June 6, 1907 



Am^ricaii Hee Jiournal 



485 



troublesome system to his home api- 

 ary. From remarks dropped by Mr. 

 House, I feel quite sure that in the 

 near future he will dispense with early 

 stimulating- altogether, as I feel sure 

 that with the right strain of bees colo- 

 nies can be in the very best of condi- 

 tion for the honey -flow without the 

 bee-keeper having to feed an ounce of 

 food in the early spring. 



My home apiary, and the one at 

 Cashel, 4 miles away, have both win- 

 tered poorly, the loss all being caused 

 by dysentery, for which we blame a 

 small amount of honey-dew, coupled 

 with a very severe winter. At the 

 Altona yard, H miles away, every col- 

 ony wintered, and although the spring 

 has been very backward, pollen hav- 

 ing only been brought in 4 or S days to 

 date (May 13), yet 90 percent of the 

 yard require top stories inside of a 

 week or 10 days, if the weather is fine. 



In fact, we found one colony with 

 queen-cells with eggs in, every avail- 

 able cell in the hive being occupied 

 with brood, pollen, or honey. Be it 

 remembered that the hives at this yard 

 are all equal in capacity to a trifle more 

 than a 12-frame Langstroth, and May 

 13 this year means, with us, previous 

 to any sugar-maple, dandelion, golden 

 willow or fruit-bloom. The surprising 

 difference in favor of this yard has 

 been laid to absence of honey-dew, yet 

 I find all around this apiary, at least SO 

 percent of other people's bees are dead. 



I have no explanation to offer, but I 

 will simply say that at this yard there 

 is not a single Italian queen — the bees 

 being all Carniolan and blacks, and 

 their crosses. The hives were heavy 

 last fall with buckwheat honey, and 

 this spring, regardless of steady bad 

 weather, this honey was turned into 

 one great host of young bees. To use 

 Mr. House's statement, "the queens 

 were so prolific that they laid all the 

 time." 



Sectional Hives Non-Starvers 



Speaking of the sectional hive, Mr. 

 House, in his address at the Brantford 

 convention, said : " I never saw a col- 

 ony starve to death with honey in the 

 hive in a sectional brood-chamber." 

 Pretty strong claims, and enough al- 

 most to induce some bee-keepers, after 

 a winter like the last, to adopt a hive of 

 that style. Yet with a frame consid- 

 erably deeper than the Langstroth, 

 with ordinary precautions, there need 

 be little loss from the foregoing cause, 

 even if the divisible feature is lacking. 



Why Not Advertise ?— There are many 

 dealers in bee-supplies, and those who have 

 bees and queens for sale, who are not now 

 advertising, that might increase their business 

 by advertising in the American Bee Journal. 

 The rates charged are very low, as will be 

 seen by referring to the second page of this 

 number. During the next 6 months will be 

 done the bulk of the season's business among 

 bee-keepers. Why not begin at once to let 

 the readers of the American Bee Journal 

 know that you have something to selH Our 

 advertising columns are open only to those 

 who will give their patrons " a square deal." 

 If you are in that class we will be pleased to 

 have your advertisement in our columns. 



Conducted hy Louis H. Scholl, New Braunsfels, Tex. 



Those Texas Ants 



It seems that it always takes some 

 " tenderfoot " to come to the wild and 

 woolly (?) West and "hatch" out 

 some wonderful tale that most of 

 we'uns, who have been " bred in old 

 Texas," know very little of. We knew 

 that there were ants in Texas — yes, 

 lots of them — but we did not know that 

 " the only way one can be sure of his 

 bees is to isolate each hive by standing 

 it on legs surrounded by water." My, 

 my ! what would the bee-keepers of 

 Texas say who have hundreds of thou- 

 ands of colonies right down on the 



to call the attention of bee-keepers to 

 the danger of letting their apiaries 

 " run down," as it is commonly called ; 

 letting hives and combs from which 

 bees have died become exposed to 

 others or healthy bees. The picture 

 herewith shows just such a dilapidated 

 apiary. 



Besides exposing these dangers, " it 

 is strictly against the law " to expose 

 any infected honey, comb, hive or ap- 

 pliances as per the foul-brood law, 

 hence it will be well to guard against 

 any such negligence, or else become 

 liable for a misdemeanor. 



It may be well to remark again that 



APIART DKVASTED BY FOUL BROOD. 



ground, and are not bothered by ants ? 

 The writer is only one of these, with 

 hundreds of colonies. There are ants 

 here, too, but never have they done 

 harm to my bees. Hence, " in spite of 

 ants, weather, and all other adverse 

 conditions, bees do thrive in Texas, 

 and the wide-awake bee-keeper gets 



his reward ." 



I will admit that there may be some 

 isolated locations where ants may be 

 troublesome to some extent, but the 

 wideawake bee-keeper would soon 

 have the upper hand. It is true that 

 some of the smaller ants make trouble 

 for the bee-keeper, and for the house- 

 keeper, too, by getting into the honey 

 and other things, if not in tight ves- 

 sels ; and the easiest a nd surest remedy 

 is the " legs-iu-p.^ns-of-water.'" A lit- 

 tle careful study of these interesting- 

 little creatures -ill help much toward 

 getting along wiih them, however. 



it is to your interest to report any 

 trouble of suspected diseases of your 

 bees as soon as discovered to the State 

 Entomologist, College Station, Tex., 

 and have the bees inspected, if need 

 be, rather than let your apiary get into 

 such condition as here presented. 



Good Home-Made Hive-Covers 



Ravag-es of Foul Brood 



Right along 

 laws and inspc 



! I matter of foul-brood 

 ■ ' on of apiaries, I wish 



There is no part in the make-up of a 

 bee-hive that we prize more than a 

 good, serviceable, and durable cover, 

 and here in the South, where our hives 

 are exposed to all kinds of weather all 

 the time, it is very essential that we 

 have the best covers obtainable, for it 

 often happens that a cover gives way, 

 and, before we are aware of it, a leak 

 has done considerable damage, espe- 

 cially if it happens in the winter when 

 we are not often around. So we are 

 constantly culling them out for vari- 

 ous reasons. 



We do not advocate home-made hives, 

 but we do say that a mechanical bee- 

 keeper can make his hive covers and 

 bottoms, and, perhaps, it would be best 



