February, 1908. 



American Hee Journal 



in the late fall. The honey is very 

 light in color, and of a good flavor — 

 a distinct one of its own — which, in the 

 very ripe honey, is often pronounced "to 

 taste just like candy." Especially is this 

 true of the granulated ripe cotton hon- 

 ey. It then is very white and fine- 

 grained. 



Whenever I have had a crop of pure 

 cotton honey from the "Bottom" apiar- 

 ies, there was no trouble selling every- 

 body some of it, who had tasted of it 

 before. It must be ripe, though. 



When first gathered it is very thin 

 and clear. The flavor of this raw nec- 

 tar is strong, nauseating, and tastes de- 

 cidedly like the sap of the cotton-plant 

 itself. This is lost, however, in the 

 process of evaporation, that takes place 

 in the ripening of the nectar, and is not 

 noticeable in the thoroughly ripe prod- 

 uct. During this evaporation-, in a 

 heavy flow from cotton, there is a 

 strong smell in the apiary, just as that 

 from a lot of cotton leaves that have 

 been rubbed to pieces, so strong is the 

 cotton odor in the nectar. I remember 

 seasons when this odor was so strong 

 and nauseating that it had a sickening 

 effect on the apiarist; on calm days 

 even prohibiting his operations. When 

 there is a breeze the odor is driven off, 

 and can be noticed several hundred 

 yards from the apiary. 



It is not a wonder that the nectar 

 should so much resemble the sap of 

 the plant, if we consider where the 

 nectaries of the cotton-plants are lo- 

 cated. Instead of the bees going inside 

 of the flower to "fill up," they rarely 

 do so except when gathering pollen 

 from the stamens of the flower. And 

 as there is a large cluster of these in 

 the great bell-shaped flowers, the bees 

 become more or less covered with the 

 pollen-dust. This is white in color, and 

 it is an easy matter for the apiarist 

 to tell at once that his bees are work- 

 ing on cotton. 



Unlike most of our honey-yielders, 

 the nectaries of the cotton are on the 



of these, one under each of the sepals, 

 the three leaflike bracts that enclose 

 the lower part of the buds, flowers and 

 the cotton-ball or pod. It is not neces- 

 sary, even, for the cotton to come into 



Cotton Leaves Showing Nectaries. 



outside of the flower. These are lo- 

 cated under the involucre, that is, on 

 the thickened portion of the flower 

 where the stem stops. There are three 



A Cotton Bush. 



bloom before bees can gather the nec- 

 tar. When the buds are still closed, 

 the nectaries under them, after a cer- 

 tain age, begin to secrete nectar before 

 the flowers open. 



Besides these there are nectaries un- 

 der the large leaves of the cotton, sit- 

 uated one on each main rib of the 

 leaf. In the large, well-developed leaves 

 one such nectary will be found on- each 

 of the three ribs, while only one on 

 the middle rib is found on many leaves- 

 These are little indentations about mid- 

 way along the ribs where a widening 

 of the rib may be noticed. These are 

 also protected from rains, being under 

 the leaves, as those under the involucre 

 of the buds, called "squares," and the 

 flowers, "blooms." 



"The nectaries being so close in 

 proximity to the plant-body may be the 

 reason the raw nectar is so like the sap 

 of the plant itself. 



Cotton is one of the main sources 

 for surplus honey in Central and North 

 Texas, and much cotton honey is pro- 

 duced each year. There are certain 

 conditions necessary for a good yield 

 from cotton. Rank growth during -a 

 wet season, on rich soils, together with 

 moist, warm weather, are ideal for a 

 fine flow. On lighter soil, and in dry 

 seasons, the secretion is not so abund- 

 ant, no honey being obtained from it in 

 our sandy land districts at all. The 

 soil and conditions also affect the color 

 and quality of the honey materially. 

 With the most favorable conditions 

 above, the honey will be very white and 

 clear, while the latter conditions pro- 

 duce a light amber honey. 



Improving the Bees 



Procure a few good queens of a good 

 race of bees and use them for improv- 

 ing the bees you may already have. This 

 is don^ by rearing young queens from 

 the best of these,- and using the others 

 for drone-rearing. If, then, the unde- 

 sirable drones from other colonies are 

 kept down to a minimum, by leaving 

 as little drone-comb in those hives as 

 possible, and using entrance-guards or 

 drone-traps at the entrances, a large 

 percent of the young queens will be 

 purely mated. Or the young queens 

 may be taken, in small nuclei, to some 

 "mating ground," where no other bees 

 fly except those from the colonies with 

 the select drones, that have previously 

 been brought there for the purpose- For 

 all practical purposes, however, the first- 

 named manner of procedure is the bet- 

 ter, as it is less work and trouble, and 

 a few mismated queens will do no 

 harm. These can be weeded out grad- 

 ually at any later time. Generally, such 

 queens are better, anyhow, than those 

 already in the yard . 



I hardly believe it will pay to try 

 to have all queens absolutely purely 

 mated for honey-production alone, as 

 it is very difficult and expensive to do 

 this. Our desire should be, though, to 

 have as good queens as we can possi- 

 bly have, be they pure or only hybrids. 

 I do believe, however, that after an 

 apiary is once stocked with a pure 

 race entirely, it is nmch easier to keep 

 it at a better and more profitable level 



How I Lost in Two Apiaries. 



To tell of one's successes and re- 

 verses as a means to amuse the world, 

 is considered, I dare say, poor policy ; 

 but just for the sake of change, I will 

 "top up the cart" along this line. The 

 world cares little for one's successes or 

 losses, but either will make good read- 

 ing if properly put, and chronicling the 

 latter might aid some one to steer shy 

 nf a similar circumstance. The past 

 year was only a moderate one for honey 

 w'th me, yet I lost severely on two of 

 my apiaries, the rest attaining normal- 

 ity. 



The spring of igo7 here was of the 

 worst type. It rained practically every 

 day for 6 weeks, and, moreover, the 

 temperature was very low, keeping the 

 bees indoors very nearly all the time. 

 I began to feed April 10, and stopped 

 June 5. I kept all my yards in good 

 condition as to colonies, except one 

 which we will notice presently. Just 

 about June 8 conditions became right, 

 and without notice I found myself in 

 the midst of one of the greatest honey- 

 flows I ever saw. I had one yard of 

 some 60 colonies located in the midst 

 of mesquite and horsemint on one side, 

 and cotton on the other. This yard was 

 getting ready for their honey to be 

 taken by June 2$. 



In the meantime I had ordered a large 

 shipment of bees from South Texas, 

 and had been notified that the car of 

 bees would start just at the time my 

 bees would need to have their honey 

 taken, or about June 25- The bees 

 came June 29. I would not take the 

 honey, expecting every minute to have 

 to stop and see to the incoming bees. 



