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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



December, 1920 



cure a fair yield. However, it usually con- 

 tinues to shower. My home apiary is near 

 the town of Aibonito, 2000 feet above the 

 sea level, and the main source of honey here 

 is guama. In tlie past six years out of about 

 24 flushes of bloom there was. only one pe- 

 riod of blossoming when it did not rain more 

 or less. 



Amount and Nature of Honey Flows. 

 Before coming to Porto Eico, I heard all 

 kinds of reports of honey yields. What I 

 actually found after being established here, 

 was an average of less than 100 pounds per 

 colony. I question whether the general av- 

 erage of the Island would be that high. This 

 average is from apiaries in the central hill 



replace each queen that does not seem to 

 be up to the general standard. 



The honey flows here are usually rather 

 long drawn out, but on the other hand the 

 nectar is, I believe, not as thick in body 

 when the bees gather it, as the northern 

 honey. At any rate, hives I have had on 

 scales, gain slowly. Two or three pounds per 

 day is a good average during the honey 

 flows. 



The honey comes almost entirely from 

 trees and shrubs. Ground flowers, of which 

 there are very few, play an unimportant 

 part in honey yields. You can count off with 

 the fingers of one hand all the main sources 

 of surplus honey. To enumerate them in the 



The growth in Porto Rico is tropical. 



parts of the Island and from the north, west, 

 and south coasts, totaling over 2000 colonies 

 of bees. 



Different from the States where there are 

 four seasons, we have but two: the rainy 

 and the dry. From year to year there is a 

 variation of these seasons of from one to 

 three months. So there is no certainty when 

 to look for a honey flow. 



Also the number of the flows from the 

 same sources are just as variable. I have 

 seen five flowering periods in one year from 

 guama, and in the following year, two good 

 blooms and one very slight one. All this 

 does not make for large crops of honey. 



The States honey-producers who can count 

 on their flows usually within a fortnight, 

 can understand what it would mean if the 

 flow should be delayed for two months. How 

 would you keep your bees up to a fair work- 

 ing strength? It simply cannot be done. The 

 best we can do, is to requeen every year and 



order of their value, because of large yields 

 or great numbers: guama, guava, moca, 

 orange, and royal-palm. For minor sources 

 we have coffee, jobo, several varieties of 

 palm trees, pomarosa, aguacate, bananas, 

 and century plant. The only ground flower 

 yielding nectar worth mentioning is a spe- 

 cies of daisy whose seed are like the Biden 

 frondosa, or beggar's tick of the States. 

 This flower grows all over the Island, more 

 or less. 



Extracted Honey and How Marketed. 

 Practically all honey produced on tlie 

 Island is marketed in the extracted form, 

 for several reasons. First, we are 1400 miles 

 from New York City, our main market. Sec- 

 ond, the honey is of poor quality for table 

 use. Third, the slow flows cause heavy wax 

 production, and consequently thick combs. 

 Fourth, this wax has a rather bitter taste. 

 Fifth, there is a difference of from 20 to 

 30 degrees temperature from the high 



