CHAPTER III. 



BEE PASTURAGE AND PRODUCTS. 



"Honey is not made by the bees, but is simply gathered by them 

 from the nectaries of flowers, and from that peculiar deposit on 

 vegetation during summer, called ' honey dew.' 1 " — Dr. Kirtland. 



Honey is a liquid sweet secreted by flowers, and is gathered 

 and stored in the combs unchanged by the bees. If a stock of 

 bees be fed on inferior quality of syrup, and the combs examined, 

 it will be found in the cells unchanged. Hence the quality of 

 honey depends upon the flowers from which it is gathered. 

 White clover, linden, raspberries, &c, affording light-colored 

 honey, while buckwheat, poplar, and dandelion, yield that which 

 is darker. 



Honey and pollen are supplied by nearly all the flowering trees 

 and plants of the vegetable kingdom. The varieties, in the 

 northern States, which furnish the largest proportion are, first in 

 the spring, the alders, soft maple and willows. These come very 

 early, and, if not cut short by frost, stimulate breeding, and form 

 for the bees an acceptable change from a spare winter diet. 

 There is then, in most places, a scarcity of flowers for about three 

 weeks, when the hard or sugar maple throws out its golden tas- 

 sels, and the peach, pear, cherry and smaller fruits, rich in honey 

 and bee-bread, extend an invitation which is never slighted by 

 the provident bees. The apple-tree blossoms now afford a real 



