MAY 15, 1916 



389 



E.G.Baldwin 



FLORIDA SUNSHINE 



Deland, Fla. 



a THE BEE FLORA OP FLORIDA. 

 I venture the assertion that no 

 other query is so often propound- 

 ed to me, by letter and by word of 

 mouth, as this, " What do my bees 

 I gather mostly in Florida? and how 



shall I get them in best condition 

 for the honey -flow,?" With the hope of being 

 of real service to the inexperienced, in our 

 own state and possibly answering the un- 

 spoken inquiries of some outside of our 

 state who may be looking with longing eyes 

 to our borders, and who wish to know the 

 sources and methods best adapted for those 

 honey-flows, I purpose to give soon a short 

 series of suggestions on the bee flora of 

 Flor-ida, with a practical end in view. I shall 

 try to follow, chronologically, the order of 

 blooming of the various sources of honeys, 

 and detail, not too fully, methods that have 

 been found practicable, and mainly success- 

 ful for each source of honey in the various 

 sections of the state. I might add right 

 here that by reference to p. 175, March 15, 

 1911, a map will be seen showing the state 

 to possess six main sources of honey — that 

 is, surplus honey — honey in sufficient quan- 

 tities to find its way into the markets of the 

 country. These will be seen to include the 

 region of tupelo, the partridge pea, and 

 chanquapin, the orange section, the palmet- 

 to (saw and cabbage), and the black man- 

 grove, with the very limited area of the 

 manehineel in the southeast. I ought, prob- 

 ably, to include pennyroyal, tho it has not 

 been important, commercially, till recently. 

 I am told it was formerly very important, 

 being first discovered, if I recollect aright, 

 by that pioneer, 0. 0. Poppleton, near 

 Tampa. He it was who first called the at- 

 tention of beemen to this member of the 

 mint family, and its importance to beemen, 

 away back in the '80's. Latterly it is as- 

 suming more prominence. More of this 

 later. Its best area is south of Tampa, 

 probably south of Bradentown, and across 

 the state, east and west, from about Bra- 

 dentown, including most of the high pine 

 lands south of that imaginary line. 



WONDERS NEVER CEASE. 



This year the orange bloom made me 

 feel a perfect ignoramus in Florida seasons 

 and sources. For sixteen years I have not 

 known orange honey to be stored in purplug 

 chambers after April 10. Mark well. Here 

 it is the 23d, and bees are working harder 

 on orange bloom than they did in the middle 

 of March, our usual flood season for that 



honey; and that, too, after practically a 

 week's cessation altogether. I was facing a 

 total failure, in fact. All beemen in orange 

 sections had made up their minds to a fail- 

 ure. The bloom was so scant, to use a 

 Cracker term, " It was the sorriest bloom 

 since the freeze," and cold, during even that 

 little bloom. No wonder we got no honey. 

 And now, after a little rain, but mostly 

 after genial and warm weather, the tardy 

 growth of new sprigs is appearing, and in 

 many instances these new growths are cov- 

 ered densely with little buds or " pinheads," 

 we call them. Many are opening and yield- 

 ing right now, and bees are storing in su- 

 pers right along — not rapidly, yet, but more 

 every day; and these new blossoms will be 

 opening more and more for two or three 

 weeks. I see no reason why half a crop, 

 perhaps, may not still be secured in favored 

 locations, and a fourth, perhaps, in most 

 orange sections. That is better than noth- 

 ing. The bees work well in the mornings. 

 The yard roars as in the midst of swarm- 

 ing-time. About ten o'clock there is mark- 

 ed diminution, due to the heat and drouth 

 combined, which dries, up the nectar in the 

 blossoms; but about two or half-past, in the 

 afternoon, they begin again, and about four 

 the yard is alive with flying bees again that 

 continue to fall, weighted and weary, on the 

 alighting-board till long after sunset. I had 

 taken my hive off the scales, but have placed 

 it back on, and am looking for some inter- 

 esting data. More later. It is going to 

 make our extracting come in May, tho, in- 

 stead of April, as usual. You can imagine 

 what splendid opportunities this gives us 

 to requeen. 1 have practically requeened 

 my entire home yard, and am going at the 

 outyards now. Breed — I never saw any- 

 thing like it — easiest thing in the world to 

 get cells as long as the last joint in my 

 middle finger, and, best of all, no swarming. 

 Dr. Phillips, tell us why. I want to say 

 more later about this swarming. We are 

 getting some interesting data along that line 

 this year. I have known of only two 

 swarms in the county thus far this spring. 



Book-keeper, Beekeeper. 



While my duties as individual book-keeper 

 in a bank keep me very busily employed I 

 manage to secure some 3000 lbs. of honey 

 each year from sixty colonies of bees. Many 

 colonies give me 100 lbs. or more of surplus. 



Pine Bluffs, Ark. J. E. Clarke. 



