American Hee Journal 



Bee-Keeping 



In Dixie^ 



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



Reports from Dixie 



From the white tiipelo-gum region: 



My bees almost had the nectar in their 

 Tnouths when the awfully cool and windy 

 weather set in. which continued during the 

 jlow, and only a half crop, or less, was har- 

 vested. S. S. Alderman. 



Wewahitchka. Fla. 



From the chinquapin region : 



Our flow is good. Many of my colonies are 

 storing in their third and fourth supers. 

 Fort White, Fla. R. W. Herlong. 



From the saw palmetto region : 



The heavy gale set in with the honey flow. 

 and has lasted up to the present, and less 

 than a half crop will be gathered. 



Canaveral. Fla. H. L. Holmes. 



From the poplar region : 



The weather is very cool, and the honey- 

 plant is nearly at its height of bloom, and I 

 fear a very light crop will be the result, for 

 the bees have not done much storing in the 

 supers. John W. Cash. 



Bogart. Ga. 



From the ty-ty region : 



The freeze in February killed the larger 

 percent of ty-ty. and a large crop can not be 

 expected. L. S. GiLMORE. 



Bluff Springs. Fla. 



From the gallberry region: 



The honey-flow is the best for years, and a 

 good crop has been gathered, except in loca- 

 tions where the forest and waste land have 

 been burned close. It has been a very dry 

 winter and spring, and almost all low land 

 could have been burned off. and in some 

 localities it was. which, of course, will make 

 the flow light with some bee-keepers. 



Pinehurst. Ga. B. I. Leaptrot. 



Apiary Work for July 



The most unpleasant thought about 

 outlining apiary work is that very few 

 will try, or at least make an effort, to 

 follow in some way the work outlined. 

 Well, it is just this important: If we 

 turn loose our bees as soon as the 

 spring harvest is over, we will have 

 but very little or no summer and fall 

 harvest, and heavy losses during the 

 winter and spring. On the other hand, 

 if we do continue apiary work, we may 

 expect a good honey harvest to follow, 

 and no winter losses. I have tried it 

 both ways, and I am more eager to pre- 

 pare my bees for summer and fall har- 

 vest than spring, because weather con- 

 ditions are most sure to be more favor- 

 able. Since I have resorted to con- 

 tinued apiary work, I have gone from 

 no summer harvest to where it is about 

 equal to the spring harvest. 



I used to fear failures, but I don't 

 now, because I have so much time to 

 do apiary work and harvest honey. 



The greatest thing we can do towards 

 harvesting a crop of honey is to have 

 all colonies headed with good queens 

 and plenty of bees, and the brood de- 

 partments well filled with brood in all 

 stages of development, so as to main- 

 tain the strength of the working force 

 throughout the entire flow. If this 

 holds good for the spring flow, why 



not for the other flows which are to 

 follow ? But this is a little more diffi- 

 cult to do in apiaries where there are 

 old queens, or less prolific ones, for by 

 this time they have done the best work 

 for the season, but young queens will 

 readily occupy the comb in the brood- 

 chamber, if it is not filled with honey, 

 and keep the colonies highly populated 

 right on throughout the entire season, 

 harvesting all the honey possible from 

 each flow, and go into winter quarters 

 in the best possible shape; and for this 

 reason I advocate and urge the bee- 

 keepers to requeen right after the 

 spring flow all colonies that may have 

 old queens, or queens over 2 years old. 

 If this has been done, such colonies 

 can be supered at the approach of each 

 honey-flow, and as the flow from cot- 

 ton is now on this can be done. 



At this season of the year it is folly 

 to set supers over colonies of bees 

 without knowing the contents of the 

 colonies, for the bees will enter them 

 and soil the interior fixtures, and may 

 be gnaw away the comb foundation, or 

 do but little work in them, because the 

 working force is too weak; but if the 

 colonies are strong and active, they 

 will fill the super at once with bees, 

 and begin comb-building and storing 

 honey. 



If colonies are not ready for the su- 

 pers they should be left off, and made 

 ready by giving them prolific queens 

 or plenty of room. 



Woriting Comb Foundation 



It is very difficult for bees to work 



comb foundation at this time of the 



year, owing to the high temperature 



which makes it very flimsy. This can 



be overcome by dipping it in cool 



water as it is \ised, and shaking the 



water off. 



*-•-» 



Chunk Honey Packed in Barrels 



In(|uiries have come in recently from 

 honey-dealers relative to shipments of 

 chunk honey packed in barrels and 

 kegs, saying they have been receiving 

 shipments of chunk honey thus packed, 

 and saved considerable transportation 

 charges ; and that they repacked it into 

 smaller vessels for the trade. They 

 say if it is packed very closely and 

 carefully, and covered well with ex- 

 tracted honey, that it always arrives in 

 good condition, or the comb unbroken. 



I would not know how to pack honey 

 thus, unless it would be to loosen the 

 top hoops and remove the heads of the 

 barrels and kegs, and after well filled 

 with comb, put the heads back, and 

 tighten up the hoops, and finish filling 

 them with extracted honey through a 

 small hole in the heads, then seal up. 



The trade is more and more calling 

 for chunk honey, and if it can be thus 

 supplied, it would certainly mean a 

 boon to chunk-honey production. 



Frame or Comb Manipulation 



The average bee-keeper in Dixie does 

 not handle or examine the combs of 

 his bees. He just buys hives for the 

 bees and puts the swarms in them, and 

 leaves them to thrive or die. And the 

 nearest they come to " culturing " their 

 bees is removing the honey they may 

 have stored. A very small percent of 

 the extensive bee-keepers ever examine 

 the brood-chamber of their hives as 

 much as twice during a season, and 

 only every now and then can one be 

 found who resorts to comb manipula- 

 tion in a wholesale way throughout the 

 entire season. And it is a wonder that 

 bee-keepers succeed as well as they do 

 here. 



But is it worth while, or does it pay 

 to do it? Many times, yes ; for profit 

 in the business can only be measured 

 by the amount of proper or prudent 

 comb manipulation the bees have re- 

 ceived. The beginner should examine 

 the comb of his bees by the time a 

 swarm has built a set of combs in the 

 brood-chamber. It's the best and 

 quickest way to learn bee-keeping. 

 Just the mere examining of combs will 

 suggest the exchanging of a comb of 

 one colony for that of another, that the 

 bounty of one may supply the need of 

 another. 



I know that if comb manipulation is 

 resorted to in a wholesale way through- 

 out each season, much labor is involv- 

 ed, for it is a long, tedious process, but 

 it is interesting, and I don't mind "to 

 dig " so long as I see good results fol- 

 lowing me up as I go from hive to 

 hive, and from apiary to apiary. 



Frame or comb manipulation covers 

 the broader field of bee-culture, and I 

 know of nothing that would add more 

 to the profit side of our industry than 

 a set-up system of comb manipulation 

 by every bee-keeper. 



*-•-* 



Excessive Use of Smoke on Bees 



I have often seen bee-keepers smoke 

 their bees so severely while manipulat- 

 ing frames that the greater part of the 

 bees would boil out at the entrance and 

 cluster under the alighting-board, or 

 around on the sides of the hives, and 

 there remain for several hours before 

 they would all go back into the hive, 

 and from thence to the field, and the 

 general work under full headway again. 

 And this they do, seemingly, not aware 

 of the fact that they have given the bees 

 a great back-set in their work. This 

 is, indeed, poor policy at a time when 

 there is no nectar to be gathered, and, 

 when there is, it is done at the expense 

 of the honey crop. If the nights are 

 cool the bees will not stir much in the 

 early part of the morning, or late in the 

 afternoon ; then if they are thus mo- 

 lested or hindered during the warm 

 hours of the day, for several days dur- 

 ing a honey-flow, it will mean consid- 

 erable loss. I would rather use smoke 

 moderately, and endure a few stings, 

 than to sustain the loss. 



"Bees and Honey" — the book by Thos. 

 G. Newman — is almost out of print, 

 but we have a few copies left (cloth 

 bound) at 'Ml cents each. Do you want 

 one ? Address the office of the .\meri- 

 can Bee Journal.* 



