22 



OLEA KINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Januaey, 1918 



FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



&rop reports; but these reports should not 

 be considered as a standard of production, 

 for the figures are made up principally from 

 the reports of large producers in especially 

 favored sections; and the 'reports of others 

 who speak loudly of their successes, but 

 never of their failures or small returns. We 

 must not forget the tendency of the people 

 to ' ' boost ' ' Florida without regard to the 

 fact that very many of those who are 

 ' ' boosted ' ' into Florida are in a short time 

 found not among the " boosters" but the 

 " busted." 



The bee-journals also are to blame; for 

 in them one finds nothing but reports of 

 big crops and mention of ' ' ideal locations ' ' 

 in vast areas of palmetto or other forage 

 unoccupied by beekeepers. I do not think 

 it possible for any one to be certain of a 

 good location until he has kept bees on it 

 for several years. Of course, this is not 

 true for the migratory beekeeper, who is 

 not tied down to one location. That phase 

 of beekeeping I cannot discuss at present, 

 tho I believe there are great possibilities in 

 it. But the letters I receive, and to which 

 this is my answer, are all from men who 

 wish to keep bees in the same place the year 

 round, and who seem to think that here in 

 the land of ' ' Florida sunshine, ' ' with no 

 wintering problems, we have a Tegular bee 

 paradise. 



Have we? Yes, during a good flow from 

 orange; at other times, most emphatically. 

 No! 



I am speaking of this immediate neigh- 

 borhood — the orange country around Or- 

 lando, and the conditions found here are 

 common, with certain locality modifications, 

 in almost all of Orange and Lake counties. 

 Of course there may be a few favored loca- 

 tions where conditions are enough better to 

 prove the exception to the rule. Perhaps 

 DeLand is one such, for we hear nothing 

 but good from that place; but, taken as a 

 whole, my remarks will hold good for most 

 of the orange locations in middle Florida. 



Many beekeepers are attracted by 

 thoughts of making big crops of orange- 

 blossom honey, and there are certainly very 

 many splendid locations near large areas of 

 citrus groves which are entirely undevelop- 

 ed by our beemen. But, Mr. Northern Bee- 

 keeper, go slow if orange honey is what 

 you are after, what you hope for, and figure 

 on for your main support. It is our main 

 support, and we have made as much as 150 

 pounds per colony from it. But how many 

 paying crops have we had since the freeze 

 of 1894? You can count them on the fingers 

 of one hand. Orange honey is our main sup- 

 port; but it is such an unsatisfactory support 

 that one who leaves a clover or other loca- 

 tion to engage in beekeeping in the orange 

 belt of middle Florida is building his house 

 urion the sand in more senses than one. 



We have no wintering problems, it is 

 true; but we have something much more 

 serious — the problem of keeping our bees 

 alive and in good condition during the sum- 

 mer, when wastage of bee life is enormous. 

 You in the North reckon 17^/4 to 20 pounds 

 for winter stores. We must have 35 to 40 

 pounds. This last winter I left 45 to 60 

 pounds of stores for each colony and it has 

 been little enough. 



Let us take a normal season and see how 

 we may expect to fare. Early in January 

 a little nectar will be gathered from the 

 maple, and pollen from the short-leaf pine. 

 In some colonies a small patch of brood 

 will be started. Then there will be two or 

 three weeks of inactivity until the jasmine, 

 mock orange, and huckleberry open in 

 February. By Feb. 20 a little orange honey 

 should be coming in; and by the first of 

 April we will suppose that we have a crop 

 of, say, 75 pounds of orange honey in the 

 supers. Ijct me reiterate my warning here 

 to go slow. You must not look upon this 

 75 pounds as surplus, altho you may give 

 it as such in your government report and in 

 communications to friends and bee-journals. 

 You must look well ahead, for now is the 

 time when 3^ou may lose your bees by star- 

 vation. Every colony will be boiling over 

 with bees; there will he at least eight frames 

 of brood, and we must feed these superla- 

 tively strong colonies until about May 15, 

 when saw palmetto and gallberry begin to 

 bloom. 



How much of this 75 pounds of surplus 

 shall we leave? If the brood-chamber is 

 well supplied — containing, say, 20 pounds, 

 I leave 30 pounds in the first super, and all 

 scattered honey above that, and consider 

 myself safe until palmetto bloom. Saw 

 palmetto and gallberry should bloom from 

 May 15 till early in June, and usually fur- 

 nish enough to supply all needs until July 

 1. I say usually, because here again crops 

 up one of our problems — forest fires. When 

 palmetto is burned over in January or early 

 in February little harm is done, for it will 

 still bloom profusely; but when burned in 

 March and April, as has happened for sev- 

 eral years in this locality, there will be no 

 bloom that season. During 1915 practically 

 every patch of palmetto within range of my 

 bees was burned during a dry spell in May, 

 and, as a consequence, I had to feed 2300 

 pounds in addition to the 30 pounds per col- 

 ony left in April. 



if we can keep our bees alive until July 

 1, we are safe; for then the partridge pea 

 will be yielding, and, altho we obtain sur- 

 plus from that source only once in three 

 years, it, together with cabbage palmetto 

 and " purple top," will keep things going 

 until September. Last year was exception- 

 ally good for partridge i^ea, and I secured a 

 fair surplus from it, my bees going three 



