274 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



August 



and uses full depth supers, producing 

 extracted honey exclusively. His hives 

 are arranged in rows on stands about 

 18 inches from the ground. His honey 

 house is on the river bank with his ex- 

 tractor in the second story and tanks 

 underneath. He has a tramway leading 

 from the honey house, to the boat 

 landing. 



In the afternoon Mr. J. R. Hunter, 

 who is a son-in-law of Mr. Isbell's, 

 took us in his car down the river about 

 three miles to his apiary, wheiewealso 

 found everything well arranged and 

 convenient. 



About three o'clock we met in the 

 Woodman's Hall and organized the 

 Tupelo Honey Producers' Association, 

 Mr. J. J. Wilder being elected President 

 and Mr. J. R. Hunter, secretary. 



A committee consisting of J. J. 

 Wilder, J. K. Isbell and C. F. Glenn 

 was appointed to make investigation 

 and submit a plan at an early date for 

 the organization of packing plants and 

 selling exchange to handle the 1918 

 crop. This committee is to report as 

 soon as they can perfect plans. It was 

 the general opinion of the members 

 composing the association that a cor- 

 poration ought to be formed to handle 

 this proposition, similar to the fruit 

 exchanges in Georgia and Florida. I 

 failed to secure the names of all of the 

 beekeepers who were present at the 

 organization of this association. 



On our return trip we felt very much 

 at home, as we had 275 colonies of 

 bees, and 132 nuclei on the boat. Mr. 

 W. H. Gibson was sending 90 colonies 

 to Bainbridge for the summer flow in 

 that section, while Mr. F. W. Summer- 

 field of Toledo, Ohio, and his assistant, 

 Mr. Guy Gallup, were carrying 185 

 colonies and 132 nuclei to Toledo for 

 the clover flow. These bees were loaded 

 in a stock car at Bainbridge on 

 Wednesday afternoon and left that 

 night for Toledo in charge of Mr. 

 Gallup. Mr. Summerfield, who has been 

 engaged in migratory beekeeping for 

 the past three years, has been very suc- 

 cessful. His tupelo crop this season 

 was 90 barrels of honey. He left 175 

 colonies and 400 nuclei to remain here 

 for the summer. The nuclei which he 

 was shipping were put up in wire 

 cages each of which held one full 

 depth comb of capped honey and from 

 two to three pounds of bees. He in- 

 formed us that he had shipped nuclei 

 put up in this way as far north as 

 Canada this season very successfully. 



Mr. Wilder took the train at Bain- 

 bridge for Cordele, where he expected 

 to remain a day or so before beginning 

 % trip of inspection through his apia- 

 /ies, located in south Georgia and 

 Florida. 



Colquitt, Ga. 



Possibilities of Beekeeping in 

 Northern Montana 



By L. E. Baldwin. 



A NEIGHBOR of ours, having 

 been a beekeeper in Pennsyl- 

 vania for many years, made 

 inquiry as to the possibilities of bee- 

 keeping in Northern Montana. He 

 was assured by a number of the old- 

 timers that the severe winters, to- 

 gether with the short summers 

 spelled death to the bee and loss to 



its keeper. This idea has generally 

 prevailed and it surprises many to 

 find proof to the contrary in the 

 shape of well wintered colonies, 

 populous hives and surplus stores of 

 honey, amounting to more than 100 

 pounds to the colony. 



The honey consumed in Northern 

 Montana is shipped in from the Yel- 

 lowstone and Musselshell Valleys, 

 and from the Pacific Coast states. 

 But with at least three others in this 

 section (30 miles west of Great Falls), 

 we have proven to our satisfaction 

 that honey in sufficient quantities, 

 not only for home consumption, but 

 for commercial purposes, can be 

 profitably produced by anyone who 

 will give a little care and attention 

 to details. 



There are, no doubt, in Montana, a 

 number of people who have kept bees 

 in the east and south and doubt the 

 possibilities of success in this north- 

 ern latitude. We wish, therefore, to 

 give a concrete example of what was 

 realized in our experience. 

 • In the spring of 191S, we secured 

 five stands of bees from a gentleman 

 who had shipped them the previous 

 year from Iowa. They were mostly 

 blacks and hybrids and only three of 

 the five were in modern hives. Foun- 

 dation had not been used in the 

 frames and the combs were so crooked 

 that we could not control swarming 

 or eliminate the hybrid queens. As 

 we were very busy on the ranch, we 

 could give but little time to the bees. 

 However, in spite of frequent swarm- 

 ing, lack of supplies and proper care, 

 the returns at the close of the season 

 were very gratifying. We secured 

 400 pounds of comb honey and the 

 number of colonies increased to 

 eleven, besides which several swarms 

 absconded and two were sold. The 

 eleven colonies were put in the cellar 

 about Christmas time and taken out 

 the following March. 



We therefore started in the 1916 



season with eleven colonies, six of 

 them in modern dovetailed hives 

 with straight combs. As soon as the 

 warm weather of May and June per- 

 mitted, we transferred the bees from 

 the old hives to new ones. We also 

 introduced two Italian queens and 

 began a war on drone-combs. 



The summer of 1916 was unusually 

 short and cold. We had to feed the 

 bees well up into June to keep them 

 from starving, since if they left the 

 hive in search of honey they would 

 chill and die before being able to re- 

 turn. Some colonies dwindled to 

 such an extent that we feared they 

 would be entirely lost. However, the 

 latter part of June proved fairly pro- 

 pitious and with good care the colo- 

 nies gained rapidly. Alfalfa and 

 sweet clover furnished plenty of 

 nectar and by July 10 the hive bodies 

 were full and the storing of surplus 

 was begun in the supers. The flow 

 continued without interruption for 

 about seven weeks, during which 

 time we so manipulated the hives 

 that we had no natural swarms, but 

 increased the number of colonies to 

 twenty-five. We had also purchased 

 in May) two 2-frame nuclei, which 

 built up rapidly and made strong col- 

 onies by fall, as well as securing a 

 large amount of surplus honey. These 

 last two raised our total to twenty- 

 seven colonies. 



Having decided to run for e.xtract- 

 ed honey, we purchased a machine in 

 September and with it extracted 1,000 

 pounds of honey. This was put up 

 in three-pound glass containers, 

 making a fancy article of merchan- 

 dise. Besides this, we had some 300 

 pounds of comb honey, a total of 

 1,300 pounds, all of which was the 

 product of thirteen hives, as the new 

 colonies made no surplus. 



Our honey is water white, very 

 thick and heavy, and is extracted 

 with considerable difficulty. 



We believe the above record will 



PARTIAL VIEW OF J. K. ISBELL'S APIARY AT WEWAHITCHKA, FLA. 



