American Vee Journal 



Southern 



Beedom^ 



Cnnducted by Louis H. Scholl, New Braunfels. Tex. 



"The Battle for Honey" 



Some time ago the editor of this de- 

 partment received a copy of an article 

 with the above title, which appeared in 

 "Orchard and Farm, Combined with 

 Irrigation," published in San Francisco, 

 Calif. It was written by one of our 

 well-known writers, and one of whom 

 much has been said of late — one whom 

 the writer is proud to see in the field of 

 apicultural writers. But there is a 

 question that I would like to ask after 

 reading the following paragraph, which 

 was taken from the above-mentioned 

 article : 



"This battle for honey is becoming more 

 and more a winning one. as is evidenced by 

 the hundreds of cars of honey shipped out 

 of the West to Eastern markets. California 

 icaiis ail S/atfs in the firadnition of honey, and 

 Colorado comes a I'retlv close second, while Xew 

 Mexico. Arizona. Utah Nevada. Idaho and 

 Wyoming all produce more honey than is 

 consumed within their borders. Alfalfa is 

 the chief source of honey in these States, 

 except in California, where sage and orange 

 blossoms combine to put California clear to 

 the front ot all other States. 



Now here is the question : Where 

 does Texas come in for her place ? Can 

 it be denied successfully that the great 

 Lone Star State — the State that has had 

 more good honey seasons on the aver- 

 age, and a larger output annually from 

 within her vast proportions and area — 

 is not and has not been entitled to first 

 place ? According to the above, she 

 does not even come in for second 

 place — in fact, the readers of the article 

 are led to believe that Texas is not 

 even a honey-producing State at all ! 



The italics above are mine. At the 

 time it seemed ridiculous to mention 

 the matter, and the article was mislaid 



should be overlooked entirely, as 

 shown by the above paragraph. 



A Texas Work-Shop and Honey-House 



In the last issue I promised that I would 

 show how niy shop and honey-house looks, 

 where I spend much of my time when I 



I shows that it is constructed entirely of 

 galvanized corrugated iron-roofing on the 

 top and sides. The frame-work of the 

 house is built out of cheap lumber. This, 

 together with the ease with which such a 

 house is constructed, make it quite a deal 

 cheaper than many of the houses that have 

 been illustrated. This has been quite an 

 item with me. 



One of the first presumptions would be 

 that a building entirely covered with 

 metal of the kind used by me would make 

 a very hot building in which to work 

 during the summer time, and very cold in 

 the winter. But this is not the case with 

 my house, due to the peculiar construc- 

 tion of the south and southwest end and 

 side of the building. The view is taken 

 from the southwest, so it will be seen 

 quite readily that the south breeze, of 



Fig. ;.— Detail of Shutter-Construction. 



am not able, on account of bad weather or 

 otherwise, to attend to the bees in the 

 apiaries. I think a great deal of this 

 honey-house, because it is the only one of 

 its kind that I know of. Although the 

 house is not built on as fine a style as 



Fig. 1.— Scholl's Everlasting Fire-Proof (and Yet Cool in the Hottest Weath- 

 er) Combined Honey-House and Work-Shop. 



for some time, but when it came to 

 light again, and I read it over, I began 

 to wonder how it was possible that we 

 little fellows, who have been doing 

 some big things for a good many years, 



I might have built, yet it serves the pur- 

 pose admirably, and it is really the princi- 

 ple of the different working parts that 

 make it up, of which I pride myself. 



The picture of the entire house in Fig. 



which we have an abundance almost at all 

 times during the summer, passes right into 

 and through the house, going in at the 

 large openings provided for this purpose, 

 and out of the windows at the other end. 



This is obtained by the peculiar con- 

 struction of the large shutters which are 

 more than one-half the entire wall-sur- 

 face on the southwest side of the house. 

 To give the reader a better understanding 

 of the working method applied on these 

 two more drawings, Figs. 2 and 3, are 

 given. These show how the extending 

 arms that hold the shutters out in the 

 right position, can be made to fold up 

 underneath them, much like the tongue of 

 a bee folds underneath its head. The 

 principle is the same exactly. 



WTien it is desired to have these shut- 

 ters open, a pull at the ropes forces the 

 arms out and opens the shutters. If they 

 are to be closed, with a light push under 

 the folding arms, while the other hand 

 holds the rope firmly, to prevent the shut- 

 ter slamming down too rapidly, the side 

 of the house can be closed. Since there 

 are 4 of these shutters, any part of the 

 side of the building can be opened as de- 

 sired. For this reason it is a cool build- 

 ing during the summer time, and, being 

 well protected, with the windows closed 

 on the north side, it is also a warm build- 

 ing in the winter. 



I also shofw you a cross-section through 

 the entire length of the building. First, 

 we enter the shop where I have a suitable 

 work-bench and shelves for a complete set 

 of all kjiuds of tools that are so necessary 

 in the bee-keeper's work. From this shop 

 I have ingress to the space underneath the 

 other half of the building, designated as 



