^22 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



June 



HONEY PRODUCTION IN THE 

 DADANT APIARIES 



Showing the Results of Two Seasons 



During Adverse Conditions in 



the Central Mississippi 



Valley 



By H. C. Dadant 



FOR many years past the Dadait 

 apiaries have not had the sole at- 

 tention of one person. Yet on the 

 avei'age the apiaries pay well. The 

 past two years were among the dis- 

 couraging ones. 1919 was turned to 

 good account by moving a large num- 

 ber, and 1920 paid out in spite of con- 

 siderable expense and crop shortage 

 caused by too much flood, followed by 

 drought at nectar secretion time. The 

 poore-st season in years was tided 

 over without loss, which helps ma- 

 terially to bring up the average. Crops 

 like that produced in 1916, of 23.5 lbs. 

 per colony on a spring count of 525 

 are worth building for. 



Colony records were kept on the 

 hives as usual. A daily record, as 

 shown, can be written up in a minute 

 of time before leaving the apiary, and 

 is an accurate basis for figuring the 



season's expenditure as well as relia- 

 ble notation for reference before the 

 next trip is made to that apiary. 



The Dadant home apiary is well lo- 

 cated in hilly country among pastures 

 producing white clover. Here, as at 

 the outapiaries, a large crop of white 

 clover honey is harvested one year 

 and a fair crop two seasons out of 

 every five, on the average. Fruit 

 bloom in April and May, and locust 

 in May, precede the white clover 

 crop of June and July. Then conies 

 some basswood the latter part of 

 June, followed by buckbrush, horse- 

 mint and catnip in July, these latter 

 preceding the fall crop of heartsease 

 and Spanish needle, which usually 

 lasts from August 10 to September 

 15. This fall crop may even continue 

 until frost early in October. At the 

 end of the season come, also, some 

 asters, goldenrod and other fall blos- 

 soms. Our main crops, however, are 

 white clover, June and July, and 

 Spanish needle and heartsease, Au- 

 gust and September. It is those dates 

 for which we build up our colonies. 

 Volunteer and cultivated sweet clo- 

 ver and an occasional field of alsike 

 are good yielders and sometimes pro- 



Dadant Apiaries 



I9l9-19il 



Scale r=*!if™i 



Permanent Bluff LineApiaries 



Per/r}mrTent UplanJ •• Cy 



Tgripcrarf Lotvlart/ •■ (*) 



* Abti/it/ti/jii( - o 



Principal Hi^hivufs 



Principal Creeks 



Lowlarri/ Sloughs '~^— 



H^ //roa tfs '*~' ' 



"cc. 



il/rst 



duce some surplus from June until 

 September. 



Our apiaries may be classified as 

 upland and bluff line apiaries. The 

 latter are those located from the Lima 

 Lake region north towards Warsaw, 

 Illinois, along the highway which bor- 

 ders the east side of the Mississippi 

 River lowlands shown. These include 

 the apiaries of Koch, Sack, Gillam, 

 Hill and Spencer. Heartsease and 

 Spanish needle are the pi-incipal 

 yielders for these places. A good 

 white clover crop is also harvested in 

 favorable seasons, as broken pasture 

 lands lie just east of them. The per- 

 manent upland apiaries of LeMaire, 

 Poland, Holland and Home are best 

 located for the white clover crop of 

 June and July, although during fa- 

 vorable wet seasons a very good fall 

 crop is also secured. 



The circles of four miles diameter 

 around each apiary show the average 

 area which bees will cover, as it has 

 been ascertained by observation that 

 they usually do not fly over two miles 

 for nectar. Frequently, however, 

 they may go in certain directions to 

 good fields, depending considerably 

 on the contour of the country, and 

 perhaps elevation. We have very fre- 

 quently noticed that the color and 

 flavor of honey harvested at the api- 

 aries of Koch and Sack are difl'erent. 



With a 1919 spring count of 530 

 colonies and the advance knowledge 

 that there was fair prospect for a flow 

 of fall honey on the Mississippi River 

 bottom, located on an average of 25 

 to 30 miles from the five upland api- 

 aries, an increase of almost 30 per 

 cent was made during May and June 

 by the aid of considerable feeding of 

 sugar syrup. Most of these new colo- 

 nies were built up to six-frame 

 strength in advance of the moving. 



The apiaries of Spencer, Hill, Sack, 

 Koch and the new permanent location, 

 Gillam, very seldom fail furnishing a 

 fall crop from the river bottoms, 

 their location being three to four 

 miles apart along the bluff line of this 

 territory. Many of these bottom 

 land locations, along various rivers 

 tributary to the Mississippi, as well as 

 flat and undrained high prairie lands, 

 are as good fields for nectar as the 

 best upland districts are for clover, on 

 the average. Favorable seasons for 

 clover usually occur in this locality 

 twice to three times in five years. Oni. 

 year in five a fair fall crop may be 

 secured in the upland districts. It is 

 conservative to say that during two 

 years not more than ten to twenty- 

 five colonies of bees, on an average, 

 can be profitably kept in most drained 

 upland districts. Therefore it is 

 highly advisable to find temporarv bee 

 pastures in localities from 5 to 30 

 miles from the permanent apiary site. 



By the chart, notice that the range 

 for bees at Spencer apiary is some- 

 what restricted by being direct'y east 

 of the heart of Lima Lake. This lo- 

 cation may be abandoned soon for one 

 farther south. 



Ninety per cent of the colonies and 

 supers comprising the five upland api- 

 aries — totaling about 300 — of the Da- 

 dant home, Poland, LeMaire, Milliken 



