March, 1915. 



American T^ee Jonrnal j 



there has been little friction. In this 

 way we have to a great extent stamped 

 out American foulbrood. 



European foulbrood is new among 

 us, but so far we are holding our 

 ground. It is of course a much harder 

 " proposition " to handle. We are yet 

 considerably in the dark as to how the 

 infection is carried. Requeening seems 

 about the only thing to do, and it is 

 much harder to get a man to requeen 

 than it is to tr at or destroy a few col- 

 onies. But we are preaching the doc- 

 trine of requeening as hard as we can, 

 and most of our beekeepers are work- 

 ing along that line. 



We do not have farmer beekeepers 

 here to any great extent. Almost all 

 of our people are professionals, and are 

 glad to make use of any information 

 in regard to disease and how to com- 

 bat it. The county bee inspector is in 

 close touch with those whom he serves, 

 and the treating and cleaning up is 

 almost altogether under his personal 

 supervision. In fact, he does a large 

 portion of the actual work in treating 

 and destroying, where destroying is 

 necessary. This is very essential where 

 the beekeeper is either inexperienced 

 or careless. 



California, owing to her mild cli- 

 mate, is a continual battle ground be- 

 tween the producers and the myriads 

 of insect and bacterial pests. Almost 

 every known pest attacks our orchards 

 and the horticulturists fight contin- 

 ually to keep th-m down, and so on 

 through all our productive industries. 

 But the horticulturists, the stockmen 

 and beemen are just as determined in 



their warfare as are the numerous 

 pests, and we manage to hold our own, 

 but it is at the price of eternal vigi- 

 lance. We have horticultural inspec- 

 tors and live stock inspectors in almost 

 every county. So it was an easy mat- 

 ter to get the supervisors of the coun- 

 ties, where it was necessary, to add a 

 bee inspector to the list. 



Southern California Notes 



The outlook for a honey crop the 

 coming season in California is excel- 

 lent, ihere has been an abundance of 

 rain for the advance of the season. 

 The weather has been sufficiently cold 

 to retard a too early bloom of the sages 

 and other wild plants or premature 

 fruit bloom. This sometimes happens 

 in seasons of copious rainfall when 

 the weather is warm ; the plants com- 

 ing into bloom before the bees are 

 strong enough to make use of them. 



There are quite a number of buyers 

 here every season in the latter part of 

 winter, from the colder sections of the 

 West, Idaho, Utah and Nevada; also 

 others whose seasons are later than 

 ours. They buy bees and make the 

 increase here, shipping them usually in 

 five or si.x frame nuclei. This has been 

 quite a business for several years. A 

 good strong colony brought here late 

 in the winter can easily be increased 

 to two or three by May, as bees usually 

 begin to swarm here in the valleys by 

 March. These nuclei are shipped to 

 their permanent location in time to 

 build up for the honey flow there. 



Bee-Keeping 



In Dixie-^ 



Conducted by J. J Wilder. Cordele. Ga. 



Desires a $1000 Return from Bees 

 Annually 



" Mr Wilder : — I want to establish a 

 bee business sufficient to assure me an 

 annual income of $10(10. What should 

 I have ? And as a starter should I 

 consider planting anything to increase 

 the pasture ? Could I increase two- 

 fold each year until I reached the de- 

 sired number? ."Knd how many bees 

 can an ordinary apiarist care for ? 



"Elberton, Ga. O. E. Terry." 



.^.n expert apiarist could handle, 

 with but little if any help, 300 colonies 

 of bees well equipped and well located 

 in five yards in your section, and taking 

 one year with another, could realize 

 an income of $1000. If the net income 

 were to be that, above all labor, etc., 

 it would take at least -'jOU colonies in 

 eight yards with full equipment. This 

 would mean a net income over the in- 

 vestment. 



.•\n inexperienced man, of course, 

 could not reach this mark with the 

 business. Beekeeping, like all other 

 lines, must be in good hands, and un- 

 der good management to e.xpect good 

 returns. Do not think of planting any- 

 thing for your bee pasture ; depend en- 



tirely on natural honey sources. 



Yes, bees can be increased twofold 

 each season ; that is, 100 colonies in- 



creased to 200, and at the same time 

 a very good harvest made, if increase 

 is made very early in the season and 

 towards the close, thus holding the 

 bees together as much as possible 

 through the honey flows. 



Desires to Locate in Blue Ridge Moun- 

 tains 



"Mr. Wilder: — My plans are to lo- 

 cate ill the Blue Ridge Mountains and 

 keep bees, and I want to run them on 

 as near a non-swarming and let-alone 

 plan as possible. How would a two 

 full-depth hive body arrangement do ? 

 " Louis A. Sch.xfer. 



" Fowler, Mich." 



You can find suitable locations most 

 anywhere in this chain of mountains, 

 either in Tennessee, Georgia or North 

 Carolina. 



The hive arrangement you suggest 

 would be very good for that section for 

 extracted honey, for there are two gen- 

 eral honey flows there; the first one 

 coming in early spring from locust 

 and other spring honey plants, and the 

 other one in midsummer from sour- 

 wood and other summer honey plants, 

 including basswood. The full depth 

 body would probably make ample stor- 

 ing room for the two flows, for after 

 the spring flow, extracting could be 

 done and the empty combs set back 

 on the colonies to catch the next flow. 



The high altitude and the climate in 

 this section would most likely appeal 

 to you. 



*-•-» 



Cross Bees 



"Mr. Wilder: — I have a hive of 

 black bees that are so cross that 1 can't 

 get near them even when they are at 

 work. What should I do with them ? 



"Cass Station, Ga. H. C. H.\gan." 



Sometimes bees are dangerous on 

 account of their temper. Very often 

 when I was keeping bees in box hives 

 I had such colonies. I greatly feared 

 them, and sometimes would not dare 

 rob them. ;i had no bee veil or smoker 

 except a roll of cotton rags from 



NUCLEI FOR QUEEN REARING-GAETANO PIANA 



