124 FORTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES. 



surplus from that ; but coming- so early I think there are 

 hardly bees enough to store it. Still, the bees are at this 

 time using large quantities of honey for brood, and so 

 the apple-bloom is of very great value. Another ad- 

 vantage is that the great quantity of bloom has somewhat 

 the effect of prolonging its time, for the latest blossoms, 

 that with a few trees would amount to little or nothing, 

 are enough to keep the bees busy. So it happens that 

 often I can scarcely recognize any interim between fruit- 

 bloom and clover. A few items from a memorandum for 

 1882 may be interesting: 



MEMORANDA OF 1882. 



Apr. 4. — Last bees taken out of cellar. 



May 8. — Plum-bloom out. Bees still work on meal 

 and sugar syrup. 



May ID. — Wild plum, dandelion, cherry, pear, Si- 

 berian, Duchess of Oldenberg. 



May 31. — Saw first clover blossom. 



June 5. — Apple about done. 



June 12. — Commenced giving- supers. 



June 13. — Clover full bloom — plentiful. 



June 20. — Locust out. 



Aug. I. — Clover failing. 



Aug. 5. — Robber bees trouble. 



You will notice that the earliest apple-bloom 

 (Duchess of Oldenberg) commenced May lo, while the 

 Janets and other late bloomers were still in blossom on 

 June 5, several days after the first clover was seen, mak- 

 ing about four weeks of apple-bloom. Possibly this was 

 unusual — certainly the clover lasted unusually long, be- 

 ing about 73/i weeks from the time the bees commenced 

 working on it, for they do not seem to commence work 

 till after the blossoms have been out some time. 



