THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



171 



dency is to "boss" the manager too 

 much, and with the result that "too 

 many cooks spoil the broth." 



The prevalence of cholera it ap- 

 pears has had a bad effect on the 

 Frencli honey market. Let us hope 

 that by careful sanitary conditions 

 we shall keep the scourge away from 

 our doors. 



As time rolls on I trust the chatty 

 "Foreign Notes" as now outlined will 

 come to be looked on as a vahiable 

 feature whence new ideas will spring 

 to help on the march of progress. 



Phiia., Pa. 



BEE CULTURE IN THE 

 SOUTH. 



By G. W. Demaree. 



The past year has been a poor 

 one for the prosperity of bees in a 

 large portion of the middle states 

 and in a greater portion of the 

 south. 



In the first place the past winter 

 was an exceedingly long and cold one, 

 extending far into the spring months ; 

 and to add to the discomfort of our 

 weakened colonies the early part of 

 the honey season was cool and other- 

 wise unfavorable. And when the 

 main honey season came in with white 

 clover at its best, cool, rough east 

 and northeast winds prevailed much 

 of the time and lessened very much 

 the honey yield ; the result was that 

 we got less than a half crop of honey. 



Never before did my bees build up 

 so slowly. Although there was plenty 

 of bloom to all appearances, yet but 

 little pollen was gathered, and to 



this cause I am inclined to attribute 

 the tardy breeding up of my colonies. 

 In an apiary of over seventy colonies 

 I had but one swarm in the natural 

 way, and I found it impossible to 

 stock my queen-rearing apiary, to 

 any great or material extent, with- 

 out seriously damaging my apiary, 

 and, therefore, I was compelled to 

 remain silent because it was impossi- 

 ble for me to answer all, or even a ma- 

 terial part, of the letters of inquiry 

 about queens and bees which poured 

 in on me daily. But this is the way 

 the world goes, and I have learned 

 not to fret. I have improved the 

 time making some important experi- 

 ments which have resulted in enrich- 

 ing my limited store of apicultural 

 knowledge. By practising economy 

 I have stocked about twenty-five 

 nursery colonies, and have reared 

 some extra fine queens for my regu- 

 lar customers, and shall continue these 

 till late in the season. 



Owing to the irregularity of egg- 

 laying by the queens, brought about 

 by the unfavorable weather, there was 

 no regularity as to the age of brood 

 in the combs, and this made it diffi- 

 cult to start good nuclei, and set 

 me to work to overcome the defect. 



When extracting honey I would 

 transfer any combs of brood with 

 adhering bees that the working 

 colonies could spare, to a full size 

 hive, till the hive was fully stocked 

 with them. The bees were confined 

 to the hive for twenty-four hoiurs ; 

 then late in the evening a good queen 

 cell was grafted into each of the ten 

 combs, and the entrance to the hive 

 was left open tiU next morning. It 

 was then closed till late in the even- 



