1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



53 



BEE-KEEPING IN THE 

 SOUTHWEST 



By Louis Scholl 



It is a good time now to have all your neces- 

 sary hives, supeis, and other supplies on hand to 

 put up these wintry days when very little else can 

 be done. That's the way to have "the tub 

 ready when honey comes pouring down." It 

 pays. Order early, save the discount, avoid the 

 hurry and worry, and be ready for the honey and 

 — money. 





 PROSPECTS FOR NEXT SEASON IN TEXAS. 



There will be lots of swarming next spring in 

 these parts of Texas if the season is favorable. 

 The hives are chock full of good fall honey. 

 Late breeding made the colonies strong, and 

 preparations for controlling swarming should be 

 made as early in the spring as possible. Give 

 plenty of room, prevent a crowded brood-nest, 

 give ventilation at the entrance, and keep the 

 bees too busy and contented to swarm. 

 ♦ 



UP OR DOWN STROKE IN UNCAPPING. 



That's a fine picture on page 1378, showing a 

 man uncapping a comb over the new capping- 

 melter; but what interests me is the fact that he 

 uses the upward stroke in uncapping, drawing 

 his knife from the bottom or lower end of the 

 comb upward to the upper end. I have tried 

 both the up and the down stroke in uncapping 

 tons and tons of honey, using many different 

 knives, and I often wonder why the upward 

 stroke is used. I have tried it often, especially to 

 find the better «ay, and I have come to the con- 

 clusion that downward shaving is what I prefer. 

 It seems easier to me; the knife can be handled 

 better; the comb need not be tilted so far, and 

 the cappings fall over and oH readily instead of 

 hanging to the knife 



That butcher-knife that we have used for sev- 

 eral years for uncapping has been improved from 

 year to year; that is to say, a better one (in our 

 estimation) has been adopted. Our first knife 

 was a straight pointed one. The next had a 

 somewhat larger and rounding point to get into 

 the "low places" more easily. That was an ad- 

 vantage. But it was often difficult to shave off 

 the cappings with the straight cutting edge when 

 the top-bars were wide, and the cappings did not 

 extend beyond the edges of these top bars. This 

 difficulty was overcome by using a knife this sea- 

 son with a slightly curved blade, so that the cut- 

 ting edge, bemg moie or less rounding, would 

 reach down into the comb, and thus get the cap- 

 pings off with ease. 



# 



"shaking" energy INTO BEES. 



That bees can be stirred up to greater activity 

 by certain manipulation^ seems to be an entirely 

 new subject to some of our bee-keepers. Editor 

 Hutchinson, in the December Kex'itiv, in refer- 

 ring to an article on that subject by Geo. W. 

 Williams, on page 367, of the same issue, says it 

 reads like a fairy tale; but he adds that he has 

 stopped laughing at new inventions or ideas that 

 appear too ridiculous to be true, and he urges 



that the plan be given a trial. There is much of 

 truth in this idea, and we have made use of it for 

 several years. The discovery (?) was already 

 made by me in my first bee-keeping years, more 

 than a dozen years ago, and ever since that time 

 it has been practiced in our apiaries. Many 

 times I have claimed that this was the secret of 

 being able to "squeeze" just a little more honey 

 out of the same localities where other bee-keepers 

 were doing only fairly well. 



Several times I have called attention to this 

 matter under the subject of moving bees just be- 

 fore a honey-flow. Besides my article on this 

 subject on page 1494, last year, reference to the 

 same matter is made on page 388, March, 1907. 

 Besides these, mention has been made of the val- 

 ue of manipulating the bees to stir them up into 

 "energy " several times when writing about the 

 use of the divisible-brood-chamber hive, etc. 

 This plan is a valuable one that has been over- 

 looked. Try it the coming season. 



SHALLOW OR DEEP ENTRANCE CLEATS ON BOT- 

 TOM-BOARDS. 



In making several hundred hive- bottom boards, 

 cleats for only ^-inch-entrance room are provid- 

 ed this year. We have tried different depths of 

 entrances, and find y& best for winter; but this 

 must be enlarged to at least ^4 inch during the 

 working season. We tiad trouble with ?4^-inch 

 spaces running clear back under the frames, be- 

 cause the bees are inclined to build " ladders " up 

 to the bottom-bars of the frames, and it is often 

 impossible to loosen them from these. With the 

 space diminishing to y& inch at the rear, this is 

 obviated. For several years, narrow strips from 

 shingles were used on the side cleats during the 

 working season. These were removed in the 

 late fall. We do not like permanent cl<*ats }{ 

 inch thick in front and Ys in the rear, as the en- 

 arances can not be lowered when desired. Nei- 

 ther do we favor reversible bottom-boards — too 

 much fuss. Instead of all these we now place 

 under the middle of the front end of the hive a 

 small stone or any thing else we can find that is 

 about ^4 inch thick. This gives not only a large 

 entrance, but more ventilation, as the opening 

 extends part way along the sides of the hive. 

 The bees do not bother one's feet or legs, as they 

 are driven away from the sides by the few puffs 

 of smoke always given at the entrance. By in- 

 serting the hive-tool in the entrance it is an easy 

 matter to pick up something and place it under 

 the hive in only a few moments. The objects 

 are removed in the same way. They cost noth- 

 ing, save time and labor, and serve better for the 

 purpose than any other contrivance that has come 

 to our notice. 



We make all our bottom-boards now out of 

 rough yellow-pine lumber, which lasts longer 

 than white pine. Besides, they are made strong- 

 er. Two six-inch boards and one four-inch, 22 

 inches long, are nailed on a two-inch cleat at 

 each end, with nails long enough to be clinched. 

 The narrow H-'nch side and back cleats are 

 made out of box lumber. [Dr. Miller advises 

 extra ventilation at the bottom of hives contain- 

 ing strong colonies, and in some cases he even 

 goes so far as to place blocks urder all four cor- 

 ners. — Ed 1 



