JULY 15, 1916 



589 



E.G.Baldwin 



FLORIDA SUNSHINE l^^^^^^^:^ 



aged. 



Ql Very timely, and pertinent to 

 the statement on page 525, June 1, 

 comes a letter from Mr. Roy M. 

 Seammel, of Eau Gallie. Mr. 

 Scaimnel was a very extensive bee- 

 I (man at one time, having liad 500 



'colonies that he owned and man- 

 Now he has abont 70, but is building 

 up to the former number as rapidly as he 

 can. He says: 



" Don't you think that good hives, care- 

 fully managed, means half the battle?" 



" Good hives " for this climate means 

 water-tight covers, in our opinion. Without 

 that no hive is good nor even passable. So 

 far we have found nothing equal to the met- 

 al covers, and are discarding all others for 

 them. The second part of your query, 

 "carefully managed," takes us out into ma- 

 nipulation, and we agre with you that ma- 

 nipulation is not only half but three-fourths 

 of the battle, or even more, granted that one 

 is in a good location for nectar, of course. 

 Without that, no management or manipula- 

 tion is any worse than anotlier so far as 

 profits are concerned ! 



" Do 3'ou sell your honey in bulk or in 

 small packages'?" 



A limited amount I cell in one - pound 

 glass jars, and five and ten pound tin pails, 

 locally. Most of the crop is sold to dealers 

 away, whom I knoAv, to whom I ship in 60- 

 Ib. tin cans or barrels (seldom orange honey 

 in anything but tin cans), and who take all 

 I can produce of good quality. Poor 

 grades I dispose of to bakers. 



" Do you get any honey from the berry of 

 the palmetto?" 



In certain years, late in summer, when the 

 berries are ripe, bees will gather the exud- 

 ing juice from the bursting and over-ripe 

 berries of the palmetto just as they will 

 from the over-ripe and bursting apples, 

 pears, and grapes in the North. This juice, 

 even when stored in the combs, is not honey, 

 nor can be. It will candy quickly, as you 

 say; is black and strong, and fit only for 

 feeding to stimulate breeding in times of 

 dearth. I get none here, hov/ever, only on 

 the East Coast, and then only in certain 

 years, as, I understand, is the case with you 

 also, 



" Have you bees on the St. Johns River? 

 I used to think that a good location." 



None now — formerly a small apiary there. 

 There are some good locations along that 

 river, especially where one can get near 

 enough to large orange-groves, as well as to 

 the palmetto (saw and cabbage) that ^re 



found more or less along the river banks 

 and tributaries to it. It is better still if one 

 can get a place where willow, maple, and 

 elm are among the hard woods of the ham- 

 mocks on the banks. The three latter fur- 

 nish spring stimulation, and even surplus, 

 according to some reports, tho I am inclin- 

 ed to believe such places rare. Mr. Clute, 

 now of Sanford, seems to like the St. Johns 

 for outyards — at least as navigation on 

 the water is easier than on land. 



" Do you get honey from heartease and 

 Spanish needle?" 



Not here; on East Coast, in certain sea- 

 sons; but not more than is needed to carry 

 bees over to spring, after last extracting in 

 the summer, which, with us there, is after 

 mangrove. I do not know of any heartease 

 even there, but reports have come to me of 

 considerable of it along the rivers inland, 

 south of here. 



" Do you know whether the yellow jessa- 

 mine yields poisonous honey?" 



We have " oodles " of the yellow jessa- 

 mine {Gelsemmm sempervirens) , and bees 

 are humming about it and burying them- 

 selves in the yellow "blossoms all spring, 

 from February to March, unless orange 

 happens to be yielding well, then they seem 

 to prefer orange-blossoms. We have never 

 noticed any peculiar effects, one way or the 

 other, from the activity of the bees about 

 these blossoms, nor have we ever been able 

 to notice that it had any effect on the honey 

 supply, as it never makes a showing in su- 

 pers. Nor do the bees seem to suffer from it 

 at all (see A B C and X Y Z, p. 428, 1913). 

 We believe it is useful among other plants 

 for spring stimulation. By the way, I 

 should like to note here that the spelling in 

 the ABC referred to above is jasmine, and 

 probably an oversight on the part of the 

 contributor. The so-called " yellow jessa- 

 mine " should be spelled " jessamine," not 

 " jasmine." The latter is quite a different 

 plant — the jasminum belonging to the 

 olive family, while the latter, the gelseniium, 

 or false jessamine, is of the Logania family. 

 The jasmine (Arabian jasmine, for exam- 

 ple) has white flowers, and not yellow, like 

 the yellow jessamine referred to above. See 

 Baerecke, Ferns and Flowering Plants, At- 

 lantic section, middle Florida; News Pub. 

 Co., De Land, Fla., p. 111. 



" Does the water hyacinth yield honey ?" 



Never, in all my experience, have I seen 

 a bee on the water hyacinth of the rivers 

 (Piaropus crassipes). I don't believe it has 

 a bit of nectar. 



To be continued 



