DECEMBER 15, 1912 



791 



Beekeeping in the South^vest 



Louis Scholl, New Braunfels, Texas. 



INFORMATION ABOUT HIVES. 



As the time for buying new supplies for 

 the coming season is at hand, inquiries 

 about the kinds of hives to purchase, with 

 requests for information on the advantage 

 of divisible-brood-ehamber hives have be- 

 come more numerous. In connection with 

 this matter much information is being de- 

 sired about bulk comb honey and its pro- 

 duction, so that the proper hive and super 

 apparatus may be obtained when purchas- 

 ing the new supplies. After having answer- 

 ed a number of them, others keep coming 

 in; therefore the following information has 

 been " boiled down " to hit each inquirer. 



1. I would urge those who do not know 

 what kind of hive to adopt to purchase the 

 regular standard Langstroth ten-frame size, 

 with shallow supers to begin with, trying 

 only one or two divisible hives alongside of 

 these. This is to guard against investing in 

 something you may not find just what you 

 thought you wanted a larger amount of 

 money than is actually necessary to make a 

 small trial. If the divisible hives prove all 

 right, well and good; and if not, there are 

 only a few of them, and they can be used 

 as supers on the L. hives. In either case 

 the L. hives can be more easilj' disposed of, 

 as these are regular (or standard) goods. 



2. The shallow frames, Hoffman style, 

 5% inches deep, with i/^-inch top-bars, will 

 have to be especially ordered, or frames 

 with wide thin top-bars will be sent out by 

 the supply dealer. The latter are somewhat 

 weak, and sag in time, especially if gi'oov- 

 ed for foundation. This groove is not nec- 

 essary with our method of fastening Uw 

 foundation with melted beeswax or by any 

 of the other most common methods used 

 here in the South. 



3. Foundation of the thin surplus kind 

 is always used in full sheets without wires. 

 Very few beekeepers wire these shallow 

 frames, even for extracted honey. How- 

 ever, a heavier gi'ade of foundation would 

 have to be used if the beekeeper intends to 

 extract from newly built combs unless a 

 little care is exercised in extracting them 

 the first time. After that they are tough 

 enough to stand rougher handling. 



4. No wires are ever used in these frames 

 for bulk-comb-honey production, and thin 

 surplus foundation is used. Extra thin is 

 a little too light, and the bees tear it down 

 badly. 



5. All of our honey is hauled home from 

 out-apiaries on a spring wagon— some of it 

 for moi"e than 20 miles. It is very seldom 



that any of the combs are broken down, 

 and very few even in the hottest summer 

 weather. 



6. In answer to the question whether it 

 would ever become necessary or satisfac- 

 tory to use more than two stories for a 

 brood-nest when one has Carniolan bees, I 

 would say that it is advantageous to pro- 

 vide just as much room as is needed for the 

 best results with any race of bees. I find 

 that my two apiaries of Carniolans require 

 a larger hive, and three shallow stories are 

 used as the main hive and brood-chamber 

 the greater part of the season. All our 

 normal colonies are wintered in three such 

 stories. The upper one furnishes just that 

 much for winter stores, lasting far into the 

 spring, and provides extra breeding room 

 during the spring months. It also provides 

 storing room for the first, scattering honey, 

 and, later, becomes a shallow extracting- 

 super for extracted honey, which is raised 

 up to receive the empty comb-honey super 

 between it and the brood-chamber. 



POISONING WITH ARSENATE OF LEAD. 



Since cotton is a very important honey- 

 plant in many of the Southern States, the 

 matter of jjoison sprays that affect the bees 

 of the neighborhood where spraying is done 

 becomes a serious question for the beekeep- 

 ers. The following letter illustrates the 

 point : 



Dear Friend : — I am writing for information on 

 cotton-spraying. You always speak quite highly of 

 cotton as a honey-plant. I get much honey from 

 that source, but I am much worried since the people 

 are beginning to use arsenate of lead for spraying. 

 Two of my neighbors have lost all their bees from 

 cotton-poisoning. Does arsenate of lead work the 

 same in your district ? Would it be better to move my 

 bees back further into the woods ? Those who lost 

 their bees were right in the center of large poisoned 

 cotton-fields, while mine were on the edge of the 

 cotton district, a few rods in the woods. 



Riveriera, Tex. J. M. Sasee. 



I have given this matter a good deal of 

 attention — -perhaps more because I depend 

 almost entirely upon cotton as the chief 

 source of nectar. In other words I would 

 have to give up beekeeping if cotton did 

 not yield honey in my beekeeping territory; 

 and there are many others who will say the 

 same about their localities. The amount of 

 cotton honey produced is much larger than 

 many suppose. We alone harvested about 

 sixty thousand pounds of cotton honey this 

 year, and bought a larger amount. It should 

 be remembered that this was the poorest 

 year we have had. 



(Continued to page 803.) 



