March, 1916. 



American Bee JoarnaJj 



are covered with water hyacinth which 

 bees visit, but it is not plentiful enough 

 to yield all this honey. 



About the middle of August a weed 

 called senna blooms and a number of 

 other field plants, and the flow grad- 

 ually increases so that by Sept. 1 a 

 heavy flow develops. By Sept. 10 the 

 goldenrod and horsemint begin to 

 bloom, and these two furnish the nec- 

 tar for the fall flow. There is some 

 Spanish-needle, too. Like the tupelo, 

 the extent of these plants is immense. 

 I saw one field of goldenrod 1000 acres 

 in extent. The yield is wonderful. The 

 bees work just as hard as they do in 

 the spring flow, and as these two 

 sources last a month a big crop can 

 be secured. Unfortunately I was not 

 able to take advantage of it this year 

 owing to ray convalescence from the 

 operation. 



This is the best table honey to be 

 had anywhere. The horsemint honey 



is water-white, but the goldenrod col- 

 ors it to a light amber. It has a smooth 

 pleasing flavor and a heavy body. 

 From the opening in the spring until 

 Nov. 1 there is never a day that nectar 

 cannot be secured except rainy days. 

 There is such a multitude of flowers 

 that the flow never stops. 



Before coming here I was told that 

 ants were very bothersome and would 

 kill colonies in this country, but I find 

 this to be a mistake. There are none 

 of the big black ants common in the 

 Central States. Instead there is a small 

 red ant which occasionally gets into 

 the crevices around a hive and makes 

 a nest. They are harmless, but they 

 have a slightly larger brother red in 

 color that gets under a hive bottom if 

 it is set down flat on the ground and 

 makes a nest. He is a fierce fighter if 

 disturbed and will bite one's hands. As 

 far as I can see he does the bees no 

 harm, and if the hives are blocked up 



Clematis— Photo by Pierre Odier 



swamps grow an endless number of 

 different trees, bushes, and plants, the 

 bloom of which is visited by bees. A 

 naturalist would be wild with delight 

 over the flowers, insects, animals and 

 birds which they coniain. 



The first flower that opens is a va- 

 riety of wild lettuce. It springs up 

 quickly and covers the fields. Wild 

 berries and field daisies and a large 

 number of other flowers whose names 

 I do not know immediately follow it. 

 Then hawthorn comes on, and as it is 

 in endless variety it lasts until mid- 

 summer. All these furnish plenty of 

 pollen and some nectar, especially 

 the hawthorn. Willow and tupelo fur- 

 nish the nectar for the spring honey 

 crop. Willow only yields pollen at 

 first, but when it and tupelo open up, 

 there is as the song has it, " A hot time 

 in the old town." Toward the last of 

 the tupelo white clover yields, but is 

 not very important, at least it was not 

 this year, although it is abundant. 



There are whole forests of tupelo all 

 around the inside of the Bayou, and 

 tupelo honey is therefore the principal 

 one composing the blend. Being a 

 natural blend this is an excellent honey 

 of heavy body and good flavor. It is 

 practically a white honey, the tupelo 

 giving it the faintest lemon shade 

 which is characteristic. 



Soon after the close of the tupelo 

 flow a thin red honey begins and con- 

 tinues all summer. A glass of it held 

 up to the light resembles very closely 

 a glass of wine in color. It is a very 

 poor grade of honey and has a very 

 pronounced sour taste. A peculiarity 

 of this honey is that it fermented in the 

 combs this summer before and after it 

 was sealed. I don't remember ever 

 having heard of honey souring in the 

 comb after being sealed, and I am in- 

 formed by resident bee-men that it has 

 never occurred before. Every hive in 

 all our apiaries contained fermented 

 sealed honey. I do not know the 

 source. The swamps are almost im- 

 penetrable during summer, and the 

 mosquitoes are so bad that I did not 

 attempt to locate it. Some of the lakes 



The pictures show two honey plants which bloom here in August and September 

 Persicaria was visited by thousands of bees. The Clematis was less sought. 



—Pierre Odier. Celigny, Switzerland. 



The 



