c 



ur^ 



Pkbriarv, 191S 



MR. Eniosto 

 Tsi'hudin, 

 L u y a b a , 

 Argentina, gives 

 in some recent 

 letters interest- 

 ing glimpses at 

 sideline beekeep- 

 ing in our south- 

 ern sister repub- 

 lic. Mr. Tscliudin's chief work consists of 

 the care of se\-eral acres of vineyard and or- 

 chard, peach, apple, pear, apricot, walnut 

 and even almond trees, all under irrigation 

 and all tilled with an American horse culti- 

 vator. Comparing the bees to the other 

 things, Mr. Tschudin considers that the lit- 

 tle pets, as he regards them, have given very 

 good returns for the care devoted to them. 

 Sierras de Cordoba, where this fruit and 

 bee farm lies, is a very arid region, with ir- 

 rigation a necessity — somewhat like south- 

 ern California. Spring comes, of course, in 

 September and October, and the bees build 

 up at that time on peach and orange bloom. 

 A little later comes the Algarroba (a near 

 relative to the mesquite of Texas), with 

 sometimes a little nectar from alfalfa, grown 

 in only a limited way. Then there is not 

 much else except wild vegetation until fall, 

 coming in March and April, brings in golden- 

 rod and a small white aster. The honey is 

 amber with rather a pronounced aromatic 

 flavor, and the surplus is sent to Buenos 

 Aires in tin. Mr. Tschudin has most of his 

 apiary in long-idea hives. He first tried 

 out two of these, and it happened that dur- 

 ing that season he had several weeks of 

 half-sickness, when he found it practically 

 impossible to lift off supers from the tiered- 

 up hives, but had no difficulty at all work- 

 ing with these two. He was so pleased with 

 them that even after becoming well and 

 strong again he decided to use only this 

 type for increase. In spite of these hives 

 being made with two or three narrow boards 

 running the long way of the sides, held to- 

 gether by vertical cleats, they neither split 

 nor warped, tho the temperature ran to 112 

 degrees, that being the hottest and dryest 

 summer known in that section. Mr. Tschu- 

 din uses Jumbo frames, 20 or 21 to the hive, 

 and finds a certain amount of shifting of 

 frames necessary for best results. 



* * * 



Here is the keynote for success, in side- 

 lines or main lines, in beekeeping or other 

 work: " What's worth doing at all is worth 

 doing well. ' ' Now here comes the season 

 of 1918. We have our chance again, a new 

 spring as yet unmarred by any slipshod 

 work, any procrastination, any half-way do- 

 ing of things. We can make it the best sea- 

 son we have yet had, perhaps not in honey 

 obtained (that will depend largely on things 

 without our control), but at any rate in per- 

 sonal endeavor. 



* * * 



It seems to me those are the longest long- 

 idea hives I ever saw, page 17, January. I 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Beekeeping as a Side Line 



1 



Grace Allen 



^"^^^^^^^ 



nea'i the longest 

 a n d largest I 

 ever saw p i c - 

 tures of, never 

 yet having en- 

 countered the 

 actual -hive. But 

 36 Jumbo frames 

 would naturally 

 take something 

 larger than a shoe box. I wish Mr. R-edor 

 had given us some idea of their cost. It 

 seems to me these hives are well worth try- 

 ing for many a side-liner, esjiecially women. 

 We hope to have a few ourselves this year. 



* * * 



Other sideliners may be interested in the 

 following on the subject of division -boards, 

 from Mr. L. E. Webb, Morganton, N. C. 

 ' ' Division-boards seem to cause a lot of dis- 

 cussion, some claiming they are useless, oth- 

 ers claiming they are O. K. You, I believe, 

 do not use them." (I do not.) " And so 

 far as it applies to 10-frame hives, they are 

 of little use, but you just try eight-frame 

 hives without them, and see what a mess of 

 bum combs you will have on the sides. 

 There is nearly an inch more vacant space 

 in the eight-frame than in the 10-frame 

 hives. But unless people have used both, 

 they are generally not aware of this differ- 

 ence. The 10-frame beekeeper will be against 

 them and the eight-frame for them. I don't 

 use them in my 10-frame Jumbos, and I do 

 use them in my eight-frame hives." 

 » * * 



y How is this for a bit of practical pa- 

 triotism" writes a beekeeper from Massa- 

 chusetts. " You know the sugar shortage 

 hit us here in New England very hard in- 

 deed. It is weeks since any of 'the stores 

 have had any at all, and only" the forehanded 

 housekeeper has any to serve. While condi- 

 tions were this way, it became too cold for 

 the bees to gather the goldenrod flow. There 

 was no sugar to be bought for feed. Having 

 some foul brood honey in the crop, I could 

 not feed that back, t happened to mention 

 at the Red Cross in town one day that sev- 

 eral of my hives would have to be sacrificed 

 to the sugar shortage. The next day friends 

 got together and collected amongst them 

 enough to carry the bees thru. Several 

 of the contributors I knew only slightly." 



* * * 



And have you made your spring plans? 

 Have you a fairly definite idea of what you 

 are going to do and how you are going to 

 do it? Have you ordered your supplies for 

 next season? How about equalizing stores? 

 How about equalizing brood? Do you know 

 Dr. Miller's rule? Maybe he'll" give it 

 again. If you have files of Gleanings for a 

 year or two, look up some good strong arti- 

 cles on " Spring Management." Or hunt it 

 up in A B C and X Y Z of Bee Culture. Better 

 Ftill, do both. There will be still other ar- 

 ticles appearing, of course, but you can't 

 read too much, nor too often, nor too early. 



