A MONTHLY JOURNAL 



Devoted to the Interests of Honey Producers 

 iiLim a Ucar 



W. Z. F-IUTCHINSON, Editor and Publisher. 



VOL. XXIII. 



FLINT. MICHIGAN, SEPTEMBER 1, 1910. 



NO. 9 



The Great Willow Herb of Northern Michigan, 

 And its Wonderful Honey Yields. 



W. Z. HUTCHINSON. 



permanent, like basswood, berries or 

 clover, a bee keeper could locate near it 

 and have a bonanza. My brother Elmer 

 had some colonies that stored over 250 

 pounds, each, last year, from this source, 

 and he has a lot of them now (Aug-. 6) 

 that are tiered up four supers high, and 

 the flow will last until frost comes. 

 Another peculiarity of this plant is that 

 it yields honey at times, or during such 

 weather, as would put a stop to all 

 storing with basswood or clover. I have 

 seen the bees bringing in honey at a 

 pretty fair rate, with a cold wind b'owirg 

 from the north; and to show how it can 

 yield when conditions are favorable, let 

 me relate a little incident: Two men 

 moved a load of bees to a willow herb 

 district that they might profit by its 

 bounteous honey flow. They reached 

 their destination about eleven o'clock, set 

 off the hives and opened them up. 

 When ready to start for home, between 

 one and two o'clock, one of them, in a 

 joking way, said he believed he would 

 open one of the upper stories and see 



^^^h-'HERE is no plant with which 1 

 f J am acquainted that furnishes 

 ^^' more honey in a season than the 

 great willow herb, or epilobium. It is a 

 species of fire weed that springs up after 

 the ground has been burned over in some 

 portions of Northern Michigin; and, also, 

 1 believe in Northern Wisconsin. I have 

 never seen this plant further south than 

 Tuscola county. Michigan, and 1 never 

 saw it in greater quantities than I saw it 

 there (the photo for the frontispiece was 

 taken there) yet it yielded not one pound 

 of honey. 1 presume that it was really 

 out of its habitat; that the northern soil 

 and climate were needed to enable it to 

 yield honey. Usually it lasts only about 

 three years, when other plants crowd 

 it out. It would be possible in May or 

 June to select a location which would 

 furnish willow herb that year, and bees 

 might be moved to that locality, but no 

 one should locate permanently with the 

 expectations of securing a yield from 

 willow herb every year. If he does he 

 is likely to be disappointed. If it were 



