448 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



May 24, 1906 



the bee-papers is like feeding the baby corned beef and 

 fried potatoes — dead baby very soon : Sacred to the Mem- 

 ory of Billy Beeman, who took the fever and — got well. To 

 make sure that the patient won't get well, Mr. D. sagely 

 advises the bee-babe to make the hives for his first year's 

 swarms. May not be any great amount of cash profit 

 in it, but the practical wisdom of the thing struck me 

 decidedly — do him piles of good, confirm him in his chosen 

 craft, and "build him up." But an awful " per contra " 

 dawns upon me just now, however. It may also set him to 

 inventing a brand-new hive, long before he knows the dif- 

 ference between pennies and pounds in the ends to be 

 secured. That is one of the direst of " complications " 

 which the disease known as bee-fever is wont to develop. 

 Page 296. 



Sad that So Few Read Bee-Papers— Baby Nuclei 



Twenty bee-men in Chatsworth, Calif., and only one 

 takes a bee-paper. Sad — and the saddest of it is that it's 

 not much worse than other places. What shall we say to 

 these 19 men ? Good to be self-reliant ; good to lay your 

 own plans and conquer your own difficulties ; but not good 

 for one man to cut entirely loose from the accumulated wis- 

 dom of mankind. The most brilliant and self contained 

 man in the world needs to know when he is in the beaten 

 track and when he is out of it. He can not well know this 

 unless he reads what the rest of the world is doing. If he 

 didn't adopt one single idea from the paper, the paper would 

 pay him by helping him direct and judge himself. 



And I note with interest that C. W. Dayton abandons 

 the use of the baby nucleus after having used SO of them 

 for a season. Page 297. 



Southern 

 * 23eebom * 



Conducted by Louis H. Schou» New Braunfels, Tex. 



J 



The Texas Mesquite 



Through the cool, gentle breeze, this fine April morning, 

 I hear quite distinctly the bees humming sweet, 



And find that the bloom is hastily adorning 

 The long, thorny limbs of the Texas Mesquite, 



With her mantle of gold bemixed with green foliage 

 That swings in the wind our coming to greet ; 



Our far-away cousins have no worthy knowledge 

 Of the exquisite beauty of the Texas Mesquite. 



While the bees in the North are yet in their cellars, 

 Or perhaps even worse — all buried in 6leet — 



Our busy little bees are hiding their smellers 

 In the sweat, golden bloom of the Texas Mesquite. 



In the warm month of June we again will be favored 

 With another bloom crop that can not be beat; 



And the warm, gentle breeze will be then highly flavored 

 With the bloom we admire on the Texas Mesquite. 

 Sabinal, Tex. Grant Anderson. 



Holy Land of Palestine Bees 



Mr. Louis H. Scholl — 



Dear Sir:— I am a New York bee-keeper, but at present am keep- 

 ing bees here in the South. I have a notion to try the Holy Land 

 or Palestine bees here, but do not care to bother with them unless 

 they are decidedly superior to the Italians for extracted honey. I 

 think, perhaps, you have seen them in other yards, and I wish you 

 would give me your opinion and advice about them. Also, where to 

 get the best stock of queen6. I think you are ju6t the one to advise 

 me about this, and I will appreciate it. 



I will also be glad to have you inform me if you know of anyone 

 haviDg an extra prolific and good strain of Italians. I do not want to 

 get cheap-reared queens from any one. My experience with buying 

 " baby nucleus " queens is, that I would scarcely take them as a gift. 



In this section the bees gather some pollen in January, and the 

 honey season is from about March 10 until June. After that I think 

 the bees get little more than enough for a living, usually. 



Wayne Co., Ga., April 14. Chas. L. Todd. 



After trying, during my 15 years of bee-keeping, nearly 

 every race of bees — the common Germans or blacks, 3- 



banded Italians (both imported and American-bred stock), 

 golden or S-banded Italians, Holy Lands or Palestines, 

 Cyprians, Carniolans and Caucasians, in their purity, and 

 many crosses of different races — I have almost decided upon 

 the " good, old 3-banded Italians," of a good honey-gathering 

 strain, for all my yards. I say " almost," because I am not 

 sure but there might possibly be some suitable cross, or, 

 better still, a hybrid, that would prove superior to the Ital- 

 ians in their purity. 



Holy Lands have many g-ood qualities, but the " sting- 

 ing qualities " of most of the strains that have come under 

 my observation have been disagreeable enough to over- 

 balance their good qualities that they possess over some 

 other races. It is true that some of our foremost bee-keep- 

 ers are very successful with them, in securing large crops 

 of surplus honey. And some of these claim this race to be 

 very gentle, and that very few stings are received in hand- 

 ling them. Yet these apiaries, where only Holy Land bees 

 are kept, are few, and the race of bees does not seem ever 

 to become popular. 



This much is certain : In the hive manipulations with 

 Holy Lands much more care must be exercised than with 

 most other races. Less smoke must be used, and the opera- 

 tor must work " gently " and carefully. Jars and sudden 

 jolts, and also the use of too much smoke, will result in " a 

 volley of live bullets " from the hive as if shot from — well, 

 a wide-mouthed cannon. And once these bees become irri- 

 tated in this way, it is hard to do anything with them. The 

 use of more smoke only makes matters worse, and it results, 

 sometimes, in all the bees of the colony taking wing and 

 filling the air — and other things — with infuriated, stinging 

 bees. These are, of course, rather extreme cases, still such 

 have been quite numerous under my observations. 



While, if carefully and quietly handled, and with little 

 smoke, they are very peaceable, yet, as a usual thing, they 

 are so " nervous " that the least jar, or the dropping of a 

 frame or the hive-tool, etc., will send them out on warfare. 



Several crosses have been tried in my yards of Holy 

 Land bees The Holy Land queens are very prolific in egg- 

 laying, and, used as mothers of a colony, mated to golden 

 Italian drones, good results were obtained in several cases. 

 The cross resulted in larger bees than the Holy Land bees — 

 more the size of the Italians — and these proved to be good 

 honey-gatherers. I believe that by careful breeding a 

 hybrid might be produced that would be better than the 

 Holy Lands, or Italians either, in their purity. A simple 

 cross between two races does not seem, in my mind, to be 

 efficient enough. A well-bred hybrid would result in a 

 more stable reproduction of their type. The off-spring 

 would not vary so much as with simple crosses. 



There are several queen-breeders who advertise good 

 strains of Italian queens, and there are some of these who 

 use the " baby-nucleus-box method," and produce as good 

 queens as can be produced by any method. lean not see 

 why there should be any objection to mating queens in such 

 boxes, provided, of course, that the queens are not left in 

 these small boxes too long. A young laying queen should 

 be able to " expand " herself in her egg-laying, and thus 

 develop herself in it. 



" Crosses " and " Hybrid " Bees 



Here is another fellow in favor of using the terms 

 "cross" and "hybrid" in the right sense, as per R. F. 

 Holtermann, page 341. It will be well to bear this in mind, 

 and to begin a reform at once. The bee-paper editors can 

 do much in this matter, and so also our careful writers of 

 beedom. 



The Bee-Keeper's Fun 



Are you having a " good time," and are you enjoying 

 yourself ? The bee-keeper, with his outdoor work, his sun- 

 shine, bees, flowers, and good exercise during the sunny, 

 balmy days when one longs to be out-of-doors, should be a 

 happy creature indeed. During rainy and unfavorable 

 weather for out-of-door work, he can have and enjoy com- 

 forts of home life, read his bee-papers, magazines and other 

 papers; or, if it is during the busy season, his shop will be 

 his favorite retreat. Compare the bee-keeper's life with 

 that of the trudging mass who are " on the go " from early 

 morning until late at night, rain or shine ! 



This may not be writing " about bees " exactly, but it 

 seems well to be reminded of our good fortunes sometimes, 



