May, iQir. 



American Vae Journal 



to do some of those " numerous other 

 duties " that made 200 colonies too 

 many ? Very likely that would be so 

 in many cases. With men it would 

 oftener be so than with women. The 

 work that a man finds to interfere with 

 his bee-keeping can often be as well 

 done by some cheaper help. But a 

 woman's work falls largely in the line 

 of home-making, and it often happens 

 — generally happens — that if the home- 

 making be delegated to some one else, 

 the home will not be so home-like. At 

 any rate, the sympathies of the present 

 writer are entirely with Miss Hoffman 

 in preferring to keep the number of 

 bees down to that point where some 

 time would still be left for home-mak- 

 ing. 



Miss Hoffman quotes the books as 

 saying that when bees have larvje they 

 will rear a queen in 10 days ? Is that 

 really a well-established fact ? Oppor- 

 tunity for very extended observation 

 " in this locality " makes it pretty safe 

 to say that when a colony having brood 



becomes queenless it will be 12 days 

 before a young queen emerges, pre- 

 supposing, of course, that no queen- 

 cell was started at the time of becoming 

 queenless. Occasionally that 12 days 

 has become 11, but if there was ever a 

 10-day case, it escaped observation. 

 Certainly the thing must be so rare as 

 to be hardly worth taking into account. 



[We may say further that Miss Hoff- 

 man's interesting paper was sent in by 

 Mr. W. D. Wright, vice-president of 

 the National Bee-Keepers' Association, 

 who requested its preparation for a 

 bee-keepers' institute held under the 

 auspices of the New York State Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, at Utica, N. Y., 

 Dec. 18, 1910. Mr. Wright also kindly 

 secured and forwarded the accompany- 

 ing photograph of Miss Hoffman. She 

 is a daughter of the late Julius Hoff- 

 man, inventor of the " Hoffman frame." 

 so well known to bee-keepers every- 

 where. — The Editor.] 



Bee-Keeping 



In Dixie^ 



Conducted by J. J. Wilder, Cordele. Ga. 



"Bee-Keeping in Dixie" 



Hello. Mr. Bee-keeper! We want to be 

 recognized under the above heading, and 

 take our stand for more or better bee-keep- 

 ing in Dixie, and that some rays of light may 

 shine forth from this dark and benighted 

 corner of beedom. 



Dixie is not only the "Land of Cotton." 

 but is also the land of bees and honey, and 

 opportunities for those who love the busi- 

 ness and properly follow it. The bee-keep- 

 ing world looks upon Dixie (all the South- 

 east) as the dark corner, because log-gums, 

 boxhives. and the unimproved races of bees 

 have predominated, and that bee-literature 

 has been so slow penetrating into this great 

 section. The dawn of better days is upon 

 us. and to help hasten development of our 

 industry here our bee-publications are giving 

 more than the usual amount of space to this 

 section. Wherefore comes our Department 

 "Bee-Keeping in Dixie;" and our entire 

 body of bee keepers is called upon to con- 

 tribute to our corner, and to render appre- 

 ciation to the Editor of the American Bee 

 Journal. To whom be thanks. 



ural or unexpected occurrences that comr 

 up before us individually, while about ou 

 apiary work, that are most vital to our sue 

 cess; and here is where our reasoning 

 powers must be exercised. 



Departments of Beedom 



I believe the editors of our bee-publica- 

 tions are more and more endeavoring to 

 reach and help through the medium of their 

 papers all classes of bee-keepers in all 

 kinds of locations. Through them beekeep- 

 ers for miles around can obtain information 

 of those in similar locations and under simi- 

 lar conditions. I am yet to meet a bee- 

 keeper who had a cutand-dried business. 

 We are all on the alert, or grasping for help- 

 ful ideas, and through the departments they 

 can best be obtained, as well as general in- 

 formation. 



I used to think that different locations 

 played but little part when it came to the 

 practical side of beekeeping, but now the 

 more I know about bee-keeping at home and 

 abroad, the more I am in sympathy with 

 bee-keepers in different localities. 



Then. too. it is often remarked, should the 

 old contributors to our bee-publications 

 consume so much space if fresh ideas could 

 be obtained from many sources? I don't 

 know whether they would be any better or 

 more effective or not. but I do know that 

 even a great number of contributors can 

 never solve our every-day problems. They 

 may give us a lot of general information, but 

 this is only a small part, after all. It is the 

 seemingly small, or less important, unnat- 



A Little Bee-Meditation 



If all the printed matter on bee-culture I 

 have ever read could be collected, it would 

 indeed compose a very small library, and if 

 I had my bee-keeping life to live over I 

 would read less and think more. When it 

 comes to success, much serious meditating 

 is essential, and all other forces gather 

 up around it. I am glad to say that 1 have 

 met only a few who had made a straight-out 

 failure at bee-keeping, and one in particular 

 was a " bookworm." He never formulated 

 any plans or solved any problems, yet he 

 had read almost everything that had been 



Erin ted on bee-culture, and was well posted: 

 ut when it came to the practical side of 

 the business, he was a total failure, although 

 he had considerable experience in the work. 

 He had to consult the " text " on everything 

 he went about to do. and had no confidence 

 in himself or his own judgment, but totally 

 relied upon what had been written on the 

 subject. 



Now don't understand me to say that we 

 should not read bee papers or books on bee- 

 culture. Far from it. We should by all 

 means buy all that we are able to buy to 

 read on the subject. O! how good, instruc- 

 tive literature brings us up to the thinking 

 or meditating point! But right here it leaves 

 us to put our own reasoning faculties in 

 force. Especially is this true since the op- 

 erating of apiaries is so widely different in 

 different localities, and the management of 

 the bees necessarily be changed to suit con- 

 ditions which do not prevail in all locations. 



A Discouraging Prospect 



Mr. Wilder:— I have always had good 

 crops of honey, but it will be a total failure 

 with me this year; and, besides. I may lose 

 all my bees. I have only loo colonies left, 

 and about loo bees to the hive. I am " up 

 against " something I have never experi- 

 enced or heard of before. My bees were 

 blacks, Italians, and Carniolans. 



Lumber City, Ga. W.M.ROGERS. 



I wrote Mr. Rogers to unite and feed, and 

 he replied that he was completely out of the 

 bee-business, and said that the bees had 



stores, and. besides, there was nectar in the 

 field. He said further that there were no 

 young bees reared during winter and early 

 spring, and that the old bees died out rap- 

 idly. 



Mr. Todd, of New York, experienced about 

 the same thing at Jesup. Ga., a few years 

 ago. and I knowof other similar cases. I have 

 never experienced anything like it. In loca- 

 tions where my main honey-flow comes 

 latest, the bees usually breed up too fast. I 

 have quite a number during the year of what 

 I call "suiciders." which seem to be deter- 

 mined and settled on going to nothing, but 

 this occurs mostly among the weaker colo- 

 nies containing old queens, but sometimes 

 strong colonies will do the same thing — 

 swarm out, and leave their brood and stores, 

 and settle and perish, or attempt to enter 

 another colony. Of course, the robbers will 

 take possession of their stores at once, and 

 the moth their comb. When I think a colony 

 has started to dwindle down. I reduce the 

 amount of comb to where they can cover it 

 well, and I believe this does reduce the 

 number of " suiciders. ' It is certamly safer 

 under these conditions to have the queens 

 occupy one or two combs well, than to oc- 

 cupy poorly a greater number. For fear of 

 deserting I afterward unite, add brood, and 

 requeen— even then the number of " suicid- 

 ers" is great enough. 



Sluggishness of queens at certain times, 

 dwindling and deserting, are common oc- 

 currences, and bee-keepers are becoming 

 more and more alarmed over the situation. 

 I think it is time for the bee-keepers to rise 

 up and say something on the subject. 



The Next Honey-Flow 



By the time this is read the spring or first 

 honey-flow will be off. or passing off. and all 

 honey should be removed and put on the 

 market, and the comb or chunk honey su- 

 pers not containing ready-built combs left 

 off the hives and prepared to be given back 

 to the bees at the approach of the next 

 honey-flow, which we should begin prepar- 

 ing our bees for as soon as we can turn loose 

 from the spring honey crop. 



There are only a few locations in Dixie 

 where the bee-keepers are not entitled to 

 one or more good honey-flows before winter, 

 and they are much surer than those in the 

 spring, because weather conditions are 

 usually better. But, alas! only a small per- 

 cent of the bee-keepers harvest a crop of 

 honey during these flows, simply because 

 they do not prepare their bees for them. 

 They seem to expect only a spring honey- 

 flow, and as soon as they sell what little 

 they harvest during this time they are ready 

 for a vacation or outing, or lay aside bee- 

 keeping and take up something else until 

 next spring, when, of course, the bees, in a 

 way. will naturally prepare themselves for 

 the flow. 



Now let us talk some about the stock of 

 our bees before we go back to the unim- 

 proved bees. When I kept only the common, 

 unimproved bees I, too, had only a spring 

 harvest of honey, and now where I don't 

 have the improved stock I get only a spring 

 crop of honey. On the other hand, where^ 

 I have the improved stock my summer and 

 fall harvest about equals the spring harvest, 

 and there a great difference in the return at 

 the wind-up of the season, and the bees are 

 in far better shape for winter. 



I believe some bee-keepers are prejudiced 

 against the common stock of bees, better 

 known as blacks, and they have a reason for 

 believing that they are most unsuitable for 

 them. In locations where it is possible to 

 have but one honey-flow, and that in early 

 spring, the blacks are just as good as any 

 bees. Some bee-keepers seem to think that 

 the blacks can be greatly improved as honey- 

 gatherers. I think this is hardly probable, 

 because their queens will not breed up as 

 they should after early spring. It matters 

 not how much they are stimulated, they will 

 lay only scatteringly about in the brood-nest, 

 and here and yonder a bee will be developed. 

 I have never known a queen of the black 

 race of bees to compact the brood suffi- 

 ciently to produce bees enough to harvest a 

 crop of honey after spring, consequently the 

 later flows pass off and are hardly detected, 

 and the bees even go into winter quarters in 

 poor condition, and losses are almost sure to 

 occur. This point of objection to the blacks 

 is hard to overcome, and stands good almost 

 everywhere, and we are "up against if. 

 when it comes to improvement. 



Now for theunsupered colonies, thesupers 

 are out of the way and we are ready for a 

 general inspecting tour from hive to hive, to 

 see what we can count on for the next 



