Marcli. 1912. 



American l^ee Journal 



that they may get together and work 

 more in unity and harmony toward ac- 

 complishing great good and furthering 

 the cause of the bee-Ueeping industry 

 of our great Lone Star State. Let us 

 resolve now that we will not stand 

 back, but be with those in the lead 

 toward achieving much in a united 

 effort for a better and a more profitable 

 bee-keeping. 



Value of Letters from Bee-Keepers 



Since our request in the January 

 issue for "newsy letters" from the 

 readers of Southern Beedom, we have 

 had the pleasure of (luite a number of 

 responses which are not only an en- 

 couragement to us in our department 

 work, but in some letters points are 

 brought out that are of more or less 

 interest. We shall be glad to hear 

 from our readers throughout the year, 

 and although we will not be able to 

 publish letters in full, we shall use such 

 parts of them as may be of interest to 

 our readers. 



One of our old-time contributors, 

 Mr. L. B. Smith, has always had a good 

 word to say for the "old reliable" 

 American Bee Journal and its various 

 departments. For this reason mainly 

 we are publishing parts of his letter, 

 and another reason is because it shows 

 as nearly as possible the kind of season 

 that existed in Texas last year, which 

 resulted in practically only half a crop 

 of honey harvested in our big State as 

 a w'hole ; but in spite of this, the total 

 output of the Lone Star State was an 

 enormous one : 



Editok Schoi. I,;— Seeing your request in 

 the American Bee Journal of January for 

 us all to write you of our success or failure 

 with the bees the past season, I take the lib- 

 erty of writinsr you. I am compelled to con- 

 fess I have had more of the latter experi- 

 ence the past season than of* the former, 

 but you say both are acceptable. 



Starting in the sprint; of ivii with a little 

 less than 100 colonies of bees about 50 were 

 kept at home, the rest in out-yards from j to 

 12 miles away. The winter of igioandiuii 

 was warm and dry over most of the State, 

 and the bees generally wintered quite well 

 and were strong in numbers early and well 

 supplied with stores. This alone would 

 almost insure a prosperous year with the 

 bees. The season, however, seemed "all 

 out of joint." so to speak, from start to 

 finish. We had some real summer weather 

 in mid-winter, which brought out many of 

 the pollen-bearing and early honey-yielding 

 plants at an unseasonable date, followed by 

 a late, cold spring. 



The bees, however, seemed so determined 

 and prosperous that nothing seemed to 

 check them, and they were swarming at an 

 early date. So much so that I lost a few 

 swarms in the out-yards before I suspected 

 it. I never saw swarms as persistent in ab- 

 sconding in my 30 years as an apiarist. They 

 would leave brood, honey, or anything that 

 seemed tit to give thetn and " hike out " to 

 the woods. Tiiis was a general complaint of 

 all classes of bee-keepers, and one of them 

 told me he hived one 4 times and then they 

 " skipped " for parts unknown. I don't know 

 the reason for this unless it was tlie scarcity 

 of new honey at the time of swarming. 



At about the time the first swarms com- 

 menceti to issue, the long-looked-for rains 

 set in, and it rained almost continually till 

 May 2d. Then it stopped off short, the 

 weather changed from cool to extremely 

 hot and continued throughout the summer. 

 The abundant rains caused vegetation of all 

 kinds to take on a growth we seldom see 

 after such a dry winter as we had had. with 

 the result that the whole face of the earth 

 was a perfect Hower-garden by May loth. 

 The flowers seemed well laden with the 

 precious sweets that gladden the heart of 

 fhe apiarist, and the bees practically gave 

 up swarming and settled down to business 

 at honey-gathering in a way that caused us 

 to feel almost assured of a honey crop. But, 



alas! we realized only too soon that a long 

 summer drouth had set in at least a month 

 too early, and continued throughout the 

 year ivii. By .Iiine loth the beautiful Howers 

 that had gladdened our. ht^arts l)ut a few 

 weeks before were now a brown, withering 

 mass, under the scorching rays of a semi- 

 troiiical sun, with the result that I secured 

 only a little over 2000 pounds of extracted 

 honey, and a few hundred i)Ounds of comb 

 honey, and had some feeding to do in the 

 fall. L.B.Smith. 



Rescue, Tex. 



Realizing how the tale of one's ex- 

 perience during a successful year will 

 encourage other bee-keepers, espe- 

 cially our younger ones of the craft, 

 and how mistakes and failures perhaps 

 may be avoided by reading letters tell- 

 ing of these, is a reason why we expect 

 to publish once in a while such letters. 

 We know from our own experience 

 that reading them will help certain 

 ones in one way or another in their 

 chosen work, and is often a cause of 

 their being successful in their under- 

 takings. For this reason we are re- 

 producing parts of one of our sub- 

 scriber's letters here: 



Dear Sir:— In the January issue of the 

 American Bee Journal you request your 

 bee-keeping friends to send you " newsy 

 letters" about themselves or about their 

 successes or tailures. I have read all that 

 you have written, for lama reader of all the 

 bee-papers published in the United States 

 and Canada, and your articles have always 

 been highly appreciatedby me. 



Twenty-three years of age now. I was born 

 of German parents and reared on the farm 

 where my father kept bees in box-hives to 

 furnish honey for our own use. During the 

 swarming season father just hived the 

 largest swarms and let the rest go to the 

 woods. 



At the age of 12 years I contracted the bee- 

 fever and hived every swarm, whether large 

 or small, and have since increased my num- 



ber of colonies to 2to. Enough hives are 

 ready to increase to 500 colonies this spring. 

 1 am also working 200 colonies on half share. 

 It is my intention to go into the bee-business 

 extensively, so I wiU work more for increase 

 than for a large crop of surplus honey. 



1 make my increase by the "shook swarm" 

 method. I'or the last few seasons I pre- 

 vented swarming as mucli as possible, but 

 sometimes I tneet such a stubborn colony 

 that insists upon swarming. Last season I 

 had a few of these. 



I have a way of my own to hive virgin 

 queens or any uncliijped queens. It is sim- 

 ple and practical. Simply get a gallon can 

 and put your empty hive to receive the 

 swarm within 10 feet of the cluster. Then 

 scoop about half a gallon of bees of the clus- 

 ter and throw them at the entrance of their 

 intended home. It won't take long for these 

 bees to sound the note that a home is found. 

 Then with tiie smoker give the clustering 

 bees a good stnoking till every bee is in the 

 air. The flying bees will hear the hum of 

 their sisters and at once conclude to join 

 them, and the hiving is done. 



The past season has not been Very favor- 

 able for the production of honey. There 

 was too much rain. in the spring and not 

 enough later on; however, I averaged 71 

 pounds of bulk comb honey per colony. 



I have 50 divisible brood chamber hives in 

 use at present, and am so pleased with them 

 that from now on all of my increase will be 

 in those hives. It is wonderful how many 

 advantages that hive has. 



In one of the bee-papers I read that you 

 were going to rear your own queens, and 

 afterward heard that you discontinued the 

 rearing of queen-bees on account of other 

 bees being moved close to your queen-rear- 

 ing yard. I am of the strong opinion that 

 this is one of the most profitable branches 

 you can start to your advantage, for queens 

 sent by mail are never the equal of the 

 home bred. I started to rear my own queens 

 5 years ago, and am still doing so. and will 

 continue it as long as I continue to keep 

 bees. I have made it a rule to requeen all 

 colonies every fall that did not come up to 

 the average, and am very well pleased with 

 the results, for my bees are considerably 

 better than they were 5 yeai s ago. 



Klmendorf. Tex. Alfred L. Hartl. 



Contributed 



Articles^ 



Some Helpful Hints on Foul 

 Brood Treatment 



BY G. C. GREINER. 



For a number of years thefoul-brood 

 question has been one of the main sub- 

 jects in all our bee-papers. It has been 

 discussed from all sides; signs and 

 symptoms, treatment and cures, have 

 been given by the different bee-experts, 

 so that a detailed report of my late 

 season's experience would seem like a 

 useless repetition of what has been said 

 before. Besides, we have Farmers' 

 Bulletin No. 4-42, issued May 0, lOH, by 

 the United States Department of Agri- 

 culture, that, I believe, anybody can 

 have for the asking, which gives nearly 

 everything connected with the disease 

 and its treatment better and more com- 

 plete than I could think of offering. 

 Still, no two persons have exactly the 

 same experience in any line, and by 

 mentioning a few points that are not 

 spoken of by any one else, I may help 

 some unfortunate brother who has the 

 same task before him that fell to my 

 lot last summer. 



We will take it for granted that foul 

 brood has taken possession of an api- 

 ary to such an extent that shaking oft' 



the bees and the introduction of Italian 

 queens is the only way to save any- 

 thing from the wreck. The treatment 

 requires, as all our e.xperts advise, and 

 I know from experience that this is 

 correct, that all colonies should be 

 made as strong as possible to prepare 

 them for the ordeal. It does not 'pay 

 to waste time with weak colonies, for 

 the probabilities are that they will prove 

 a failure during the season. As dis- 

 eased colonies are very apt to be on 

 the weak order, and as we have no 

 sound, hatching brood under the cir- 

 cumstances to help these weaklings, the 

 only way out is to double'up or triple 

 up, if necessary. To do this in system- 

 atic manner, the whole apiary should 

 be arranged in twos or threes, as the 

 case may be, before the operation of 

 shaking off is ever attempted. 



To prevent mixing up as much as 

 possible when treated, it is an advan- 

 tage to have these couples or triplets 

 as far apart as they can conveniently 

 be arranged. There is plenty of time 

 between fruit-tree bloom and the open- 

 ing of the first honey-flow to shift 

 them about, for the shaking off should 

 not be undertaken until a fairly good 

 honey-flow is under way. Bees can 

 then be handled without any danger of 

 robber-bees transmitting the disease to 



