October, 1915. 



337 



American ^ae Journal 



one or each hive, if you took combs 

 with adhering bees, or bees without 

 combs, from one hive to give to the 

 other, without seeing the queen, you 

 did a reckless thing. Please don't ever 

 do anything of that kind again without 

 knincing where the queen is. For if 

 you changed a queen from one hive to 

 the other, you may be sure that queen 

 will never get out of that hive alive. 

 Still, you are quite right in making use 

 of the movable feature of your hives. 

 What's the use of movable frames if 



you don't move them ? 



You say you wish you had divided 

 your bees before they swarmed, and 

 given just one queen-cell to each. That 

 would do if you removed the old queen, 

 but if you left the old queen with one 

 of the queen-cells, and that on the old 

 stand, there would be quite a chance of 

 the old queen leaving with a swarm. 



Even if Caucasians are better for Mr. 

 Wilder, are you sure they will be better 

 as far north as you are ? 



Bee-Keeping 



In Dixie^ 



Conducted by J. J Wilder. Cordele. Ga. 



The Season's Results 



As previously stated, Di.\ie has had 

 an oflf season this year. In some sec- 

 tions no surplus at all ; in most sec- 

 tions just a little; in some spots an 

 average crop. In the great cotton belt 

 the flow from this source has been 

 one-third of a crop, owing to the 

 smallness of the plants caused by ad- 

 verse weather conditions. In the part- 

 ridge pea belt the yield from this source 

 is as good as common, if not a little 

 better. 



Owing to the abundance of rain the 

 prospects for a late fall flow from 

 goldenrod and asters are good, and 

 the outlook is that the bees will go 

 into winter strong and heavy in stores. 



Caucasian Bees Not All Alike 



Dr. Miller, on page 317, September 

 number, " Caucasians or Italians," says 

 " most beekeepers prefer the Italians, 

 but Italians are not all alike and neither 

 are Caucasians." There can be no 

 doubt that this statement is true, for 



some strains are better than others in 

 both races. However, there is noth- 

 ing definite in this statement, and the 

 fellow " on the fence " over the stock 

 question does not know which to buy. 

 Buyers generally select their strain 

 and stock from the statement of the 

 queen-breeders. Each queen-breeder 

 should be willing to stand back of his 

 statement and guarantee the good 

 points of the stock he sells as men- 

 tioned by him. I know of one case at 

 least where this was done and the 

 breeder made good the failure of his 

 queens in the merits represented. 

 Many buyers make the great mistake 

 of buying stock from many queen 

 breeders when it would be far better to 

 purchase all queens from breeders 

 whose stock has the desired merits or 

 qualities. 



Now about good and poor Caucas- 

 ians. I had some experience at differ- 

 ent times with the latter when my stock 

 was imported, but there was an easily 

 distinguished difference in their colors 

 or markings, varying from a dark 

 smutty greyish color to a very bright 



grey and some almost yellow. It was 

 the more smutty color with the brighter 

 steel colored bands that had the high- 

 est qualities, and I let the other varie- 

 ties go and stuck to these with remark- 

 able results. So all Caucasians are not 

 alike in color or qualities, as Dr. Miller 

 states. 



Since my stay up in the mountains 

 on the line of Georgia and North Caro- 

 lina this summer, I have been out over 

 much of North Carolina and South 

 Carolina, both by rail and on foot, 

 making a study there of beekeeping as 

 well as of the honey plants, etc., and 

 on my rounds I have seen some Cau- 

 casians that were under test and were 

 not satisfactory at :ill. They would 

 not work in supers or store any sur- 

 plus honey, and never got very strong, 

 and were far from having the general 

 characteristics of their race, so even 

 this, the strongest race of bees known 

 to us, has species that are almost 

 worthless. No, they are not all alike in 

 qualities. 



[The great objection to Caucasians, 

 in our experience, is the difficulty of 

 recognizing a small amount of hybridi- 

 zation with the common bee. In the 

 Italian race, the crosses show much 

 more readily. Yellow Caucasians are 

 not liked in Europe. — Editor.1 



Tupelo Gum a Rare Honey Plant 



The market is always open, and there 

 is a ready demand for the thick, 

 delicious non-granulating tupelo gum 

 wherever it is known. It is of very 

 bright lemon color, is as attractive as 

 its flavor, and perharps there is no 

 honey equal to it in quality. But there 

 isn't a great amount of it saved in its 

 purity, owing to the scarcity of the 

 plant and its timid way of yielding, 

 although when conditions are right it 

 is our heaviest yielder during its short 

 blooming period. 



But there could be much more of it 

 produced if beekeepers would consider 

 its value and locate at least a part of 

 their bees in places where it is found. 

 It grows along the water's edge and 

 through swamps or low lands of many 

 small streams in southern Georgia and 

 northern Florida, as well as along a 

 number of the larger streams, but you 

 find it mostly scattered under large 

 timber (see cuts) growing very dense 

 in some places. 



TUPELO GUM IN BLOOM 



How to Prepare Bees for Wintering 



"Mr. Wilder:— How can I prepare 

 my bees for good and successful win- 

 tering ? I am running for chunk 

 honev, and I want to take off my fall 

 crop. May I expect to find enough 

 honey in the brood-chamber for win- 

 ter stores. I use Sframe hives, and 

 have some supers with empty combs. 

 What should I do with them ? I also 

 have two weak colonies; can I build 

 them up at this season of the year ? 

 How much stores should I leave in 

 each hive ?" L. N. Hodges. 



(,)liver, Ga. 



It is never advisable to suppose that 

 there is plenty of stores in the single 

 brood-chamber to winter the bees on, 

 for there is a large number of colonies 



