October, igii. 



American Hee JonrnaI| 



bee-culture. It is hard to get the 

 erroneous ideas out of beginners, and 

 as a rule, they have to sweat or ex- 

 perience them out. Such is too often 

 the case on the subject of better 

 stock. 



Caucasians vs. Black Bees 



Our honey crop in this section has been 

 very little for the past 3 years. Our main 

 honey-flow comes on so early in the spring 

 that we cannot get our colonies strong 

 enough to take advantage of it. I think 

 the Caucasians might build vip earlier 

 than our Italians. I notice that our na- 

 tive black bees build up more quickly than 

 the Italians, and enter the supers better, 

 too, and cap the honey whiter ; but when 

 hot weather comes on they are inclined 

 to loaf, and require constant care, while 

 the Italians will take care of themselves. 



Moore, Tex. O. E. Mil.JiM. 



I think the Caucasian bees will 

 build up as quick and as fast as the 

 blacks in the early spring, if not 

 quicker, for they compact their brood 

 so much more, and, besides, the}' will 

 keep pace with the Italians in brood- 

 rearing and storing honey the re- 

 mainder of the season, and withstand 

 bad weather conditions better. 



Almost a Honey-Famine 



"Mr. Wilder ; — There is no doubt that 

 we are facing a honey-famine, and you 

 ask what is to be done. There is only 

 one thing that can be done, and that is 

 to preach the sermon Mr. Hutchinson 

 used to preach to us — "Keep more bees." 

 Southwestern Bee Co. 



San Antonio, Tex., Sept. 9. 



It must be true that we are in the 

 midst of the greatest honey-famine 

 we have ever experienced. Stacks of 

 orders for honey, and none to fill 

 them. 



There must be a solution to the 

 critical problem, but as the Texas 

 firm says, preach the sermon "More 

 Bees," and, I might add, let's prac- 

 tice what we preach. 



Bee-keeping is surely on a safe 

 footing now. We can set the price 

 on our product and get it, and we 

 can invest in "more bees" and give 

 the necessary labor, and make the 

 business a business, and a profitable 

 one, too. No market and low prices 

 have been a great drawback to the 

 South in honey production. Now that 

 this great hindrance is removed, sure- 

 ly the beekeepers will enjoy great 

 prosperity, and a great number added 

 to our ranks, and bee-keeping raised 

 to that plain of perfection where 

 skepticism can never again reach it. 



Wrong Ideas About Locations for Bees 



There is a prevailing idea among 

 bee-keepers that they must have their 

 bees located in or near large swamps 

 in order to have them best located. 

 This is a mistaken idea. Bee-keepers 

 passing through here view the country, 

 and often write that they see no bee- 

 range here, for there are no swamps. 

 Well, this is a rather high section of the 

 country, but it is well watered by small 

 creeks and branches, and along them 

 is considerable waste land, which is 

 covered with gallberry bushes, and in 



them are tlie ty-ties, tupelo-gum, pop- 

 lar, and the high lands all between them 

 are the fields of cotton and corn. So 

 all the land is utilized as a bee-pasture 

 e.xcept the fields of corn, and my bees 

 get abundance of pollen from it. These 

 varieties of honey-plants conflict but 

 little in their flow; besides, there is a 

 long list of other minor honey-plants. 



For honey - production, locations 

 could not be more ideal. Yet to the 

 passer-by it is a poor bee-and-honey 

 country, indeed. 



There are large swamps at a distance, 

 and we have some bees located in them, 

 but we get a crop of honey only about 

 every three years from them, and here 

 we get a crop every year. Then, out 

 here it is high and healthy, and trans- 

 portation is good, while on the swamps 

 it is malarious, and chills and fever 

 abound, and a boat of some kind is 

 about the only way of transportation. 

 Besides being remote, civilization is 

 not so far advanced, etc. 



These high sections are to be found 

 almost anywhere in Dixie, and I men- 

 tion the above to correct the much- 

 mistaken idea that bees must be kept in 

 swamps to expect the greatest returns. 



My Imperfections as a Bee-Keeper 



When it comes to callings, talents or 

 gifts, there is a vacancy in my peculiar 

 make-up that bee-keeping comes the 

 nearest to filling, and I am proud of 

 my calling and my business, and it mat- 

 ters not how long, tedious and toilsome 

 my task may be, it's all a joy to me. 



But the saddest thought I have is. 

 Have I given my business justice, and 

 have I held bee-keeping before the in- 

 terested world as I should f Well, I 

 have tried. But,.0! my imperfections 

 as a bee-keeper! When I reflect over 

 each day's work, though, as consider- 

 ately or thoughtfully as I went about 

 it here and there, I made mistakes and 

 blunders that if I had not made would 

 have meant dollars to me, and I console 

 myself with the thought that I will do 

 better tomorrow; but when tomor- 

 row's task is over, no great change for 



the better has been made, for I have 

 not left storing-room for the bees best 

 suited for their convenience. I could 

 have arranged it more ideally, and in- 

 creased the returns thereby. Then, 

 too, I could have arranged the brood- 

 nests in certain colonies so that the 

 queens could have occupied them bet- 

 ter, and thereby had n^uch stronger 

 colonies for the honey-flow. 



Also, here and yonder I could have 

 requeened colonies and greatly in- 

 creased returns, and many other things 

 too numerous to mention I could have 

 done that would have added so much 

 to my business; and when I take them 

 under consideration, it is a wonder to 

 me that I succeed as well as I do. 



Caucasian Bees 



The question of better stock is being 

 greatly agitated among bee-keepers at 

 present in Dixie. And the Caucasians 

 are brought in question as compared 

 with other prolific races of bees. I 

 don't know of a better time for testi- 

 monies pro and con, relative to this 

 race of bees, and its cross with other 

 stock. There has been a great number 

 of these bees and queens sent out over 

 the country, and good, reliable reports 

 can be made from almost all sections, 

 and we will try to gather up some of 

 such reports and get them in ne.xt 

 month. 



I have tried them and their crosses 

 extensively for several years, and from 

 time to time I have reported through 

 the bee-publications their good and 

 bad qualities, as I have found them, and 

 that their good qualities out-numbered 

 their bad ones. I have adopted them 

 as my stock, with just enough cross 

 with the Italian stock to give them 

 gray and yellow bands, which can be 

 obtained in the first and second crosses. 

 This combination of color is just as 

 admirable as the beautiful golden Ital- 

 ians. So there is nothing lost in color, 

 but the propolizing quality of the Cau- 

 casians is lost, which hitherto has been 

 the leading objection to them. Then 

 we have a strain of bees that will most 

 surely win out. 



Southern 



Beedom- 



Conducted by Louis H. Scholl. New Braunfels. Tex. 



Do Bees Move Eggs? 



I was much interested in Mr. Grant 

 Anderson's article headed. "Do Bees Move 

 Eggs?" (page 182). With no desire to 

 provoke controversy with Mr. Anderson, 

 or any one else who thinks differently 

 from myself, I still seriously doubt if 

 bees ever move eggs or larvs from one 

 cell to another for the purpose of rearing 

 a queen. I know Mr. Anderson is not 

 alone in the belief that bees do move eggs 

 and larvx from one cell to another. I 

 have read of other good bee-keepers who 

 have claimed to have positive evidence to 

 this effect. I do not doubt the statement 

 of the evidence they claim to possess 

 which causes them to think as they do, 

 but I think there are too many chances 

 to be mistaken. 



Having been a careful student of api- 

 culture for 30 years, and having been a 

 close observer. I have never yet had any 

 proof come imder my observation that 

 would prove that bees ever move eggs 

 from one cell to another. I am aware 

 of the fact that because I have had no evi- 

 dence to cause me to believe they never 

 do such things is no positive proof that 

 they never do, but it is a straw in that 

 direction. I think it would require rea- 

 son on the part of the bees to move 

 eggs, to steal eggs, etc., with which to 

 rear a queen, and I do not believe bees 

 possess reasoning powers. 



I know it is difficult to define the dif- 

 ference between reason and instinct, but 

 there is a difference. But I will not take 

 up space here to define that difference. 

 It is not at all strange that the average 



