340 



October. 1916. 



American Bac ■Jonrnai] 



a moment to supply it. 



There are fewer advocates of stim- 

 ulative feeding every year. More and 

 move practical beekeepers are ccmng 

 to believe that with a sufficient quan- 

 tity of stores in the hive, the bees can 

 be depended upon to expand the brood 

 re t as fas* as i> desirable. However, 



The honey from this source is so very 

 bitter that a very little of it will spoil 

 a fine crop of the best white honey. 

 A few cells are sufficient to make a 

 whole section absolu ely unpalat; ble. 

 On a recent vi?it to Tennessee I 

 was very much interested in this 

 plant which g'-ows freely along road- 



CHRYSLER'S BOTTOM FEEDER IN PLACE. WITH FEED DRAWER OPEN, 



sides, in barnyards and similar places, 

 much as dogiennel or mayweed d.es 

 in the northern states. Tr.e range of 

 the plant is given as from Arkansas 

 and Texas to North Carolina. It piob- 

 ably does not appear to any extent 

 north of Tennessee. 



Chas Mohr says of it: (Plant Life of 

 Alabama page 54) "The b tterweed, 

 orginally from the sunny plains west 

 of the Mississippi river south of the 

 Arkansas valley, was first observed 

 in Mobile in 1866. It has spread 

 along the enbankments of the rail- 

 roads to the mouth of the Ohio river, 

 literally covering in many p aces the 

 waste and uncul ivated grounds, and 

 reaching out along byro. ds and bo_- 

 ders of fie.ds and woodlands. In is 

 northward spread it has largely tak- 

 en the place of the mayweed (An hemis 

 cotula), a European weed of early in- 

 troduction." 



Regarding honey from this source 

 J. J. Wilder says: (Am. Bee Jciirnal 

 Vol. 54 page 410) ".t is truly a nec- 

 tar-laden plant. Though it does not 

 grow in great fields as yet. bees will 

 store from 20 to 35 pounds of su plus 

 per colony from it. Its flowers are 

 of a deep yellow; the honey, light yel- 

 low, heavy body, soon granulates when 

 extracted. It is very bitter; in fact it 

 is about as offensive to the palate as 

 quinine. In most sections of the 

 south the cotton plant begins yield- 

 ing two or three weeks before the bit- 

 terweed and if it were not for the 

 well established fact that bees do not 

 desert a honey plant for another as 

 long as it yields well, nearly all the 

 summer and fall honey would be un- 

 fit for market on account of the bit- 



there are times when it is necessary 

 to 'practice this method of feeding to 

 build up the nuclei or to maintain 

 normal conditions in queen re ring 

 aparies. Every well regah.ted apia y 

 requires some at ention in the way 

 of food for winter supply or to avoid 

 shortage at other seasons. The Chry- 

 sler feeder is convenien' a d service- 

 ab'e although the cost is rather high. 

 However, when it is rem mbered that 

 it serves for bo*h bottom and letder 

 this objection is not important. 



No. 



21.— The Honey-Producing 

 Plants 



BY FRANK C. PELLETT. 



fJ^fiotp£raPhs tv the author^ 



THE BITTERWEED — H'lenium Tenuifolium 



M 



y first experience with bitterweed 

 honey was in Sou h M ssouri in 

 1904 or 1905. There had b en a 

 guud flow from white cover i<A owed 

 by a dearth for a time and the un- 

 finished sections w re filled out with 

 bitterweed. The sections looked very 

 nice and a northern beekeeper who 

 had recently settled near the town of 

 Salem innocently sold his honey to th • 

 townspeople. 1 he next time he came 

 to town there were numerous pe so is 

 looking for him and he found it nec- 

 essary to take back most of the honey 

 he had marketed on his previous visit. 



# t 



#« 





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% ^ * J* 







FIG. 88.— A SINGLE STALK OF BITTERWEED 



