American l^ee Jonrnal 



131 



INTERIOR VIEW OF THE STORE OF THE COLORADO HONEY PRODUCERS' 



ASSOCIATION 



turns are in. All records are made in 

 duplicate, and each member receives 

 an exact copy of his ledger account. 

 At the end of the year, after inventory 

 is taken, any surplus left, after the divi- 

 dend on the stock has been declared, is 

 divided among the members that have 

 sold honey through the association, 

 according to the amount of commis- 

 sion paid by them. Taking a series of 

 years, including some very light crops, 

 it has cost our members less than 3 

 percent to market their crop through 

 the association. The prices obtained 

 are better than those obtained by indi- 

 viduals in nearly all cases. It is proven 

 by the unsolicited increase in member- 

 ship and the larger amount of honey 

 handled. 



Members are not compelled to sell 

 their crop through the association, 

 neither are they compelled to buy their 

 supplies of the association, the utmost 

 liberty is allowed each individual, ex- 

 cept that, after having reported their 

 crop to be sold through the associa- 

 tion, they should do so. The great 

 benefits of co-operative buying and co- 

 operative selling have been fully dis- 

 cussed, in the past few years, by the 

 press of this country, and it is unnec- 

 essary to take up the space here. We 

 have shown in the above that beekeep- 

 ers can and should avail themselves of 

 the advantages to better their condi- 

 tion. 



Denver, Colo. 



Texas News Notes 



BV E. G. LE STOURGEON. 



CONDITIONS in Texas are marvel- 

 ously encouraging. We have never 

 had a more forward spring nor 

 better prospects. In some of our yards 

 during the last week in February we 

 found conditions pointing to an early 

 swarming season. In one colony there 



were two solid frames of drone-brood, 

 capped from top to bottom bar on 

 both sides of each frame. Some neigh- 

 bors were reporting the presence of 

 drawn queen-cells before the end of 

 February. 



Bees consumed less winter stores 

 during the past season than usual. 

 Many beekeepers report having actually 

 more honey in the hives now than 

 when put into winter quarters. At our 

 Loma Linda apiary in Bexar county 

 we found empty shallow supers put on 

 34 colonies in October to be filled with 

 capped honey on visiting them last 

 week. This apiary is located in an 

 irrigated farm district, and its condi- 

 tion shows that our bees worked prac- 

 tically all winter. The source of this 

 winter honey was apparently broom- 

 weed and other varieties of ground 

 flowers growing along the irrigation 

 laterals. 



The beekeeping industry in Texas is 

 receiving a great impetus from the 

 agitation of the cotton reduction idea. 

 The farmers whose sole dependence 

 for a cash crop has been the fleecy 

 staple, are facing the necessity of find- 

 ing some other salable product, and 

 many of them are inquiring about 

 honey production with earnestness. As 

 a matter of fact, the honey producing 

 possibilities of Texas have hardly been 

 touched, and a marked increase in 

 number of colonies operated and men 

 interested will develop from the pres- 

 ent situation. 



Beekeepers in States farther North 

 who care to try the experiment of buy- 

 ing bees from Texas to be shipped just 

 at the beginning of their honey-flow 

 will have ideal conditions this spring. 

 On account of the open and early sea- 

 son every well cared for south Texas 

 apiary will be overstocked with bees 

 when our first flow has been harvested 

 and these willing workers could be 

 made available. 



Should any reader be interested in 

 any question pertaining to Texas bee- 

 keeping or to conditions in the south- 

 west, we will be glad to reply through 

 the columns of the American Bee 

 Journal. 



San Antonio, Tex. March 5. 



House Apiaries 



BY R. F. HOLTERMANN. 



ON page 4.5, I notice a letter by Mr. 

 H. Spuhler, of Zurich, Switzer- 

 land, upon the subject of "House 

 Apiaries." I read with a good deal of 

 interest European apicultural literature 

 and have done so with profit to myself. 

 I rather agree with the view that in 

 America the house apiary is not the 

 proper thing, if the apiary is conducted 

 on a scale large enough to make a 

 business of it. I have twice had a 

 house apiary. I built a bee house and 

 cellar, the buildings alone costing me 

 over $1000, and arranged the walls so 

 as to leave an outlet for -^O colonies, 

 but when it came to the practical ap- 

 plication I did not have the faith to 

 carry it out. True, the angry bees are 

 often bees that do not belong to the 

 hive we are examining, but quite 

 often they are. If the latter were not 

 the case, then " peppery," irritable col- 

 onies would be unknown to us, and 

 every beekeeper worthy of the name 

 knows that he has colonies much more 

 difficult to handle, without being 

 strong, than others. 



I however admit that an enclosed 

 place appears to take much of the 

 fight out of them. Here in America, 

 including Canada, to use gloves for 

 handling bees is a rare thing. I have 

 been connected with beekeeping now 

 over 30 years, and have seen a good 

 deal of beekeeping, and during my 

 travels or at home have very rarely 

 seen gloves used in the apiary. They 

 have never been used in my apiaries as 

 far as I know— a lady from England 

 who spent a summer with me had 

 always used them in that land, but I 

 would not relent and allow her to use 

 them. I understood she felt like quit- 

 ting, but she afterwards thanked me 

 for my persistence. Then a young man 

 from Canada told me afterwards, when 

 he found he would have to work among 

 the bees without gloves, he almost de- 

 cided to go home. He too, decided I 

 was right. 



To work upon the floor upon which 

 the hives are standing, or to have their 

 floor connected with the working floor 

 disturbs them, and I do not want to 

 do this. 



THE LE.\F HIVE. 



As to the leaf hive, I have had them, 

 have some empty now. I feel quite 

 sure tliat I cannot manipulate frames 

 as rapidly by that method as from 

 above. When it comes to the system 

 of extracting during the honey flow 

 from combs capped, leaving those 

 pprtly filled behind ; with my flow I do 

 not want to adopt that system. I let 

 the supers and frames accumulate until 

 the close of the honey flow and then 

 extract. Even it only capped honey is 

 extracted, this honey is much thinner 

 if extracted as soon as capped than if 

 left on the hive until the close of the 



