BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
The most of South Georgia is a newly developed section. Only a few years ago it was a dense pine forest which has made thousands of turpentine and sawmill men rich as well as railroad companies. While it was being lumbered the agricultural industry took a rise and it has made great progress;but there is great room yet, and much fertile land to be developed. Naturally, apiculture is in its infancy here, but it is making great progress, and soon we shall have a long list of extensive bee-keepers.
To the prospective bee-keeper South Georgia presents a poor appearance, for somehow they have been wrongly informed, and are looking for dense swamps, along large streams. Hundreds of -letters of inquiry have come to my desk asking about the Okefenoke Swamp in the lower edge of South Georgia, as a bee pasture. It is a poor one, of course, and other dense swamps are no better. South Georgia is well watered, and contains much waste land not in or near dense swamps and here we find our best bee-pasture along creeks and their sources. What will be found in such locations in the way of honey-plants will be about as follows. In January, alder, our first pollen-plant, will begin to bloom. About the first of February maple will begin to bloom, which is plentiful, and great pollen-plant. It yields some nectar if the weather is warm during the height of its blooming, and great progress is made in the brood-nests. It continues to bloom until wild plum, redbud, May have, and fruit-trees around farm houses begin to bloom. Then cypress, beech, and sweet gum continue the supply of pollen and a little nectar until about the first of April. By this time all colonies that have received the proper attention are boiling over with bees, and in the best possible condition for the first honey-flow, which now begins from tupelo gum, which is plentiful in the beds of the creeks and branches as well as along the banks, and scattered through the narrow swamps. This flow is followed by another one, about the 1oth of April, from poplar which is plentiful all over waste or low lands; also holly and black gum, which begin to bloom, and the heavy flow is continued on from these sources until the 5th or 1oth of May, when the gallery, which covers the forest from three to five feet deep, unbosoms mother Earth of her much desired treasure, nectar, and continues the flow on until about June 1. Then the ti-ti, which is in abundance along creeks, branches, and low wet land, begins to bloom, and continues the flow on for forty or fifty days. During this time the farmers have thousands of acres of the fleecy staple, cotton, in reach of our bees, growing and flourishing, and about the 1oth of July it has bloomed enough for the bees to leave the ti-ti and take to the cotton-fields, which extend the flow on to frost.
South Georgia honey is nearly all light in color, and has a good body and flavor. But honey from the cotton-plant turns to sugar the first cold spell, if it is extracted, but will remain liquid if sealed in the comb.
Our annual average per colony is between 40 and 100 pounds. The flow from cotton is long and sure; and bees winter on cotton honey, and but little if any feeding is ever required.
The Author.
BEE-KEEPING IN FLORIDA.
Ft. White, Fla.
As I begin to write I would rather give this another headline and say what is being done in bee-keeping; but as there is very little' doing I feel compelled to give a truthful statement.
I commenced to keep bees eight years ago last May, and to-day I own 350 colonies. I am making more profit out of my bees than any other man I know of on their fleecy staple, cotton. I averaged this year (which has been a little better than the average) 85 sections to the colony of comb honey. We have here a lot of different plants that yield honey and pollen in the early spring. About the first thing the bees go to is the hammocks, and find a lot of early bloom the names of which I am unable to give. This gives them a start, and stimulates brood-raising. Then comes fruit-bloom, such as peaches, pears, plums, etc. On this they begin to swarm, which is about the first or second week in March, and we generally have swarming for about six weeks; but we never have a rush of swarms, or, as some term it, the swarming fever.
About the first of May the chinquepin commences to bloom, and then you see the bees begin to rush; and they will put a good feeling on their keeper, for he knows there is going to be a lot of brood raised, and the hives all filled, and all his new swarms are going to get ready for the good honey-flow as I term it. The chinquepin yields both honey and pollen, and it is gotten from the bloom entirely. The honey has a peculiar smell, a bitter-sweet taste; and has a reddish color. I have found but few people who like it. In some parts of the country we have some gallberry that yields honey about the same time the chinquepin does; and where the gallberry grows we have no chinquepin. The gallberry is found in flat woods, and the chinquepin on the hilly woods of this country. Chinquepin generally gives us some surplus from a few pounds to as much as go lbs. to the colony of comb honey. I do not know what it would do for extracted, as I run only for comb. The only extracting I do is to extract this chinquepin honey from the sections and let the bees refill the combs with good honey.
Now we come up to the good honey-flow, which begins about June 15, or about ten days after chinquepin bloom is over. Sometimes the bloom of the chinquepin about meets or comes up to the good honey-flow, which is gathered from the parridge-pea weed, and then we have another good feeling brought over us, as we know we are going to get something for our labor. The bees gather honey from the stem, buds, and bloom of the parridge-peas, and it is a steady flow from about June 15 to Sept 15, and sometimes as late as Oct. 1, and this is our main stake; and without them we could hardly make much profit on bees, although we get some honey from cotton and field-peas, which are both grown here to some extent, but not enough to make any show in our honey crop, as it comes along with the parridge-peas, and we never see the effects on the honey, as the parridge-peas predominate over everything else. The woods are a perfect yellow sheet when they are in full bloom, and they grow in the field after the oats are cut off, in fence-corners, and almost everywhere.
There is one thing I have not mentioned, and I will give it here. It is the blackberry, which blooms ahead of the chinquepin; but we never get any surplus from it. It is generally used up in brood-rearing and refilling the combs in the beginning of spring.
The last of September and first of October we have a bloom here that I do not know the name of. It is a weed and grows about 18 inches high; has a white blossom on top and yields some honey. I have heard them called summer farewells, as they bloom at the very last of summer. The honey that we get from this has a peculiar flavor, something like fresh turpentine, and it is as white as snow. The honey we get from the partridge-peas is very fine in color and flavor. When the bloom first opens we sometimes get a pale-yellow honey, and I think it is fine--so rich and sweet. The first and last of the partridge-pea honey is very white.
We have no bee-keepers in this country to speak of. I suppose I have more than the rest of the country. Mr. J. M. Hall, six miles east of me, has some forty colonies and he is making a very good success on a small scale, and will increase his stock from time to time, as he has a pretty good case of bee fever. Mr. Crawford Truluck, two miles southwest, has sixteen colonies which have been paying him finely for the little trouble he has given them. He is employed in the phosphate-mining business, and does not take much time with the bees; and what bees he has are the common blacks.
Mr. Wm. Kinard, two and a half miles northeast, has some thirty or forty colonies in both improved and old box hives, which are paying him finely for the expense he is at with them, and these men cover almost all the bee-men who have improved hives. Some few others have from two to six in the improved hives.
There is a Mr. Bates in Lake City, our county-seat, who has several colonies in improved hives, and has Carnialan bees, I think. I have not seen him to talk with him for over a year.
There are a few bees scattered about in old box hives or gums, but they get very little attention. What we lack here is men who will get out of the cotton-field and give bee-keeping a little study, and take on a little courage. We could raise honey, not by the hundred pounds in Columbia Co., but by the carload.
There is thousands of dollars worth of honey going 'to waste for the want of experienced bee-men, or men who will learn the business and put bees on the ranges to harvest the sweets.
I agree with our experienced bee-men, that we can get a race of bees and improve our stock of bees to where we could accomplish wonders here and in adjoining counties in the amount of honey that could be gathered and put to a profit on the right side. Our county needs it, and should have it; and I hope to see the time when we may have the needed men for the business, and when the honey that to-day is going to waste may be gathered and put on the market where families can get it, as I am satisfied it is the most healthful sweet we have.
R. W. Hirheny.
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**Balletin No. 33** **April, 1921**
**CONNECTICUt Agricultural College Extension Service**
**H. J. BAKER, Director**
**STORRS, CONN.**
Cooperative Extension Work in Agriculture and Home Economics, State of Connecticut, Connecticut Agricultural College and U. S. Department of Agriculture cooperating.
**SPRING MANAGEMENT OF BEES.**
By L. B. CRANDALL
The queen bee is the most important individual in the colony. We might almost say the queen is the colony. She lays the eggs which produce all the members of her colony, even that of her successor. If she is a strong, vigorous, Italian queen, her colony will be strong and active. If she comes from a strain that generally produces a large surplus crop of honey, under good management her bees will be likely to produce large crops of surplus honey. It is important, then, to see that the queen in each colony is a good one.
THINGS to do Before Unpacking.
The first thing to do for the bees in the spring, is to observe their flight as an indication of their condition. If the bees fly strong on pleasant days in spring, and are seen to bring in pollen and to visit damp places for water, it is an indication that the colony is in good condition.
Colonies which do not fly well and do not gather pollen and water when other colonies are doing it, are likely to be weak and may be queenless. If your records show that such colonies have old queens (more than two years old) you may conclude that they are queenless. Such colonies should be opened on the first warm day, soon after noon, and a careful inspection given. If no queen is found, and neither eggs or brood, a new queen should be secured at once, or the colony should be united with some strong colony.
2 the connection agricultural college extension service.
Do not, unite tyo; weak colonies, but a weak one with a strong one! A weak colony at this time of year will have very few young bees, so that two weak colonies being united will be but little better able to build up than one alone.
Bees seem to need a little salt when producing brood. It is advisable to place within their reach a basin or shallow pan of dilute salt water as early in the spring as new pollen is available. In order for the bees not to be drowned in this solution, it is necessary to put in the pan some planer shavings or bits of wood which will float so that the bees may alight on these and keep out of the water. Unless salt is provided, the bees will procure their supply from unsanitary sources.
If it is necessary to introduce new queens in the spring, they must usually be ordered from the South. Northern breeders cannot supply queens much before May 15, at least in any quantity, so it is necessary to order them from southern breeders early in the winter. The very best time for several reasons for introducing new queens is the August before, but if this has not been done, and new queens are needed, they should be secured by the first of May if possible.
It takes about two months for a colony to build up strongly enough to get the most honey from any honey flow. In most parts of Connecticut the main honey flow begins about June 10--from the tenth to the fifteenth in normal seasons. Counting back two months from that time will give us April 15 as our starting point. In normal seasons, we should have our colonies begin brood rearing for the first batch not later than April 15. A very prolific queen, backed by a strong force of young bees, may produce a good colony after May 1, but it is unusual to get a colony strong enough for maximum production after that date. It will be evident, then, that it is much better to have the queens well established in the colonies before spring opens.
This is not to say that colonies which have queens introduced after May 1,will produce no surplus honey that season, but it is true that such colonies will produce but little from the first part of the clover flow. Colonies which begin building up May 15, should get some surplus from sumac, provided sumac gives a good flow, but not from clover. Colonies which are strong when new queens are introduced have a much better chance than weak colonies under the same conditions.
## 2 Spring Feeding.
If some of the colonies have come through the willer light in stores, they should be fed before being unpacked. It is important that the winter protection be left on the hives throughout the raw, changeable weather of April and early May.
Good honey which has been gathered and stored by the bees, is always the best food for them. This is especially true of the spring brood rearing period. It seems that the best granulated sugar syrup does not supply all the elements needed by the developing brood. However, honey which is not the best may be used for feeding at this time. That made from trees, such as the Basswood, and honey containing honeydew may be used in the spring, whereas it would not be the best for winter. If the beekeeper has not laid aside some combs for such an emergency, he can use syrup made by mixing equal volumes of granulated sugar and hot water, stirring the liquid until all the sugar has dissolved. Feed this hot in one of the many feeders prourable on the market.*
In order for colonies to develop in the shortest time, they must have an abundance of stores and large amounts of pollen. It takes a cell of honey to produce a cell of brood. It is a fact that queens will not lay their maximum number of eggs unless there is in the hives sufficient food to feed that amount of brood. It is best then in feeding colonies to give all they will need in one or two feedings and in the shortest time in which the bees will take it. On this account it is desirable to use more than one feeder for each colony.
## 3 Unpacking the Bees.
The time to remove the packing materials is when fairly settled weather has arrived in the spring. This will be usually just before the fruit trees bloom in May. We get our first important honey flow from red maples. The bees will get a good start from this stimulus so that when fruit bloom comes, they should build up rapidly. It is necessary that we have free access to the hives at this time so that we can manipulate the colonies as needed.
*See Bulletin No. 21, Fall Feeding of Bees.
After the packing is removed, each colony should be looked over carefully to ascertain its condition. We wish to know whether each has sufficient stores, whether the queen is laying well, whether she has all the room she needs, and whether there is any disease in the hives. The three essentials for every colony at this time are _stores_, _room_, and _protection_; of which stores and room are of the most importance. Colonies must have abundance of food or they cannot live and develop. If they have abundance of food but have not room in which to rear brood, they cannot become strong enough to produce surplus honey. A very common result of not providing room enough at this time of year is to induce swarming. Bees cannot cast swarms and produce surplus honey at the same time.
## Building up Colonies in the Spring.
After the bees are taken out of winter quarters, they should be provided with all the room they need for brood rearing. If they were not wintered in two bodies, they should be given a second body at this time. If the colony is strong in young bees, it will make use of this second body very readily, but if it is slow about using the extra room, it may be well to raise two or three frames of brood from the bottom body into the center of the top one, in this way distributing the bees through both. A good queen will easily occupy two ten-frame bodies, and some extra good ones will do better than that. At this time of year an abundance of room for brood rearing is of great importance, because we cannot get a large crop of honey without a large force of field bees.
## Disease Control.
It will be evident to every beekeeper after a little thought that it is impossible to build up strong colonies if disease is killing off the brood. There are two brood diseases of bees prevalent in this country that are of especial importance, called European and American Foulbrood.* These are both very destructive and very contagious. European Foulbrood gets in its most destructive work during the spring brood rearing period, but American Foulbrood may be present in the hive at any season of the year. No beekeeper can make his colonies immune to these diseases, but he can do a great deal to keep his yards so clean and sanitary and his colonies so strong that it will be difficult for diseases to enter. Pure Italian stock seems to be more resistant to these diseases than black or hybrid stocks; also some strains of Italians seem to be more resistant than others. On this account it will pay every beekeeper to have only healthy, resistant Italian bees in his yards. Italian bees also have some other desirable traits, such as, gentleness, less tendency to swarm, good nectar gathering, and prolificacy in brood rearing, which make them the most desirable race to keep.
Swarming is the satisfying of the instinct for reproduction. In studying swarming, we do not consider the bee as an individual but the colony as the individual. When a colony divides, or swarms, another individual has been produced. It will be evident, then, that to control swarming we must combat the natural instinct for reproduction. It is a difficult problem. If bees were left to themselves, each colony would cast one or more swarms each year. Bees cannot produce surplus honey in any large amount and swarm, because the honey which they would store if they did not swarm is used in building new combs and in rearing brood. Colonies which are prevented from swarming are the ones which produce the largest amounts of surplus honey, other things being equal. Our object then as beekeepers is to prevent swarming so far as possible, since our aim is the production of surplus honey.
According to our best knowledge up to the present time, the chief cause of swarming is the over-production of young bees, i. e. having more young bees emerging than there are larvae to feed. The first work of the young bees after they emerge from the cells is to feed the larvae and build new combs. A good queen, backed by a strong force of young bees, will lay between two and three thousand eggs per day during this season of the year.
*See Farmers' Bulletins Nos. 975 and 1084.
Larvae have to be fed for six days, so it will be evident that it will not take long for more bees to emerge than there are new larvae to feed. These nurses being well prepared by Nature to produce baby food and build comb, and having neither of these to do, become uneasy and begin queen cells in preparation for swarming. In from eight to ten days from this time, unless the beekeeper prevents, we may expect a swarm.
## 6 What Takes Place When a Colony Swarms.