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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



sweetness in which they constantly 

 revel, are always sunny tempered — so I 

 began inquiries for bees. 



I found a few, but the price demanded 

 was $12 a colony. I could do better 

 thanthat, and in July, 1888, I received 

 a nucleus from a bee-keeping friend in 

 Marissa, Ills., containing a tested queen, 

 the daughter of an imported Italian. 

 These have multiplied until I now have 

 18 colonies — fine strong ones, with one 

 exception. I sold one the other day at 

 half what I was to be charged, being 

 disposed to give ray neighbor a chance, 

 too. 



I use the simplicity hive, with some 

 modifications, being better pleased with 

 it than with any other of a number I 

 have tried. I have made no effort to 

 obtain honey, being anxious to increase 

 the number of my colonies. 



The honey-flow was very abundant 

 last season during the month of July 

 and the first half of August, two very 

 seasonable showers having brought for- 

 ward the honey-producing plants 

 unusually. The labors of the queens 

 were very materially interfered with by 

 having the brood-combs filled with 

 honey. I did not expect to take any 

 surplus, but the busy little pets persisted 

 in crowding it in till I found them so 

 urgent about the matter that I finally 

 yielded, not having the heart to wait 

 longer, and made arrangements" for them 

 to store 100 to 200 pounds for me. 



I have not lived in Trinidad long 

 enough to speak very intelligently or 

 positively about it as a honey-producing 

 region. Last season was a favorable 

 one. The river bottom is narrow in the 

 vicinity of the city, and market gardens 

 occupy a large share of the tillable land. 

 Very little alfalfa is raised within the 

 range of a bee's flight, and that little is 

 cut so early that it affords no bee-forage 

 to amount to anything. 



There has not, as yet, been enterprise 

 enough \o plant orchards to any con- 

 siderable extent, so that the bees gather 

 very little of their luscious sweetness 

 from the fruit blossoms. The wild 

 flowers are their main dependence. 

 Down the river the bottom lands are 

 broader, alfalfa is raised much more 

 extensively, and honey gatherers would 

 undoubtedly prosper ; but as yet there 

 are few of them. 



The leading honey-producing plants 

 growing in the vicinity of Trinidad, so 

 far as I have been able to observe, are 

 the cleome mtegrifolia, or Rocky Mount- 

 ain bee-plant, a species of the mountain 

 mint, and, toward the close of the 



Summer, a kind of dwarf sunflower. 

 The honey gathered from the first two 

 is light colored and pleasant to the 

 taste ; while that from the sunflower 

 has a yellowish tint, and a peculiar and 

 less agreeable flavor. I shall endeavor 

 hereafter to get my share of nectar 

 stored early in the season — for that 

 gathered from the mint is especially 

 delicious — and then permit the bees to 

 retain the sunflower honey for their own 

 use. 



In some respects the region about 

 Trinidad is more favorable for bee- 

 culture than any other locality in which 

 I have lived. There is not a bee-moth 

 in the country, and an unoccupied hive, 

 filled with comb, can stand through the 

 Summer unmolested. 



In Illinois, where I kept bees for many 

 years, eternal vigilance was the price 

 paid for freedom from that detestable 

 pest. There is now, I think, no foul- 

 brood in the region, and the native 

 black bee is not found there ; all are 

 Italians. When queens are reared there 

 is no cause for fear that they will not 

 be purely mated. 



If proper care be taken in the future, 

 the disadvantages arising from these 

 causes may be avoided, and the colonies 

 of bees be kept healthy ; the ravages of 

 the progeny of the bee-raoth be pre- 

 vented, and a race of yellow beauties 

 only be reared to gather the nectar from 

 the mountain sides. 



It would seem at first thought that 

 the Mexicans, who form the larger share 

 of the population of Las Animas county, 

 would be the very ones to keep bees. 

 Many of them seem to have been born 

 tired, at least they exhibit no great 

 amount of energy and activity. It might 

 well be supposed that such persons 

 would delight to have thousands of 

 energetic workers laboring for them, 

 that would work for nothing and board 

 themselves ; but never a bee does a 

 Mexican keep about Trinidad, as far as 

 I have seen or heard. It would probably 

 upset all their calculations, and take 

 their very breath, away to have so much 

 vigor displayed at their doors. 



It is not likely that bee-culture can 

 ever be made as great a success about 

 Trinidad as in some other parts of the 

 State, but by proper care and attention 

 it undoubtedly can be made profitable. — 

 Read at the Colorado Convention. 



Trinidad, Colo. 



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