74 BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH 



Pound Packages. 



In this territory the pound package business has assumed 

 proportions only equaled in parts of Texas. Thousands of pounds 

 of bees in combless packages go north each year to Canada and 

 the northern states, and add to the income of the southern bee- 

 keeper. In this vast sweet clover belt, where melilotus is the 

 principal source of surplus honey, but where a stimjUlative nectar 

 flow may begin weeks before sweet clover blooms, the package 

 trade has become the salvation of the beekeeper. The apiarist 

 of this region is enabled to take from one to ten pounds of bees 

 from his colonies at the time they may approach the swarming 

 strength, but when it is yet several weeks until the sweet clover 

 may bloom. This enables him to handle the swarming problem 

 at an advantage to himself, both financially and from a stand- 

 point of beekeeping practice. With the package shipping season 

 over, the colonies easily regain surplus strength for the sweet 

 clover flow, and a crop of honey follows the crop of bees. We 

 often wonder what in the world the beekeepers of this region did 

 before the advent of the package business. Answers to this 

 query from some of the extensive beekeepers in Alabama indicate 

 that there was often nothing to do but let the bees swarm, even 

 where no more increase was wanted and the honey flow was yet 

 several weeks distant. This may account for the hundreds of 

 colonies of "wild" bees found in the woods of this region. 



Much Honey Produced. 



By far the greater portion of the honey produced in the South 

 is secured in this alluvial region and one of the weakest points of 

 beekeeping here is the absence of any marketing organization. 

 This has made it impossible in the past for some of the bee- 

 keepers to secure an equitable return on their investment. Most 

 of the honey of this belt is light in color, being of light amber 

 or lighter. There is no more beautiful honey in the comb than 

 the partridge pea honey of Georgia and the gallberry regions of 

 the costal lands produce a product worthy of greater attention 

 than it has received in the past from the connoisseur of honey. 



