December. 1914 



American Vae Journal Ik 



where there is no longer any danger." 

 Even if we reject Dr. Bruennich's 

 view, we may still, by way of guessing, 

 lay the fault to that deep space of 2 

 inches under the bottom-bars, taking 

 in connection with it Mr. Miller's 

 guess that the smoke was not suffi- 

 ciently confined. Certainly it will take 

 more smoke to fill such a hive than 

 one with the ordinary bottom-board. 

 If Mr. Miller thinks this is not the 

 right guess, it is his turn to guess. 



Beekeeping in a High School 



Beekeeping as a vocation lor women 

 is being encouraged by the school au- 

 thorities among the girls of the Nature 

 Club of the Girls Central High School, 

 17th and Spring Garden streets, Phila- 

 delphia, Pa., and the idea has gained 

 many enthusiastic followers within re- 

 cent months. 



The great interest aroused in the 

 students, began last year with the pur- 

 chase of a bee hive by the Board of 

 Education, which was installed at the 

 school. With the introduction of the 

 bee hive, a few girls look up the study 

 of bee culture, more as a fad and from 

 curiosity than anything else. From 

 this small beginning the idea began 

 gaining a firmer foothold upon the 

 the minds of the students as they went 

 deeper into the ramifications of bee- 

 keeping, and gradually other students 

 became interested until now bee stu- 

 dents at this school number over two 

 score. 



No professor at the school, no mat- 

 ter what the course may be, has been 

 able to arouse a third of the interest 

 in his or her course, as that taken by 

 the students of bee culture, who will- 

 ingly pursue their studies long after 

 school hours. 



Several of the girls of the bee chap- 

 ter have purchased hives and continued 

 the studv at their homes, and it is more 



than possible that future owners of ex- 

 tensive apiaries will be found among 

 the enthusiastic students. 



Several teachers at the school having 

 become interested in the new chapter 

 of the Nature Club, have taken up the 

 study of bees during their spare mo- 

 ments, and arecompiling lists of books 

 for the benefit of the students. They 

 are enthusiastic over the interest 

 shown by the students of the school in 

 bee culture, and are using every en- 

 deavor to arouse interest among hun- 

 dreds of the other girls in the work. 



Honey Trees and Plants of the Blue 

 Ridge Mountains 



The win'er of 191.5-14 was ideal for 

 our bees in the mountains of North 

 Carolina Steady cold all winter with 

 no unusual cold snaps. They came 

 through with plenty of stores in 8- 

 frame hives, when apples bloomed, 

 which was the last days of April. We 

 have a fine fruit country, so have lots 

 of apple blossoms. My bees began in 

 the supers before apple blossoms were 

 all gone and swarmed May 16, and the 

 honey, which was a little dark, was 

 gathered from poplar and dogwood 

 trees and wild flowers. I remove the 

 supers from the hiv -s where the bees 

 have commenced to work to the ones 

 that are backward, just when the locust 

 blooms, about May 20, in order to keep 

 the locust honey separate. 



We got a full super from the locust, 

 which was fine honey,so thick and white. 

 There are thousands of locusts in this 

 section. A good farmer never cuts a 

 locust except for fence posts. They 

 stand bout in the pastures, and the 

 turf is always better under the locusts. 

 A locust tree in full bloom in good 

 weather is the most beautiful sight a 

 beekeeper can see. Unfortunately, the 

 frost gets the bloom sometimes, but it 

 hardly ever gets all of it, as those on 



BEEKEEPING IN THE PHILADELPHIA SCHOOLS 



the hills do notfreeze as easily as those 

 in the valleys. 



White clover is our next honey 

 plant, and I think our bees get honey 

 from red clover, too, at least they work 

 on it a lot. Our bees work slowly "n 

 the super after locust bloom is over 

 until chestnuts bloom, about June 20, 

 when they go to work with a rush. 1 

 am not sure whether the bees get 

 honey from the chestnut bloom or not, 

 but I guess they get both honey and 

 pollen. 



Sourwood is next. It is the king of 

 all honey plants in the South. If you 

 locate where your bees can get sour- 

 wood honey you are safe. Just tell any 

 one you have sourwood honey and 

 that is all they want to know. Sour- 

 wood has never failed since I have 

 kept bees and it yields in such an 

 abundance. You can take a spray of 

 flowers and slap them across your 

 hand and see the drops of honey (nec- 

 tar) on your hand. It is marvelous to 

 watch the honey the bees store in ihe 

 supers from day to day. 



Our honey flow begins to slacken 

 after July 1.5. Later on in August we 

 sometimes get some buckwheat honey. 

 We have lots of fall flowers to keep up 

 brood-rearing, but not for any surplus. 

 Black bees are kept mostly. A few 

 have ordered Italians, but they soon 

 get mixed. We bought ours from the 

 south side of the mountains, which is 

 the best bee country for Italians, but 

 since I have gotten some real Italians 

 I see mine are more like black bees. 



There are a few farmers that have 

 patent hives, but bees are kept mostly 

 in box gums, and a very few ever have 

 honey to sell. I don't suppose there is 

 a regular " professional " beekeeper to 

 be found anywhere close by. If there 

 is one I haven't heard of h m. 



We do not have any bee diseases. So 

 far the moth gets the credit for every 

 colony that dies, and you cannot make 

 a beekeeper believe otherwise. One 

 neighbor ordered " moth balls " to put 

 into his hives. However, the bees died 

 before they came, so I did not see 

 which decamped, bees or moths. 



There is lots of unoccupied bee 

 territory in this country, especially 

 along the Blue Ridge, and a beekeeper 

 on the top of the mountains could take 

 advantage of the flora of both sides; 

 for instance, the locust on the south 

 side blooms two weeks earlier than on 

 this side. 



We winter in single-walled hives 

 without any protection. I have been 

 thinking I would pack one for winter 

 just to see if they do winter better. 

 However, I have been "beekeeping" 

 three years and have 29 colonies, and 

 have never lost a colony. The "hubby " 

 says if I should lose one we would 

 have to have a funeral and bury it as I 

 am so cranky over niv bees. 



[Mrs 1 J. T. Reeves. 

 Laurelsprings, N. C. 



Your interesting letter shows very 

 clearly the great difTerence in locality 

 as to the sources of honey surplus. 

 You get surplus from apple, poplar, 

 locust, and sourwood, while we are 

 limited practically to white clover, 

 although we do get some fall honey; 

 but so nearly is white clover our only 

 source that if it were cut off we would 

 have to quit beekeeping. 



