Bce-Heeping in Delta County. 



By Frank H. Drexel. 



BF THE COUNTIES on Colorado's western slope none 

 offer to bee-keepers greater inducements in the way of 

 honey resources, climatic conditions, and congenial 



' environments than does Delta County. 'Twould be 



putting it rather too strong, however, to say that this is the bee man's 

 paradise, or to endorse what appeared only recently in Gleanings in 

 Bee Cuhure regarding this county; but we have, undoubtedly, a fine 

 country here with prospects most promising. 



Bee-keeping in Delta County had its birth shortly after Uncle 

 Sam's regulars cleared out the Indians. Some of the first settlers 



Apiary of Frank H. Drexel, Crawford, Delta County. 



found bees in trees and in caves; and it may be worthy of mention 

 that these bees were not the common black ones, butjwere in fact 

 nicely marked. Indeed, a colony of black bees is a rare thinglhere 

 even now, although very little has been done by anyone to import 

 fresh blood. 



It was in 1883 that Mr. W. D. Brown of Delta shipped in about 

 twenty colonies of bees in frame hives. He retained part of these 



