746 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



drone, and nothing wrong on the part of 

 the man that sold you the queen. You 

 see you didn't buy a tested queen — only 

 " warranted." A warranted queen may 

 be one about whose progeny the seller 

 knows nothing, but as most of his 

 queens are purely mated he feels safe in 

 warranting one that he sends off, with- 

 out testing, which is equivalent to say- 

 ing, " I don't know for certain about 

 her, but I warrant her to be purely 

 mated, and if she turns out otherwise I 

 agree to replace her with one that is 

 purely mated." If there is no mistake 

 on your part, I think you will find the 

 breeder ready to replace a warranted 

 queen that doesn't turn out to be purely 

 mated. 



CONDUCTED BY 



MRS. JENNIE ATCHLEY. 



Beeville, Texas. 



Caring for Bees in the South. 



During winter in the South, as we are 

 constantly adding beginners to our 

 ranks, it is necessary that we should oc- 

 casionally go over old grounds, and as 

 winter la now upon us, 1 think it will be 

 a good idea to rehearse winter and spring 

 management in the South. 



In warm countries it is not so essential 

 that we look so closely to see that each 

 and every colony has an abundance of 

 stores. As our bees fly almost daily, it 

 will not hurt them to open the hives and 

 examine them at any time during the 

 winter. As the bees do not often cluster 

 or draw up in a compact body to keep 

 warm, hence it does not hurt to open the 

 hives. 



One of the main things to do is to see 

 that robber bees do not take the weak 

 ones, as we are troubled more witli rob- 

 bers than in the North, and as our bees 

 fly so much more during winter when no 



honey is to be had. Contract the en- 

 trances against mice and robbers. See 

 that the bees do not run out of honey, 

 and they usually pull through the win- 

 ter all right. 



But as soon as pollen begins coming in, 

 in the spring, the queens usually begin 

 laying fast, and when the weather con- 

 tinues good, the bees will have a hive 

 jam full of bees and brood, and their 

 stores will disappear almost like magic. 

 And unless you know you are likely to 

 have a honey-flow that will justify you 

 to have strong colonies at this early date 

 to use these bees in the fields, it is a loss 

 to the owner, and I would stop such in- 

 crease and waste of honey, even if I had 

 to cage the queens to 'do it, for it is ab- 

 solutely a total loss to rear bees out of 

 season, unless we can sell the bees, and 

 these instructions are for the honey-pro- 

 ducer and not the bee-merchant. I 

 would not allow the bees to run lower 

 than 5 pounds of honey, or as near as 

 we can guess at it, at any time, as a 

 rainy day or two might run then clear 

 out of honey, and cause the bees to pull 

 out their young and throw it away ; and 

 this is another big loss to the owner, es- 

 pecially if that brood would come in at a 

 time when they would be needed to 

 gather a harvest. 



Now these very points that I have 

 given are the very essentials in success- 

 ful bee-keeping, and right there is where 

 so many fail to secure a crop of honey, 

 while a next door neighbor gets a fair 

 crop. So I will ask you to look well 

 that your bees do not suffer from the 

 the disease of negligence, and you will 

 likely always come out on top. 



Jennie Atchley. 



The Beeville Bee-Convention. 



In the Beeville Bee — one of our local 

 newspapers — the following was published 

 on Nov. 23 : 



BEE-KEEPEBS' CONVENTION. 



Mrs. Jennie Atchley, of this city, has 

 called a midwinter bee-convention, which 

 will be in session here Dec. 27 and 28. 

 There will be delegates in attendance 

 from all over the Union, and their num- 

 ber will aggregate some 300 or more. 

 These delegates, who will be representa- 

 tive citizens from their respective States 

 and localities, will no doubt be agreeably 

 surprised with our sunny climate, and 

 those who do not decide to permanently 

 locate here (which doubtless many will 

 conclude to do), will go away singing 

 the praises of sunny southwest Texas. 



