1883.] 
AMERICAS' AGRICULTURIST. 
11 
Bee Notes for January. 
If well cared for, the bees will need no attention 
this month. Those that are in the cellar will be¬ 
come uneasy, if not kept of the right temperature, 
■and well ventilated. During warm days, the bees 
may be carried out to their summer stands, and 
permitted to fly. If the bees are quiet, it is best to 
leave them undisturbed in the cellar. Winter is a 
time of leisure for the bee-keeper, but it should 
not be a time of sloth and indolence. If the 
apiarist makes his own hives, sections, etc., this is 
the time for such work. But as these are con¬ 
structed so cheaply and well at the factories, it is 
generally best to buy them unless one is skillful 
■with tools. It may be well to get the material in 
the “ knock down,” and put them up at the apiary. 
This saves freight, and gives work for winter. 
Now is the time for studying up apiarian subjects. 
Read the bee literature of the past year, study 
:good books on bee culture, think well of what is 
read, and in the light of such information plan the 
work for next year. Every bee-keeper should ex¬ 
periment some, as this makes his advancement 
greater, and gives added interest to his business. 
Now, in January, is the time to plan experiments 
Jor the coming year. 
Honey should be kept during winter in a dry, 
warm room. When thus stored, the comb honey 
will not break badly, and the extracted does not 
ferment. Even comb honey often ferments in a 
•cool, damp room. Winter is a good time to build 
up a market. For extracted honey, use attractive 
pails and jars, with neat labels, which state the 
kind of honey, and the name of the person that 
produces it. Neat pyramids of these packages, 
in the stores, will attract buyers. The size of the 
vessels should vary from one-half a pound to those 
that will hold five pounds. The label should 6tate 
that the granulation is no injury, and, indeed, is 
the best assurance of purity. It should also tell j 
flow to restore the liquid condition, without harm 
to the honey, by applying heat not to exceed 180° F. 
Comb honey should be put in a neat case, so as 
to show off to the best advantage. The case ought 
to bear the name of the producer, and the kind and 
grade of the honey. Bee-keepers can not be too 
■ careful about grading their honey. In creating a 
market, nothing will take the place of neatness 
•and care in putting up the honey. If it is prop¬ 
erly arranged, every dealer will be only too glad 
to give it a showy place in his store. 
A writer on bee culture makes a point in winter¬ 
ing which may have force. He calls attention to 
the fact that honey, the winter food of the bees, is 
almost purely a hydro-carbon, and so needs little 
digestion, before it is absorbed into the nutritive 
fluid from the stomach. Then it is assimilated, and 
passes off as water and carbonic acid. Thus the ex¬ 
cretion, in winter, is by respiration. That this may 
go on freely, the air must be dry. The 'writer then 
asserts, that in those winters most remarkable for 
the bee mortality, the air has been very moist. We 
have the data whereby this can be determined, as 
in this place the condition of the atmosphere as to 
moisture has been recorded daily for 19 years. We 
will compare the figures with the loss of bees, and 
give it to the readers of the American Agriculturist 
in February. If this is true, it shows well why dry 
earth ventilation has been so successful, as by that 
method the air is kept from getting moist. The 
appearance of bees that die of “dysentery” is 
also favorable to this view ; they look dropsical, 
and seem fairly oozing with liquid excreta. 
The past season has been a very remarkable one 
as to the honey yield. In parts of Ohio and the 
East, the honey crop has been very light. In Iowa, 
Hlinois, Texas, and other Gulf States, the product 
was immense. In one case, in Texas, the yield of a 
single colony and its increase, has been reported 
as 1,200 pounds. 
The requisites of a good bee-feeder are, that it 
will hold from one to five pounds of honey or syrup ; 
that it can be placed immediately above the cluster 
of bees, so that they can visit it on very cool days 
in fall and spring ; that it can be closely covered 
with a quilt or chaff pillow ; and that it shall be 
so made that feeding can be done without in the 
least disturbing the bees. In the cool days of 
spring and fall, the feeder can be entirely covered 
by a quilt or pillow, and no heat will escape, 
while, as it is directly over the cluster, the bees 
will be able to take the feed on very cold days. 
Of course, as the honey is turned on to the wire 
gauze, this will be sticky. 
Bee Culture in the Kockies. 
Apiculture is an established industry in Colorado. 
A recent tour through all the valley lands, in search 
of agricultural statistics, gave the writer full evi¬ 
dence that both in Northern and Southern Colo¬ 
rado more or less attention is being paid to this 
pleasant and profitable industry; and that, if it in¬ 
creased in the same ratio for the next ten years, at 
that time the market could be supplied with the 
home produce to the entire exclusion of that now 
brought from Kansas and California. We are inclin¬ 
ed to believe that at least five thousand stands of 
bees, mainly Italian, are in the State ; that Colo¬ 
rado is as well adapted to profitable bee-keeping 
as California; that the honey produced is full as 
white, as pure, and as 6weet as any introduced 
into the market; that there is hardly a farm or 
garden where bees will not thrive, and that the 
foot-hills are peculiarly adapted for extensive 
apiaries. 
In the East, warm weather with occasional 
storms, is necessary to a good honey season. A 
continual drouth is fatal to the bees’ harvest. 
Looking at Colorado from this point of view, it 
would seem as if its arid climate would be un¬ 
favorable. But the belief now prevails, that the 
hot days, followed so invariably by cool nights, 
facilitate the secretion of honey in flowers and 
blossoms better than any other state of weather. 
In the East, days of drouth are usually followed 
by warm nights, which is fatal to honey prospects. 
Occasional showers cool the atmosphere, which is 
favorable; therefore the temperature is of more 
importance than dampness. Again, continual rains 
destroy the honey crop, and deprive, the bees of an 
opportunity to go upon the wing. Taking these 
things into consideration, we see why bees do so 
well in the dry climate of Colorado. Its hot days, 
followed by cool Dights, give to nature an abun¬ 
dance of sweets. With no prolonged rains, bees 
have an ample opportunity to improve the shining 
hour, which in Colorado means from sunrise to 
sunset, one day after another, week in and week 
out—as a rule. 
Where a canon or gulch is open and wide, and 
the bills are low, a dry side gulch with a south¬ 
eastern exposure would be a good situation. In 
the early spring the bees go to the lowest foot-hills 
to get the earliest-blooming flowers, and as the 
same varieties blossom at higher altitudes, they fol¬ 
low them up, and as the season advances, still 
keep following them up higher and higher. Then, 
as new varieties bloom below, they repeat the pro¬ 
cess during the entire season of bloom. But it is 
also to be said that bees will do well upon the 
plains, in the valleys, and wherever land is under 
cultivation ; for the face of nature here is covered 
from early spring time to late fall, with flowers 
that afford honey in great abundance. Trees, wild 
blooms, vegetable blossoms, wild grasses, cleome, 
alfalfa, corn blossoms, all offer their store of sweet 
treasure to the ever busy bees. In considering 
this source of constant supply, it is a fact of great 
importance to know, that from the early part of 
March, generally, bees begin to gather pollen and 
honey from willows on southern hill sides and 
sunny slopes, and from this time to October, there 
are very few days that honey is not gathered from 
some source. 
Now contrast this with a season in the Eastern, 
Middle, or even Western States, where the honey 
season seldom lasts three months, and it will be 
seen that Colorado is one of the best States in the 
Union for bee culture. Pasturage is profuse in its 
abundance. With the willow blossoms comes a 
species of Delphinium, pushing its head up through 
the snow, and covering foot-hills and plain with its 
bloom. Wild roses and red raspberries abound in 
the foot-hills. On the plains, with the willow 
and cottonwood, comes a little weed called the 
“hog potato,” growing flat on the ground. 
It has a purple bloom. Then there are fruit 
blossoms and wild roses in May and June; milk¬ 
weed and immeasurable wild flowers also appear. 
Alfalfa is in its first bloom and is favorite foraging 
ground for the busy bees. In July the wild grasses 
and the wild flowers tempt the roving fancy of the 
bees, while melon, squash, and other vines invite 
the winged seekers after sweets. During August 
and September, corn-tassels, alfalfa, amber cane, 
furnish abundant food. At this time, too, the 
prairies, in spots, are covered with cleome, or the 
Rocky Mountain bee-plant, with its wealth of pur¬ 
ple flowers, in which lies hidden an amount of bee 
food one little dreams of, which the bees transform 
into the choicest honey that can be found. In Oc¬ 
tober, there grows on dry prairie land, a weed the 
6hape and size of sage brush, having a yellow 
bloom. This is not the best bee food known, but 
is used when other things are not to be had. 
There is one drawback to bee culture which 
must be mentioned. It comes from too much 
warm, sunny weather in winter. This causes bees 
left on summer stands to fly out, and doing thi^ 
day after day, many are lost and never return to 
the hive, and as they do not begin breeding until 
February, and then very slowly, the numbers rap¬ 
idly decrease, and often the entire swarm is lost 
from this cause. The remedy for this is a good 
cellar, well ventilated, and so arranged that the 
temperature will be kept at from 40° to 45° 
Fahrenheit. It is to be said, in addition, that per¬ 
fect darkness and the greatest degree of quiet that 
can be secured must be maintained. 
Do Bumble-Bees Benefit Bed Clover by 
Visiting the Flowers? 
BY PROFESSOR W. J. BEAL. MICHIGAN. 
From time to time I have seen statements 
in the press, asserting the great value of 
bumble-bees in aiding red clover blossoms 
to set seeds. For this purpose, 1 am in¬ 
formed, bumble-bees have been exported to 
Australia. The pollen of a flower, or flower 
dust, goes freely on the stigma of the same 
flower ; but this does not make it certain that 
pollen from another flower would not pro¬ 
duce better results. For six years past, I have 
made and observed experiments on this sub¬ 
ject. The results are variable and unsatisfac¬ 
tory. In the first year, a few clover heads, cov¬ 
ered with light sashes of muslin, yielded about 
two-tliirds as many seeds as those left un¬ 
covered. In the second year, four heads, cov¬ 
ered before flowering, yielded 18, 30, 38, 41 
seeds respectively; four heads of the same 
age, left uncovered, yielded 46, 54, 43, 57 
seeds. In the third year, 31 heads of the 
first crop of clover were covered; only one 
head yielded seed, and that one bore seven. 
Thirty-one uncovered heads of the same age, 
yielded 11, 12, 2, 35, 40, 21, 3, 1, 22, 15, 15, 
20, 16, 4, 29, 3, 25, 8, 15, 22, 24, 28, 41, 10; 22, 
13, 18, 18, 10, 12,10, respectively ; an average 
of 17 seeds per head. In the third year, for 
the second crop of clover, 11 heads were 
covered and yielded no seed, while 9 heads, 
uncovered, yielded 36, 51, 45, 58, 15. 26, 47, 31 9 
