June, 



American Vae Journal 



them into the territory where the bees 

 did wonderfully well last season. This I 

 did not do since former experience had 

 taught me that those good locations 

 might he poor ones the year following, 

 and vice versa with the poor ones. This 

 has come about many times, and again 

 this year. 



Now if I had all my bees in one kind 

 of location, is it not plain enough to see 

 that I would have some total failures? 

 But by having my apiaries widely dis- 

 tributed I catch some honey soincwhere, 

 although some of my yards may not 

 gather anything. It is impossible to 

 know where the honey yield will be 

 sure here, so I do not rely on the same 

 kind of locations for all my bees. Local 

 rains and other conditions play a great 

 part in the honey-yielding of the flora 

 we rely upon, and a rain several miles 

 away may assure a crop there while the 

 bees starve at home. 



Since I am not so favorably located 

 as some are who can always count on 

 a crop, it becomes necessary for me to 

 rely upon some of the "tricks of the 

 trade" to make up for it. Thus I have 

 some apiaries 200 miles from home, and 

 others all the distances between. When 

 it is practicable to do so, migratory bee- 

 keeping is practised, moving some of the 

 yards to the more favorable localities to 

 catch the yield there for the time. For 

 these reasons my apiaries are not very 

 large, but there are more of them, and 

 widely distributed. 



Honey in Cookies. 



About the first of February, this year, 

 I decided to lay in my supply of sugar 

 to feed to the bees to tide them over 

 the dearths that visit me every spring 

 after the first honey-bearing flowers dis- 

 appear. I was desirous of buying this 

 sugar by wholesale as I would need 

 probably a ton, having sometimes to feed 

 my bees practically all that they get to 

 eat for two months. I was constantly 

 on the lookout for a sugar-drummer 

 when in town, and accosted every fel- 

 low with a hand-bag. One day I hailed 

 a fellow, whom I had all reason to be- 

 lieve was a sugar-man, but who in- 

 formed me that he was a drummer for 

 the National Biscuit Co. We promptly 

 became intimate, and jumped up a lively 

 conversation about honey, bees, and bak- 

 ery. The gentleman offered to buy hon- 

 ey for his firm from me, if I had any 

 to sell of the genuine, pure stufif. I had 

 none to ofler just then. I made inquiry 

 as to the principal use to which they put 

 honey and was informed that they used 

 it in cookies and cakes. I asked why 

 not use sugar, and was informed that 

 cane-sugar cakes and cookies were in- 

 ferior, both in quality and in keeping 

 power to the article produced with 

 honey. 



He said, "Let me show you some- 

 thing;" whereupon he opened his case 

 of cakes and cookies, and explained the 

 difference in cane-sugar-made and hon- 

 ey-made cakes. I was told that the 

 honey-made article was of better flavor, 

 and, best of all, it would keep many 

 times longer than the sugar-made arti- 

 cle. At this he had me feel his cakes, 

 which had a soft, velvety, elastic touch 

 to the hand, and a pleasant aroma to 

 smell. I was shown that any impression 



made on the honey-cookies would very 

 promptly return to its former shape. 

 I was shown that the cakes made of 

 cane-sugar were hard, with no velvety 

 feeling or elasticity about them. 



The gentleman informed me that the 

 honey-made cakes were as good as when 

 baked, long after the canc-made cakes 

 were ruined with age. I was informed 

 that there was no sweet that would take 

 the place of honey in this company's 

 cookies and cakes ; that it uses many car- 

 loads of honey annually. 



T. P. Robinson. 



Banlett, Tex. 



AVTien Does Mesquite Bloom? 



It has been slated that the mesquite 

 trees bloom after each good rain through 

 the spring and summer months. This is 

 not in accordance with my observations. 

 The mesquite blooms here twice a year, 

 as a rule. Some years it doesn't bloom 

 at all. It usually blooms in April and 

 again in June, and we think the dryer 

 the year the surer it is to bloom and 

 yield honey. I have many times seen 

 the mesquite budded full, and just in 

 the act of blooming, and a heavy rain- 

 fall would blast all — t|ie buds would fall 

 off, and no more buds would start until 

 it again became very dry. No, sir, the 

 mesquite doesn't bloom after each good 

 rain in this locality. 



Rescue, Tex. L. B. Smith. 



The mesquite tree, or screw - bean 

 (Prosopis juliflora) which covers thou- 

 sands of miles of territory of the South- 

 west, and is the main honey-producing 

 source of this section, is peculiar in some 

 respects. One of these is related by 



Mr. .'^niith ; that of a heavy rain caus- 

 ing all the buds to drop when the bee- 

 keeper has been preparing for a heavy 

 honey-flow. I have seen just such dis- 

 appointment — this spring being among 

 the seasons when such happened. 



Trees of this kind need lots of mois- 

 ture the preceding year to lay up a sup- 

 ply of "food" for the following one, 

 when they will live from their sap 

 throughout the season, even through the 

 dryest of years. Therefore late sum- 

 mer and fall rains, or a wet fall and 

 winter, predict for us a good crop of 

 honey from mesquite, no matter whether 

 we have a dry year or not. Some of 

 my best honey crops were made when all 

 other people were complaining of hard 

 times on account of a dry year, and bad 

 crops of the farms. Last fall was very 

 favorable for the kind of prospects that 

 make the bee-keepers smile. But "there's 

 many a slip twixt cup and lip," and so it 

 was with us in that the spring was too 

 wet — too much rain, hence mesquite 

 grew too much into new wood instead 

 of setting buds, and the buds that did 

 appear soon dropped off on account of 

 the rains. 



As the blooming periods are two, the 

 first in April and a second in June, or 

 early July, we are hoping for dry 

 weather and a heavy blooming period 

 then, since the trees have had a long 

 rest period, and in addition they have 

 made an excellent growth of new wood 

 from which the healthiest buds should 

 spring. 



So a favorable fall and a dry season 

 the following year are our favorites ; wet 

 seasons bring us disappointments if we 

 depend upon the mesquite for our honey 

 crop. 



i*=^. 



Hives— Large vs. Small 



BY C. P. DADANT. 



In the May number of the American 

 Bee Journal I find two articles men- 

 tioning what has been called the "Da- 

 dant system," the one to praise it, the 

 other to criticise it with a sweeping con- 

 demnation of all that is not according 

 to some new doctrines. Allow me to say 

 a few things concerning the questions 

 raised. 



The Dadant system, as mentioned by 

 Mr. Getaz, consists mainly in using 

 large brood-chambers which give suffi- 

 cient room for all the needs of the col- 

 ony. Strong colonies are thus formed, 

 the best queens are given a chance to 

 develop their fertility, and the entire 

 management is simplified, by the possi- 

 bility of securing more bees, more stores 

 for winter, less swarming, and main- 

 taining the apiary at the number of 

 colonies desired without much fluctua- 



^tribute 



!r^ 



tion, and therefore with very few 

 manipulations. 



Mr. Dadant, senior, was the first man, 

 as far as I know, to establish in figures 

 the requirements of a good, strong col- 

 ony of bees. He had seen in his experi- 

 ence some remarkably successful colo- 

 nies of bees in very large box-hives and 

 had studied the causes of their fine con- 

 dition. This led him to enquire into 

 what was needed to accommodate the 

 most prolific queens and their bees with 

 space for brood-rearing, storing pollen 

 and a winter supply of honey that would 

 prove adequate in ordinary circum- 

 stances, with very powerful colonies. 



In the use of the different frames he 

 finally settled on the Quinby size as the 

 most satisfactory, and ascertained that 

 9 frames of that size would give about 

 the required room for the most prolific 

 queens. This was equal to between 12 

 and 13 Langstroth frames, 14 Gallup, 

 21 Heddon, and would call for 16 Dan- 

 zenbaker frames, under the same rules. 



