148 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



afford to wait for the first lively 

 rush of the bees which takes place 

 with us about the tenth of May 

 when the locust generally opens its 

 flowers. As this early and copious 

 flow of nectar takes place at a time 

 when the brood combs have not 

 been well filled with brood, it is 

 rather a critical period with our 

 bees, and requires good judgment 

 to pilot them safely through it. 

 Christiansbio-g, Ky. 



NOTES 

 FROM OKLAHOMA APIARY. 



By W. McKay Dougan. 



II. 



As my first paper was devoted 

 chiefl}' to the country east of the 

 ninety-sixth meridian in Indian 

 Territory 1 will now write of the 

 country west of said line. Along 

 this meridian, river bottoms and, in 

 some places, the adjacent bluffs, are 

 well inhabited by wild bees. The 

 Delaware Indians who are located 

 here pay no attention to beekeep- 

 ing, and it is rarely that a Cherokee 

 in this section will hive a swarm 

 of bees. The natives prefer felling 

 timber containing bees and after 

 taking their stores the bees are 

 abandoned. Farming is done here 

 on a small scale and bees are 

 dependent upon wild flowers for 

 honey, except once in a half dozen 

 years, perhaps, when a sprinkling 

 of honey-dew from aphides occurs. 

 Honey obtained from flowers 

 here is possessed of a flavor that is 

 almost intolerable, and hence bee- 

 keeping has no votaries "in this 



niche o' the woods." Thirty miles 

 farther west bees do not novv exist. 

 We are now among " blanket " 

 Indians, where, perhaps, the hum 

 of the hone^^ bee was never heard 

 but once. This is not the home of 

 even half-civilized people, and it 

 is rarely that midnight's solemn 

 hush is here disturbed except by 

 the hoarse call of the horned owl, 

 the scream of the panther or the 

 howling of hungry wolves. Twelve 

 years ago this was the feeding 

 gi'ound of thousands of buffalo, but 

 none are within hundreds of miles. 

 If absconding swarms of bees ever 

 reach this section they perish so 

 soon afterwards that they attract 

 no attention. I have made frequent 

 inquiries among the Osages and 

 they have often told me that 

 Shawne-cah-heh (honey makers) 

 never come to this country. In 

 the year 1872 I took some of friend 

 Alley's " strain " of Italians to this 

 isolated region where I kept them 

 for years, but had to feed them all 

 the year. I succeeded, however, 

 in raising some of the purest and 

 prettiest of queens, but being 

 seventy-five miles from our post- 

 office 1 had to abandon the project 

 because it did not pay. West of 

 this locality timber plays out, and 

 bleaching buffalo bones, stone 

 pens around dead Indians, and 

 sand dunes, dot the landscape. ^ 

 We are now on tlie " plains " about 

 which everybody has read ; among 

 mirages also, — but my letter is long 

 enough and this is a good place at 

 which to end my second letter. 



Oklahoma Apiary^ via Seneca^ 

 Mo., Oct. 7, 1883. 



