The southeastern part of the country offers many opportunities to the beekeeper, but the business has not been so well developed there. The nectar comes from numerous plants which are influenced by various soils, temperature, and other factors. The honey usually does not come in very rapidly and is often darker than other honeys, but since the plants yield for a longer period, the beekeeper is able to get good returns for his labor.
The semiarid region of the southwest produces many plants which secrete nectar in abundance. This region is subject to drought and there are years when the beekeeper has to feed his bees to keep them alive. However, taking a series of years into account, this region pays as well as any other.
The sage region of southern California offers great opportunities to the beekeeper. The honeys are chiefly white and secretion is abundant when there is sufficient rainfall. In this region also honey is obtained from blossoms of citrus fruits, which being irrigated are not so liable to failure as the plants growing in the desert. The chief problem in this part of the country is to strengthen the colonies in time for the nectar flow from citrus fruit blossoms. This may be done by application of proper care at the right time. In choosing the location for an apiary in the sage region, great care should be exercised to select one where the average rainfall is about 20 inches. Information regarding rainfall may be obtained from the Weather Bureau offices or from forest supervisors. Many of the best locations are in the national forests, where a location may be obtained at a small rental and other beekeepers will not be permitted to encroach.
In addition to these chief regions, there are many localities where other plants are of sufficient value to make a good crop of honey. Such regions are the buckwheat region, already mentioned; the Spanish needle region of the Kankakee swamps of northern Indiana and Illinois and the Delaware River Valley; the willow herb regions of northern Michigan and Wisconsin, Maine, Washington, and Oregon; the sweet clover regions of Alabama and Kentucky; the blue thistle region of the Shenandoah Valley; the raspberry region of northern Michigan; the smartweed region of the Middle West (corn belt); and the bean region of Southern California. There are many other restricted regions as valuable as those mentioned.
Variation in Seasons
All years are not equally good for nectar secretion, and some years the flow is so poor that feeding is necessary to keep the bees alive. Such years are of common occurrence to the poor beekeeper, while they are rather a rarity to the good, highly skilled beekeeper. By this is meant that the good beekeeper is able to keep his bees in such condition that they are able to take advantage of every hour of nectar secretion, while the poor beekeeper does not do this. In the best years every person owning bees will get some honey, but it is the person who studies the business who can make it pay almost every year.
Distribution of Bees in the United States
The accompanying map shows where the bees in the country are mainly located. It indicates also the extent of the business in different sections and gives some idea, by the number of dots on the map, of the most successful territory for beekeeping. Care must be taken in drawing conclusions of this kind, for a field or territory may be overpastured, as it were, by bees as well as by cattle. Bees, however, travel many miles. Large apiaries should not be too close together, at least 3 or 4 miles apart. Although the honey flows of the South do not equal those of the North in intensity, yet, as will be observed from the map, there are more bees in the Southern States than in any other part of the country. Bees in the South can be purchased at small cost, for they are not appreciated and are poorly equipped, being hived largely in boxes and “gums” which are of course unprofitable. They may be transferred to modern hives, after which they may be managed for extracted honey, which is the most profitable manner of handling bees in that section and the most effective way of avoiding swarming. The convenience of the modern hive and frame enables the increase of colonies by division.
Beekeeping Should be a Specialty
Frequently one sees articles advocating the keeping of a few colonies of bees so that one may have all the honey desired. This sounds rather well, but such advice does not work out well in practice. Only those persons who study and devote themselves to the business are successful beekeepers. They make money, some big money. One Indiana man’s 1918 honey crop exceeded $20,000. Success requires making beekeeping the chief vocation, for the person who does not rely upon it for his living is likely to be busy when the bees most need his care, and being constantly engrossed in other things he does not take the time to study the problems of the beekeeper. Beekeeping is preeminently a specialist’s job, and it can not be recommended for the disabled soldier except as a specialty. To be convinced of the necessity for specializing you have only to visit farmers who have a few colonies of neglected and sometimes diseased bees, in some out of the way place, which never pay and are a menace to the success of all good beekeepers in the neighborhood.