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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Nov. 1. 1900 



same arguments have been presented by substantially the 

 same writers. Each time the conclusion has been reacht 

 that h was a matter of " locality ;" but why some localities 

 require a certain method of management," and why some 

 others require a different method, has not been explained. 

 Why does Dadanfs locality require large hives and corre- 

 spondingly large colonies? Wiiy does Doolittle's locality 

 need small ones? What influence has the more or less suc- 

 cessful wintering due to the climate, upon the condition of 

 the colonies in the spring and the subsequent management ? 

 What management is required for a short, heavy, flow of 

 honey, and what for a long, light flow ? What for locali- 

 ties having a fall flow, etc. ? 



All of these points should be thoroly investigated and 

 understood. We should be able to say : A given locality 

 of such and such climate, honey-flow, etc., requires sucii 

 and such management ; and we ought to be able to explain 

 why. 



I can only describe the characteristics of East Tennes- 

 see, from an apiculturist's standpoint, and explain how 

 those conditions brought me to my present ideas on the 

 subject. I may add that I am writing from the standpoint 

 of a comb-honey producer. 



Beginning in the spring of the year, we may say that 

 our honey-flow, or, rather, our honey season, begins about 

 April 1st, and ends about the middle of July. But it is by 

 no means a continuous flow. In April, fruit blossoms ; iii 

 May, after an interruption, tulipwood. Then another in- 

 terruption until the persimmon flow comes in June; then 

 basswood and sourwood during the latter part of June and 

 July. Basswood is found only away in the mountains ; 

 there is none here. Some white clover bridges more or less 

 the interval between fruit-blossoms and poplar, but not 

 enough to be depended upon for surplus. Occasionally 

 there is a heavy flow of honey-dew during May and June ; 

 generally of a tolerably fair quality, but sometimes abom- 

 inable in taste and color. 



What increases the difficulty is the irregularity of these 

 different flows. Often the fruit-blossoms and poplar flows 

 are interfered with by bad weather. Sometimes there is 

 honey-dew ; sometimes there is none. Sometimes the sour- 

 wood yields, and sometimes not. The persimmon has 

 never failed yet with me, but there are only a few trees 

 here and there, and the period of blossoming is very short. 



There is absolutely no way to tell in advance which of 

 these sources will yield, and which will not ; so the only 

 chance to secure surplus is to keep the colonies strong dur- 

 ing the whole season (three months and a half), so as to 

 catch whatever flow may happen to come. I am speaking 

 for Tennessee generally. In my immediate neighborhood 

 there are very few tulip trees, and no lindens. 



Needless to say that a management similar to the one 

 advocated by Mr. Doolittle and others would be a failure ; 

 for the flow for which they would build up might be the 

 very one that would fail. In fact, I tried once to build up 

 my colonies very, very strong- for the sourwood flow, when, 

 lo, and behold, that flow failed completely. 



To keep colonies of bees in full strength during three 

 months and a half, it is necessary to control swarming, 

 otherwise both the mother colonies and the swarms would 

 be too weak during the remainder of the season. 



This is one of the reasons which prompted me to adopt 

 large hives. I had some correspondence with the Dadants 

 on the subject, stating that there was no demand for ex- 

 tracted honey here, and they advised me to build up a home 

 market as they have done. Unfortunately the bulk of our 

 honey is dark, rather inferior in quality, and varies greatly 

 both in taste and color. To build up a special home market 

 at advanced prices, it is necessary to have first-class honey. 



Prevention of swarming can be accomplisht only by 

 caging or removing the queens at the proper time. This, 

 however, entails quite a loss of brood, as the bees must be 

 at least four days without unsealed brood. 



Those four days or more without brood are the key to 

 success. After the bees have begun to build queen-cells 

 they will continue as long as there is unsealed brood, and 

 the conditions of hone)'-flow, temperature, strength of col- 

 ony, etc., are favorable. After having been without un- 

 sealed brood a few days they will not resume cell-building, 

 at least not for quite a while, and generally the remainder 

 of the season. But, as stated above, this entails a loss of 

 brood. With me the swarming takes place in May. The 

 brood lost at that time is precisely what would furnish the 

 field-bees for the sourwood flow in July. So it becomes 

 necessary to reduce the loss to a minimum. 



By using large hives, putting on supers early, and pro- 

 tecting them against the cold nights so that the work goes 

 on in the super day and night with no interruption, using 

 bait-sections, shading the hives in hot days, etc., I have, 

 for the last si.x years, succeeded in reducing the swarming 

 from 5 to IS percent of the number of colonies. 



Under such circuinstances, rather than to requeen thru- 

 out, I let the colonies swarm ; catching the queens in the 

 traps and returning the queens, or giving the colonies 

 others after they have been a few days without unsealed 

 brood ; or I let them have queens out of the cells they have 

 built. If, occasionally, in examining the colonies, I find 

 cells started, I treat them the same way without waiting for 

 actual swarming. 



Between the honey season and the winter there is a lit- 

 tle nectar gathered every day except in the very dry sea- 

 sons. That quantity increases materially when the golden- 

 rods and asters bloom, but there is never enough to furnish 

 any surplus, and very often not enough to winter the 

 colonies. 



During that period there are plenty of weeds and flow- 

 ers of all sorts along the fences and in the fields after wheat 

 and oats are harvested, in the pastures and other places ; 

 but they yield very little honey ; and, as as a rule, only in 

 the early morning. This must be due to the fact that the 

 ground is too dry to admit the formation of the nectar, for, 

 occasionally, if an abundant rain comes there is something 

 like a flow of honey for a few days after. 



The result is that the more bees there are in a colony 

 the more flowers will be visited, and the more honey 

 brought in ; in fact, while the strong colonies will gain 

 some in population and stores during that period, the me- 

 dium ones will only sustain themselves and the weak onefe 

 will lose, if they don't get robbed by the others, which hap- 

 pens occasionally. The result is, that by the time winter 

 sets in the difference between the large and the small colo- 

 nies will be greater than it was at the close of the honey 

 harvest. 



During the winter the difference becomes still greater. 

 The strong colonies will eat proportionately less, lose a less 

 percentage of bees, rear some brood, and when spring 

 comes they will be very much stronger in proportion, begin 

 brood-rearing in earnest much sooner, and be ready to en- 

 ter the surplus apartments in full force long before the 

 weaker colonies can even recover their lost strength. Do 

 you wonder that I am such a strong advocate of the large 

 hives and larger colonies ? 



If this state of affairs were a purely local one, I should 

 not have written this contribution ; but it applies in its 

 main characteristics to the whole country south of the 

 Mason and Dixon line except Florida ; there are differences, 

 of course, between one locality and another. The further 

 south we go the shorter is the winter. Then, below this 

 section there is the cotton, while, on the other hand, the 

 sourwood does not exist in the low plains. But, neverthe- 

 less, the general features of the Southern-States' honey- 

 production remain the same. A few months of honey sea- 

 son during which nectar can be gathered from different 

 sources, but in a very irregular manner, some sources yield- 

 ing this year, and some other yielding the next j'ear, neces- 

 sitates the keeping up of the colonies to their full strength 

 during several months ; then the late summer and fall sea- 

 son, with very scant yielding of nectar, during which the 

 strongest colonies have a decided advantage over the others. 



Other sections of the country are under different condi- 

 tions. In the northern States there is a definite honey sea- 

 son of a few weeks from white clover or basswood, or both, 

 the swarming take place at the beginning of it. Some of 

 these have, besides that, a honey-flow from buckwheat later 

 in the season ; and, in a few localities, there is also a fall 

 flow of considerable importance. 



In Colorado and other northwestern States, they have 

 two distinct flows. Thru some correspondence with a 

 prominent Colorado apiculturist, I have learned that one 

 difficulty with them was that during the honey-flow the bees 

 were filling the brood-nest with honey and curtailing the 

 brood, with the result that at the time of the second flow 

 the number of field-bees was considerably reduced. 



Some portions of California seem, on the other hand, to 

 have a long, continuous flow, with the swarming taking 

 place before the flow opens. 



I have done my part. Now, if others in different locali- 

 ties will do the same, we will eventually have the matter 

 fully understood. — "Prize Article" in the Bee-Keepers' 

 Review. 



