348 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



September 



Also the soil is of a very different 

 type. 



No. 7, the West Plains Area , 

 reaches from the Oklahoma line south 

 to the Pecos River. No larye trees 

 are present. Low, scrubby mesqulte 

 and hackberry are found along the 

 water courses and canyons. The 

 flora is much the same as western 

 Kansas, Nebraska and the Dakotas. 

 Very few bees are kept in this dis- 

 trict, and unless some nectar-bearing 

 crop like alfalfa or sweet clover is 

 introduced in the future, the pros- 

 pects for beekeeping are meager. 



No. 8, the Trans-Pecos Area, is 

 desert and mountain. The flora is 

 very different from that of any other 

 part of the United States. Plants of 

 the yucca, century and cactus types 

 predominate. Mesquite and itt close 

 relative, the screw bean or tornillo, 

 are yieklers of some honey. Catsclaw 

 of several species are also present. 

 The bee locations are isolated and far 

 apart and are found in the mountain 

 coves and at the heads of canyons. 

 Very little detailed information is at 

 hand on the minor nectar plants of 

 this region. 



Special Areas 



The Alfalfa Areas. The largest 

 one is found in the Rio Grande Val- 

 ley, just below El Paso. The next 

 is along the Pecos River, "in Ward 

 and the surrounding counties. Sev- 

 eral other small ones occur along the 

 Rio Grande, including the one at La- 

 redo. While no data is at hand to 

 the exact amount produced, it is safe 

 to say that with the enlargement of 

 these irrigated areas, which is bound 

 to come, alfalfa honey will be near 

 the head of the list of the honeys pro- 

 duced. 



The Guajillo Area. Guajillo has 

 various spellings, but has the the com- 

 mon pronunciation of Wahea. The 

 name is said to come from a Spanish 

 word meaning a water bottle. Two 

 explanations are given for the name, 

 one that the rain and dew are long 

 retained among its fine leaflets, the 

 other that it is because of the copious 

 supply of nectar. Guajillo is found 

 only on the dry gravel ridges in the 

 chaparral area. This plant gave the 

 fame to Uvalde, yet it will be seen 

 from the map that many othi?r coun- 

 ties produce this fine water-white 

 honey. 



The Cotton Area. This area is 

 co-extensive with the black land area. 

 Within the outer boundaries given 

 cotton sometimes gives a flow, but 

 cannot be depended upon. Outside 

 of the black land area and within the 

 whole area given are small black land 

 deposits, which are highly nectar pro- 

 ducing. These are mostly located in 

 river valleys and along the Gulf 

 Coast. 



The Horsemint Ai-ea. This area is 

 very nearly the same as the cotton 

 areas. The Monarda citriodora type 

 of the mint being dominant on the 

 black land and the M. punctata type 

 on the grey, red and sandy soils. 



The Mesquite Area. Like the cot- 

 ton area, there are two divisions to 

 the mesquite area. The heavy flows 

 from this tree have all been in the 

 central division shown on the map. 

 The outside area sometimes gives 

 flows varying in amount as one pro- 

 ceeds from the edge of the producing 

 area toward the limits of the mes- 

 quite area. A very peculiar section 

 is indicated on the east side of the 

 producing area. 



In this cul-de-sac, which includes 

 the abrupt hills of the Edwards Es- 

 carpment, cedar and oak replace mes- 

 quite to such an extent that mesquite 

 is only a minor honey plant. 



The Edwards Escarpment , while 

 not possessing a large number of 

 honey plants, is the habitat of sev- 

 eral species of sumac, which give a 

 large flow of honey almost every 

 year. The honey is amber and is not 

 of a very high quality, but it finds its 

 place in the general mai'ket, thus 

 making beekeeping in these sumac lo- 

 cations profitable. 



Many of the minor honey plants 

 have distinct areas, but as these areas 

 are included within a given plant as- 

 sociation, these areas are not given. 

 Bitter weed, while a honey plant, is a 

 pest to the honey producer because of 

 its dark amber, bitter honey. It is 

 restricted in Texas to the territory 

 east of the black land area and north 

 of the chaparral. 



Plant Regions of Ti-xas — No. 1. Cultivated area. No. 2, River Valley. No. 3, CJult Prairie. No. 

 4, Black Land. No. 5, Chaparral Area No. 6, Mesquite Plain. . No. 7, West Plains. No. 

 8, Trans Pecoi. 



WINTERING TWO QUEENS IN 

 ONE HIVE 



By F. W. L. Sladen 

 Dominion Apiarist 



It is now three years since experi- 

 ments with a system of wintering two 

 queens in one hive were started at the 

 E-xiperimental Farm at Ottawa. The 

 idea had its origin in the remarkably 

 quick warming up of the spring in 

 this locality, which, it was noticed, 

 causes strong colonies to begin 

 swarming during the honey flow from 

 dandelion nearly a month before the 

 honey flow from clover begins. This 

 led to the belief that a larger number 

 of bees could be raised in the time for 

 the clover flow if two queens instead 

 of one were wintered in the hive. 



Experiments proved that this belief 

 was correct. On June 1, 1919, in six 

 hives of bees that had wintered two 

 queens each, the capped brood on one 

 side of the combs had advanced over 

 an average approximate area of 1,100 

 square inches, each compared with 

 670 square inches in eleven regular 

 colonies, and when the clover flow 

 started (a week earlier 'than usual), 

 on June IS, the advance was 1,330 

 square inches, compared with 840 

 square inches, respectively. 



The honey taken from the 2-queen 

 hives in 1919 averaged 189 pounds 

 each, compared with 178 pounds each 

 from the regular colonies. The yield 

 front the 2-qucen hives would have 

 been higher had it not been for the 

 fact that they had their queens re- 

 moved at the beginning of the clover 

 flow, which caused some loafing, while 

 the regular colonies were kept from 

 swarming by having their queen-cells 

 destroyed every week. 



The two queens were separated 

 during the winter by a close-fitting 

 thin division board, placed in the mid- 

 dle of the hive, so that actually two 

 small colonies were wintered in each 

 hive. One of these colonies was 

 placed in a separate hive in late 

 spring. The best time for making the 

 separation was found to be early in 

 the honey flow from dandelion. 



