156 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 15 



BEE-KEEPING IN THE 

 SOUTHWEST 



By Louis Scholl, New Braunfels, Tix. 



"Spring cleaning" should be more in vogue 

 among bee-keepers. Now is the time for it. 

 Those who clean up the apiary, honey-house, and 

 every thing else before the busy.season, and have 

 every thing in apple-pie order, will have a smooth 

 path to travel the rest of the season; the others, a 

 rough one. 



That book about honey, p. 54, is of much in- 

 terest to me. It will be remembered that my de- 

 sire was to see a book about honey published 

 like that on beeswax by Mr. Cowan. Now we 

 have one, but in German. But, say, to whom 

 must I send my 75 cents.'' [Send to the publish- 

 er, A. Hartleben, Leipzig, Germany. — Ed.] 

 4^ 



A PLEA FOR SHALLOW FRAMES 



Say, Mr. Crane, come down and we'll take off 

 honey together, p. 100. Several have been here 

 who doubted my record (.?), but, fortunately for 

 me, went away. Yes, the shallow-frame supers 

 have many advantages if used rightly. But there 

 are many who do not agree with me. It is not 

 inconvenient to have the shallow supers over reg- 

 ular Langstroth-frame brood-chambers; but why 

 not have the same thing throughout — shallow- 

 frame bodies for brood-chambers, section-supers, 

 extracting-supers, and all, as we do.'' 



SHALIOVV FRAMES DON 'T NEED WIRING. 



A tedious job is that of having to string your 

 frames with wire. It's not only a waste of time, 

 but an extra expense. The only way we over- 

 come this is by the use of shallow frames and a 

 divisible hive. No wire is needed in these frames, 

 which are only 5^ inches deep; and not only is 

 the wire saved, but lighter grades of foundation 

 can be used, which means a great saving in that 

 respect. Thin super foundation is used for full 

 sheets, and extra-thin can be used for starters. 

 As proof of this we shall have over 25,000 of these 

 frames in use this season. We are nailing up 

 several shipments of such frames now, and find all 

 the end bars pierced with holes for wires, and 

 wire and small nails included, making only an 

 extra expense, which can be saved. 



PAINTING HIVES. 



Since such fellows as Dr. Miller and others 

 have caused several (perhaps many) bee-men not 

 to waste time and money in painting their hives 

 I have thought it worth while to experiment, and 

 two seasons' use of unpainted hives is enough 

 for me. Of course, the southern conditions may 

 have a lot to do with it. All kinds of lumber 

 not protected by paint will twist, warp, check, 

 and split. This can not be to'erated in a bee- 

 hive. A little extra expense and time will not 

 only keep the hives neat in appearance, but hold 

 them together. It is much more agreeable to 

 work with the painted ones. Dr. Miller would 

 rather throw his unpainted hives away when mak- 



ing a cliange to some other style, since the old 

 ones would be too much worn out any way. I 

 would keep them from wearing out by painting, 

 and then sell them for more than enough to pay 

 for the paint. 



<$> 



"shaking BEES," AGAIN. 



Yes, don't go " crazy " about shaking bees, p. 

 74. 1 differ with Geo. W. Williams in this re- 

 spect. He shakes the bees hdter skelter off the 

 combs and out of the hives — shakes them all to 

 pieces in front of the hives, and lets them crawl 

 in again; and they are only too glad to get back 

 and restore things to rights. He gets the effect, 

 but he goes too far. First, it seems cruel to me 

 to treat them so severely, and then say, "Now, 

 go to work, be gads, or I'll shake ye again." Be- 

 sides, it takes lots oif time, and could hardly be 

 practiced with a thousand colonies. I know that 

 frequent " shakings " of a colony will make them 

 work better; but instead of going to the extreme 

 I make use of this stirring-up at various times of 

 the season when we are manipulating the hives 

 for certain reasons. A few of these aie mention- 

 ed, p. ,102. This kind of "shaking" pays. 



-^ 



a BOOK ON HONEV-PLANTS. 



A " botany of honey-flowers " would be a great 

 thing for us bee-keepers, page 79; but have you 

 thought what size such a volume would make, 

 Grant Stanley.? You say the book should contain 

 every possible known honey and pollen producing 

 plant in America. It should be durably bound, 

 and of (onvenient size to carry in the pocket." 

 But why have a pocket size.? If one considers 

 how many large volumes are needed for the bot- 

 any of different parts of the United States alone, 

 and the great number of plants, etc. , which would 

 fall under the above list of honey-flowers, it is at 

 once apparent that a botany of the honey-plants 

 of America would make a very large volume in- 

 deed. My preliminary list of Texas honey-plants 

 alone, as published by the Texas Experiment Sta- 

 tion, is very brief, and contains only a part of 

 the honey-plants here, yet it numbers 31 ptages 

 the size of Gleanings. 



the effect of the age of honey on the 



QUALITY. 



That honey will keep forever has been a gen- 

 eral bflief by most of us, and I have often re- 

 peated the statement that, the older honey gets, 

 the better it is. I have heard of " a barrel of hon- 

 ey twenty years old, and better than when first 

 stored away. " Now, it appears thajLppinions dif- 

 fer on this subject. About two d(Sfen bottles of 

 honey that were put up at different temperatures 

 in a honey-heatingexperiment at A. and M. Col- 

 lege several years ago I find have changed very 

 materially in every case. It was some of my best 

 honey, put up after being heated at temperatures 

 varying from 128° to 180° Fahr. There were 

 several of each temperature, all labeled and tight- 

 ly sealed; and the most remarkable part of it is 

 that there is a great difference in the contents of 

 bottles of the same temperature. None of it re- 

 sembles the good quality of honey bottled, and 

 the levulose and dextrose have separated in each. 

 All is very dark. 



