1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



635 



It is a subject I should like to see made the 

 object of scientific research, so that we may defi- 

 nitely know the cause of so much inferior wax 

 being produced. We may rest assured that, if the 

 manufacturers continue to get much of this poor 

 wax, science and invention will speedily come to 

 the rescue, and we shall find our product sup- 

 planted by something else. 



Mt. Joy, Ontario, Can. 



EXTENSIVE HONEY-CONSUMERS IN 

 COLORADO. 



Honey from Alfalfa. 



BY UANIEL DANIELSEN. 



We have just had a picture of our family tak- 

 en. You see we thrive well on honey and other 

 good things. We consume 60 lbs. of extracted 

 alfalfa honey every month in the year, besides a 

 little comb honey. I began bee-keeping in 1891 

 in South Dakota; moved to Colorado in 1902, 

 and have now about 130 colonies. Bees winter- 

 ed well so far ; but the trouble here is in the 

 spring. There is no nectar for the bees until al- 

 falfa comes. I wish there were some plant that 

 would yield honey in May. 



Brush, Col., Jan. 31, 1908. 



BEE-KEEPING IN TEXAS. 



Battling Against Ants, and Competing 



with the Mexican Strained Honey; 



[Some of the Sources of Honey. 



BY S. M. CAMPBELL. 



Bees in this part of the country make a little 

 honey nearly the year round. Mesquite is the 

 main honey-plant, and it generally blooms twice 

 a year. The first crop of mesquite blooms in 

 March; then these blossoms are shed, and in June 

 the main crop comes; and, unless there is a big 

 rain, it will last about four weeks. The ebony 

 blooms several times a year (every time it rains), 

 but it stays in bloom only three or four days at 

 a time. During this time, however, it looks like 



a bank of snow. The honey has an amber color 

 and a very good flavor. 



Tanassa blooms after every rain, but lasts only 

 a few days each time; the blossom is like button- 

 willow, but is not half as large. 



The catclaw makes a very white honey, with 

 a fine flavor. The huajilla (or guajilla, as some 

 prefer to spell it) has a bunch of round ball-like 

 blossoms, and, like button-willow, makes a white 

 honey and fine flavor. 



What this country lacks is moisture. Long 

 intervals sometimes occur from one rain to anoth- 

 er. About fifteen years ago it did not rain for 

 eighteen months enough to wet a man in his 

 shirtsleeves. All the creeks and lakes went dry 

 except the Rio Grande River. 



The photograph of my apiary does not show 

 all the hives. The yard contains ninety-six hives 

 in two long rows facing the east. The trees are 

 of several different kinds. The one nearest the 

 cactus is mesquite. The others, named in order, 

 are ebony, nocaway, ebony, and nocaway. The 

 hives are shaded all the way along by these trees. 

 At the lower end, not shown, a hackberry-tree 

 has 25 hives under it. 



The bees are half Mexican and half Italian. I 

 had a very fine Italian queen — the finest I ever 

 owned. Her daughters were mated to black 

 Mexican drones. These are said to be very cross, 

 but my bees are the gentlest I ever worked with. 



The reason the hives are set upon the long 

 benches is on account of the ants, which are very 

 numerous in the Southwest. There are several 

 different kinds. The worst of them all is a little 

 sugar-ant. I managed to kill them by using 16 

 gallons of kerosene. I would find their nest and 

 dig a hole about the size of a common washpan, 

 and pour in about a quart of kerosene. That 

 would be the end of that nest. Sometimes it 

 would take about five gallons to destroy all of 

 the nests. 



I worked up a nice honey trade in Brownsville, 

 although it was a Mexican town. The people 

 had been buying honey from the Mexicans for 

 50 cents a gallon, squeezed out by hand, includ- 

 ing, of course, the bee-bread and young bees. 

 The package used mostly was beer-bottles ; and 

 when the honey had set a while the neck of the 



A TEXAS APIARY UNDER MESQUITE AND^EBONY TREES. 



