254 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



November, 



ting the old hive uuder the new one, 

 but comirelling the bees to go in and 

 out through the new one. As the heat 

 goes up, the queen soon goes up too, 

 in the new hive, where it is the warm- 

 est. 



The same also advises to put a comb 

 of honey or a feeder full of syrup in 

 the hive where an artificial swarm is 

 to be lodged. He says that an artiticial 

 swarm does not carry the same 

 amount of honey as does a natural 

 swarm. This goes out with enough to 

 last three or four days. 



Adrian Getaz. 



MISTAKES AND THEIR LESSONS. 



(L. B. Smith.) 



Mr. Editor: With your permission 

 1 will tell the readers of TTie 

 Bee-Keeper something of my suc- 

 cess as well as the mistakes I 

 have made in bee-keeping the present 

 year. You know we often profit as 

 much by the mistakes of others, when 

 they are pointed out to us, as by their 

 success. 



My success is "short, but sweet,'' 

 as the saying is. I started in the 

 spring with about eighty full colonies 

 of bees, all pure Italians, and by May 

 1st they had increased to something 

 over a hundred by natural swarming. 

 I work my bees for extracted honey 

 and keep down increase as much as 

 possible. 



All old colonies had from three to 

 four full sets of drawn comb, and were 

 just "boiling over" with bees, as the 

 queen is allowed full access to all 

 combs, and I always have good, young, 

 prolific queens. I was congratulating 

 myself on having my bees in the best 

 possible condition for the early honey 

 flow, which comes from the wild mar- 

 igold and mesquite. In fact the honey 

 flow had already started, and some of 

 my best colonies had from 40 to 50 

 pounds of new honey, but on the last 

 day of April the wind shifted from a 

 gentle south breeze to the northwest 

 and an old-fashioned Texas "blue-nor- 

 ther" came up, followed by a white 

 frost on May 1st, killing most all tender 

 vegetation. My hopes then went from 

 a hundred down to zero. 



The two succeeding years had been 

 almost failures, owing to the great 



drouth that prevailed over the State, 

 and now a third failure seemed sure. 



What was I to do? Over a hundred 

 colonies of bees in a starving condi- 

 tion, sugar high and my means limit- 

 ed. Being a "natural-born"' bee-keeper, 

 and great lover of our little pets, I was 

 not long in deciding what course to 

 take. 



I began doubling up most of my new 

 swarms till I had ninety eolonies.draw- 

 ing frames of honey from the rich to 

 sui)ply the poor, but only too soon the 

 supply was exhausted, and all was at 

 the point of starvation. What should I 

 do? Let them starve and turn my at- 

 tention to farming? These were the 

 thoughts that were racking my brain 

 day and night. I had never seen a 

 complete failure in the honey crop, af- 

 ter we had had so much winter and 

 spring rain as we had the present year. 

 Neither had I ever seen so late a 

 freeze in this State in all my twenty 

 years as a bee-keeper. I began to rea- 

 son this way: "Should a man give up 

 farming because his crops had been a 

 failure from drouths, freezes or other 

 causes? No, no! Any sensible man 

 would not do that." Then I said to 

 myself, "Why let the bees starve?" So 

 I began buying sugar and feeding and 

 fed nearly a barrel of sugar to the 

 ninety colonies, when they should have 

 been storing honey and swarming. Now 

 for the result. 



I have extracted up to this date 313 

 gallons of as fine mesquite and sumac 

 honey as any one could wish for, with 

 a fair pro.spect of getting a fall crop 

 from broom weeds. 



Now for some of the mistakes I 

 made: First, I should have fed double 

 the amount I did, to have kept my 

 brood rearing to its fullest extent and 

 not have allowed my enthusiasm to 

 run down, when the bees needed the 

 best and most careful attention. My 

 second mistake was in not moving my 

 whole apiary to a dense growth of su- 

 mac some eleven miles aw.iy. where I 

 moved fifty colonies and secured 153 

 gallons of choice sumac honey. A 

 tliird mistake was in not having all 

 needed supplies mi hand when the hon- 

 ey flow came. 



If this doesn't find its way into the 

 waste basket I may tell of other mis- 

 takes I've made in apiculture in the - 

 past twenty years. 



Rescue, Tex., Oct. 10, 1903. 



