790 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Dec. 12, 1901. 



which is the more important, the drone 

 or the queen?" 



Mr. Hutchinson — I think one would 

 be as important as the other. 



Mr. Callbreath — Mj' idea is that there 

 is a difference in the vitality of drones 

 and queens, the same as there is in hu- 

 man beings, the one that has the 

 greater vitality will affect the progeny 

 the most. 



Mr. Benton — I should consider the 

 queen more important. 



"What is the best way to prepare 

 barrels for extracted honey? 



Dr. Mason — Drive the hoops tight. 



BEE-CULTURE IN TKX.\S. 



Mr. Davidson — Our Secretary was to 

 furnish us with a report of the number 

 of colonies and bee-keepers in Texas, 

 but he hadn"t furnished it before I left 

 home. Our State convention instructed 

 our secretary to furnish us with a re- 

 port of that convention, but I didn't 

 get it in time. 



Dr. Mason — Make it out and send it 

 to me. (I have not received it yet — 

 Secretary.) 



Mr. Davidson — I think there are 

 something over 2000 colonies of bees in 

 the State of Texas. I don't remember 

 the number of bee-keepers that own 

 them. We have a good countrj' for 

 bees. We have no disease among our 

 bees — never have had. I think there 

 has been a bad impression made in the 

 North in regard to Texas honey. The 

 northern portion of the State produces 

 honey gathered from wild fiowers and 

 woods, and sometimes the honey sours 

 and is not of good flavor. Our honey 

 is very white. I saw a good deal of 

 honey in the exhibit here similar to it. 

 I would like to thank the bee-keepers 

 of the Northern States for their kind- 

 ness to the Texas representatives, and 

 also to the Canadian bee - keepers. 

 We wish to extend an invitation to the 

 National Bee-Keepers' convention, to 

 have their meeting in San Antonio, 

 Tex., next year, or any year after that. 



Mr. West — In regard to Texas, you 

 say you have no foul brood or bee-dis- 

 eases there. Do you have any enemies 

 to your bees that cause destruction? 

 You haven't the winter that we have 

 in the North. Do j'ou have anything 

 that you have to fight ? 



Mr. Davidson — No, sir. We have no 

 enemies to the bees there that I have 

 ever found. I have been keeping bees 

 there for 15 years, and I have never 

 seen any foul brood there. No winter 

 loss at all. Our bees work nearly the 

 whole winter. The moth does not 

 bother bees in the South where the 

 man understands his business and 

 keeps his bees in the right condition. 



Mr. Longnecker — Do you ever feed in 

 the spring to stimulate brood-rearing? 



Mr. Davidson — No, sir; we have an 

 early, light honey-flow that commences 

 about the middle of February. I never 

 fed a pound of anything to our bees 

 yet at any time of the year. The 

 source of our main honey-flow is the 

 mesquite and a shrub. We have the 

 surest country for honey, I think, any- 

 where in the world. If it rains we get 

 some honey, and if it is dry we get a 

 great deal more. The dryer it gets the 

 more honey we get. 



Mr. Baldridge — Do yOu have any loss 

 from heat melting the combs? 



Mr. Davidson — No, sir: I have never 

 suffered any loss from that cause. I 

 keep my bees under shade. I hear 



some complain, but generally it is 

 where they leave the hives exposed to 

 the sun. I have seen plenty of it where 

 it was not properly attended to. 



Mr. Toepperweiii — You can hardly 

 expect to hear much from bee-keepers 

 away down in Texas, like Mr. David- 

 son and myself. We have come here 

 especially to see what you people up 

 here do, and see what kinds of honey 

 you produce and what you do with it. 

 We intended to bring some good-sized 

 samples to let j'Ou see what we are do- 

 ing there, and we produce some very 

 nice extracted honey, which we want 

 to dispose of. There is a very poor 

 market for honey in Texas, and if I 

 can get any information as to how to 

 dispose of our hone3' I would like to 

 learn of it here. I have brought a few 

 samples of honey just to show what we 

 have. Mesquite honey is a great thing 

 in Texas. Whenever we have a drouth 

 we g'et our honey just the same; and in 

 spring, if it rains, there is the cat-claw 

 that produces honey. There is a white 

 bush which blossoms after every rain. 

 If it is dry there well be the mesquite, 

 which is safe every year, so it doesn't 

 make any difference in our portion of 

 Texas whether it rains or not, we get 

 our honey, and if any people from the 

 North would like to have any informa- 

 tion about bee-keeping in Texas I 

 would be glad to give it to them. I 

 have seen the honey candy within two 

 or three days after being extracted. 

 We have a method now of putting the 

 honey in hot and sealing it in nice 

 glass jars with a tin cap, and we think 

 that will keep it from granulating. 



Mr. McEvoy — What is your average 

 yield per colony? 



Mr. Toepperwein — A bee-keeper who 

 understands his business can get all 

 the way from 60 to 20O pounds per col- 

 ony. That is, if we have a right dry 

 season. I don't think it is necessary 

 to have any less than 60 pounds. 



Pres. Root — Do you have any seasons 

 of complete failure? 



Mr. Toepperwein — It has not proven 

 to be. but it could be if it would rain 

 just at the time of the mesquite blos- 

 som. 



Pres. Root — Do you allow your bees 

 to swarm where you run for extracted 

 honey? 



Mr. Toepperwein — Yes, sir; I let my 

 bees swarm, and get a crop from the 

 old colony and from the swarm, too. 



Mr. Longnecker — I think you will 

 find one of the points against buying 

 Texas honey in the North, it is candied 

 too much. Northern consumers won't 

 buy candied honey. 



Mr. Toepperwein — What we are try- 

 ing to do up here is to make connection 

 with some concern, and have stations 

 where bee-keepers can take their honey 

 and ship it in carloads, and the agent 

 comes around and buys the honey 

 at a reasonable price and ships it up 

 here in car-loads. 



W. H. Heim— I would like to ask Mr. 

 Toepperwein whether they produce 

 very much' comb honey there, and 

 what the average is per colony. 



Mr. Toepperwein — The bee-keepers 

 down there are getting to produce this 

 chunk honey now. It is cut out of the 

 frames and packed in cans with eight- 

 inch screw caps. The people down 

 there are getting to do that because 

 they say there is no market for ex- 

 tracted honey. I wouldn't produce any 

 but extracted myself. Another thing, 



if they produce comb honey, they ought 

 to produce it in sections. 



Dr. Mason — If j'OU can dispose of 

 chunk honey, why don't you produce 

 it? 



IMr.Toepperwein — Now, chunk honey, 

 you have to put in foundation. There 

 is great expense. The bees will have 

 to build that every time. 



[Continued next week.) 



Other Conventions 



The Colorado State BeeKeepers' 

 Convention. 



BV D. W. WORKING. .SEC. 



It was a big thing — this 22d annual 

 meeting of ours — and all the wide-awake 

 bee-keepers in the country ought to 

 hear about it. Will the American Bee 

 Journal let me tell them? 



The introduction must be brief; so 

 that the really important matters can 

 be given appropriate mention. 



We met, as was advertised, in Rep- 

 resentative Hall of Colorado's beauti- 

 ful Capitol building, and had every 

 convenience that the most particular 

 bee-keeper could desire. The program 

 was carried out with very few changes. 

 Editor Root was not able to be with us : 

 but Editor Hutchinson occupied the first 

 evening with an instructive and enter- 

 taining talk illustrated with magic-Ian- 

 tern views. The papers and discussions 

 were of great value, and will be fur- 

 nished to the readers of the American 

 Bee Journal, the discussions in con- 

 densed form. 



The address of Pres. Aikin attracted 

 marked attention, and the paper on long- 

 tongued bees by Professor Gillette of 

 our State Agricultural College, was an 

 exceptionally instructive study of this 

 seductive subject. I suspect it will elicit 

 a good many "explanations". 



The exhibit of bees and bee-products 

 was an experiment, but so successful 

 that it will be repeated under the 

 management of a competent committee 

 An interesting outcome was the award 

 of the first premium for the "best ten 

 sections of white honey" to an exhibit 

 of last year's product; and this in spite 

 of the fact that the winner had new 

 honey entered for the same premium, 

 and the additional fact that there were 

 several other contestants for the prize. 

 The judges — one of whom was Editor 

 Hutchinson — did not suspect that the 

 premium honey was old. Moreover, they 

 did not seem the least bit annoyed when 

 told what had happened. 



The election resulted in the choice of 

 a new President, J. U. Harris, of Gran^ 

 Junction ; and a new Vice-President. 

 J\I. A. Gill. The Secretary and Treas- 

 urer were reelected. Mr. Harris was 

 advanced from the vice-presidenc}-, and 

 Mr. Gill comes up from the ranks. 



The Association at the present time 

 has the largest membership in its history, 

 and there are good reasons for believing 

 that it will not decrease in numbers 

 and usefulness during the coming year. 

 Mr. Aikc-n. the retiring president, after 

 eight or nine years of faithful service, 

 received the unaminous thanks of the 

 Association for his successful labors. As 



