174 



i " ^SSl^ 



American Itec JournalJ 



June, 1912. 



b!e more'lor less for the bee-papers, 

 Mr. York;jhas been a friend to me at 

 any and all occasions, and .sentiments 

 hard to put on paper come into my 

 mind as I write. 



In so far as I am aware there is no 

 "Irish "blood in my veins, so I will 

 not be accused of having " kissed the 

 Blarney stone" in expressing myself 

 as I am, and while the many, many 



friends I have learned to know all over 

 the continent are valued by me as my 

 best " assets " gained during the past 

 few years, very few indeed of these 

 dear friends stand giu'/e as close to me 

 as George W. York. A gentleman in 

 the best and truest sense of the word, 

 wherever he goes, and whatever busi- 

 ness he engages in, the good wishes of 

 a host of friends will ever be with him. 



Bee-Keeping 



In Dixie^ 



Conducted by J. J. WiI.UER. Cordele, Ga. 



Removing Honey— SelliDg-Price of Honey 



The spring honey-flow is now over, 

 and section and chunk honey supers 

 should be taken off the hives, the 

 honey removed, the supers cleaned and 

 set away in readiness for the summer 

 and fall flows — partly-built combs should 

 be given back to the bees. 



Extracted honey can be drawn off in 

 tins after it has remained several hours 

 in honey-tanks, barrels, or whatever 

 has been used for storing it. Or the 

 fancy grades may be drawn ofif in regu- 

 lar honey-jars, or pintand quart Mason 

 fruit-jars, which are good vessels for 

 the purpose, and can be obtained any- 

 where. All vessels should be neatly 

 labeled, bearing the name and guaran- 

 tee of the producer. 



The darker grades of chunk honey 

 should be packed in large mouth fric- 

 tion-top or screw-top cans and pails, 

 in size similar to those for extracted 

 honey. The light or fancy grades 

 should be packed in jars by cutting the 

 comb in small strips as long as the 

 height of the jars, and placing them in 

 endwise. All vessels thus packed 

 should be filled with extracted honey, 

 then labeled and packed in the same 

 manner as extracted honey for market. 

 Comb honey in one-pound sections 

 should be graded fancy. No. 1 and No. 

 2. The fancy grade should be amber 

 or light in color, and sections well 

 filled; No. 1 grade should include all 

 well-filled sections of dark honey, and 

 sections of light honey that could not 

 be graded as fancy. These sections 

 should be over three-fourths filled. No. 

 2 should include all sections not less 

 than two-thirds full. No sections con- 

 taining broken comb or honey that 

 would be liable to leak out, should be 

 included. Comb hciney in 1-pound sec- 

 tions should be packed in regular ship- 

 ping-cases, and the cases crated to suit 

 the trade. 



After the honey has been properly 

 graded and packed, the question of a 

 market for it is not a very serious 

 problem. Let the people over the 

 country know that you have nice honey 

 for sale, and get thereto taste it. Soon 

 they will take all you have to offer, and 

 in this way you will work up a market 

 for your honey right at home, or tlie 

 towiis near you, that will surprise you. 

 For the city trade you can best handle 

 it through your grocers, allowing them 

 a percentage for selling, or you can 



sell to them outright as soon as they 

 find they have demand for it. 



Dark honey packed in pails and cans 

 should net the producer not less than 

 8.J4 cents per pound. The fancy grades 

 packed in glass jars should net not 

 less than 10 cents per pound. Dark 

 chunk honey packed in tin cans and 

 pails should net 9)4 cents per pound, 

 and the light grades of chunk honey 

 packed in glass jars should net not less 

 than 11 cents. Fancy comb honey in 

 1-pound sections 12 cents, No. 1, 10 

 cents. No. 2, 8 cents per pound. 



[A comparison of prices and grading 

 rules as suggested here by friend 

 Wilder, and those given out by others 

 in distant parts, such as the Colorado 

 Honey-Producers' Association, will in- 

 dicate how difficult it will be to obtain 

 uniform rules and equal prices through- 

 out as large a country as this. — Editor.] 



Honey Crop Reports 



Very encouraging reports have come 

 in from most sections of Dixie. This, 

 indeed, is very gratifying, for the bee- 

 keepers were somewhat discouraged 

 over the prospects several times dur- 

 ing the spring, owing to unfavorable 

 weather conditions. More than an aver- 

 age crop was harvested, except along 

 the large streams where the great flood 

 with heavy rainfall almost put an end 

 to bee-keeping. 



Such was the case in the tupelo-gum 

 region. Spring ty-ty and gallberry gave 

 unusual heavy flows, as did the pop- 

 lar in the most northern region. Per- 

 haps there has never been as much 

 swarming among bees in Dixie as this 

 season, and great increase has resulted. 



Automobiles and Auto Trucks for Bee 

 Keepers 



Gleanings in Uee Culture for April 

 1st, was the automobile edition, and a 

 "good number." I was surprised to 

 know what some of my Northern fel- 

 low bee-keepers were doing with these 

 cars. I wish we could use them down 

 here to help us solve our labor and 

 other problems, but the poor condition 

 of the roads is prohibitive, especially 

 during the rainy season, for we have to 

 cross streams, which would be the 

 most dilTicult problem to solve. I have 



to cross many unbridged creeks in 

 making my rounds. Then I fear that 

 our roads would soon impair a car, and 

 in the long run it might not render 

 good and lasting service. 



One of our helpers has a good pas- 

 senger car, and we have made the 

 rounds to our apiaries when we could. 

 It proved a great help to us. The dis- 

 tance from one yard to another was 

 soon passed, and we had to keep our 

 veils on all day. Then it would rain 

 and the water would rise in the 

 branches and creeks, so we would have 

 to resort to our horse and buggy. We 

 have decided not to invest in a car 

 until we have better roads, and that 

 when quick trips are necessary it would 

 be far more economical to hire a car. 

 I think this is the experience of many 

 others, but we will purchase one as 

 soon as our roads will justify. 



Pleased Witli the Caucasian Queens 



I bought Caucasian queens last September 

 and succeeded in Kettingr 5 of them intro- 

 duced. I watched with eaKerness to see the 

 first bees emerse from their cells, but it was 

 late in tlie season, and I did not see much 

 of them until this spring. Although it has 

 been tlie most unfavorable spring for be«s 

 to build up I ever saw. they have built up 

 at the most wonderful rate. The hives are 

 boiling over with bees, and the combs are 

 full of brood. I have just put the supers on. 

 They had made no preparations for swarm- 

 ing. They are so gentle I can handle them 

 without smoke; in fact. I have to push them 

 out of the way to handle the frames. I am 

 well pleased with them so far. 



Newbern. Ala. F. A. J.'iMES. 



Plenty of bees and plenty of brood at 

 the proper time means everything to 

 the bee-keeper. We have a large num- 

 ber of colonies of this variety of bees 

 and their crosses that have 3 full-depth 

 8-frame bodies of brood, with some 

 pollen scattered through the comb, but 

 only a small amount of honey in the 

 brood-nest, and each colony has enough 

 bees to make good headway in from 5 

 to 7 shallow extracting-supers. We will 

 have to bring up poles from the woods 

 around the apiaries and prop these 

 "sky-scraper" hives to keep them 

 from toppling over in the strong winds. 



Has Dixie a Mild Climate ? 



Dear Mr. Wilder;— We people up here 

 think of Dixie as a country of a sunny, mild 

 climate, and we notice that you gravitate 

 southward during the winter. How would 

 you like to spend a winter up here such as 

 this one with steady cold below zero for 

 several months ? The ground is frozen sev- 

 eral feet in depth. Dynamite has to be re- 

 sorted to in order to die yraves. etc. Snow 

 and ice are so deep that telephone wires 

 can be touched from the drifts along the 

 lines. 



What I set out to tell you is. that the Cau- 

 casian bee is a poor one to cellar, as they 

 close the entrances of the hives so much 

 that they can not get the necessary air dur- 

 ing coniinement. But out in the open air 

 they winter well. 



I have 8 colonies in single-walled hives 

 with no protection beyond what they had 

 the summer before, and I took a peep at 

 them yesterday, expecting to find them all 

 fro/en or dean. but. to my surprise. I never 

 saw bees wintering so well. 



.lAMEs W. Cowan, M. D. 



Geneseo. N. Y. 



As a whole, we do have a mild cli- 

 mate in Dixie. In the mountainoui 

 section the weather may be a little 

 frigid for a few days during mid-win- 

 ter, but usually the cold lasts but a few 

 days at a time. We gravitate South at 



