1920 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



53 



TOULOUSAN BEEKEEPING 



Old Methods and Prejudices in 

 Southern France 



By Victor Dumas 



TOULOUSE is a city of a quarter 

 million inhabitants. As she 

 spreads gracefully in a narrow- 

 ing valley and upon the western slope 

 of the steep hills, on both shores of 

 the river Garonne, her houses might 

 be reflected in the stream, were it 

 not that the stream is too rapid, too 

 rapid even to reflect in its waters 

 the blue sky above, which is not al- 

 ways as blue as it is reported to I)e. 



Toulouse is known especially for 

 her "Academy of Floral Games." This 

 name is due only to the fact that 

 flowers of gold or silver, or gilt, are 

 awarded to the most harmonious re- 

 citals of the poets, who compete for 

 these prizes. It has nothing to do 

 with the verdure of its landscapes. 



This preamble is meant to impress 

 upon the reader the fact that, in de- 

 scribing beekeeping in this region we 

 may not give him the idea that this 

 fine cit}' is but an obscure county 

 seat. The vicinity is quite favorable 

 to apiculture. The soil is fertile ; the 

 rainy season more satisfactory than 

 in the Mediterranean region ; the 

 crops of alfalfa and esparcet are well 

 distributed through the country; 

 basswood trees are numerous in the 



public avenues and in the parks; 

 finally, the black locust is found 

 plentifully on hillsides and in groves. 



The winters are mild, the ther- 

 mometer often up to 60 degrees F. 

 towards the end of December and av- 

 eraging from 18 to 30 degrees in 

 January. If the months of July and 

 August did not sometimes give us as 

 high as 100 degrees, and if they sup- 

 plied less wind and more rain than 

 we get usually at that time, all 

 would be for the best. 



We have a "Societe Meridionale 

 D'Apiculturc," which, I acknowledge, 

 I never joined. It is composed mainly 

 of priests, physicians, dwellers of 

 chateaux and other amateurs, with 

 but few lawyers. Evidently the lat- 

 ter realize that bees are beings of ac- 

 tion and not of speech. The presi- 

 dent is past 80. Very few educated 

 men of that age, in France, are with- 

 out an honorary position of this kind. 

 We evidently attach to them a repu- 

 tation of experience and show our 

 respect through a tribute of honor 

 which old people readily accept. 



We are certainly, in France, like a 

 colony of bees which does not grasp 

 the necessity of superseding its 

 queen. I do not mean to apply this 

 to the present case, for this presi- 

 dent, through his love of the bee, his 

 devotion to the cause of beekeeping, 

 deserves his honorary position. 



Not one of the members, that 1 

 know of, is a professional apiarist. 

 The priests, village curates, are among 

 the best members. Some of them 



Como (fiu»u'/ia angustijolia) is abundant in southwest Texas and blooms from October to 



February. 



own as many as 30 colonies, and one 

 of them even owns an outapiary. A 

 couple of doctors and a few agricul- 

 turists, with perhaps a dozen hives 

 each, make up the remainder. 



The association owns an experi- 

 mental apiary in the outskirts of the 

 city. At last accounts it was com- 

 posed of 3 colonies in movable-frame 

 hives. 



The principal results of the society 

 influence in apicultural expansion, ap- 

 pears to be found in a series of trials 

 in beekeeping, vestiges of which are 

 seen in the chateaux of the vicinity, 

 often in the shape of a few empty 

 hives in an attic; or under the trees 

 of a grove; perhaps a hive partly 

 hidden in the grass, with its cover 

 upside down, indicates that the fear 

 of stings prevented the returning of 

 it in its place. 



It is thus evident that, as to the 

 quantity of beekeeping and honey 

 production, the peasant holds the 

 record. Yet in many cases, the num- 

 ber of empty skeps is in proportion 

 of ten to one to the live colonies. 

 But nevertheless, each of these men, 

 being a "fatalist," readily decides 

 that it is all a matter of luck and 

 does not hesitate to give a lecture in 

 beekeeping which I must hear. 



One must not storm or swear about 

 the apiary, nor annoy them by pok- 

 ing in the hives with a stick, for they 

 would inflict upon you many bad 

 stings, the worst of which are in- 

 flicted by the "abeillauds" (males). 

 To cure stings you should rub the 

 wound with four dififerent leaves. 

 Beemoths kill them. They die also 

 if you sell them. But you may ex- 

 change them for wheat or thanks. 

 You must not harvest the honey at 

 any time except at Candlemas, or 

 they will die. They will die as read- 

 ily if toads come near thenl; but they 

 will die most assuredly if you have 

 not the "gift" to handle them, of if 

 you do not put them in mourning in 

 case of a death. In short, it makes 

 one wonder why, when a man knows 

 all these conditional requirements, 

 there is any excuse for any of them 

 to die at all. 



It is well, however, to state that, 

 at least, they have ceased to brim- 

 stone the bees for their honey, as 

 they used to do. Occasionally they 

 come to ask me to help remove a 

 colony from a tree trunk. I might 

 point to them the possibility of using 

 a wick of brimstone, but it would not 

 be safe. I prefer to introduce the 

 bees into one of my movable-frame 

 hives, which they commonly call 

 "drawer-hives." The most interest- 

 ing thing they can sec in a "drawer- 

 hive" is the possibility of having a 

 pane of glass on one side of it, so 

 that they may be able to look inside. 

 Any respectable modern hive should 

 possess such a pane of glass. But as 

 for the frames, they consider them 

 only as impediments, obstacles to the 

 free work of the bees. When a 

 countryman happens to find one of 

 these hives in the rubbish of a cha- 

 teau, as he does not attempt to use 

 comb foundation, the bees follow 

 their own devices and the entangle- 

 ment of combs and frames makes 



