March, 191-. 



American Hee Journal 



hundreds of thousands of acres of new 

 land. So far, the curse of tlie Western 

 Slope has been too much water, thou- 

 sands of acres have gone to seep, 

 caused quite probably by the use of 

 too much water. 



The sides of some of these mesas are 

 rocky cliffs, and wonderful stories are 

 told of the tons of wild honey to be 

 secured by the use of ropes and tackle, 

 and several sticks of dynamite! I be- 

 lieve it was a dreamy old bee-keeper 

 told me a story of an old trapper who 

 caught a grizzly bear sniffing around 

 the edge of one of these clifTs. The 

 trapper came over the next day with 

 ropes and pails to get the honey he 

 thought was near by. Leaning over the 

 cliff and looking down he saw, about 

 50 feet from the top, and perhaps 1.50 

 from the bottom, thousands (.^ of bees 

 flying in and out of the rocky side of the 

 cliff. Tying the rope securely around 

 his body under his arms, he passed the 

 rope around a smooth-surfaced cedar- 

 tree so that the rope would slip easily. 

 He began letting himself down over 

 the edge. The rope was smooth, and 

 so was the cedar, and his arms were 

 strong. He could raise himself by 

 giving the rope in his hands a strong 

 pull. He soon had let himself down to 

 where the bees were going in and out. 

 and tying the rope in his hands, through 

 the one around his waist was securely 

 suspended close to the bees' entrance. 

 The rock was shale, and by kicking 

 with his feet and pulling rocks out with 

 his hands, he soon had uncovered the 

 bees' store-house and cave. He had 

 his pipe as his only smoker, and his 

 jack-knife for a tool. But he soon had 

 his pail full. He would pull himself 

 up — empty his pail and come back for 

 more honey. Fastening the pail 

 through his belt he gave several strong 

 pulls on the rope. He did not rise so 

 easily as before — his bucket was full of 

 honey! He, however, raised himself 

 about half way when the rope slipped 

 off the root it had been rubbing over at 

 the crest of the cliff, and came right 

 across the edge of a sharp protruding 

 rock. He was swinging back and 

 forth in mid-air — afraid to pull longer 

 for fear he would cut the rope. At the 

 first swing he heard a sharp cutting 

 sound, at the second, upon looking up 

 he saw strand one severed ; swing 

 three, and the next one gave away; 

 swing four, and our hunter's vision be- 

 came dimmed, and that's the last our 

 friend remembered that day. 



Tlie side of this hill sloped away 

 from perpendicular toward the bottom, 

 and from the marks visible the next 

 day, it appears the first impression 

 made on the clay was some 25 feet be- 

 low the bees' cave. Jimme Goodrow 

 was up at his headgate the next morn- 

 ing, and hearing a busy hum among 

 the chico, found our hunter badly bat- 

 tered up and vainly trying to keep the 

 bees away from his honey-bedaubed 

 anatomy. " Been huntin' bees again, 

 eh!" growled Jimme. Jimme looked 

 up at the cliff and remarked, "Well, if 

 it hadn't been for tlie seep-water soft- 

 enin' the clay on that 'er hillside you'd 

 'a been in kingdom come. Any bones 

 broken ? Well, you jest stay here and 

 be as comfortable as you can until I 

 get the wheelbarrow ; I never could 

 get a wagon through this chico-brush." 



What do you think of tliat for a 

 Delta bee-man to tell a tenderfoot ? 



Wild bees are plentiful in the cedars 

 and in the rocks, and that is one reason 

 that foul brood is so hard to combat 

 in Delta county. Mr. Ensley, at Read, 

 took quite a lew colonies out of the 

 trees and rocks when he was first get- 

 ting a start in bees. During August, 

 the first time I was there for any time, 

 the sun beat down with a blistering 

 glare, and off to the south the peaks of 

 the Uncompahgre Mountains rise into 

 the blue with an Alpine sheer rugged- 

 ness that suggests coolness, but brings 

 none to the body. Following around 

 the base of the mesa we wind back and 

 forth until we come out on top, and 

 here are fruit-farms of from 10 to 100 

 acres, with much general farming also 

 being done. Onions, potatoes, alfalfa 

 and grain are e.xtensively grown. The 

 second growth of alfalfa was yielding 

 some honey, but the turnips were cutting 

 down the yield a great deal, for I found 

 hundreds of them in nearly every 

 bloom that I examined. 



Delta county has several hundred 

 bee-keepers, and most of them own 

 land and are prosperous. Some are 

 homesteading and making a living 

 from bees while doing it. There are 

 probably 15,000 colonies of bees in the 

 county, and if foul brood were better 

 under control the county would doubt- 

 less support twice as many. I was told 

 that 12 cars of honey were shipped in 

 1910, but that not more than half as 



much would be shipped in 1911. I 

 think both of these estimates rather 

 large for full carload shipments. 



The honey produced is about half 

 and half comb and e.xtracted. The bee- 

 men get from (i to 7 cents a pound for 

 extracted, and 10 to 11 for comb honey. 

 The bee-keepers here sell early, and I 

 believe were sold out the past season 

 before almost any otiier section of Col- 

 orado. Alfalfa yields honey from all 

 tliree growths, and if the weather re- 

 mains warm the bees will store honey 

 until the last of September. The whit- 

 est honey is gathered in June and July, 

 but last season tlie best honey was 

 light amber. Sweet clover grows every- 

 where, and cleome is abundant, but I 

 am told that cleome does not yield 

 any honey to speak of. 



I5ee-keeping methods, as a whole, are 

 behind those in northern Colorado, 

 but there are several progressive bee- 

 men in the county, and things are im- 

 proving. Box-hives still abound, and 

 many make no pretentions to opening 

 their colonies from one year to the 

 next. These bee-keepers are fast be- 

 ing wiped out by foul brood. 



One of the greatest troubles in mark- 

 eting honey in Delta county is the lack 

 of uniformity in grading and packing 

 comb honey. The bee-keepers are get- 

 ting together, and this year will see 

 quite a number of comb-honey pro- 

 ducers using uniform shipping-cases, 

 and grading according to the Colorado 

 Association rules. 



Bee-Keeping 



In Dixie^ 



Conducted by J. J. Wilder. Cordele. Ga. 



Getting Started With Bees 



Mr. Wilder:— Our family are all very 

 fond of honey, and as we have a suitable 

 place for bees. I would like to start with one 

 colony, and as I learn their culture I would 

 like to increase until I have enough bees to 

 produce honey for home use. 



I do not know a thing about bees. What 

 would you advise for a starter ? 



Charleston. S. C. Wm. H. Burch. 



I would advise you to read as much 

 literature on bee-culture as possible. 

 By way of an outfit get a bee-smoker, a 

 pair of gloves made to handle bees 

 with, a bee-veil, and a colony of Italian 

 or Caucasian bees in an 8-frame obser- 

 vation hive, 1^ -story. 



Tliis is the surest outfit to get begin- 

 ners deeply interested in bee-culture, 

 for the bees can be seen inside the 

 glass hive at work, which will arouse 

 great interest and study, and cause 

 great inspiration ; and at the same time 

 the frames containing the comb can be 

 lifted out and the bees in this way in- 

 vestigated. 



Honey Prospects for 1912 



So far prospects perhaps were never 

 so bright for a good yield of nectar 

 throughout Dixie. The abundance of 

 rain will cause the honey-plants to 

 bloom well and normal, which has been 

 the case for the last two seasons, and 



which partly accounts for the short 

 honey crops, especially along the coast 

 where the main honey-plants are small 

 shrubs, bushes, weeds, or vines ; which 

 is also the case out in the interior of 

 the country in many locations. These 

 small plants can not withstand the 

 drouth and forest fires which follow as 

 the larger honey-plants can, and this 

 greatly cuts off the flow of nectar. 



Owing to the extremely dry summer 

 and fall there are many bees in poor 

 condition, because the supply of nectar 

 and pollen was greatly cut off, and the 

 bees could not build up and go into 

 winter in good condition. 



Owing to the very bright prospects 

 that are before us for the approaching 

 season, bee-keepers should put forth 

 great efforts to get their bees in the 

 best possibe shape for the honey crop. 



Becoming an Extensive Bee-Keeper 



Mk. WiM>EK:-I want to be an extensive 

 bee-keeper. I ha\'e some knowledge of the 

 business, but not enouL'h to go into it exten- 

 sively. How long should I work with some 

 progressive beekeeper before I could obtain 

 the necessary instructions ? 



Lawenceville. Ga. J. Ali.em Smitu. 



This is a rather hard question to an- 

 swer, for two reasons : First, so much 

 depends upon your ability to learn bee- 

 keeping in all its branches, and prop- 



