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Show i Devotee!, JL-- II-- to t fee Regress &.Develrpneut of Agriculture in tfie Qre&i UinU.li Basin I . VERNAL, UINTAH COUNTY, UTAH, FEBRUARY, 1925. NO. 2. A Glimpse of Utah Beekeeping PROBLEMS AND ADVANTAGES OF THE BEEMEN OF THE BEEHIVE STATE 3v : , The following article appeared in a American Bee Journal in the innary number which began Its year of publication on that ite and is published at Hamilton, 1 inois. Mr. Pellett visited Utah r id was at the Uintah Basin Indus- -t lal convention last July at Fort 1 ichesne. Mr. Pellett Is the as- -t of the American Bee editor itant Z urnaL The selection of the beehive as as emblem of the state of Utah i There are e asusally appropriate. c her states which effer as good territory as Utah and others which produce honey of the same L'jJt quality, but there is no state v aere beekeeping is apparently rec-- r nized as an important industry to in Utah. The t greater extent than several c asus shows that other r ites have more bees and produce : 3re honey, but the census, would t a poor guide for the selection of r beekeeping location. Where xnn i t only keep bees but make the I m keep them and where the in's itment and returns compare fav--c ably with other industries, one f is real inspiration in the honey-- I aducing business. Utah has many things in common vr.th several of the western states: lfh altitude, warm days and cool c' shts, sunshine during a part of the c y for almost the entire year, with t a greater part of the honey crop c ' fine quality. Considering the wealth and advan-- t jes which the residents of Utah : w enjoy. It is difficult to appr c ;te the hardships which were en-- ( red by the pioneers, who found 1 The soil is lie and left much. 1 rtile, but the rainfall is deficient ' d irrigation was necessary before pendable crops could be grown. ' many cases the water is carried r many miles from the mountains the valleys, where it is utilized was a sturdy race of men who laid a foundations for the present day nditions, for whether it be cities, roads, or schools, or farms, Utah new second to none in quality of Men and women i possessions. 11 living have not only seen the insformation from the beginning t have been actively engaged in In fact, even Jnging it about. one may Basin t, in the Uintah Because of id the last frontier. a long distance from the railroad, ose who live within the basin must i largely dependent upon their own sources. Price is the railroad sta- i FRANK C PELLETT xty-fif- th Bel-list- cn bee-lispi- ng -- . eage of more than 213 pounds per colony. In 1921 they again secured 1,500 cans from 650 colonies, an avIn erage of 138 pounds per hive. 1922 the crop was much smaller, being 985 cans from 750 colonies, or 78 an average of slightly above pounds per colony. In 1923, 700 colonies returned 1,623 cans of honey, cr 139 pounds on an average. This makes a five year average of a trifle more than 144 pounds per colony, which is certainly very encouraging for such a large namber of bees. One of the yards run by the Brothers is shown in the picture. is Tnis particular apiary owned by R. T. Rhees, one of the larget bee owners in the west. One thing of particular interest is the fact that all the combs are built on Mr. vertically wired foundation. Rhees has been an advocate of vertical wiring for many years and has thousands of combs wired in this Jln Apiary in the Uintah (Basin tion from which most of the shipping for the Basin i3 done. Vernal, the largest town in the Basin, is 120 Before the day miles from Price. of the automobiles, 120 miles was a Even now it costs a long journey. cent a pound for all freight hauled This heavy in or out of the Basin. railroad the to addition in charge, freight which must be added to get the products to market, limits the cash crops of the region to the few which bring a high price per pound. Sixty cents per bushel to haul grain to the railroad makes it impossible for the farmers to raise grain to sell to the outside world. Alfalfa seed, honey and turkeys are the principal sources of cash in addition to cattle and sheep, which can be driven out on foot. The alfalfa seed industry in the Basin compares to corn in Iowa or wheat in North Dakota. Everywhere there are large fields of alfalfa The J. G. Peppard grown for seed. Seed Co. have loaded as high as 110,000 pounds of alfalfa seed in a single day at their Roosevelt plant, which is 93 miles from the railroad. Six million pounds of alfalfa seed were hauled out of the Basin in 1923. The 1924 crop was not yet harvested at the time of my visit and figures are not available on that Grimm is the variety most as yet. commonly grown, since seed of that variety is in demand at a higher price than common alfalfa brings. Formerly sweet clover was also extensively grown for seed but the price has fallen so much below that of alfalfa that little sweet clover seed is produced there at present.: A more promising field for honey production could hardly be found. The immense areas devoted to alfalfa seed production offer unlimited pasturage for tne bees. The marked difference between day and night temperatures, together with controlled moisture supply by means of irrigation, insures a good honeyflow. To these advantages we add the further one of the uniformity high quality of honey from alfalfa and sweet clover in this region; honey which should command the highest price in the world's best markets. Honeyflows. In conversation with W. J. Harvey, of Upalco, I was told that in 1918 he had 110 day3 of honeyflow and secured 908 pounds from his Of this, 171 pounds best colony. His bees was stored in ten days. cans have averaged for sixty-poun- d four the for past years. per colony Belliston Brothers, Wilford and Ralph, who have more than 700 colonies in the Basin and several hundred more at Nephi, gave me the figures on their Basin crops for the past five years. As they are among the largest producers of the state their production is probably fairly representative of what can be depended upon under similar conditions. In 1919, from 580 colonies, they secured a total of 1500 sixty-poun- d cans, or an average of slightly more than 155 pounds per colony. In 1920 they secured 2,245 cans from 630 colonies. This was an av- - manner. The yards are about two to two-an- d The extraca half miles apart. ting outfit is carried on a wagon, which is moved from yard to yard as needed. They move about by means of autos and make camp near One the yards where they work. extractshows the Belliston picture ing wagon and another shews th9 camp of Thomas Chantry, another extensive producer who has bees scattered all the way from Green River north to Neola, a distance of nearly 200 miles. Mr. Arnold gave an account of Chantrys beekeeping in our October issue. Many of the large producers work a crew cf men and live in camp much of the time during the active season. When one goes a hundred miles or more from home it is hardly practical to return home until the work in that particular locality is finished. Beekeeping in the Uintah Basin is not much different from that in other sections of the state, except for the fact that more alfalfa is raised for seed and the roneyflows are accordingly longer and more dependable. More sweet clover is present, also, than is generally the case. In addition to the large acreage of alfalfa and sweet clover, from which most of the crop is harvested, there is ample forage in most localities for building up the bees. Thu canyons are fiied v iti och sources of early nectar and pollen as willows, dandelions, choke cherries, ser- (Continued on Page S) |