752 



GI.EANINGS IN BEE CUIvTURE. 



Sept. 16 



port, and more too. When I referred to a bee- 

 paradise in an editorial, recently, I not only 

 included Uvalde Co. but some of the ad j fin- 

 ing ones, and some in New Mexico ; and 

 hence when I wrote on the train, riding as I 

 was through New Mexico, that there were not 

 enough bees to gather all the honey, I did not 

 have in miud Uvalde Co., which I knew per- 

 fectly well was fearfully overstocked. But 

 Mr. Geo. F. Robbins, who has been in the 

 vicinity, got the impression that I referred to 

 that alone, and enters, and justly so, a vigor- 

 ous protest against the sentence as it stands. 

 As he has some other things in this connec- 

 tion, I publish this letter just as he gives it. 



I am prompted to write these lines much from per- 

 sonal desire, but partly by Huber Koot, with whom I 

 had some talks at Buffalo. The cause is some state- 

 ments made by Ernest, in June loth Gleanings, pp. 

 520 and 523. I assume that the uotes pertaining to the 

 bee-keepers' paradise and to Uvalde County both 

 refer to the latter region. I agree with him that this 

 is a wonderful honey country. I don't think any 

 other tract in the world, 40 miles square, will support 

 so many bees and bee-keepers, and send out so much 

 honey. In June, 1900, I was told at the static n that 

 they were then shipping nearly .5000 lbs. of honey per 

 day. That was no small thing, even for a station that 

 is the shipping-point for a radius of 25 miles in every 

 direction except east. I can go nith Ernest nearly 

 all the way; but when he says "there are uot bees 

 enough to gather the honey," I halt. Against such 

 teaching I, as one who lives in one of the best tracts 

 of this land of bees and honey, must euter an earnest 

 protett. I jay it is overstocked ; and I think 1 can 

 safely challenge you to consult the bee-keepers of 

 Uvalde Co. and see if the majority of thtm do not sus- 

 tain me. 



Last fall a bee-keeper near Uvalde asked me what I 

 would take for a location we have in Nueces Co., some 

 20 miles northwest, saying he wanted to put an apiary 

 there, but didn't want to intrude on others' territory. 

 I told him I would rather he would keep out. He did, 

 and distributed some bees he had bought among his 

 three apiaries, I suppose because he couldn't do wny 

 better. I firmly believe the small crop of himself and 

 his neighbors this year is largely due to the crowded 

 condition of his range. 



L,ast spring I tried to rent a certain location of a 

 cattle-man. I could not get it, but he offered me a 

 less desirable one for $50 00 per year. He thought he 

 could get that, for six or eight'men had tried to lent 

 bee locations of him that winter ( I don't think he rent- 

 ed it. I could give several other instances to show that 

 there is a perpetual scramble for bee territory. 



Sjme five years ago Mr. Edwards told Mr. I^lanagan 

 that all the good available locations were even then 

 taken up. I know of quite a number of apiaries that 

 have been crowded in since then. 



I want to refer to two other statements in the notes 

 before referred to. You say, "The average is high. 

 and there is a crop every season." There was a period 

 some years ago when that seemed to be the case. 

 That is what started so many in the business. But, 

 taking the last five years as a basis, not many bee- 

 keepers here would say that. A. cai^e of 120 lbs. i=, I 

 believe, generally considered a good crop. Tliis 

 means " chunk " or comb honey in c^ns. about 25 to 

 33 per cent of which, in fact, is extracted There is 

 often considerable variation in tracts a few miles 

 apart. This j^ear, for example, on the upper Xueces, 

 from a point about 12 miles from Uvalde, the crop has 

 been much better thin in any olher part of the coun- 

 ty so far as I have heard. Taking the county at large 

 there has been little if any over half a crop gathered 

 in the last five years, while in 1899 failure was almost 

 general and complete. 



The thiul statement I question is thf t to the effect 

 that a honey-flow will stop swarming. I do not direct- 

 ly dispute it. but I do say the broad assertion that bees 

 will, at the advent of the surplus season, destroy cells, 

 kill off drones, and settle down to ho ley-.'^toring, 

 needs qualification. It doesn't always prove true. 

 As Hutchin.son says in a late number of the Revieiv. 

 the idea thit a copious honey-flow has a tendency to 

 check swarming is not particularlj' new. Doolittle 

 said something to that effect some years ago. These 

 conditions for some weeks preceding the surplus sea- 

 son are just such as to promote swarming, and I can 



readily believe that a very rapid ingathering of honey 

 may have the effect claimed for it. I know it has not 

 happened since I hive been here, but I think, from 

 what old bee-men here say, I have not seen one of 

 their old time overflows from guajilla. The season 

 of 1900 was noted here for excessive swarming and I 

 greatly hoped that the surplus flow would stop it as I 

 had been told it would. You can see I was much d s- 

 appointed when my bees, working in sections, fotne 

 of which I had divided some time before started on a 

 round of swarming. This year there was but little 

 swarming, but I had almost as much of it during the 

 early half of the season as I had before that time. 

 One beekeeper I know had swarming all through the 

 season I say, then, that, while I am not prepared to 

 dispute the doctrine, I question, and am predisposed 

 to accept it I have never seen such a thing happen, 

 and am certain such teaching can not alwa\s be re- 

 lied upon. Geo. F. Robbins. 

 Uvalde, Tex. 



I have already answered that point in regard 

 to overstocking Uvalde Co. While I see that 

 the sentence in que.stion on page 520 might 

 be construed, and naturally, as applying to 

 Uvalde Co., yet, riding as I was through New 

 Mexico, and seeing just the kind of honey- 

 plants and honey-trees that made Uvalde Co. 

 a veritable paradise, in the other couniies 

 where there were no bees, I wrote the sen- 

 tence having in mind the counties through 

 which I was going. With this explanation I 

 hope our friends in Uvalde will not feel that I 

 was trying to flood their bee-ranges with more 

 bees when they already have more than they 

 can use to advantage. 



With regard to the swarming before the 

 honey flow, and its stopping afterward, I can 

 only say that Mr. Edwards has been one of the 

 pioneer bee keepers of the county, and I be- 

 lieve he is more familiar with average condi- 

 tions as they prevail than any other man in it. 

 Mr. Udo Toepperwein, of Leon Springs, Tex , 

 and Mr. G. F. Davidson, of Fairview, Texas, 

 who I have just seen at Buffalo, both sup- 

 port the statement of Mr. Edwards ; and they 

 seemed surprised that any one should ques- 

 tion it. Of course, they may not do this every 

 season ; but they said I might state positively 

 that, in the beginning of a heavy honey-flow, 

 swarming not only ceased, but that there 

 would be a killing-off of the drones and a de- 

 struction of the cells ; at least this was true of 

 their respective localities. 



My remark, however, to the effect that bees 

 stop swarming, and destroy cells, etc., on the 

 approach of the main honey-flow, was, per- 

 haps, too general ; but I intended to speak 

 of the average conditions as I understood 

 them from Mr. Edwards. At all events, I 

 found that it is a peculiarity of the bees of 

 the West that, on the approach of the main 

 honey- flow, swarming either diminishes to a 

 very appreciable extent or stops altogether. 

 This is particularly so in Maricopa Co., Ari- 

 zona, which I visited, and to a very great 

 extent if: is true of the southern counties <'f 

 California, as well as of a few of the north- 

 central I also ran across the same peculiar- 

 ity in the western part of Colorado. I have 

 known, of course, that a heav}' honey-flow 

 has a tendency to check swarming even ir\ 

 the East, but not to such a marked degree as 

 in the West. 



In our next issue I will tell something about 

 the honey-plants and some of the peculiarities 



