1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



625 



BEE-KEEPING IN THE 

 SOUTHWEST 



By Louis Scholl, New Braunfels, Tex. 



adding supers above or underneath. 



Empty supers are added underneath the 

 nearly tilled one here, Dr. Miller, instead of 

 above, a la Townsend — Straws, page 558. If 

 you will read page 4'Jl again you will find 

 this reason. By providing ©xtra super room 

 early lor both the queen and the Dees, we 

 prevent a clogged brood-nest. When the 

 queen gets back below later, she finds a fine 

 place there, wih lots of room, and she re- 

 mains down in the brood-chamber the rest 

 of the season if we keep the honey out of it 

 by giving plenty of super room as needed. 

 The empty supers are given underneath, 

 and tlie queen does not bother them, because 

 she has sufficient room in the brood-cham- 

 ber. Without such a condition of the brood- 

 chamber the queen would go into the su- 

 pers, hence they would have to be put above 

 the first one already on, resulting in a great 

 loss to the bee-keeper, both in honey and in 

 labor. 



It is well known that bees are loath to 

 work well above sealed stores in the brood- 

 combs, let alone a full super above these; 

 and it is extra work to place the supers 

 above first, and then below later. This plan 

 works here only in the best of flows. In our 

 long slow tlows it would mean a loss of 40 

 to 50 per cent to us. I tried it once (no 

 more), after Mr. Townsend advised it to- 

 ward the close of the season. A late flow 

 surprised me, and all colonies with supers 

 underneath filled them, while all those above 

 were only half full. 



SHALLOW SUPERS JUST AS GOOD IN THE 

 NORTH. 



We have never believed that shallow su- 

 pers, with their many advantages both in 

 comb and extracted honey production, would 

 be adapted only to our southern climate, for 

 we have been convinced that their adoption 

 as divisible brood-chambers as well as for 

 supers would give better results if the right 

 kind of system were used in connection. 

 We certainly find them more profitable in 

 our apiaries, and know that there are many 

 others who do also, not only in the South but 

 in the North, to which a good many letters 

 testify. Here is one to the point from Min- 

 nesota: 



Mr. Sclioll:— Your mention of the shallow supers in 

 the July 15th issue exactly accords with my experience. 

 As I have a lot of deep supers on hand I am very sorrj' 

 that I did not adopt the shallow ones before. We had 

 a light flow here from white clover, and the colonies 

 that had shallow supers stored considerably more 

 honey, and of a much better quality, on account of its 

 beingr entirely capped, than the colonies having the 

 deep L. .supers. Just now a little honey is coming in, 

 and newly hived swarms are working well in shallow 

 supers, while hut very little is being done in the deep 

 supers. Hereafter I shall use nothing but shallow su- 

 pers. G. A. BarbisCH. 



LaGrescent, Minn. 



SMALL BEES FROM OLD COMBS. 



Tut, tut,' Dr. Miller, p. 556. Mr. Crawshaw 

 is right. One of my colonies had a great 

 number, hundreds, of the very smallest honey- 

 bees I ever saw. They were but little more 

 than half the size ot their sisters, and the 

 cutest little things. Investigation showed a 

 very old comb right in the brood-nest, and it 

 was fun to see these little dwarfs emerge in 

 such Bumbers. They worked afield too, but 

 I put the comb to one side, and later took it 

 out of the brood-nest altogether. Before 

 melting the comb, which I kept a long while, 

 I cut out small pieces, a few of which I think 

 I still have in my desk. The comb was 1 i\ 

 inches thick — probably as far as the bees 

 could go, while the midrib ranged in thick- 

 ness from i\i to just an even )4 inch. Many 

 cells were only X inch deep — so shallow and 

 small in circumference that one can imagine 

 the dwarfs that came out of them. Dissolv- 

 ing some of the thick midrib in spirits of al- 

 cohol, the cocoons were separated by means 

 of very sharp-pointed tweezers. This was 

 easily done after cutting, with a very sharp 

 razor, a cross-section of the cells. Cell No. 

 i revealed 51; cell No. 2, 56; and cell No. 3, 

 48 cocoons, the base of which all contained 

 more or less excrement, which took up space. 

 I am not positive whether 56 generations of 

 bees were all that were raised in tl|cit comb. 

 It shows, however, that very old coihbs must 

 in time necessarily produce smaller bees. 



.^ 



GETTING MORE FOR YOUR HONEY CROP. 



While the bee-keepers up north are har- 

 vesting their crop the Texans have already 

 disposed of nearly all of theirs, including the 

 odds and ends, so that it is a difficult matter 

 to obtain any more honey. There are only 

 a few scattering ones who have not disposed 

 of their entire crop. But there are a few lo- 

 calities, also, where the honey crop is a little 

 later, and hence there is still some unsold 

 honey. Our case is one of these latter. 

 Moreover, for years we have practiced tier- 

 ing up and leaving the honey on the hives 

 until late in the season. This plan certainly 



Eays us. While the bees are rolling in the 

 oney we do nothing but try to produce as 

 much as possible while we can, by tiering up 

 and watcning the bees closely. At this time 

 we are always too busy to take off and sell 

 honey, although nearly every one else does 

 at the average market price year after year. 

 After we have made all the honey possible 

 we have more leisure time, and we begin 

 shipping our crop. The honey has been on 

 the nives longer, is riper and better, and, 

 besides this, we have more of it. Prices 

 meanwhile have stiffened since every one 

 else has sold out, so that we get more for 

 what we have. Why? Because our honey 

 is better; it is the kind those Michigan bee- 

 keepers advertise and sell at a fancy price. 

 This has been the secret why we can handle 

 more bees, secure a larger crop, obtain a bet- 

 ter quality, and command a higher price. 



