April, 1922 



GLEANINGS IN B 1<; E CULTURE 



243 



FROM NORTH, EAST, WEST AND SOUTH 



In Florida. >^^"S the southeast coast 

 and on the Florida Keys 

 the spring honey flow will be at its height 

 by the time this is in print. The saw pal- 

 mettoes are in bloom now (Feb. 27) and the 

 young plume shoots are coming on in such 

 numbers that, if the weather is right, there 

 will be one of the best palmetto honey flows 

 this part of Florida has ever known. 



Unfortunately the honej'^ flow is coming 

 a little too early for the bees to be in con- 

 dition to make the most of it; however, 

 they are rapidly extending brood-rearing 

 and will be able to take advantage of the 

 best part of the honey flow. 



In addition to saw palmetto the cabbage 

 palmetto is going to give a heavy bloom in 

 March and April. This is about four 

 months ahead of its usual schedule. It may 

 also give a honey flow at the usual time in 

 July and August. 



Coral sumac is preparing for a heavy 

 bloom and will come along with the pal- 

 metto this year. Usually this tree is the 

 first to bloom in the spring and provides the 

 bees with the stimulus necessary to start 

 their brood-rearing in earnest. 



The usual order of bloom seems to be up- 

 set this year, especially on the Keys, which 

 have been suffering from drouth, the rain- 

 fall being over three feet below normal last 

 year and none yet this year. There has 

 been only seven-tenths of an inch rainfall 

 in the past four months, and this was di- 

 vided between two light showers weeks 

 apart. 



It has been exceptionally warm for the 

 season the past winter. The temperature 

 dropped below 60° only two nights and 

 then did not reach 50°. 



In this part of the state bees went into 

 winter weak and short of stores. On the 

 Keys it has been necessary to feed all win 

 ter, and feeding is an everyday task down 

 here. If at one feeding you give them syrup 

 in quantity sufficient to last, the bees will 

 be unable to care for it and fermentation 

 sours the syrup and kills the bees. Neither 

 will the bees take syrup or thinned honey 

 from an open feeder at any time, and will 

 seldom disturb combs of honey when ex- 

 posed in the yard. .Just last week the combs 

 of honey from an old box-hive were ex- 

 posed in one yard for the bees to rob out, 

 and it took them over four days to do it. 

 In the North the same combs would have 

 been licked out in an hour and the whole 

 yard would have been in an uproar. 



Key Biscayne, Fla. C. E. Bartholomew. 



Jj^ Texas The weather conditions dur- 

 ing February have been fa 

 vorable to the bees. The month, as a whole, 

 has been cold and to some extent rainv. 



Wliile not more than two inches of water 

 has fallen at any one place during the 

 month it has been ample to ensure a spring 

 honey flow. The temperature has been suf- 

 ficiently low to cause the bees to be quies- 

 cent or clustered during most of the time. 

 This has retarded brood-rearing and has 

 decreased the consumption of stores. The 

 coldest temperature of winter occurred the 

 niglit of February 28 when the thermome 

 ter reached 20° above. Just what the result 

 of this cold weather will be is not knoAvn, 

 but beekeepers are certain that no harm 

 has been done either to bees or honey 

 plants. 



There is a great deal of activity in bee 

 keeping lines this spring. This is not only 

 evidenced by the increased sale of bee fix- 

 tures but by the organization of a number 

 of beekeeping firms. The very latest de 

 velopment is the organization of the Suni- 

 Land Bee and Honey Company. This or- 

 ganization is similar in operation to the 

 Western Bee Farm Corporation of Califor- 

 nia. It is reported that this company will 

 start off the season with 2000 colonies of 

 bees in its outyards. This firm should do 

 well, as the man promoting it has been very 

 successful in putting into operation similar 

 schemes, and the men Avho will have the act- 

 ive charge are experienced beekeepers. 



T. W. Burleson of Waxahachie started a 

 queenyard at Mathis, Texas, just a year ago. 

 His object was to raise queens for his own 

 pound-package business. This experiment 

 was so successful that Mr. Burleson has in 

 creased the size of his yards and will sell 

 queens this coming season. The queenyard 

 is under the care of J. W. Seay, formerly of 

 Lancaster, Texas, who is well known to the 

 beekeeping world. His assistant is 0. E. 

 Timm, who formerly resided at Bennington, 

 Neb., and was secretary of the Nebraska 

 State Beekeepers' Association. 



Lloyd E. Watson, who has been the api 

 culturist of the experiment station, for the 

 past year, has resigned and will take up the 

 work toward a Doctor's degree, at Cornell 

 University. The writer will take up the work 

 left by Mr. Watson April 1. Quite a change 

 will be made in the carrying out of the ex 

 periiiiciitiil uork in beekeeping under the 

 experiment station. All of such work will 

 be carried out at a newly established sub 

 station, which is located 12 miles southeast 

 of San Antonio, Texas. All of the equip- 

 ment used in this subject now in the central 

 station at College Station will be removed 

 to the San Antonio location, and, if the 

 present plans are carried out, this sub-sta- 

 tion will become the largest and best-equip- 

 ped laboratory for bee investigations in 

 the United States. H. B. Parka. 



San Antonio, Tex. 



