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A. I. Root — We were once told that 

 we must have young bees for winter — 

 must feed if necessary. We tried tak- 

 ing away the queen in the fall, but the 

 bees wintered well. 



Prof. Cook would not care to have 

 the queen lay after Sept. 1. 



E. R. Root^In 1886-87 we wintered 

 200 colonies without loss, and they 

 were almost all old bees ; we had foul 

 brood in the apiary, and but little 

 brood was reared. 



Dr. A. B. Mason preferred bees that 

 had done a little work before winter 

 had begun. 



Prof. A. J. Cook — I think that we 

 ought to have brood up to September. 

 In 1871 we had no brood in July and 

 August, and the bees wintered poorly. 

 I do not care to have the bees begin to 

 breed before the first of April. 



R. L. Taylor — I do not want my bees 

 to breed in the cellar. One year, 

 towards spring, I found a colony in 

 the cellar that had one comb full of 

 brood. I was pleased with it. I kept 

 watch of it. When put out, the bees 

 seemed to lose heart. They did not 

 go ahead and prosper. Other colonies 

 that did not breed until taken from 

 the cellar outstripped this one. 



There was quite a long discussion 

 as to how early in the spring it was 

 best for bees to begin breeding. Some 

 said two months before the white 

 clover harvest was soon enough, and 

 others would have them begin sooner. 



Upon a vote being taken, it was 

 found that the convention was about 

 equally divided. One-half thought 

 that two months before white clover 

 was soon enough, and the other half 

 preferred to have them commence 

 sooner. 



The convention next listened to the 

 reading of an essay by Prof. G. W. 

 Webster, of Lake Helen, Fla., upon 



Xhe Honey-Plants of Florida. 



Probably no State in the Union pre- 

 sents such a variety of soil and vegeta- 

 ble production, and consequently of 

 bee-forage as Florida. Here in Volusia 

 county, in what is generally called 

 South Florida, there are at least seven 

 distinct classes of land, each class 

 having its own peculiar flora. These 

 classes are commonly distinguished as 

 High Hammock, Low Hammock, High 

 Pine, Low Pine (or Flatwoods), Scrub, 

 Cypress Swamps, and the Mangrove 

 Islands. 



A narrow strip of hammock along 

 the St. John's river, a wider one run- 

 ning north and south along the coast, 

 and a few small bodies scattered 

 through the county, comprise the 

 hammock land. The largest portion 

 of high pine land is a strip 5 to 10 

 miles wide running north and south 

 through the county, and near the St. 



John's river. Between the high pine 

 land and the hammock along the 

 coast, there is a strip of low pine land 

 10 to 15 miles wide. 



Scrub lands are scattered about in 

 various parts of the county, sometimes 

 several thousand acres in a body. 

 Small bodies of cypress swamp are to 

 be found in nearly all parts of the 

 county. The Mangrove islands are 

 found in the salt water of the Indian 

 and Hillsborough rivers, along the 

 coast. Hammock lands furnish bee- 

 forage from cabbage and saw-palmetto, 

 yellow jasmine, grapevines, and many 

 other vines and shrubs. High pine 

 furnishes almost nothing except where 

 it is cultivated in orange groves, or 

 other crops. Cow-peas keep bees busy 

 during a part of the season, and the 

 wild partridge-pea (Cassia chaincecrista) 

 is said to be a good honey-plant ; and 

 sometimes Pelastemon Feazi is said to 

 yield honey. 



Cypress swamps are mostly located 

 in the "low pine" lands, and furnish 

 nothing that I know of except where 

 there are whortleberries or ilex grow- 

 ing around their borders. Flatwoods 

 are covered with large quantities of 

 saw-palmetto, which is the best honey- 

 plant in Florida, aside from the man- 

 grove. Ilex glaber, a species of holly, 

 with black berries, commonly called 

 gailberry, is found along the borders 

 of streams, lakes and swamps. It does 

 not grow in suflBcient quantities to 

 yield, a large amount of honey, but we 

 sometimes get a flow of it just before 

 the palmetto, and it produces a little 

 better quality of honey. 



Scrub yields a good quality of honey 

 from the scrub or spruce pine, and a 

 poor quality from a shrub called, some- 

 times, crooked-wood (Andromeda fer- 

 ruginea). Palmetto is also found in 

 the scrub, as well as whortleberries, 

 red-bay, and some other shrubs that 

 help a little. The orange yields abun- 

 dantly, and the honey is of fair flavor. 

 Settlements are mostly on high pine 

 and hammock land, which would 

 consequently locate the orange groves 

 there also. 



Our own apiary of about 40 colonies 

 is located on high pine land. Our first 

 surplus honej' is from the spruce pine 

 in January or February. In February 

 or March conies the orange, and in 

 April the andromeda. Two or three 

 weeks later, in May, comes our best 

 yield from gailberry and palmetto, 

 which closes the season so far as sur- 

 plus is concerned. In fact it is neces- 

 sary to leave 25 or 30 pounds of honey 

 in each hive when taking the last 

 honey in June. Otherwise the bees 

 are liable to need feeding during the 

 fall or early winter, and in my opin- 

 ion feeding does not pay in the pine 

 woods of Florida. 



During the summer and early au- 

 tumn sufiicient honey is gathered to 

 keep up breeding, but by November 

 surplus honey is generally considerably 

 diminished. One common cause of 

 loss of colonies here is undoubtedly 

 lack of stores ; another cause is the 

 loss of queens in swarming time, 

 many young queens being lost before 

 they get to laying. During April and 

 May the green dragon-fly is very de- 

 structive to bees ; sometimes hundreds 

 of them may be seen around the 

 apiary, darting in every direction, 

 seizing the bees as they return heavily 

 laden, and devouring them at their 

 leisure, as they fly about : and no 

 doubt they get many young queens 

 during their mating flight. 



There is about as much trouble in 

 wintering bees here as there is in the 

 Northern States, owing, I think, to 

 the many mild days during the win- 

 ter, which tempt bees abroad when 

 there is nothing for them to get. The 

 bees become chilled or worn out, and 

 fail to return. Our experience here 

 has been a yield from 40 to 50 pounds 

 of extracted honey per colony, the 

 seasons varying as they are cold or 

 warm, wet or dry. 



IMang:rove Region of Florida. 



Bee-keeping near the coast, in the 

 mangrove region, is entirely a difter- 

 ent aflair, and requires different 

 methods. Before the great freeze of 

 three years ago, very large yields 

 were sometimes obtained. Several 

 bee-keepers reported a yield of over 

 300 pounds each from their best colo- 

 nies ; and sometimes whole apiaries 

 yielded an average of over 200 pounds 

 per colony. The freeze killed much 

 of the mangrove, and there are prob- 

 ably not over one-fourth of the bees 

 there now that were there then. 



The mangrove is slowly recovering 

 from the efl'ects of the freeze, and dur- 

 ing the past season some apiaries have 

 done fairly well. The great trouble 

 seems to be in wintering the bees so 

 as to have plenty of workers when the 

 mangrove is in blossom, which is not 

 generally before the middle of June, 

 and lasts until sometime in August. 

 Where there are many large apiaries 

 the yield of honey from palmetto, 

 orange groves and the hammock lands 

 is not sufficient to keep the bees breed- 

 ing during the late winter and spring. 



One man, who was taking care of 

 about 100 colonies, told me that he 

 thought 60 pounds of honey should be 

 left in the hive to winter on. It was 

 then the last week in April, and he 

 said that he had already fed five bar- 

 rels of sugar. In March his bees had 

 got well advanced in brood-rearing, 

 on orange blossoms and yaupon {Ilex 

 cassine), but in April the honey failed. 



