334 



November, 191 1. 



American Hee Journal 



bee-keepers were qualified in other 

 branches, so long as said bee-keepers 

 lived straight enough to keep out of 

 jail and did their lawful duties as citi- 

 zens of the land. No, Mr. Wilder, no 

 matter what you think of yourself, the 

 rest of us think you are all right, so 

 please do not belittle yourself any more 

 in the future. 



Say, I am right with you, though, on 

 that vacation business, and would like 

 to go visiting with you. Only if there 

 happened to be some fishing near our 

 travels you certainly would lose me un- 

 less you went angling, too, as I always 

 "go fishing" when I get tired and 

 want a change of scenery. 



Alfalfa in the East and in Canada 



Gleanings in Bee Culture reports 

 that in New York State, in the vicinity 



of Syracuse, alfalfa yielded honey very 

 rapidly this season. It would be inter- 

 esting to know just how the weather 

 conditions were at that time, as possi- 

 bly it may yield heavy here some time. 

 Mr. Holtermann, of Brantford, re- 

 ported that it yielded best with him 

 during a season when much rain was 

 in evidence, while, on the contrary, the 

 only time it ever did anything here was 

 at a time of pretty severe drouth. 



This season the alfalfa simply turned 

 yellow with the heat and drouth, and I 

 doubt if a drop of honey was gathered 

 from it. As the acreage is rapidly in- 

 creasing each year, it would be very 

 gratifying indeed if alfalfa could be- 

 come a honey-plant to be depended 

 upon. However, the farmers cut it be- 

 fore it blooms very much, so quite 

 likely it will never be a honey-plant of 

 importance in our section of country. 



Bee-Keeping 



In Dixie^ 



Conducted by J. J. Wilder. Cordele. Ga 



Death of Mr. R. W. Herlong 



It is with regret that I announce the 

 death of R. W. Herlong, of Fort White, 

 Fla., which occurred Oct. 11, 1911. He 

 was sick only .5 or 6 days, and his death 

 was not e.xpected, for up to that time 

 he was in his usual good health, work- 

 ing in his apiaries and packing houses, 

 removing, packing and shipping his fall 

 crop of honey, for, as the Dixie bee- 

 keepers know, he was one of our most 

 extensive and best bee-keepers. 



Fuller particulars will appear next 

 month. 



^ * » 



Good Management, Supplies and Stock 



Mr. Wilder : — I am surprised beyond my 

 expectation in tlie amount of lioney and the 

 difference in better management and better 

 stock of bees. This is all we need here to 

 harvest great crops of honey, and make 

 money at bee-keeping. From the honey-flow 

 from cotton alone I harvested 10.000 pounds 

 of light-colored, fine-flavored honey. 



It my county was properly stocked with 

 the best bees, and well managed, we would 

 ship out several car-loads of honey each 

 season. Those around me are questioning 

 me no little about my improved bees, hives, 

 methods, etc. I had a letterfrom T. S. Hall, 

 of Pickens county (this State), a few days 

 ago. saying that his bees were "rolling in 

 the honey." J. w. Cash. 



Bogart. Ga., Sept. 22 



On the brows and summits of the 

 "red hills" of North Georgia, near 

 Athens, will be found a large number 

 of neat modern apiaries owned and 

 operated by Mr. Cash. He buys the 

 best of supplies and uses full sheets of 

 comb foundation, and of late has put 

 in a stock of good bees, and his letter 

 above explains itself. But allow me to 

 say that Mr. Cash rears his own queens 

 from the best stock obtainable. But 

 he is located in a section that is far be- 

 low an average for honey-production. 



Good supplies, good stock, and good 

 management will cure any first-class 

 case of dissatisfaction in bee-keeping. I 

 wonder if any reader needs the remedy. 



Dissatisfied With the Yellow Bees 



I see from the bee-publications that the 

 Italian bees have not given you satisfaction, 

 and you have fallen upon something better 

 in a darker variety known as Caucasians. 

 Well, I have never been satisfied with these 

 yellow bees, either, the queens of which I 

 have been getting from the queen-breeders. 

 I have bought yellow queens from almost 

 all the queen-breeders of the United States, 

 and just about half of them proved to be 

 good queens. 



The yellow bees are too tender for the 

 bee-keepers who are so far north as I am. 

 Winters are too severe and long. I believe 

 the bees you have would prove better for 

 Canada. I notice that you sav that you are 

 not a Queen-breeder. and do not expect to 

 be. If I can't get better queens than I have 

 been buying from breeders. I am going at 

 the " queen job" myself. Ont.. Canada. 



I have never been satisfied with any 

 race or strain of bees, because they all 

 have more or less bad traits, and the 

 Italians had too many to be anywhere 

 near satisfactory, and this put me on 

 the alert for something better. 



One of the bad traits of the Italians 

 is, that at times they will seemingly, 

 and without a cause, get very furious 

 or angry, and this made conditions 

 very bad at my home apiary, located in 

 town, where I was going to rear all my 

 queens and most of my bees for an ex- 

 tensive bee-business. At these times 

 they would sting passing objects along 

 the near-by highway, and enter near- 

 by houses and sting my neighbors 

 sitting on their verandas, and some- 

 times enter their rooms and sting them ; 

 and at times they would storm the 

 town for sweets, and give the druggist 

 no little trouble. The situation was so 

 bad that I regretted that I ever bought 

 any Italian queens, and the town made 

 a " kick," and the city authorities no- 

 tified me that I would have to move my 

 bees. 



This, indeed, was discouraging to 

 me, and the "air castles" which had 

 made their appearance, relative to my 

 future bee-business, had almost van- 

 ished, when the news reached me that 

 a " gentle " variety of bees had been 



secured by our Government. I applied 

 at once for foundation stock, which I 

 obtained, and since I have installed it 

 the bad situation has been entirely re- 

 moved, and I have been able to rear 

 more queens and bees than I could 

 have reared with the Italian stock, and 

 have been able to operate more api- 

 aries and do a larger bee-business than 

 I could ever have done with the yellow 

 race of bees. I have tried both races 

 faithfully, and I know what I am talk- 

 ing about when I express myself as I 

 do relative to the Caucasian bees, and 

 crosses with them. 



It is perfectly natural for us all to 

 love the " beautiful yellow bees," and I 

 find that it greatly improves the Cau- 

 casian bees to give them a light dash 

 of the " j'ellow " blood. They don't 

 propolize so badly and build so many 

 bur and brace combs, which is the 

 greatest objection to the Caucasian 

 stock. 



Now, I don't advise doing away with 

 our "yellow " blood entirely, but let us 

 try a heavy dash of the Caucasian blood, 

 if we are not satisfied with the yellow 

 stock. No reports have come in that 

 it does not make an improvement. 



It might be said that I have not had 

 much experience with Italian bees, and 

 have never compared them thoroughly 

 side by side. I have 9 apiaries of Ital- 

 ian bees located in a section of coun- 

 try where the wild bees in the forest 

 for miles around are pure Italians 

 (such conditions do not e.xist any- 

 where else in the United States, per- 

 haps), and the Caucasian blood makes 

 an improvement there. 



Now about the poor queens you 

 have been buying. If half of the queens 

 you have been buying prove to be good 

 ones, as you state they are, I don't 

 think you should "kick." Considering 

 the damage done to queens through 

 the mail, and the present prevailing 

 prices of queens, a queen-breeder can't 

 rear choice queens to fill orders with, 

 for 50, 65, or 75 cents each, or even at 

 $1.00 each, and e.xpect to live thereby. 



Every bee-keeper who is familiar 

 with the rearing of queens, knows tliat 

 we get only a small percent of choice 

 queens out of each batch of cells, and 

 we can not pinch the heads ofl:' of the 

 others and fill orders with the choice 

 queens at the very low prices. No, the 

 orders have to be filled with these 

 queens, taking them as they come, and 

 we can afford only now and then 

 to pinch the head from a very inferior 

 one. So you see, dear bee-keeper, how 

 orders are filled for "cheap" queens. 

 Then they have to be bumped and 

 jarred in the mail, and perhaps remain 

 for several days in a half-smothered 

 condition in a mail-sack — all of which 

 is very detrimental, or straining on the 

 tender and delicate organs of the 

 queen. So by the time she reaches 

 you, you have a cheap queen for which 

 you have paid a frivolous amount. 



Allow me to relate an incident right 

 here that will throw some light on the 

 subject of rearing and buying queens. 

 A bee-keeper friend of mine wrote me 

 once that he wanted to start a small 

 out-apiary, and he wanted Yl of the 

 best queens I had or could rear for the 

 foundation stock. I had been saving 

 some very choice queens, and I wrote 



