Dec. 20, 1906 



1035 



American Ttee Journal 



as most of our surplus of marketable 

 honey comes from the mesquite bloom 

 and sumac, and the mesquite always 

 does best in dry years for us ; and if it 

 rains through June and July, we are 

 sure of a crop of honey in August from 

 sumac. 



Why Xot Cotton a Honey-Plant? 



You say, Mr. Scholl (page 915)', in a 

 Eoot-note, "You did not mention cotton, 

 which I thought was a useful honey- 

 yielder in your section — north central 

 Texas." No, I did not mention cotton 

 as a surplus honey-yielder of this lo- 

 cality, from the fact that I have lived 

 here 16 years and have never yet had 

 surplus honey from the cotton-bloom ; 

 not that cotton does not yield in this 

 locality, but farming is not carried on 

 as extensively in this county (Lampa- 

 sas) as in most parts of the State, on 



unt of so much waste or poor land. 



It is difficult to find a location in this 

 country where an apiary could have ac- 

 cess to say 500 acres of cotton without 

 traveling a distance of several miles. 

 That is why I didn't mention cotton 

 as a surplus-honey yielder here. 



Names of HoneyvPlaxts. 



Possibly it will help you. Air. Scholl, 

 to identify the little blue flower as men- 

 tioned by me on page 915, as a honey- 

 plant of this locality, to say that it 

 blooms in April, and that it grows to a 

 height of about 6 inches, and the bees 

 become dusted on their backs with white 

 pollen, the same as they do when work- 

 ing on horsemint. I can remember see- 

 ing bees work on these beautiful little 

 blue flowers 40 years ago, when only a 

 small boy in Bosque County, Texas. I 

 can also remember seeing bees work on 

 wild marigold and horsemint at the 

 same time — or year, I might have said — 

 as they don't bloom at the same time. 



Study - and Know Your Honey-Plants. 



It is very important that we should 

 know the honey-plants of our locality, 

 that is, those that furnish our surplus. 

 To illustrate: A bee-keeping friend of 

 mine saw me this summer as 1 was visit- 

 ing one of my out-yards at the close of 

 sumac-bloom; and said to me, "Say. Mr. 

 Smith, how are you off for comb- 

 foundation for brood-frames?" I told 

 him I was well supplied, that I had used 

 less than one-fourth of what I had or- 

 dered owing to the poor season. Then 

 he said, "1 should like to get about 

 30 pounds of you, as my bees are crowd- 

 ed for room and rolling in the honey." 

 I told him I was somewhat surprised, 

 as my bees were not getting much if 

 anything above a living ; that the flow 

 was over at all my yards, 2 of which 

 were not over 5 miles from his bees. 

 But he insisted that his bees were get- 

 ting honey fast. 



It later developed, however, that the 

 flow was over with his bees the same 

 as mine, and that the foundation I let 

 him have was worse than useless to 

 him. .i~ the bees only gnawed around 

 the wires in the frames and damaged 

 the foundation, without drawing out a 

 single sheet of it. If he had known the 

 time of his honey-flow, and had put on 



his supers 3 weeks earlier, he would 

 have secured a crop of honey, and have 

 had his foundation drawn out into beau- 

 tiful combs. 



I have given the above so that our 

 novice friends may see the importance 

 of knowing the time of their honey- 

 flow. L. B. Smith. 



Rescue, Texas. 



Management of Swarms, Etc. 



After a second reading of Mr. Day- 

 ton's article, on page 931, I wish to make 

 a few remarks and suggestions lest some 

 beginners may make some mistakes. In 

 speaking of hiving swarms it would ap- 

 pear that Mr. Dayton does not hive 

 them on the old stands, which is the 

 only safe way to hive swarms and se- 

 cure surplus honey when the honey- 

 flow is near at hand. 



It may, and it may not, be best to 

 prevent swarming, but in this locality I 

 prefer to make my own swarms at the 

 proper time, and give all swarms a 

 young queen of unquestionable quality. 



It appears to me that testing a swarm 

 in a box is not only useless, but a waste 

 of time for bees and man. In speaking 

 of improvements in bees, Mr. D. says 

 "only Nature can make the improve- 

 ments, and Nature should be allowed as 

 free a hand as is possible to give." Right 

 here I must disagree with Mr. D., 

 for if I or any other queen-breeder 

 would rear queens from any colonies 

 that prepare cells for swarming, only 

 rejecting the poorest colonies, we could 

 not hope for any improvements in our 



bi 1 We must select as breeders the 

 verj I x -.1 honey-gathering colonies, not 

 only for queen-mothers, but drone- 

 mothers as well. The size of hive has 

 little to do with swarming in this lo- 

 cality. 



An old or deficient queen is often the 

 cause of swarms issuing before the hive 

 is in any way crowded. Such swarms 

 are as likely to leave for parts unknown 

 as those with the best of queens. It 

 sometimes happens that nothing will 

 hold the swarm except clipping or cag- 

 ing the queen. A large natural swarm 

 is not always sufficient proof of a valua- 

 ble queen. 1 have had large swarms 

 issue with queens 4 years old, one of 

 which never laid an egg after hiving. 

 Mr. D. says he has often seen prime 

 swarms issue with the old and several 

 young queens. In this Mr. D. is mis- 

 taken, for such swarms are not prime 

 swarms, 1ml are caused by superseding, 

 and happen more frequently than is us- 

 ually supposed, and the old queen usual- 

 ly meets her doom shortly after the 

 swarm is hived. The old, clipped queen 

 Mr. D. mentions was immediately 

 balled when trying to re-enter her hive, 

 because her usefulness was past, and 

 the bees had young queens to take her 

 place. She would have been killed had 

 she been hived with the swarm and one 

 or more young queens at liberty in the 

 hive. 



In conclusion I will say, Don't waste 

 the bees' time by confining the queen 

 in a box for several days, as such 

 waste of time often means a waste of 

 dollars and cents. 



Sabinal, Tex. Grant Anderson. 



Mt/lasty&tc^ 



Tbe '• Old Rebab'« " as seen through New unit Unreliable Glasses, 

 By E. E. Hasty, Sta. B. Rural, Toledo, Ohio. 



The Great Dzierzon Has Fallen. 



When a great tree falls in the vale 

 we walk its prostrate trunk and medi- 

 tate how great it was, and how tall ; but 

 when a great tree falls on the mountain 

 it falls out of sight. Dzierzon, tree on 

 the mountain, has fallen. Oft we say a 

 multitude of things to the credit of our 

 departed leaders, and praise the things 

 which they did for the craft — and get a 

 good deal beyond the combines of strict, 

 altruistic truth. But unless we make an 

 effort to be just we shall not give the 

 one whom we now mourn half the 

 credit he deserves. 



Some Mouse-anh-Honey Experiments. 



At the risk of being called afflicted 

 with mice on the brain I think I will 

 quote considerably, and with notes, from 

 the book in which I record my mouse 

 experiments : 



Friday, (Jet. 19. — Now for Daniel in 

 the lions' den ! Put a 12-oz. section 

 of white honey at 10 p. m. in the din- 

 ing room of Alpha and Beta. They 

 have besides the section a cracker, 10 

 sunflower seeds, 10 squash seeds, a 

 chestnut sliced, and water. Observed 

 awhile when first let in. As usual, much 

 scampering and not much eating. Early 

 and frequent sips of water. What eat- 

 ing they did do was almost wholly on 

 the cracker. The section was inspected 

 — could not see if they did anything to 

 it. (These frequent sips of water dur- 

 ing meals are surprising, seeing that 

 mice so generally have to live, and even 

 breed, entirely without water.) 



Saturday, Oct. 20. — The section? (O 

 Daniel, did the lions incline to nibble 

 thee?) Freckled — with little places where 



the capping is off — rather as if from 



sharp toes climbing up it than other- 

 On one side 14 of these abra- 



