SKPTEMBKU 1, 1915 



705 



Beekeeping Among the Eocmei 



WesBey Foster, Boeld 



!I(1NTKV-CR0P CON'DITIONS. 



Colorado has had abuiulant 

 rains tliis season — in fact, too 

 much at times, and there has been 

 too Tnuoh cold and cloudj' weather 

 with the rain. We have tluee 

 inches above normal precipitation 

 this year, and a deficiency in temperature 

 lit' nearly three linndi'ed degrees. This condi- 

 tion has been quite general throughout the 

 Rocky ]\rountain region. If we could have 

 had higher tempci'atures with the same 

 amount of rain it would have been almost 

 ideal. The short snowfall in the mountains 

 has been fully made up by the rains, so 

 there has been no shortage of irrigation 

 water to speak of. 



Sweet clover is in excellent shape, and is 

 yielding- well at this date. Aug. 11; but we 

 have had such a late season that one case 

 of comb honey around is all we can hope 

 for. That much will not be secured unless 

 the honey-flow lasts well toward September. 

 The average comb-hone}' crop will he less 

 than one case for the state. In the Arkan- 

 sas Valley bees are doing fairly well from 

 Lamar to the slate line. West of Lamar, as 

 far as Rocky Ford, conditions are poor — a 

 thirty-]iound average of extracted honey 

 being expected by one producer at Las 

 Animas. 



In the Ordway district, conditions are not 

 rei>orted favorable; and while bees were 

 doing well in Fremont and Custer counties 

 eaily in August, no large crops will be 

 >?cured, and no shipping honey will be 

 hai-Aesfed. 



Northern Colorado is blessed with abun- 

 dant sweet clover, and about a one-case crop 

 of comb honey will be secui'ed. 



]\rontezuma and La Plata counties in 

 southwestern Colorado had late freezing 

 weather this year, and the alfalfa was frozen 

 and blighted worse than anywhere in Colora- 

 do. Sweet clover was just coming in bloom 

 I he latter j)art of July, but bees were doing- 

 well; and with the general late flow in Sep- 

 tember a fair crop may be secured. 



Delta County has not materialized the 

 crop thai indications pointed to earlier in 

 the season. Spraj'ing trouble is again re- 

 ported from (^edaredge, Garfield Counly. 

 (Conditions are Aery poor, and little honey 

 is expected. Tlie shipi)ing crop in ('olorado 

 this year will be less than hist unless we 

 liave very good hone\- weather from now 

 on. 



Idaho will produce some honey; but the 



er, Colorado. 



.-eason in Ihe Twin Falls country closed (or 

 practically closed) in July. 



] have six hundred colonies here in 

 luiulder County, and have taken oft' only 

 about twenty cases of comb honey. Prices 

 have started out well, but will drop soon. 

 Some few eases were sold at $4.00; but 

 most that have been sold have gone at 

 •i^iJ.oO. A. great many tourists are in Colo- 

 rado this summer, and they are buying hon- 

 ey well. Comb honey is now retailing at 

 20 cts. 



There has been but little swarming in 

 eastern Colorado ; and what there has been 

 occni-red mostly in August. If large prime 

 swarms in August indicate a late honey- 

 How we should ha\e it this year. 



On page 622, Aug. 1, the flowers growing 

 on the brook bank shown in the illustralion 

 are not lupins, but are the loco weed. Bees 

 work more upon the white-blooming loco 

 Ihan upon the purplish blossoms. This 

 mistake was made in writing the descrip- 

 lion of each flower upon the back of the 

 piints. The lupin is a larger plant, with 

 plumelike blossom stems of bluish-white 

 dowers. 1 have a photograph of the lupin 

 1 hat I will show later. 



Continui'd frow preceding pa'je. 



rods or more v.iien leaving the yard. One 

 day a couple of friends came with an auto 

 and stopped about four hundred feet from 

 the yard. They beckoned for me to come 

 to them: and when I came there was com- 

 [)any with me. I can still see the driver 

 hastily cranking the machine and going up 

 a three-foot embankment to get to the to)) 

 of the highway. Doubtless when this meets 

 his eye he will remember the occasion also. 

 However, this spring it became necessary to 

 move this yard, and halt were brought lo 

 the liome yard, the rest being taken to an 

 outyard. In both cases the bees are among, 

 trees and surrounded more or less bj' ever- 

 greens. My intention was to requeen the 

 whole lot in fruit-bloom as I dreaded eon- 

 sequences of such bees near the working- 

 land of the farmers on whose places they 

 are. But weather was bad and work press- 

 ing, and the requeening was not done. But 

 the sequel of lliis roundabout narrative is 

 yet to come. These bees have giveti no 

 ti-ouble in their new locations. Not a single 

 member of the Iwo families where the yards 

 are located has been stuntr once, so far as 

 1 have learned. 



