Fihruary, loi- 



American Hee Journal i^ 



Growing Nectar-Rearing Plants and Treee 



A county bee-keepers' asssociatiqn 

 in Ohio is Koing after honey-flora in 

 the right way, telling the railroads they 

 can save their enibankniaiits by sowing 

 sweet clover. I shouUl like to see our 

 bee-associations become militant, ami 

 raise their membership fees to about 

 SIO a year, the money to be spent in 

 furnishing trees, such as basswood at 

 cost to whomever would plant and care 

 for them. In Colorado the planting of 

 catalpa and the locusts is urged for 

 furnishing fence-posts, and these are 

 both honey-bearing trees. OrchanI 

 men are planting alsike clover in their 

 orchards, and here is a chance for help 

 if the bee-associations could furnish 

 the orchard men with seed at a reduc- 

 tion in price. 



Sweet clover is coming into its own. 

 and it is up to the bee-keepers to help 

 the farmers in linding out its value. 

 The associations over the country 

 could each appoint a committee to 

 gather sweet clover seed, cleome seed, 

 and seed of any other valuable honey- 

 plants, the committee to be paid say 

 $2 each per day, and the seed to be sold 

 to members and others as far as it 

 would go, at actual cost. I think every 

 association should have a few members 

 who would be willing to spend a few 

 days each year at this work. There are 

 seasons here in the West when sweet 

 clover, cleome. and other honey-plants 

 get well-nigh killed out, and it would 

 be profitable for the association to 

 make efforts to get these plants re- 

 seeded so that the range may remain 

 valuable for bees. 



There are hundreds of acres of seep- 

 land in the gulches on the sides of the 

 mesas on the Western Slope in Col- 

 orailo, that are good for nothing but 

 pasture, and sweet clover will improve 

 It as pasture. Then, I have seen sweet 

 clover and alsike growing together in 

 these gulches. 



.\lfalfa will be cut earlier, as the 

 dairy industry comes into the West 

 more and more, and we shall have to 

 see to it that our ranges are supple- 

 mented by other honey-plants. The 

 alfalfa seed districts will always fur- 

 nish honey, and the alfalfa when plowed 

 up and put in wheat will contain con- 

 siderable bloom that will help out, but 

 the immense expanses of purple bloom 

 are not so plentiful as they once were, 

 and we shall have to look out for it. 



The developing of an alfalfa of greater 

 honey-bearing qualities is doubtless 

 possible, but we have lu) one as yet 

 working on it, and I do not think we 

 can e.xpect anything of this kind very 

 soon. We can collect sweet clover 

 seed and cleome seed now, and we can 

 line our roadways with basswoods, 

 locusts and catalpas, and have alsike in 

 our orchards. It may not pay us to 

 plant these alone for their honey, but 

 basswood makes a beautiful shade, and 

 catalpas and locust are valuable for 

 fence-posts as well as shade. What 

 shade-trees are planted might as well 

 be honey-bearing, because they then 

 add a perfume and sentiment to the 

 roadsides, and who does not appreciate 

 the hum of the bees ? 



Southern 



Beedom- 



Conducted by Loris II. Scnoi.i . New Braunfcls. Tex. 



" Keep Better More Better Bees " 



That motto of the late W. Z. Hutch- 

 inson, to "Keep More Bees," appealed 

 to the writer long ago, and that was 

 one of the aims with which we started 

 out, and was responsible for our large 

 number of colonies now. But we have 

 found that there was another essential 

 in connection with keeping more bees 

 that was overlooked by many extensive 

 bee-keepers, and that was the matter of 

 keeping not only large numbers of col- 

 onies of any kind of bees, but bcUcr 

 I'lca. That has been our aim in bee- 

 keeping, and unconsciously at first, 

 almost, we found ourselves not only 

 " keeping more bees," but striving to 

 " /;i-t'f' bfUfr moi'c hc/h-r drts.'^ 



There is a whole lot in this. To 

 number the colonies by the hundreds 

 is all right, but to have these numbers 

 of better bees, makes a great, big dif- 

 ference. It means that only average 

 crops will be obtained with the former, 

 but the latter will give enough more in 

 return to warrant keeping better more 

 better bees. Our e-xperience has taught 

 us this, and therefore our motto shall 

 continue to be, " Keep Better More 

 Better Bees," and our aim shall be to 

 live up to it constantly. 



Advantages of Divisible Brood-Chamber 

 Hives 



At this time of the year the writer 

 receives many enr|uiries asking for in- 

 formation about the shallow, divisible 

 brood-chamber hives used so success- 

 fully and extensively in our large num- 

 ber of apiaries. 



The question, " What are the advan- 

 tages of the divisible hive .'" has been 

 asked more than any other, in spite af 

 the fact that we have mentioned these 

 from time to time. But there are al- 

 ways new readers as well as those who 

 did not give the matter more thought 

 when they read the articles of ours on 

 that subject, and for this reason it w^ill 

 be well to go over the ground again, 

 perhaps a little more fully than at any 

 previous time, since new ideas creep 

 out as one works with the bees. 



Presuming that the readers know 

 that we use the /n-i'rintu- hive, bottom- 

 boards and covers ; that the bodies of 

 the brood-chambers ,ind the supers are 

 all alike — .">?s inches deep — and that the 

 frames in both are the same, shallow 

 Hoffman self - spacing frames, .jfs 

 inches deep, with plain top-bars vs-inch 

 wide and |^-inch thick, without a goove 

 or saw-kerf on the underside to receive 

 the foundation, we are ready to proceed. 

 One of the main advantages is the 

 interchangeableness of the various 

 shallow stories, or the frames from one 

 part of tiie hive to another, .-\ggravat- 

 ing indeed it is when the apiarist 

 would like to place a comb with some 

 brood or honey in the super above, to 

 entice the bees up into it, or when he 



wishes to place a comb of honey from 

 the super into a brood-chamber where 

 stores are needed immediately. And 

 that is the trouble found in apiaries 

 where deep hives are used for brood- 

 chambers, and shallow supers above 

 them. It might be argued that the 

 same full-depth bodies should be used 

 for supers, but this is impracticable in 

 this day and time of shallow supers, 

 for not only comb honey but e.xtracted 

 honeyas well. Besides, it is the brood- 

 chamber in which the divisible shallow- 

 frame stories play the most important 

 part, and give us advantages that we 

 can not obtain with the deep hives. 



One of the most serious objections 

 against deep-frame brood-chambers is 

 the fact that the bees store a rim of 

 honey abo\e the brood and up to the 

 top-bars and seal it there. This once 

 here, the bees are loth to go over this 

 and above to work in the supers when 

 these are given. To get around this 

 trouble without going to a lot of work 

 about extracting the honey — which, es- 

 pecially in extensive bee-keeping, is 

 out of the question— is //;cm«/« rfrt.soH 

 why the divisible brood-chamber hive 

 was adopted by us. By having the 

 brood-nest in two shallow stories we 

 can alternate these and keep the rim 

 of honey away from above the brood. 

 By putting the upper story with the 

 honey in it below the one on the bot- 

 tom-board, the bees will remove the 

 former upper rim of honey now in the 

 middle of the brood-chamber and make 

 room for the queen, and as there is 

 brood in the upper story, the bees must 

 go above this into the supers and store 

 the honey exactly where the apiarist 

 wants it. Thus the two halves of the 

 brood-chamber can be exchanged when- 

 ever it becomes necessary to do so, 

 which, however, is not needed more 

 than the first time with most of the 

 colonies, once they are well started 

 the super-work. Thus keeping the col 

 onies busy and contented keeps them 

 from swarming, and they store larger 

 crops of surplus honey instead. This 

 is one of the greatest arguments for the 

 shallow hive. 



This advantage of alternating the 

 shallow stories before the honey sea- 

 son ever begins, is one of the best ways 

 of stimulating brood-rearing, and secur- 

 ing tremendous colonies of bees for 

 the honey-flow. With the deep-frame 

 hives this is not so easily done, and the 

 prevention of the swarming fever can 

 not be so absolntelyaccomplished with- 

 out much work and fussing, as com- 

 pared with the ease by which it can be 

 done with the shallow hives. .\nd it is 

 well known that if this can be prevented 

 half of our yearly battle is won, and 

 nur profits from the larger crops of 

 honey obtained will be greater. 



Either as brood-frames or for comb 

 iir extracted honey, there is no neces- 

 sity whatever of wiring the shallow 

 frames like the deep ones must be 



