June, 1920 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



851 



FROM NORTH, EAST, WEST AND SOUTH 



blooniiiijj of tho oarly spriiijj flowers the first 

 of the month, the priekly ash eaiiie to the 

 rescue of the bees. This tree {XaiUho.rj/litin 

 clara-IIcrculis) is very abundant in Texas 

 east of the Brazos and not uncommon else- 

 wliero. It blooms from the middle of April 

 till the middle of May. The nectar flow is 

 abundant and siiri)lus from it is common. 

 Had not the drouth stojiped the bloominji; of 

 the other spring jdants, there would have 

 been a surplus this spring. This plant be- 

 longs to a famous nectar-bearing family; 

 the prickly ash of the East {Xantlioriiliini 

 (ininiciiiiKDi), waffer ash (Ptclca trifnJia), 

 ("olina (Xdiithaij/liim Ptrnita), and all of 

 the citrus trees are included in this, the Eue 

 family. H. B. Parks. 



College Station, Tex. 



In Florida. During the last few months 



some bee journals have been 

 advising beginners to hive all swarms on 

 tlrawn combs or on narrow starters onh-, in 

 preference to full sheets of foundation. The 

 Dadants tell us we can give the small 

 swarms full sheets, but the big ones must 

 have only starters. The reason advanced is 

 that a big swarm will weight down and 

 stretch a few rows of cells at the top of the 

 frame, and a small area of drone comb w^ill 

 be the result. Mr. Wilder, in his Southern 

 Bee Culture, gives the same advice, but for 

 a different reason. He contends that the 

 big swarm is equipped for comb-building 

 and will build the combs from starters as 

 well as from full sheets, while a small swarm 

 needs the additional help that full sheets 

 of foundation will give. While I do not 

 wish to criticise the writings of men who 

 have had far more experience than I have 

 had, I do wish to register a protest against 

 such advice being given indiscriminately. 

 Such practice may be satisfactory in some 

 localities, but in Florida it will not do at 

 all, and will only result in many would-be 

 beekeepers' wasting the energy of their bees 

 in building a worthless set of combs that will 

 have to be replaced later under less favora- 

 ble conditions. In Florida most of the 

 swarming occurs during the orange bloom, 

 when the yield may be from five to fifteen 

 pounds daily, and a big swarm will build a 

 set of combs in two or three days. If given 

 only inch starters, the result will be 50 per 

 rent drone comb. 



It is easy to say "use drawn combs," but 

 no beginners in Florida ever have any drawn 

 combs for the simple reason that moths de- 

 stroy a comb in a few days, and, even if 

 they had them, it would be best policy to 

 use them in extracting supers. To take a 

 frame of brood from the colony that has 

 swarmed and place it in the new hive for 

 the swarm to cluster on, filling out with full 

 sheets of foundation, is first-class advice for 



the benefit of the swarm, as it will be a 

 sure preventive of absconding; but the 

 tlieory that the weight of the bees will cen- 

 ter on the given comb does not apply when 

 anything but a very small swarm is consid- 

 ered. The only advice that should be fol- 

 lowed by beginners is simple and has been 

 given repeatedly. No one can afford to fool 

 with starters, for, with a frame properly 

 wired and filled with medium brood founda- 

 tion, there will be so little sagging that it 

 will not pay to take the risk of using any- 

 thing else. 



The year 1919 was one of the worst sea- 

 sons Florida has experienced. With the ex- 

 ception of the Apalachicola region and a 

 few favored locations in the South, there 

 was no honey flow after the orange, and 

 heavy feeding was necessary during the 

 summer and in the fall. Cabbage palmetto 

 did fairly well where it was plentiful and 

 saved many apiaries from starvation, but 

 the fall flow was a failure almost all over 

 the State. Heavy winter losses were the 

 result, and colonies that were saved were in 

 such poor condition that the best orange 

 flow since 1914 was wasted in the spring for 

 lack of bees. I have often been asked why 

 we cannot build up the bees by stimulative 

 feeding; but when there is no pollen in the 

 hives and none being gathered, feeding is 

 of little use; also, this year the weather was 

 not suitable at the time when feeding would 

 have been beneficial, if we had had the pol- 

 len. Stimulative feeding to secure a crop 

 of orange honey is not favored by any bee- 

 keepers I have met. It is altogether too 

 risky, even if it were practiced, for there is 

 always the danger of frost killing the 

 bloom. This year there is very little orange 

 honey in Florida, as the cold in March de- 

 stroyed the bloom in many sections, apart 

 from the fact that the bees were in such 

 poor condition. The crop of orange honey in 

 three years out of four is always made by 

 the bees that are raised during the previous 

 October and November, and it is at that 

 time that stimulative feeding might be bene- 

 ficial; but our Northern friends, who think 

 they could teach us something, should re- 

 member that when we get the usual fall 

 flow the bees will breed without feeding, 

 and when there is no flow there is no pol- 

 len to make feeding of value. 



Everyone seems to be looking for a big 

 crop of saw palmetto honey, and where it 

 was not hurt by forest fires the prospect is 

 very good. We cannot tell much about it 

 yet, for we have all seen a big bloom give 

 very little honey, and a small bloom give a 

 big crop. Crops are an uncertain proposi- 

 tion in Florida, except the crop of sand flies 

 and mosquitoes, and that is surely a bumper 

 one this year. Harry Hewitt. 



Apopka, Fla. 



