December, 1907. 



747 



American ~Bee Journalj^^ 



next spring our poet li id a doorway 

 cut in the tree above Ihiir brood and 

 storage. Tlirough this h inserted some 

 pound section frames or iioxes, and the 

 bees filled them with hoiKv. ILvery year 

 since, the bees in this way have kept 

 the family supplied with a very fine 

 grade of comb honey. This is a true 

 story, and well authenticated. 



Mr. Dodge is much interested in bees, 

 and reads very widely about their ways. 

 He has somewhere found, as he believes, 

 the reliable statement that a bee furnish- 

 es in its lifetime just one single table- 

 spoonful of honey. In other words, the 

 limit of the life-work of a bee is a ta- 

 blespoonful of honey. 



I, myself, do not quite see how these 

 figures are reached. There is such a 

 difference in localities and in seasons as 

 to the honey crops, and also such a dif- 

 ference in bees, that it seems as if ac- 

 curacy in averaging up would be an ex- 

 tremely difficult task. 



I would greatly enjoy hearing from 

 you on this subject. 



Frances E. WHEELEn. 



Chazy, N. Y. 



There is nothing new about bees hav- 

 ing a home in a tree. Plenty of people 

 have had bees in trees, and they are not 

 poets, either. But this is probably the 

 first case on record where section-boxes 

 were given to bees in a tree, and the 

 idea seems as poetical as novel. 



You are right that it would be an ex- 

 tremely difficult task to make anything 

 like an accurate estimate of the amount 

 of honey that may be considered the 

 life-work of a bee to gather, there are 

 such varying factors in the problem. 

 Take a bee that is born so late in the 

 season that all gathering ceases just as 

 it becomes old enough to be a fielder, 

 although it has spent its 16 days at work 

 in the hive. The next spring it com- 

 mences at housework again, using the 

 honey stored by other bees for its own 

 use and to feed the babies, and it may 

 never gather any. 



But the problem is an interesting one, 

 and there may be no harm in taking 

 average conditions and doing some little 

 figuring to see whether there is justifi- 

 cation for a spoonful to a bee. As most 

 of the data we have with regard to the 

 storing of honey are in pounds and 

 ounces, -the first thing is to know the 

 weight of a tablespoonful of honey. 

 If honey is thick enough, half a pound 

 or more may be lifted at once with a 

 spoon, but what is meant is probably an 

 even, not a heaping, tablespoonful. To 

 obtain this a half-pound of honey in a 

 bowl was put into a small kettle of 

 water and set over the fire until the 

 honey became nearly as thin as water. 

 Then it was measured with an ordinary 

 tablespoon, and there were just 12 

 spoonfuls, or 24 spoonfuls to the pound. 

 It's worth something to know that, 

 isn't it? That makes a spoonful 2-3 of 

 an ounce. 



Take a good colony in a good season 

 and suppose it stores 100 pounds of sur- 

 plus. The amount of honey it will con- 

 sume for its own use in the course of a 

 year is variously estimated at 100 to 200 

 pounds, the higher figure being probably 

 nearer the mark. Let us call it 200, 



and adding the surplus of lOO pounds to 

 it we have 300 pounds as the year's 

 gathering. If there arc 24 spoonfuls to 

 the pound, and if each bee. gathers a 

 spoonful, then it will take 24 bees to 

 gather a pound, and to gather 300 

 pounds will take 300 times 24, or 7,200 

 bees. But we know well that in a col- 

 ony strong enough to lay up a surplus 

 of 100 pounds there will be many more 

 than 7,200 fielders in the hive at one 

 time, to say nothing of several genera- 

 tions of them. Evidently a spoonful to 

 a bee is an overestimate. 



Let us approach the problem from an- 

 other direction: A strong colony will 

 gather all the way from nothing up to 

 S, 10, and in extreme cases 20 pounds a 

 day. It is perhaps not far out of the 

 way to say that a very good day's work 

 for a colony strong enough to have 30,- 

 000 fielders is 5 pounds. The life of a 

 bee in the working season is about 6 



weeks, or 42 days. The first 16 days it 

 spends in the hive, leaving 26 days for 

 field-work. If S pounds is a day's work 

 for 30,000 bees, in their life-work of 

 26 days, they would gather 130 pounds, 

 or 2080 ounces. Divide that 2ofto ounces 

 among 30,000 bees, and it gives over 

 1-15 of an ounce, or l-io of a spoon- 

 ful for each bee. That is likely more 

 than the average, although many a bee 

 probably exceeds it. 



Even at that it's wonderful to think 

 of anything like a tenth of a spoonful 

 being gathered by each bee. Take a 

 spoonful of honey and look at it, and 

 think of its being gathered by 10 bees. 

 Why, the whole 10 could drown in it, so 

 each bee has gathered enough honey in 

 which it might drown itself. And yet 

 of late there has been some talk of 

 bees being lazy! Any\yay, if they do 

 spend some time resting, they must 

 make up for it when they are ai work. 



eedomms/? 



5^^ 



Glimpses ot Southwestern ApicuN 



ture, and a Sketch of One of 



Its Leading Representa- 



tives — Louis H. Scholl 



BY ARTHUR H. MCCRAY. 



Three years ago the writer first met 

 the subject of this sketch — Louis H. 

 Scholl — at the Ohio State University. 

 An acquaintance was formed, which, 

 like many college acquaintances, was 

 more abiding than simply during col- 

 lege life. After Mr. Scholl returned 

 home from college at Columbus, Ohio, 

 in the spring of 1905, a correspondence 

 was kept up, and the writer grew more 

 and more anxious to see the great State 

 of Texas, with its people and vast ex- 

 tent of territory, some of which he cer- 

 tainly thought must be a bee-keepers' 

 paradise. 



At last a letter came with a message 

 from the Sunny Southland, which was 

 irresistible. Such phrases as, "20,000 

 pounds of honey and scarcely any yet 

 taken off." "a month's vacation before 

 going back to college will do you good," 

 "I will give you a chance to see some- 

 thing of Texas," etc. Such alluring and 

 tempting offers were irresistible, and 

 the result was that the fall of 1906 

 found the writer enjoying Southern 

 hospitality to the full. Frequent long 

 drives to the dozen and more apiaries 

 scattered here and there over the gent- 

 ly rolling slopes of Comal and adjoin- 

 ing counties will never be forgotten. 

 The vast extent of mesquite (mee- 

 skeet) pasture, and the yellow expanse 

 of broomweed, the acres and acr^s of 

 cotton, with Mr. Scholl's enthusiastic 

 remarks, were all-sufficient to make one 

 for the time being an enthusiastic bee- 



S 



-'^^^'^^■^-' 



keeper, and make him feel like going in- 

 to large-scale bee-keeping himself, for- 

 getting all about college duties, and 

 plans for the future. 



Upon learning that Scholl had re- 

 signed his position at college, and re- 

 fused a $2,000 offer to go to East Afri- 

 ca, one can see without difficulty that 

 here indeed is a man wUose heart and 

 soul are with Texas, and who believes 

 in bee-keeping to the full extent, as a 

 profession. One needs only to hear 

 Scholl digress on- bee-keeping and its 

 pleasures to become enthused. 



And so the wrif^j^ believes that a few 

 facts concerning this leader in the South, 

 such as he was able to glean while 

 there, will be of general interest, and 

 perhaps contribute somewhat to giving 

 "honor to whom honor is due." 



The subject of this biographical 

 sketch, while yet young in years, is old 

 in experience, and certainly has left an 

 enviable record behind him already, and 

 a still more brilliant prospect for the 

 future can but be his. 



Born at Hunter, Tex., October 24, 

 1880, of German parents, and still re- 

 siding in Texas and expressing confi- 

 dence in the resources of the dear old 

 Lone Star State above all others, our 

 subject may well be considered one of 

 her most loj'al sons. It is said of poets 

 that they are born, not made. The same 

 can be said with equal truth, and with- 

 out fear of contradiction, of scientists. 

 And if the modern inquiring bee-keeper 

 is not a scientist, who under the sun- is? 

 The conclusion follows. 



Like Langstroth of old, our friend 

 and devotee of the busy gleaners of the 

 field, received no encouragement from 

 his parents, but, in fact, almost every 

 discouragement possible; and his bees, 



