1920 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



123 



Obituary — Dr. G- Bohrer 



IT is worth while for a bee maga- 

 zine to make mention of such a 

 man as was Dr. Godfrey Bohrer, 

 of Chase, Kansas, the last of the 

 members present at the first conven- 

 tion of United States Beekeepers, at 

 Indianapolis, December 21, 1870, al- 

 most 50 years ago. 



Dr. Bohrer was born in Ohio, lived 

 in Indiana a number of years, and 

 finally went to Kansas, where he 

 served twice as a member of the Leg- 

 islature. He began beekeeping at the 

 age of 30. He served as a surgeon in 

 the Northern Army during the Civil 

 War. This was the cause of a very 

 interesting incident, in 1906, at the 

 meeting of the National Beekeepers' 

 Association, at San Antonio, Texas. 

 The writer was presiding. During one 

 of the meetings a lady beekeeper, of 

 the vicinity, brought to the presi- 

 dent's desk a magnificent bouquet 

 from her garden (it was November 8). 

 This bouquet we decided to offer to 

 the oldest member of the National 

 present. Dr. Bohrer was not the old- 

 est beekeeper there, but he was the 

 oldest member of the National. This 

 elicited from him, as he arose to 

 thank the lady, a touching impromptu 

 address, in which he recalled the 

 Civil War, the harsh feelings that ex- 

 isted at that time between North and 

 South, and contrasted it with the pres- 

 ent brotherly feeling of Union under 

 the Stars and Stripes. The speech, 

 full of feeling, brought tears to the 

 eyes of several old Confederates 

 present. 



Dr. Bohrer was a subscriber of the 

 American Bee Journal for 54 }-ears, 

 one of the pioneers of Kansas bee- 

 keeping and for many years president 

 of the Kansas State Association. 



Dr. Bohrer and our own Dr. Miller, 

 •who is nearly two years his senior, 

 often had a tilt about comb honey, 

 at conventions. Dr. Miller has always 

 been known as a leader in the pro- 

 duction of comb honey. Dr. Bohrer 



could not tolerate the consumption of 

 comb honey, holding that the comb 

 was indigestible and unfit for human 

 food, while Dr. Millev held that since 

 the broken comb particles could not 

 be assimilated by the stomach, it 

 acted upon the bowels in exactly the 

 same way as the bran in Graham 

 bread, and was conducive to health. 

 We believe the great majority are in- 

 clined to this view. 



Dr. Bohrer was 87 years old. He 

 leaves a widow, 4 years older than 

 himself, 5 children. 8 grandchildren 

 and II great grandchildren. In his 

 death we lose a long-tried friend. 



C. P. D. 



clear that Mr. Byer prefers the big 

 hives, and Mr. Atwater's statement 

 is misleading, since all that I have 

 ever seen from Mr. Byer is for the 

 big hives, even to IJ^-inch spacing. 

 Allensville, Ky. 



Dr. Miller Improving 



I'm not gaining as I expected. I ex- 

 pected to gain rapidly, and it's slowly. 

 Still I am gaining, and that's much. 

 Although lying down is still my fa- 

 vorite gait, I spend half an hour out- 

 doors each day, even if it be down 

 near zero. C. C. M. 



Dr. Bohrer, with the boquet presented at San 

 Antonio. 



Large Producers Vs. Large Hives 



By Porter C. Ward 



I HAVE read and reread with much 

 interest the article by E. F. At- 

 water, "Small vs. Large Hives," 

 in the January Journal. It seems to 

 me that he approves of the very thing 

 he is talking against. Mr. Atwater 

 says : 



"The writer had hoped for much 

 from the large, single-story brood- 

 nests, but when men like J. L. Byer 

 and F. Greiner state that they get 

 identical, or nearly identical results 

 in honey from other hives, a change 

 may be inadvisable." 



I do not know just where he is 

 quoting from, but in September, 1917, 

 Gleanings, page 676, Mr. Byer writes 

 practically the same thing, only Mr. 

 Atwater does not quote it all. He, 

 Mr. Byers, says that while there is 

 practically no difference in the yield 

 of honey, yet there is quite a differ- 

 ence in the management. 



Allow me to quote from Mr. Byers' 

 statement : 



"The hive which I use extensively, 

 more than any other, is the ten-frame 

 size commonly called the Jumbo. The 

 management is much the same as 

 outlined for the very large hives, and 

 with pure Italian bees we have little 

 trouble with swarming in most sea- 

 sons. 



"Answering the question, then, as 

 to what hive I would use if starting 

 all over, I can say that my preference 

 is for the ten or twelve-frame. 

 Jumbo size. If forced to use the 

 I,angstroth frame, then I suppose I 

 would choose the eight-frame in 

 preference to the ten-frame Lang- 

 stroth, as the latter is not big 

 enough, or too big, to suit me in 

 running outapiaries." 



The big hives, and many of his 

 hives are much larger than the Da- 

 dant, require verj" little or no at- 

 tention and swarm very little, or not 

 at all, winter well and generally re- 

 quire no fall feeding; and if any 

 is to he had at all, these rousing colo- 

 nies will surely get the surplus. It is 



The Sugar Shortage Abroad 



By C. W. Aeppler 



THE sugar shortage, which 

 seems to have gripped the 

 whole world, is given considera- 

 ble attention in two European bee 

 journals just come to hand. 



Of all European countries, Austria 

 seems to have suffered most. The 

 "Bienen-Vater" gives over about half 

 of its December issue to the discus- 

 sion of the sugar shortage. Last May 

 a request was made that all beekeep- 

 ers report the number of colonies 

 that they had lost through starva- 

 tion during the winter of 1918-19. 

 According to detailed figures submit- 

 ted, it can be summarized that bee- 

 keepers who are members of the 

 Austrian Beekeepers' Association or 

 its affiliated associations lost 30.8 

 per cent of their bees, and beekeepers 

 who were non-members lost 38.3 per 

 cent, or approximately 35 per cent of 

 the bees of German-Austria were lost 

 through starvation. In actual figures 

 this means about 135,300 colonies, or 

 rnore colonies of bees than in the en- 

 tire State of Wisconsin, and almost 

 the combined numbers of Wisconsin 

 and Minnesota. (Based on 1910 cen- 

 sus). 



It seems as though the beekeepers 

 of Austria were required to deliver to 

 the government all possible honey 

 during the war. Economic conditions 

 being very bad in the fall of 1913 

 made the delivery of sugar for bee- 

 feeding purposes e.xtremely difficult, 

 hence the heavy losses. 



Howe\er, conditions were much 

 better in the fall of 1919. A very poor 

 honey i.'-op is reported for 1919, but 

 the beekeepers had the organizatio \ 

 to obtain sugar to feed their bees. 

 The croanization ! Ah, in which we 

 American beekeepers are such fail- 

 ures. 



From the Swiss Bee Journal for 

 December, 1919, the following ver- 

 batim translation is taken: 



"At present there is a sugar short- 

 age through the entire world. Even 

 America, the richest of all lands in 

 money and commodities, is no excep- 

 tion. The non-existence of a timely 

 organization to secure and distribute 

 sugar for bee-feeding purposes, 

 makes the calamity all the greater. 

 "If a country with such a large su- 

 gar production and such extensive 

 shipping facilities is suffering under 

 a world sugar shortage, how much 

 worse off must our poor, isolated, 

 sugar-poor Switzerland be. If 

 the beekeepers of Switzerland are 

 any better off than our American 

 colleagues we must thank our or- 

 ganization and our timely care. Fur- 

 thermore, we have already made ar- 

 rangements with the authorities for 

 the delivery of sugar, where needed, 

 for spring feeding. In view of the 

 fact that a good honey crop was se- 

 cured, a much larger sugar appropria- 



