458 



GLEANINGS IN B E K CULTURE 



July, 1922 



FROM NORTH, EAST, WEST AND SOUTH 



1 after liaving had a run of about 100 days. 



The crop of honey produced so far is 

 very fine and very beautifuL There are 

 hundreds of consumers in the towns close 

 to you, who will be willing and anxious to 

 pay you a reasonable price for your output. 

 But don 't make the mistake of so many, 

 that is, putting the price too high. Make 

 it reasonable, and yet profitable to you. Put 

 your honey up in attractive jars; avoid 

 green jars, always select white ones, and 

 you will find you can sell every pound your 

 bees will make for you. Make a honey 

 market at home first. Wait until the "lit- 

 tle" beekeeper disposes of his honey, as he 

 usually sells his crop for nothing almost. 

 This merely bait's the customer for more, 

 and you come along and reap the harvest. 



Baton Rouge, La. E. C. Davis. 



* « X 



In North Carolina.— ?«e^*'^P";« ' '' 



this state are 

 most i)r()bably lealizing barely a normal 

 crop of honey i)i spite of the fact that 

 early spring conditions indicated that a 

 really "bumper" crop was in store and 

 practically assured. This is due to con- 

 tinued rains the past month, that have dis- 

 sipated the nectar in the flora and kept the 

 bees from working the pasturage that gave 

 promise of being exceptionally rich this sea- 

 son. 



Frosts did vcrv little damage, although 

 some floia was killed in the Washington and 

 Teria Ceia sections of the coastal portion 

 of the state and in the mountains. The 

 vield of gallberry honey was mostly cut oft' 

 by the rains. However, there was probably 

 a two weeks' good work with little inter- 

 ruption, particularly in the southeastern 

 section of the state (the lower Cape Fear 

 region). The holly, tupelo and black gums 

 of the swamp sections of east Carolina net- 

 ted a good crop, thanks to fair weather con- 

 ditions that ])revailed during the periods of 

 tlieir bloom. However, there were cold 

 snaps and rains tliat set tliese yields back 

 considerably. 



Tlianks to the abundant nectar that has 

 been available for the bees "between show- 

 ers" in this southeastern section of the 

 state, bees generally, including those that 

 came through the winter in ])Oor condition 

 this spring due to the very "lean" condi- 

 tions last season, liave built up wonderfully, 

 and all will evidently be in condition to net 

 the ricliest possible returns from fall flow- 

 ers Die prospects of which are ex('e])tionally 

 good. 



Beekeepers are now marketing their sec- 

 tion honey principally, doing this largely 

 through local grocery stores. The price to 

 grocers seems to be most generally 20 to 25 

 cents per section, with the retail price 

 around 30 cents. Extracted honey has 

 scarcely begun to move yet. In fact, the 



bees in practically every section of the state 

 will have two to four weeks more of fair 

 honey-flow ])ossibilities, although the main 

 flows are about over in most of the eastern 

 section where wild flora is the main stay. 

 Wilmington, N. C. W. J. Martin. 



* * * 



In Florida.-- One of the best paWto 

 * flows that tins part or Flor- 



ida has ever known has just closed. The 

 beekeepers, however, have not been able to 

 take full advantage of it, due to the weak 

 condition of their colonies. The earlier part 

 of the honey flow did not fill the supers as 

 rapidly as it should. 



The cabbage palmetto is in full bloom 

 now, and in the next ten days or two weeks 

 it will be through. It is supplying but little 

 nectar and no pollen, due to the myriads of 

 thrips that are attacking the flowers. This 

 same minute insect attacks the scrub palm- 

 etto blofesoms and destroys them. When 

 this happens the beekeepers down here call 

 the trouble "blight,' 'and they say the 

 cabbage palmetto is more often "blighted" 

 than the scrub |nllmetto. The facts are that 

 usually the thrips are not present in suf- 

 ficient strength to destroy the scrub palm- 

 etto bloom, but they develop upon them and 

 then migrate to the cabbage palmetto in 

 such numbers as to destroy it completely. 



The rains started about the middle of 

 May in earnest — the first rains we have 

 had in seven months that were sufficient to 

 wet the ground. In the lower Keys every- 

 thing was at a standstill, and many trees 

 were delayed several weeks in blooming. 

 There was no honey being stored, and the 

 bees were almost down to starvation rations. 

 Now everything is blooming heavily. The 

 lime and other citrus trees are a mass of 

 white, and the dogwood, mastic, black man- 

 grove and several others, I have not yet 

 been able to identify, are a mass of bloom. 

 All of these except the black mangrove 

 should have finished their period of bloom 

 by the first of May. 



I have just returned from a trip to the 

 bees on the lower Keys, and I found on 

 many hives a full super of foundation 

 drawn and filled to overflowing with green 

 nectar, not a single cell being capped. This 

 will give some idea of how the honey is 

 now coming in, and we hope nothing will 

 occur to check it for the next four or five 

 weeks. 



On the upper Keys the bees have been 

 suffering from a shortage of pollen for the 

 past month, and it has been necessary to 

 feed them rye flour as a substitute. The 

 shortage of pollen is one of the most seri- 

 ous problems of the beekeeper in the trop- 

 ics, and it is one that is seldom realized. 

 This shortage accounts for many troubles 

 with which the tropical beekeeper has to 

 contend. The reason that it is so seldom 



