THE HONEY PRODUCT
Alfalfa raisers find it to their advantage to have a few stands of bees. As the original cost is slight and the bees provide their own food, go after the raw material for the manufacture of honey, demand but slight attention and make such bountiful returns, bee culture has come to be a valuable “side line” for the farm. As blooms are to be found in alfalfa districts every day from early May to late October, the bees have a constant opportunity for service.
Alfalfa honey is white and clear, in an extremely delicate comb, has a delicious flavor, and an aroma that is delightful. One authentic report from a western Kansas county is of a single hive that contained nearly two hundred pounds, and of another having ninety-six pounds. The owner of these had twenty-five acres of alfalfa which in one year yielded him over one hundred tons of choice hay besides the honey. The next year he increased his apiary to fifty stands.
While the average yield per hive elsewhere varies from fifteen to thirty pounds, the average in the alfalfa-growing territory is far higher. Thus the financial returns of alfalfa may be greatly increased and in some instances doubled by having, say, two colonies of bees for each acre. Or if only a part of the alfalfa raisers in a neighborhood keep bees, this ratio could be doubled or trebled by those who do. Unlike other trespassers on neighbors’ fields the bees do the neighbors a distinct favor, by fertilizing their alfalfa.