SPECIALTY IN BEES 
769 
fully 12 pounds to the gallon. It is so 
thick that there is little water to evaporate, 
and the cells can be sealed soon after they 
are filled. This plant has showy large- 
rayed heads, and yields immense quanti¬ 
ties of honey along the low bottom lands of 
the Mississippi and Illinois rivers. It is 
found in swamps from Illinois to Louisi¬ 
ana, blooming from August to October, 
and yielding a honey, which is superior to, 
or is unsurpassed by, that from any other 
fall flower. 
A typical Spanish needles swamp is lo¬ 
cated at the foot of the bluffs of the Illi¬ 
nois River where there is a broad expanse 
of low marshy land from 3 to 5 miles wide. 
This land is subject to an overflow from the 
river once a year, which usually occurs in 
early spring. A large portion of the soil 
is unfit for tilling purposes, and in conse¬ 
quence Spanish needles has secured a per¬ 
manent foothold to the exclusion of nearly 
all other plants. Early in September the 
bright yellow rays begin to appear and in 
a short time the whole district is aglow with 
the bloom, and its dazzling brilliancy re¬ 
minds one of a burnished sheet of gold. 
The bees revel in this great field of flowers, 
so rich in nectar, and rapidly secure a sur¬ 
plus. A single colony has stored 63 pounds 
of honey in six days, and 43 colonies pro¬ 
duced 2021 pounds in 10 days, an average 
of 47 pounds per colony. 
Another important Spanish needles re¬ 
gion is in the Kankakee Valley, where there 
are extensive swamps along the Kankakee 
River in northwest Indiana and eastern 
Illinois. Commercial apiaries usually range 
from 50 to 100 colonies, but at Hebron 
there are 300 colonies in one yard. 
There are many other species of Bidens 
widely distributed thruout America, all of 
which are probably of more or less value to 
bees. The common beggar-ticks (Bidens 
frondosa ) is one of the most abundant. 
They are all fall flowers, and usually grow 
in wet places—one species being aquatic. 
SPECIALTY IN BEES.—The question 
of making beekeeping a side line or hobby 
has already been pretty thoroly discussed 
under the head of Beginning with Bees, 
Backlot Beekeeping, Beekeeping for 
Women, Bees and Fruit-Growing, Bees 
and Poultry, and Farmer Beekeepers. 
25 
Under this head, “Specialty in Bees,” will 
be discussed the feasibility of making bees 
the sole means of livelihood. 
There are farmers who produce potatoes 
only. Others grow small fruits; still oth¬ 
ers, onions and celery. In the line of pro¬ 
fessions there are physicians who make a 
specialty of the eyes, some of the ears, and 
others both of the eyes and ears. Others 
give their whole time to the treatment of 
the lungs or the throat, and others to dis¬ 
eases of the skin. Some beekeepers spe¬ 
cialize on queen-rearing and others on ex¬ 
tracted honey. The number who confine 
their attention solely to the keeping of bees, 
while not large, is growing at a rapid rat?. 
Whether one shall keep more bees and 
drop all other pursuits will depend on a 
good many conditions. First is the ques¬ 
tion of locality; second, the man; third, 
the state of his finances. 
locality. 
No one should attempt to make a living 
entirely from bees unless he has a locality 
that is capable of supporting a large num¬ 
ber of colonies. (See Locality and Over¬ 
stocking.) In some places, probably not 
more than twenty-five or fifty colonies 
could be maintained to a yard. Two hun¬ 
dred parceled out in five or ten apiaries 
two miles apart would increase the expense 
of operation. To put a man at each yard 
would be out of the question. A horse and 
wagon would be too slow, because the 
apiarist would thus be one-third of the 
time on the road. An automobile truck is 
expensive. If one has a locality that will 
support five hundred to a thousand colo¬ 
nies in from ten to twenty yards, the gross 
earnings would warrant the purchase of an 
automobile truck and a runabout, perhaps, 
for making quick trips. (See Moving 
Bees and Out-apiaries.) As a rule, a few 
bees as a side line can be kept profitably 
almost anywhere; and therefore if one has 
a notion of making beekeeping an exclusive 
business he should seek some locality where 
there is an abundance of flora capable of 
furnishing a good table honey that will 
bring a good price, and a locality which, 
at the same time, is not already occupied 
by other beekeepers, thus overstocking. 
See Overstocking. 
