 190 grams, 8 between 200 and 290 

 grams, L3 betweeE 300 and 390 grams, and 4 between 400 and 490 

 grams, with 1 day showing a loss of 610 grams. The experiment 

 was discontinued before the beginning of the autumn honey flow. 



