702 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Before the introduction of alfalfa into 

 Colorado, wild flowers furnished a scanty 

 •upply of nectar, and the bees were 

 often short of stores for winter, and 

 spring would bloom forth to find but few 

 bees to kiss her flowers, they having 

 died of starvation. 



With alfalfa came the red, white, 

 Alsike, and sweet clovers, until now, 

 thousands upon thousands of acres of 

 alfalfa, thousands of acres of red clover, 

 and miles of ditches and streams are 

 lined with sweet clover, and many pas- 

 tures and fields of white and Alsike are 

 to be found. 



Of the indigenous plants, cleome 

 (Rocky Mountain bee-plant, skunk 

 weed) is the best, and it has increased 

 rapidly since the advent of civilization, 

 so that to-day the honey-flow is consid- 

 erably prolonged in regions where it 

 abounds. 



With these change* in the flora, the 

 progress of the bee-keepers changed 

 also. When wild flowers were the only 

 dependence for honey, the apiarist asked 

 for a wet season, as it was the best for 

 honey. Now he prays, if he has time, 

 " Please give us a dry season with an 

 abundance of irrigating water, and keep 

 foul brood out of my apiary." Another 

 season he will add, " And please kill all 

 the grasshoppers." 



Twelve years ago (1880) J. L. Pea- 

 body, E. Milleson, and Mrs. Olive 

 Wright, met in Denver and formed the 

 Colorado State Bee-Keepers' Association. 

 There was then but few bee-keepers, 

 and about 250 colonies of bees in the 

 State. Nine years ago the coming win- 

 ter, the writer had the pleasure of at- 

 tending a meeting of the association 

 held in the County Commissioner's room. 

 About ten persons were in attendance. 

 In December, 1888, the association was 

 incorporated under the laws of the 

 State. 



In 1890 the apiculturists of the west- 

 ern slope met in Montrose, and organized 

 the Uncompahgre Valley Bee-Keepers' 

 Association, with J. T. Hartop as Presi- 

 dent. 



In 1891 two associations were born. 

 First, the Northern Colorado Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Association, at Longmont, with R. 

 F. Coffin as President, and D. L. Tracy 

 Secretary. This association now has 

 73 members. In September of the same 

 year the Weld County Bee-Keepers' As- 

 sociation was organized at Greeley, with 

 D. S. Beal President, and H. E. English 

 Secretary. This association numbers 

 60 members. 



All of the above associations are in a 

 thriving condition, and ere another year 



rolls around as many more will be 

 formed. 



To get at the number of colonies in 

 Colorado is a difficult problem, but after 

 getting statistics from assessors and 

 county inspectors, and from corres- 

 pondence with bee-keepers, the number 

 can safely be put at 64,000 colonies. 

 Boulder county leads them all with 

 18,000. Of these bees it can be said 

 that fully four-fifths are in movable- 

 frame hives. One-fourth are owned by 

 specialists, and another fourth by semi- 

 specialists, and one-half are in the hands 

 of farmers that only about half take 

 care of them. The last named get only 

 comb honey, and average from nothing 

 to 30 pounds per colony, and save about 

 one-tenth of the increase. Those mak- 

 ing a specialty of the business get from 

 50 to 150 pounds of section honey, or 

 75 to 200 pounds of extracted, in the 

 average season. 



Placing the honey-production at 60 

 pounds per colony with the specialist, 

 30 pounds with the semi-specialist, and 

 10 pounds by the farmer bee-keeper, 

 which, I think, a fair estimate, would 

 make a honey crop of 1,760,000 

 pounds ; the average price of which has 

 been about 11 cents per pound, making 

 the honey crop worth $193,600 per 

 year, 1892 not taken into consideration, 

 as there is not one-fourth of a crop. 



The amount of wax saved by bee-keep- 

 ers is very small, as so many of them 

 throw all scraps away ; but, neverthe- 

 less, about 1,500 pounds is put on the 

 market each year in this State, the price 

 of which is 25 cents, or $375 on the 

 yearly crop. This amount could be 

 greatly increased by the saving of all 

 scrapings and scraps of wax. 



The amount of cash represented in the 

 business each year is about $561,975. 

 This does not include wages paid to 

 hired help, which is considerable, as 

 many bee-keepers have so many bees 

 that it becomes necessary to have as- 

 sistants.— Read at Colorado Convention. 

 Littleton, Colo. 



Doolittle's Queen-Rearing: 



book should be in the library of every 

 bee-keeper ; and in t>»e way we offer it 

 on page 7 11, there is no reason now why 

 every one may not possess a copy of it. 

 Send us one new subscriber for a year, 

 and we will mail the book to you as a 

 present 



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