148 
BUCKBUSH 
baby. Instead of going straight into the 
hive with its load, as the veterans do, a 
vast amount -of circling round the entrance 
must be done; and, even after the young 
bee has once alighted, it takes wing again, 
then returns and rushes all thru the hive, 
jostling nurses, drones, and perhaps the 
queen too, seeming to say as plainly as 
could words, “Look! Here am I. I gath¬ 
ered this, all myself. Is it not nice?” 
One might imagine some old veteran, 
who had brought thousands of such loads, 
answering gruffly, “Well, suppose you 
did; what of it? You had better put it 
in a cell and start off after more, instead 
of making all this row and wasting time, 
when there are so many mouths to feed.” 
Yet, apparently, no one scolds or finds 
fault, and the children are never forced to 
work, unless they wish. If they are im¬ 
provident, and starvation comes, they all 
suffer alike, and, it is probable, without 
any hard feeling or censure toward any 
one. They all work together, just as the 
right hand assists the left; and if one 
would understand the economy of the bee¬ 
hive, it were well to bear this point in 
mind. 
Shortly following the impulse for pol¬ 
len-collecting, comes that for bonev-gather- 
ing; and the bee is probably in its prime as 
a worker when a month old. At this stage 
it can, like a man of forty, “turn its 
hand” to almost any domestic duty; but if 
the hive is well supplied with workers of 
all ages, it now probably does most effect¬ 
ive service in the fields. See Bee Behav¬ 
ior; also Age of Bees. 
When a colony is formed of young bees 
entirely, they will sometimes go out into 
the fields for pollen when but five or six- 
days old. Also when a colony is formed 
wholly of adult bees they can build comb, 
feed the larvae, construct queen-cells, and 
perform work generally that is usually 
done by younger bees; yet it is probably 
better economy to have bees of all ages in 
the hive. 
BROOD, SPREADING.— See Spreading 
Brood. 
BUCKBUSH (Sympho ricarpos occiden- 
talis). —Wolfberrv. A branching shrub, 
three to five feet tall, common in Washing¬ 
ton and Idaho. In Idaho it is one of the 
most important honey plants yielding a 
surplus, on an average, of 25 pounds per 
colony. Near Fraser in the northern part 
of the State the l.oney is secured by the 
thousand pounds. The extracted honey is 
water-white wdth a very pleasant flavor 
and is slow to granulate, a bottle of it 
remaining liquid after three years. It 
blooms from June 15 to July 20. The 
small Avhite flowers are white tinged with 
pink, bell-shaped, hairy within, and are in 
small clusters in the axils of the leaves. 
They secrete nectar freely, and are very 
attractive to wasps whence they have been 
called wasp-flowers. The fruit is a white 
berry, which is eaten by pheasants and 
cattle. 
This bush is also abundant in western 
Iowa, where it yields rvell in dry weather. 
The honey is white and very similar to 
that of white clover. In the Missouri River 
basin, especially on the loess bluffs, this 
is a very common species; but it ceases to 
be valuable east of Wisconsin and south of 
Nebraska. 
Coral-berry or Indian currant ( S. orbi- 
culatus) extends southward from Iowa to 
Texas and is abundant along the Missouri 
River. The small berries are red resem¬ 
bling red currants. It blooms for two or 
three weeks and secretes a large quantity 
of nectar. 
Snowberry (S. racemosus ) is a northern 
species found from Alaska to Nova Scotia, 
and southward on the east coast to Penn¬ 
sylvania and on the west coast of Califor¬ 
nia. In Iowa, in summer, a large amount 
of excellent honey is obtained from it. , It 
is frequently cultivated for ornament be¬ 
cause of its large white berries. 
BUCKWHEAT (Fagopyrum esculentum 
Moeneh.).—The English name is derived 
from the German buchweizen (beechnut), 
so called from the close resemblance of the 
sharply three-angled seed to the beechnut. 
The generic name Fagopyrum is Greek for 
beechwheat. The common species belongs 
to the buckwheat family, or PolygonaoecC. 
■which likewise includes such familiar weeds 
as the sorrels, docks, and smartweeds. 
Heartsease, an important honey plant in 
the West, also belongs here. There are 
about six species of buckwheat and they 
are all natives of Asia. Besides the com- 
