c 



50 



SEVERAL 

 beenien on 

 the East 

 Coast re port 

 over one snper 

 of honey per 

 c Oi 1 o n y from 

 basswoocl. Sit 

 up and take 



notice, you apiarists of Wisconsin, Michi- 

 gan, Ohio, and the linden regions generally ! 

 With all our other honeys we here in Flori- 

 da can boast of supers of linden. What 

 next? * ♦ « 



A splendid sample of honey, a new sort, 

 was sent me the other day from Key Bis- 

 cayne, on East Coast. It came from the 

 Hacienda apiaries, owned by Mr. Mathew- 

 son, a progressive orange-grower and bee- 

 man of no little note. The source of 

 this honey is the eocoanut palm. Never 

 before have I seen or sampled this honey. 

 It is amber in hue, with a peculiar metallic 

 glint — rather odd when vieAved in a strong 

 light. The flavor? Well, I gave samples 

 to taste to many of my friends — some bee- 

 men, others not. All, with little hesitation, 

 pronounced it hoarhound. And such is, 

 indeed, the flavor — the after-taste more 

 than at first. The body is thick, and all 

 together it is a good honey, even for 

 table use. Mr. Mathewson reports that 

 the eocoanut palm is practically his only 

 source of surplus; therefore we can be 

 reasonably certain that this is a pure honey, 

 true to name and source. 

 * * * 



We have referred before to the Mexican 

 or pinkvine {Antigonon leptopus) (see 

 p. 970, Oct. 15, 1916). While it is an 

 exotic, it groAvs wild if left to itself — that 

 is, it will take care of itself after once 

 being planted. Its long flowering clusters, 

 racemes of pink blossoms, are a delight to 

 the eye and to the bees that .swarm on it 

 from May to frost. We have always looked 

 upon this plant as more of an ornament than 

 a real asset to the surplus of the apiarist. 

 But after several letters exchanged with a 

 correspondent in Tampa, Fla., we received 

 a large sample of honey from him which 

 he asserts is from the pinkvine. His con- 

 tention is that Tampa is full of this vine. 

 That we know to be true; secondly, that 

 it is about the only thing in bloom thei'e 

 for a month or two in midsummer; third, 

 that he found his bees swarming on it all 

 day long when he could trace them to no 

 other source whatsoever. All this sounds 

 plausible and reasonable. He declnres, 

 too, that he secured oA-er one super of 

 honey from one colony, that came entirely 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



FLORIDA SUNSHINE 



1 



E. G. Baldwin 



^^^^^^^^^ 



u 



January, 1917 



fromthis source, 

 and it is from 

 that super he 

 sent us the sam- 

 ple referred to. 

 Admittedly the 

 honey received 

 is all of one sort 

 — that is, dis- 

 tinct in flavor, color, and body, and does 

 not appear like a mixture. One who is 

 acquainted with the distinct aster honey 

 of eastern Kentucky would pronounce 

 it at once aster. It is strikingly like that 

 in color, body, and flavor — the latter most 

 of all. We are interested to note that 

 the special agent in charge of the agi'i- 

 cultural experiment station, island of Guam, 

 annual report for 1913, page 21, says, 

 " Since the fli'st colony of bees Avas ob- 

 tained by this station in October, 1911, 

 observations were made of some of the 

 floAvers from which honey was being col- 

 lected. The eocoanut palm is one of the 

 principal honey-producing plants of the 

 island. Under faA'orable conditions this 

 palm flowers almost continuously ; and dur- 

 ing the di'y season, when few other honey- 

 producing plants are in bloom, it furnishes 

 practically all the honey furnished by the 

 bees. The 'cadena de amor,' or ehain-of- 

 love vine {AnPigonon leptopus), a beauti- 

 ful flowering vine, is a fine honey-plant. 

 Next spring when the vines come into 

 flower again here we plan to make 'mi- 

 croscopical examination of pollen grains 

 and compare them with those in this sample. 

 We can then be sure whether or not the 

 sample is mainly from the pinkvine. It is 

 also called " rosa-de-montana." 



Strangest of all comes the statement 

 from a beekeeper of nearly 100 colonies 

 on the St. John's River, to the effect that 

 the si">ruce pine (Pinus glabra) yields not 

 only pollen bi^t also honey, and in large 

 quantities ! We were ready to believe that 

 eA'en dog-fennel Avould give honey if Ave 

 had to admit that the si)ruce pine was a 

 honey - yielder ; but our informant, Mr. 

 Shuman, asserts, Avith good show of proof, 

 that his bees gathered most of his surplus 

 after the orange floAv, the past summer, 

 from this source. Truly we know not 

 much about the flora of our OAvn state as 

 yet! It is not from the blossom, which is 

 inconspicuous and short-lived, but from 

 the bases of the leaves — the i^etioles or 

 needles — that the bees gather their sweets. 

 Mr. Shuman examined the trees, and found 

 I lie bees SAvarming, Inimming as in summer, 

 about the needles at the points Avhere they 

 join the branch. The honey is fair. 



