374 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



November 



COMB HONEY PRODUCTION IN COLORADO 



Glimpses of Some of America's Extensive Beekeepers, Their Localities and 



Methods-By Frank C. Pellett 



COLORADO is a magic word to 

 the summer tourist. The spell 

 of her mighty mountains, the 

 lure of her trout streams and the joy 

 of motoring over her many good 

 roads, attract thousands of vacation- 

 ists during the heated months of 

 summer. Colorado's mountain parks 

 are rapidly becoming the playground 

 of the nation. Fortunate is the man 

 whose daily work is amid such sur- 

 roundings. Some of the best bee- 

 keeping territory in the State is 

 along the eastern foothills of the 

 Rockies, from Denver north to Ft. 

 Collins. 



It was my pleasure to visit several 

 well-known beekeepers of this re- 

 gion during the month of August, 

 just when the honeyflow was on and 

 conditions were most favorable. 

 Prospects had not been favorable 

 early in the season, and it was feared 

 that the crop would be short. A turn 

 for the better set everybody to hust- 

 ling on the supers and honey was 

 piling up at a great rate at the time 

 of my visit. Several days were spent 

 with the beekeepers, in their regular 

 work in the apiary, in order to note 

 any difference in practice due to lo- 

 cal conditions. There are few lo- 

 calities where comb honey is still 

 produced on the scale of Eastern 

 Colorado. The men visited are ex- 

 perts who know their business and 

 who are making money. While their 

 methods differ widely, in some re- 

 spects, from those practiced in the 

 East, I would hesitate to question the 

 judgment of such men that these 

 methods are best for their locality. 

 In the East we find that good winter 

 protection is very desirable, if not 



essential. In Colorado few beekeep- 

 ers provide anything except plenty of 

 stores and a good windbreak. Most 

 of them are agreed that a windbreak 

 is very desirable. I found several 

 who are experimenting with winter 

 packing, but no one was quite ready 

 to say that the results justify the ex- 

 tra cost. While the nights of win- 

 ter are cold, there is almost con- 

 stant sunshine during the day and 

 the periods wh ;n the bees are unable 

 to fly are short. Under these condi- 

 tions most of the colonies come 

 through the winter, although some- 

 times considerably weakened. 



Herman Rauchfuss has several win- 

 ter cases in each of his apiaries. He 

 has built them substantially with 

 plenty of packing and there is no 

 question but that the bees come 

 through in fine shape in them. Al- 

 though he expects to continue their 

 use for sometime and give them an 

 opportunity to demonstrate their 

 value, he is not yet convinced that 

 they are worth the extra cost. I 

 failed to find a single beekeeper, in 

 this section, who is a warm advocate 

 of winter protection such as we 

 think necessary further east. There 

 is unquestionably a great difference 

 in conditions, yet to the outsider it 

 would seem that some extra protec- 

 tion would relieve the bees of a 

 heavy tax in generating heat during 

 the cold nights. 



A man who is prejudiced in favor 

 of extracted honey production and 

 an advocate of the large hive, gets 

 something of a jolt when he finds so 

 many men doing things in a big way 

 with the 8-frame hive and who object 

 to anything larger. It is readily ap- 



the pi 



Rauchfuss is probably the most ex- 

 : comb-honey producer in Colorado at 

 ;sent time. 



Herman Rauchfu 



parent that the large hive is unsuited 

 to comb honey production, while 

 the small hive could be used for 

 extracted honey without serious 

 inconvenience. However, in most 

 localities the production of comb 

 honey on an extensive scale has 

 been abandoned in favor of ex- 

 tracted honey and probably will not 

 again be resumed. The market dur- 

 ing the wartime period has favored 

 the extracted honey producer and 

 the general impression is that it will 

 continue to do so. It may be that 

 so many will turn to extracted honey 

 that the demand for comb honey can- 

 not be met and that those who con- 

 tinue to produce it will profit by 

 their persistence. While present 

 prices make comb honey profitable 

 there is not as much difference in 

 price as the extra effort necessary 

 to produce a fine article would jus- 

 tify. 



Herman Rauchfuss combines his 

 manipulation for swarm control with 

 the making of increase, thus doing 

 away with one serious objection to 

 the small hive. He winters in two 

 stories with a large reserve supply 

 of honey. A sufficient supply is in- 

 sured to carry the bees through the 

 uncertain period of spring and. with 

 two stories for brood rearing, he has 

 in effect a large hive during the 

 brood-rearing period. His main flow 

 is from alfalfa and comes in Augu.it. 

 At the beginning of the first honey- 

 flow his two-story colonies will usu- 



