1.1. 



Vol. LVIl.— No. 11 



HAMILTON, ILL, NOVEMBER, 1917 



MONTHLY, 1.00 A YEAR 



BEES IN NORTHERN MICHIGAN 



A Day With the Beekeepers in the Raspberry Country of the Upper Part of the 



Lower Peninsula— By Frank C. Pellett. 



I 



OF Northern Michigan, the late 

 W. Z. Hutchinson wrote, 

 "Northern Michigan, the home 

 of the huckleberry and the speckled 

 trout, where the deer drinks from lit- 

 tle sparkling lakes with pebbly 

 beaches ; where magnificent forests 

 o* beech and maple stretch away for 

 miles unbroken; where still lingers 

 some of nature's wildness — here is a 

 region fast becoming a veritable 

 paradise for the beekeeper. As the 

 lumberman cuts away the grand old 

 forests, the wild raspberries spring 

 up in myriads, the blossoms of which 

 furnish bee pasture that is simply in- 

 comparable." 



There has been a 

 great change in 

 even the brief time 

 since Hutchinson 

 loved to spend his 

 summers there. The 

 lumberman has cut 

 away untold miles 

 of the "grand old 

 forests" and the 

 deer is no longer as 

 plentiful as in for- 

 mer days, but the 

 wild raspberries still 

 grow in wonderful 

 profusion, and the 

 speckled trout still 

 may be found in 

 abundance in the 

 little streams that 

 course down the 

 narrow valleys be- 

 tween the hills. 



It was rather un- 

 expectedly that the 

 writer packed his 

 grip and started for 

 Michigan, and sel- 

 dom has so brief a 

 time been filled with 

 more enjoyable ex- 



periences. If one had the time to 

 loiter, he would find there a wonder- 

 ful vacation country, where the fish- 

 erman's dreams all come true. He 

 would be a poor fisherman who re- 

 turned from Northern Michigan 

 without a good fish story. However, 

 our time was so limited and there 

 were so many things to be learned 

 about bees and honey that there was 

 no time for fishing, even for an hour. 

 The trips to visit the beekeepers 

 gave some splendid drives through 

 the woods and beside the lakes. Ev- 

 erywhere, wild red raspberries were 

 in such abundance that car loads of 

 them might have been gathered, with 



THE WAY MILKWEED GROWS IN NORTHERN MICHIGAN. 



persons enough to pick them. They 

 were ripe just then, and a peep into a 

 honey house showed big piles of cans 

 of raspberry honey, or supers of 

 comb honey from this source. When 

 the hungry travelers sat down to a 

 dinner of fresh fish, red raspberries 

 and maple syrup, all natural prod- 

 ucts of the region, in addition to the 

 usual abundance of fresh vegetables 

 which the housewife provided, it was 

 a feast fit for a king. Large fields of 

 beans replace the fields of corn to be 

 seen further south, but the orchards 

 excel, in the abundance of their 

 product, many far-famed fruit re- 

 gions. Nowhere do cherries bear 

 more freely, and 

 fruit growing is 

 rapidly becoming an 

 important pursuit, in 

 the region north and 

 east of Traverse 

 City. 



There are three 

 principal sources of 

 nectar in this sec- 

 tion. Ne.xt to the 

 wild raspberry 

 which is abundant 

 everywhere, willow 

 herb or fireweed 

 and milkweed are 

 abundant in favor- 

 able locations. At 

 Bellaire, Mr. L. C. 

 Gordon has one 

 yard which yields a 

 general average of 

 fift3' pounds of sur- 

 plus honey from 

 raspberry and as 

 much from milk- 

 weed, annually. In 

 addition, Mr. Gor- 

 don gets some 

 honey from clover, 

 although it is not 



