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Large Yield From Basswood

Categories: BEE PASTURAGE.
Bee Keeping: Mysteries Of Bee-keeping Explained

During the time this tree is in bloom, a period of two or three weeks

in many sections, astonishing quantities are obtained. A person once

assured me that he had known "ten pounds collected by one swarm in a

day, by weighing the hive in the morning and again at evening." I have

some doubt of the statement, and think half the amount would be a good

day's work; but I had but a small chance to know, as only a few trees,

a
a specimen, grow in this section. I have weighed hives during

seasons of apple-tree blossoms and buckwheat, the two best yields of

honey we have, and three and a half pounds was the best for one day

that I ever had. Sumach, (_Rhus Glabra_,) in some sections, affords

considerable honey. Mustard (_Sinapis Nigra_) is also a great favorite.



I have now mentioned most of the honey-producing trees and plants that

come on before the middle of July. The course of these flowers is

termed the first yield. In sections where there are no crops of

buckwheat, it constitutes the only full one. Other flowers continue to

bloom till cold weather. Where white clover is abundant and the fields

are used for pasture, it will continue to throw out fresh flowers,

sometimes, throughout the summer; yet the bees consume about all they

collect in rearing their brood, &c. Thus it appears in some sections

six or eight weeks is about all the time they have to provide for

winter.



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