OCTOBER 1, 1912 



nies, if they have young queens, will winter 

 in well-nigh perfect condition, and are 

 worth three of the ordinary colonies on 

 April 1 of the following year. Tliis feed- 

 ing will stimulate breeding, and will wear 

 out an old queen, ruining the colony during 

 the winter; it is a fine test for a failing 

 queen, and all such should by all means be 

 superseded at the earliest date. Lastly, it 

 may be stated that only the wliitest honey 

 should be fed for the finishing of wliite 

 comb honey. * * * 



BULK COMB HONEY. 



Some of the Arkansas Valley beemen 

 cut out their unfinished sections of comb 

 honey and pack them in 60-lb. cans, and 

 then pour extracted honey (heated) over 

 the combs. This is the only bulk comb 

 honey that I know of being put out in Col- 

 orado, and there seems as yet to be no trou- 

 ble with granulation. The amount pro- 

 duced is small, and it is all sold before 

 Christmas. The weight runs around 55 to 

 56 pounds net, and the honey is sold by the 

 can, not by weight. Tlus honey brings 

 $6.00 a can — about 11 cents a pound. 



The only way, as I see it, to put up comb 

 honey in bulk is to fill the can full of the 

 combs and then fill in with extracted. Try- 

 ing to make up weight by putting in more 

 extracted and less comb is simply dodging 

 the question. Of course, if the buyer wants 

 just a little comb honey in the can of ex- 

 tracted, it can easily be put up that way; 

 but it is not bulk comb honey ; it is extract- 

 ed honey with some combs in it. 

 * * * 



A LATE FLOW. 



About August 15 the weather turned 

 cold, especially the nights following a rainy 

 spell. The bees deserted the supers and 

 ceased swarming, and carried all the honey 

 stored in the unsealed cells of the sections 

 to the brood-chamber. The weather warmed 

 up again about the twentieth of the month, 

 the warm nights returned, and the third 

 crop of alfalfa came in bloom. The bees 

 returned to the supers, and at this date, 

 September 1, they are finishing honey in 

 good shape. If the flow continues for two 

 weeks the crop in northern Colorado will 

 be a third larger than it would be with no 

 nectar from the third growth of alfalfa. 

 Honey from the third crop is something 

 that we do not get once in ten years, on 

 account of the cold nights. A fine rain 

 has just started the sweet clover with new 

 bloom, and the hot days put the nectar 

 there for the bees. The rosinweed is in 

 bloom, and this furnishes a yellow and very 

 inferior honey. If the alfalfa and sweet 

 clover yield well we hope that the nectar 



gathered from the rosinweed will be neg- 

 ligible in amount. Rosinweed honey granu- 

 lates very soon after being stored in the 

 comb. * * » 



THE COLORADO HONEY REPORT. 



The crop conditions in Colorado were 

 fairly accurately reported in the August 

 15th number, except the report taken from 

 the Montrose Weekly Press, Avhich reported 

 a far larger crop than will be harvested. 

 Montrose was credited with six or seven 

 cars, while two cars of comb honey will 

 be the very most in car shipments, and 

 no cars of extracted will be shipped from 

 Montrose. It is possible that three cars 

 of comb and extracted honey may be pro- 

 duced in and near Montrose, but it is 

 doubtful. The local shipments take a con- 

 siderable amount, and some honey is used 

 in the local markets. 



If ten cars of comb honey are shipped 

 from the western slope this year I shall be 

 greatly surprised, and that will be about 

 as much as went out last season. Twenty- 

 two cars of comb honey were not shipped 

 from western Colorado last year, as stated, 

 nor of comb and extracted combined. The 

 total shipments from all of Colorado will 

 not total thirty-five or forty cars. I think 

 that a newspaper report without authori- 

 tative data may do a gTeat injury to the 

 honey market. 



The Arkansas Valley may ship two cars 

 of comb honey to the eastern markets, and 

 as much as one or more cars may go east 

 a short distance by small local sliipments. 

 No cars of honey will be shipped from 

 Fremont County. Two cars of houey may 

 be shipped from Montrose. Not more than 

 two cars of comb honey Avill leave Delta 

 County, as there is considerable extracted 

 honey produced, and the loss of bees has 

 been" heavy. Mesa County may ship as 

 much as tlu'ee cars of comb honey, but I 

 do not knoAv where it is all coming from. 

 Extracted honey is produced by the larger 

 beemen. Garfield County may ship one 

 but hardly two cars of comb honey, and no 

 cars of extracted. Northern Colorado may 

 have ten cars of comb honey, and I know 

 of six or seven that are quite likely to 

 materialize. Southwestern Colorado, com- 

 prising La Plata and Montezuma counties, 

 will have no carload shiiDments of comb 

 honey, while several hundred cases may 

 be shipped by local freight. Most of this 

 is consumed in the local markets. 



It should be borne in mind that the 

 honey-flow is not over with at this date, 

 Sei^tember 1, but is likely to close at almost 

 any time, and probably has closed in some 

 parts of the State. 



