GLEANINGS IJST BEE CULTURE 



Beekeeping in the Southwest 



Louis H. Sclioll, New Braunfels, Texas. 



Kain, rain, rain, and slusli. This 

 is a very general condition in Tex- 

 as this December. Good fall and 

 ■winter rains mean good honey 

 crops the following year, however. 



iiitciesting indeed to study nature's flowers, 

 and doubly interesting if we consider the 

 value attached to these flowers from an 

 apicultural standpoint. 



Inventory time was here at the close of 

 last year. I wonder how many beekeepers 

 have taken stock of their possessions; and 

 how many are going to keep books during 

 1915, so that they may be enabled to "know 

 where they are " any time during the year. 

 * * * 



COMB HONEY ON HIVES IN WINTER. 



The bad roads, caused by the long-contin- 

 ued rainy weather, have prevented hauling 

 home a large part of our comb-honey crop. 

 As a consequence, something over 35,000 

 pounds of choice white comb honey is still 

 on the hives. As many as three and four 

 supers are tiered up on many colonies. As 

 we have not had much very cold weather, 

 none of it has even begun to granulate; and 

 as there is always a great deal of well-sealed 

 comb honey that does not granulate at all 

 during some winters, we hope that this may 

 become true with all of it this year. As 

 soon as the roads permit, most of the honey 

 will be hauled in and put in "warm storage" 

 liowever. This should prove an experiment 

 of some value to the bulk-eomb-honey pro- 

 ducers who sometimes have difficulty in 

 disposing of all their honey in the fall. 

 « « « 



THAT BEE-BOTANY DEPARTMENT. 



I am one, Mr. Editor, who would favor 

 such a department in Gleanings. It is very 

 essential that we be better acquainted with 

 the flowers that yield the nectar for our 

 honey crops. It is very important that we 

 know the honey-yielders so that we can 

 locate our bees properly and to the best 

 advantage. Even outside of that, most of 

 us do not live merely to make money out 

 of every thing that we do ; but for those of 

 us who are after more knowledge of those 

 things that have to do with our chosen pur- 

 suit, such a department could be made of 

 considerable interest. I worked for yeai'S 

 on the collection of Texas honey-yielding 

 plants, and I believe I have about as large 

 a private collection of the honey flora of 

 one State as anybody. But I ha\e not had 

 the time nor have I been able to collect all 

 the honey and pollen yielding plants that 

 grow in Texas which help more or le.«s in 

 the yield of honey, jjollen, or both. It is 



when TO FEED THE BEES. 



This question is asked very often indeed. 

 There seems to be no end to it, in spite of 

 the fact that it is so often discussed in the 

 bee- journals. I have always been of the 

 opinion that bees sliould be so managed as 

 not to require feeding at all. However, 

 there are times during a season when the 

 colonies may become so short of stores that 

 it becomes absolutely necessary to give them 

 such assistance as they may need in order 

 to tide them over. But outside of this I do 

 not believe that it is as profitable to feed 

 the colonies either in the fall or in the 

 spring as it is to leave plenty of honey on 

 the hives in the fall. We have found that 

 colonies with plenty of stores in the hives 

 during the winter and throughout the fol- 

 lowing spring always build up to rousing 

 strength with very little attention, and are 

 the colonies that gather the most honey 

 during the honey-flows, especially the early 

 flows. We have made it a practice, there- 

 fore, for many years, not to take honey 

 from colonies too closely, but to leave really 

 more honey than they may need. The re- 

 sult has been that we are enabled to get 

 just so much better yields from our colonies 

 than those beekeepers who believe in " rob- 

 bing close," and then depending upon feed- 

 ing sugar syrup in case the colonies need it. 

 The trouble about such a plan is that too 

 often the feeding is either neglected alto- 

 gether, or not properly done, or not enough 

 is fed for best results. Another objection 

 that we have toward wholesale feeding is 

 that it wears the bees out unnecessarily 

 when they are needed the most. This is 

 especially true in the spring, when every 

 bee is worth several bees later in the season. 

 Even in the fall it is a good plan to disturb 

 the bees as little as possible. If we feed 

 them, the wearing-out effect it has on the 

 bees begins to show very early the follow- 

 ing spring in that they die much earlier, 

 and at a time when we ought to have them 

 to aid in the early brood-rearing operations. 

 Tiie better way is to leave plenty of stores 

 on the hives in the fall; and this will not 

 only save feeding and the trouble connected 

 with it, but will give the best icsnlls in the 

 way of stronger colonies an<l laigci' lioney- 

 vields. 



