138 SOUTHERN BEE CULTURE 



section, according to the capital invested, than any other pursuit. A colony 

 of bees will pay for themselves in one season if the conditions are reasonably 

 favorable. Frame hives with good Italian stock in the hands of an apiarist 

 who looks after his bees, average 50 lbs. in ordinary good seasons. In the 

 best or most favorable seasons, 100 lbs. is the average. In poor seasons, 30 

 lbs. is a good average. In 1905 we had a total failure so far as surplus honey 

 was concerned. In 1906 there was a surplus of about 30 lbs.; in 1907 the 

 average was about 50 lbs. Some colonies gave 100 lbs. of surplus. These 

 figures do not apply to log or box gums. The average for them is from 

 15 to 20 lbs. of surplus. Any locality where bees do well in log gums is a 

 good location for the modern bee-keeper with his movable-frame hives. 



The honey-flow is slow in this part of the State. There are no heavy 

 flows all at once. The flow lasts according to the duration of blooms. If 

 weather conditions are favorable for the secretion of nectar, and for the bees 

 to get out and gather it, in our locality the first honey and pollen come from 

 maple and tag-alder anywhere from the first of February to the first of 

 March. It all depends on the weather conditions. The next honey and 

 pollen come from huckleberry and fruit-bloom the last of April and first 

 of May. Our next is from poplar and blackberry the middle of May, or 

 about that time, sometimes earlier and sometimes later. Our next is from 

 what is called warweed, the last of May to the middle of June. The next 

 honey and pollen are from sumac, from August i to September i ; also cot- 

 ton and persimmons furnish considerable honey at this time, and cowpeas. 

 Some seasons furnish some honey until the last of September. 



Bees swarm some during this time of the season, and this is the part of 

 the season for rearing the best queens, and is the best time to requeen or 

 supersede old queens. October brings our last flow of honey. It is from aster, 

 and there are such quantities of bloom that bees almost always store a suffi- 

 ciency to winter on, and for rearing brood in early spring. Honey from 

 huckleberry and sourwood is white, while all the rest of the honey we get 

 is amber colored, cotton being the lightest. 



This is a mountainous country, abounding in springs of clear soft water. 

 The streams or water-courses have more or less rich bottom lands, a very 

 healthy country for bees or man; a mild climate. We rarely have any zero 

 weather. There is no disease among the bees of this section. Black or foul 

 brood is unknown in this part of the State. Bee-moths and robbers are 

 the worst enemies the bees have in this section. The bee-robber, or the fellow 

 with his bees in sections or hollow logs, arms himself with a roll of rags, 

 ties up his head, hands, and pants legs, proceeds after dark to knock off the 

 heads or tops of the gums, and blows smoke into the top end of the gum 

 until he gets most of the bees down, and his eyes almost smoked out, and cuts 

 out the honey and sometimes brood, sometimes drowning all the bees, or 

 a part of them. Very often the queen or "king," as it is sometimes called, 

 is drowned ; and in many cases the bees if they are not drowned are so dis- 

 couraged with the operation that they let the wax-moth get in its work of 

 egg-laying and then there is a fine crop of moth larvae produced, which will 



