May, 1914. 



Amarican Hee Journal 



Motor Boats and Beekeeping 



BY CRANT ANUF.RSdN. 



TEXAS is the leading State in the 

 Union for the production of honey, 

 and is noted for being the home 

 of bulk comb honey. Texas is also 

 noted for the large amount of honey 

 consumed inside of its boundaries. It 

 not only consumes all its own produc- 

 tion, but a large quantity is shipped in 

 from Colorado, California and New 

 Mexico. 



When I came here four years ago I 

 brought y5 colonies of bees with me, 

 and thought I had a clear field, as there 

 were no bees in this part of the county. 

 I was told that the bees would starve 

 here, but as I had been reared in a bee- 

 yard, I could not believe such stories. 

 Now there are bees in all directions, 

 from a few colonies to over 100 in a 

 place. As bees increased rapidly here 

 I placed out-apiaries in the country 

 around me, and used an auto-truck and 

 a runabout to handle the bees, honey 

 and queens. These automobiles proved 

 of much value, as the time saved was 

 valuable, and the use of the automobiles 

 made the work more pleasant and 

 profitable. However, as I am located 

 on the Arroyo, a deep inlet from the 

 Gulf of Mexico, I decided to make use 

 of this fine water-way, and with the 

 help of my two boys built a gasoline 

 launch with which we moved all of our 

 bees down the Arroyo to suitable 

 places. This launch soon became too 

 small for the work, and was sold and 

 a larger one built, which we christened 

 "Queen B." She is the largest and 

 fastest boat on the Arroyo, always 

 ready, and carries heavy loads of honey 

 and bees from the out-yards home. 



I am enclosing two photographs of 

 our latest production, the Annie Lee. 

 One photograph 1 took of her as she 

 was ready to be launched and mounted 

 on two wheels; the other one I took 

 at our Sugarland apiary, with my son 

 Albert at the wheel. The time this 

 photograph was taken the Annie Lee 

 was making 9 miles per hour. 



The third photograph is of our Baby 

 yard, which we started last spring with 

 about 90 colonies. While only a baby, 

 less than a year old, it increased in 



Grant Anderson's Latest Motor Boat. 



colonies to 230, and gave us 20,000 

 pounds of honey. We are now plant- 

 ing another baby yard of 100 colonies, 

 of which we will give you a glimpse 

 later. While some of our apiaries are 

 many miles from home, we can see all 

 of them in a very short time, as they 

 are all on the banks of the Arroyo. We 

 have a small house at each of the lower 

 out-yards, where we keep supplies, 

 bedding, provisions, tools, etc. When 

 using the boats we have — 



No horse to get stung; no mud to be Hung. 



We ride in peace and delight; no rock and 

 no stump. 



No gullies to jump, as we glide swiftly home 

 in the night. 



It is music we hear from the motor so dear. 



As she glides us over the deep to the green 

 shady shore. 



Where the bees make a roar, and the mock- 

 ing birds sing us to sleep. 



San Benito, Tex. 



Swarming Notes 



BY W. N. RANDOLI'H. 



PAGE AFTER PAGE has been writ- 

 ten on the subject of swarming, 

 and it must be that we have not 

 yet arrived at its proper solution. For 



■•/■ igoaai 



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One ok (iUANT AnDRKSONS LAUNC HKS fur ViSITlNii OuTAFIAKIES. 



in the words of Bryan, " No question 

 is settled until it is settled right." 



I shall try in this short article, to 

 approach the question from a new an- 

 gle. I think the impulse comes like 

 this : When the queen comes out of 

 her winter's rest, with all her stored 

 energy for egg laying turned loose, she 

 lays more eggs in a given time than 

 she does later on. As she fills comb 

 after comb with brood in response to 

 the call of the honey-flow, and with 

 every one of her subjects as eager as 

 she, aiding and urging her forward, 

 when she ends up against the wall of 

 the hive, all combs behind her full of 

 brood and eggs, and not enough brood 

 hatching to supply vacant cells for her, 

 then comes a halt and consequent con- 

 fusion in all departments of the hive 

 (for there must be perfect team work 

 here) ; then, and only then, the swarm- 

 ing impulse is born. 



The remedy I used when running for 

 comb honey with the 8-frame hive, was 

 to supply a shallow extracting super 

 filled with drawn combs just before the 

 brood-chamber was quite full, by lift- 

 ing the brood-chamber and placing the 

 super beneath it. The queen would 

 proceed on down with her egg laying. 

 Before the super would be filled, the 

 main honey-flow would be on, and I 

 would put on a super of sections, and 

 lifting the extracting super from be- 

 neath, placed it on top of all, where 

 the brood could hatch out, and the bees 

 fill it for extracted honey. In the in- 

 terim the older brood below would be 

 hatching out fast, and the queen would 

 have to turn back and begin filling the 

 brood-chamber again, ami f^roiii^i; slo:uer 

 in lin- u-ork, and the swarming danger 

 averted. I only used this treatment on 

 colonies I apprehended would swarm. 



We know that some colonies swarm 

 and some do not. And the reason for 

 this, I believe, is that the latter have 

 queens who do not get a good start or 

 do not have the egg-laying capacity of 

 the others, and do not get brood-cham- 

 bers filled until the main flow comes, 

 and then the bees are too busy storing 

 honey in the supers to bother with 

 anything else. Then, too, the brood 

 of the slower laying queen has time to 

 hatch out behind her and give her a 

 job in filling her brood-chamber anew. 



