March 16, 1905. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



203 



APlAKi U¥ J AS. ilAKTIN, OF KALKASKA CO., MiCH. 



This apiary, of about 100 colonies, was built up in two years from 12 colonies, and a little 

 honey taken. The enthusiasm of a beginner, together with 



over 4000 pounds of extracted 

 raspberry bloom, did it. 



seeds tu germinate), but, if one has 

 the patience to wait, it is very profit- 

 able in the end. Mr. Chapman told 

 me that he sometimes wished that he 

 had " gone into it " years ago when he 

 began bee-keeping, but doubted if he 

 should bother with it now. One man 

 near Mr. Chapman's started two years 

 ago, and now has gardens worth $5000, 

 but he advertised and posted notices all 

 over the country offering good prices 

 for roots, and probably paid out a good 

 share of his $5000 for stock. 



THE RED R.4SPBERRY AND ITS HONEY. 



But I must stop wandering and get 

 down to business. I must take up the 

 feature in which bee-keepers are spec- 

 ially interested. When this hard tim- 

 ber is cut off the wild red raspberries 

 spring up and occupy the ground, and 

 furnish the most reliable bee-pasturage 

 there is to be found. The luxuriance 

 of the growth is something wonderful. 

 Many times, in riding along a woods- 

 road, have I been able to reach out and 

 pick the luscious ripe berries as we 

 passed — the bushes being so tall and 

 bending with fruit. I supposed that 

 the wild red raspberry blossomed only 

 a week or two, and then was done, but 

 such is not the case. It keeps in bloom 

 fully as long as white clover. It be- 

 gins the last of May or the first of 

 June, and when I was there, the latter 

 part of July, the bees were still work- 

 ing upon it. If there is a drouth in 

 August, and there are rains and warm 

 weather in September, it sometimes 

 blossoms again, and furnishes a sec- 

 ond crop of honey. One bee-keeper 

 told me that his daughter visited him 

 the Fourth of July, and they went out 

 and picked enough berries to have a 

 shortcake ; in September she came 

 again, and they repeated the opera- 

 tion. While the honey is not quite so 

 white as that from clover, it is still 

 classed as a light honey, and has a 

 delicious raspberry flavor. 



The time will probably eventually 

 come when this country will all be 



cleared up and cultivated, as is the 

 case now in the older portions of the 

 State, but that will be many long years 

 hence. For 20 or 25 years it is likely 

 that this portion of the State will im- 

 prove as a bee-keeping country — more 

 of the timber will be cut off ; and the 

 acreage of raspberry increased. In 

 some localities of this part of the State 

 there is still some basswood, but it cer- 

 tainly will not remain there many 

 years. The same may be said of the 

 willow-herb, or Epilobium. In some 

 places milkweed furnishes a good crop 

 of fine honey. Clover is already be- 

 ginning to creep over the cleared fields. 

 Perhaps the bee-keepers already here 



will not thank me for thus exploiting 

 their territory ; they certainly would not 

 have done so a few years ago, but bee- 

 keepers are learning that it does not 

 pay to crowd. Selfish motives alone 

 prevent this. In a new country set- 

 tlers are always welcome, and I doubt 

 if there is a bee-keeper in this region 

 who would not welcome other bee- 

 keepers, and help them to find good 

 locations, provided they came in the 

 right spirit — willingness to go back a 

 little farther rather than crowd some 

 bee-keeper already located. How I 

 should delight going into that region, 

 buying 40 acres of laud in some 

 romantic location, clearing it up and 

 planting it all to winter apples, and at 

 the same time establishing a series of 

 out-apiaries. If I were not located just 



as I am I certainly should do it 



But if I were a young man just begin- 

 ning in bee-keeping, or a middle-aged 

 man, for that matter, and trying to 

 make a living keeping bees in a poor 

 locality, I should certainly go to North- 

 ern Michigan. I would not do it 

 rashly. I would not sell a good home, 

 pack up my things, and drop down 

 almost anywhere — I should spend a 

 year or two in investigation, and learn 

 from personal observation, long con- 

 tinued, the best place to go. 



In this region bees are wintered both 

 indoors and out, but the most success- 

 ful wintering that I came across was 

 that of the bees belonging to Ira D. 

 Bartlett, of Charlevoix County. Al- 

 though Mr. Bartlett ia a young man, 

 and unmarried, he has made a wonder- 

 ful success of bee-keeping. For one 

 thing, he is very particular. The hives 

 must all stand exactly so, and the 

 covers be put on square, and so on 

 with everything. Perhaps these things 

 in themselves do not bring success, 

 but the trait of character that demands 

 them is quite likely to command suc- 

 cess. He has a bed, stove and dishes 

 in the house near his apiary, and he 

 literally lives with his bees during the 

 working season, cooking his own 



APIARY AND HOME OF GEO. H. KIRKPATRICK, OF KALKASKA CO., MICH. 



A few years . 'O Mr. Kirkpatrick was making a scant living keeping bees in Indiana. A 

 visit to Northern . lichigan showed him its possibilities, and he was not slow in making the 

 most of them, li aow has a farm and the beautiful home and apiary shown above. In 1903 

 his 188 colonies ii reased to 306 and stored about 13,000 pounds of extracted surplus honey. 



