MANGROVE, BLACK 
575 
in size and the yields have increased also, 
but as yet they can not even be compared 
with those preceding 1894. 
On the numerous small islands of Indian 
River and along the east shore of Florida 
southward from Ormond, there are thou¬ 
sands of acres of black mangrove from six 
to fifteen feet tall. There are a few bee¬ 
keepers located in the mangrove swamps 
of southwestern Florida, but not so many 
as on the east coast, as at Ariel and near 
New Smyrna. At Cocoanut Grove, Dade 
County, a mixture of mangrove and cocoa- 
Blaek mangrove on the right; red mangrove on the 
left. 
nut honey is secured, which is much lighter 
than the mangrove honey alone, owing to 
the cocoanut honey. There are also a few 
colonies of bees in the vicinity of Ever¬ 
glade, which is about 70 miles south 
of Fort Myers. This is a promising sec¬ 
tion, but it is wholly undeveloped, and the 
country is as wild as it was 40 years ago. 
It is the home of the Seminole Indians and 
few white people live there. 
At Punta Gorda on the west coast black 
mangrove begins to bloom from May 1 to 
15 according to the season, and remains in 
bloom until July 15 or a little later. When 
atmospheric conditions are favorable the 
nectar can be seen in large drops shining 
in the little cups, and a bee can obtain a 
load from a single blossom. According to 
Frank Stirling of the State Plant Board 
of Florida, the honey is dark colored and 
is used very largely in the manufacture of 
sweet cakes. On the east coast it is usually 
blended with the honey from cabbage palm¬ 
etto, which blooms at the same time, and 
is in consequence lighter colored. At Punta 
Gorda, says Ward Lamkin, when there is 
a heavy flow, the honey is light colored but 
thin and not very sweet, with a salty or 
brackish taste, as' the trees grow on the 
sand flats which are often flooded with salt 
water by the tide. 
The secretion of nectar is greatly influ¬ 
enced by the weather. In 1911 near New 
Smyrna it yielded well early in the sea¬ 
son, and the bees left their hives for the 
mangrove swamps almost before dawn hur¬ 
rying across the coves of salt water the en¬ 
tire day; but after two weeks the weather 
suddenly changed and hardly a bee was 
seen again on the blossoms, altho they still 
continued to open. At Punta Gorda in 
1919 the crop of mangrove was very small, 
but in 1918 it probably exceeded 100 
pounds per colony. In this same year a 
beekeeper below Ft. Myers reported the 
crop a failure. 
MANIPULATION OF COLONIES.— 
Success or failure in the bee business de¬ 
pends very largely on manipulation. Colo¬ 
nies can be so handled as to make the busi¬ 
ness an entire failure. Sometimes im¬ 
proper handling so disgusts the would-be 
beekeeper that he never becomes one. Tem¬ 
peramentally he may not be fitted for the 
business, or else mentally he may be inca¬ 
pable of acquiring the art of handling 
them. A great majority of persons, how¬ 
ever, who love honey and who enjoy out¬ 
door work, have no difficulty in learning to 
handle what perhaps a few erroneously 
regard as a “mighty dangerous proposi¬ 
tion.” Over and over the statement has 
been made, “Bees would sting me, even if 
I were half a mile away from them. The 
further I am away from them, the better I 
like it.” There is a sort of silly fear, on 
the part of a few at least, that bees are 
“mighty dangerous animals,” and that 
their disposition is to rule or ruin, and to 
