iies 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



plant here called the Mountain Al- 

 falfa. LCan you give us the real 

 name of the plant? E. G. .], hav- 

 ing a yellow blossom, which comes 

 into flower about the 1st of May. 

 Some seasons the bees gather from 

 this plant an amber honey, which 

 when mixed with the lighter orange 

 honey, throws the whole off grade. 

 I am sending a sample of an ex- 

 tracting from my Mentone yard, 

 being practically pure orange honey. 

 How does it compare with E. G. B.'s 

 Florida honey?" 



JOHN LrEFLER. 

 Mentone, Calif. 

 [We have not ourselves received 

 the sample of your orange blossom 

 honey. Friend Lefler, and so can 

 not compare it with our Florida 

 product. We have, however, samples 

 of several grades of California orange 

 blossom honey. The best grades 

 are very fine indeed, and excellent 

 flavor. Some previous samples re- 

 ceived had less than usual of that 

 exquisite aroma, so characteristic 



of pure orange we feel sure that 

 had an admixture of sage honey. 

 The sage honey being also very 

 light in color, would not discolor 

 the orange, but would alter the 

 flavor somewhat so that an expert 

 could easily distinguish the differ- 

 ence. We are interested in your 

 reference to sandy soil producing an 

 earlier bloom. Our Florida soils 

 are largely sandy in the orange sec- 

 tions, which fact, no doubt, quickens 

 our period of bloom. It is interest- 

 ing to note that the Florida bloom 

 is fully a month, almost five weeks, 

 earlier than the average California 

 bloom. We had not been aware of 

 that difference before. You have a 

 good record. Friend Lefler, in 16^^ 

 lbs. on one colony per day. Was 

 that your BEST hive? You will 

 note our figures for daily gains 

 were all taken from one colony and 

 a very ordinary colony at that, in 

 fact it Was considerably below the 

 average even. We secured about 65 

 lbs. of surplus (orange) from the 

 colony on the scales, while our best 

 colony gave us 195 lbs., so the 

 amount was just three times as 

 great, if the daily yields on the 

 best hive kept pace with the colony 

 on scales, the BEST daily record 

 would be about 30 lbs. However, 

 we should probably not find that 

 it was so much, for the time of 



gathering. The ability to work earl- 

 ier or later, etc. in tne more power- 

 ful colony would no doubt have 

 made a daily HEAVIER yield than 

 the one on scales, but not necessarily 

 any one day of 30 lbs. But judg- 

 ing from the number of bees pour- 

 ing in and out at the entrance from 

 the big hive, we feel sure a daily 

 gain of 20 lbs. would have been re- 

 corded there during the few days 

 of best flow. Another year we plan 

 to alter the a,rrangement and place 

 TWO hives on scales, one our best, 

 and one our less-than-average col- 

 ony. We feel we shall have a better 

 index of honey flow by this means. 

 You also give very interesting 

 data. Friend Lefler, when you 

 state the orange honey cases 



weighed three lbs. per case more 

 than the sage. We have usually 

 found our Florida orange honey 

 somewhat lighter body than our 

 Saw Palmetto, about equal to our 

 mangrove, which is also lighter 

 body than the Saw Palmetto. But 

 we have also noticed that the body 

 varies greatly different years. With 

 us it is not apparently WET WIN- 

 TER, as our correspondent states 

 is true with California that produces 

 thinner honey, but the amount of 

 moisture in the air DURING THE 

 HONEY FLOW. It is possible Mr. 

 Lefler means to assert the same 

 thing that we do. We shall be 

 glad to have him explain this a 

 little more fully.] E. G. B. 



The 1915 Convention 



Plan on attending the great Na- 

 tional 1915 meeting next February. 

 Date and place to be decided upon 

 later. 



Get out this fall and winter and 

 mingle with your fellow beekeeper. 

 There is no better place to meet 

 them than at your state of local 

 association meetings. 



The narrow minded, self con- 

 ceited beekeeper is the one who 

 never gets out and mingles with his 

 brother beekeeper. The convention 

 either local, state or national is 

 the best place to get pointers that 

 will help you to a better understand- 

 ing of your business. There is no 

 one too old to learn. 



One cannot know too much about 

 their business, is an axiom to ad- 

 here to. The convention is the best 



