1921 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



263 



seed. Cool, wet weather prevailed 

 during basswood bloom and the bees 

 only had five good days in which to 

 gather this honey. Dry weather fol- 

 lowed and cut short the clover flow. 

 If stock had been allowed to graze 

 upon this clover, it would have 

 bloomed much longer. The bees av- 

 eraged 40 pounds of honey per col- 

 ony, although many made much more. 



If this small crop of honey had not 

 been sold fqr 20 to 2.5 cents per 

 pound my move would not have paid 

 expenses. As it was, I did not feel 

 •jubilant over the outcome. I re- 

 ceived letters from Texas that told 

 of the continued drought and of 

 many beekeepers who had lost large 

 numbers of colonies. Many of the 

 farmers had to have State aid in or- 

 der to survive. This kept me from 

 feeling that I had made a mistake in 

 moving. 



After the honey was extracted and 

 sold, I built a 16x16x7 foot house to 

 store all of the supplies in. During 

 the summer I had slept in a tent and 

 stored supplies under a large tar- 

 paulin. A large cellar was next dug 

 and made ready to winter the bees in. 

 As some beekeeper friends agreed 

 to put the bees away when winter 

 really came, I made preparations to 

 "Ford it" back to Texas. 



I might say here that the Texas 

 drought was broken by heavy rains 

 that ff.ll. Bees gathered more than 

 enough honey for winter. Everyone 

 looked for good seasons, which they 

 have had since. 



As I now look back over my experi- 

 ence in shipping this car of bees, I 

 see where I made mistakes. At the 

 time of preparing the bees and fix- 

 tures for shipment everything was 

 done that I knew how to do to make 

 the trip successful. I now realize 

 that where bees are shipped in warm 

 weather, with combs of brood and 

 honey, they should be shipped in iced 

 refrigerator cars , if on the road over 

 two days. This would cause the 

 bees to cluster and keep quiet. Many 

 bees have been shipped successfully in 

 refrigerator cars. At least 20 pounds 

 of honey should be in each colony, 

 and extra combs of honey carried 

 to give the bees upon arrival, unless 

 honey is known to be coming in and 

 good weather prevailing. The bot- 

 tom-boards should be nailed on with 

 7-penny nails instead of staples. A 

 box car or a stock car is good to ship 

 bees in, if shipped without brood, in 

 cool weather. 



In the spring of 1920 I wanted to 

 ship about 200 colonies of bees from 

 near Brownsville, Texas, to Sioux 

 City, Iowa. The distance and high 

 freight rates caused me to decide to 

 ship three-frame nuclei in light- 

 weight cages. I shipped strong nu- 

 clei with an average of one and a half 

 combs of brood and from one comb 

 to one and a half of honey. The 

 bees were shipped by express and 

 went through in from three to four 

 days' time. One nucleus was smashed 

 by the express company and was the 

 only one lost in transit. The bees 

 were given combs of honey upon ar- 

 rival and built up to strong colonies 

 by July. They averaged 120 pounds 



per colony, besides honey for winter 

 and spring use. Each colony drew 

 out an average of 25 Langstroth 

 combs. From the outcome of this 

 shipment, I am led to believe that it 

 is cheaper to sell all bee supplies and 

 ship the bees as nuclei by express if 

 they are to go any great distance. 

 Supplies would have to be prepared 

 for the nuclei in advance. If 300 

 colonies or more are to be shipped to 

 arrive at the beginning of the honey 

 flow, they should be strong colonies 

 and go through in a refrigerator car. 

 This will enable them to be in honey 

 gathering strength when placed in 

 the new location. 

 Iowa. 



DZIERZON LETTER 



We are indebted to Editor Alfon- 

 sus, of the Vienna "Bienenvater," for 

 an autograph, signed letter, from the 

 world-renowned Dzierzon, discoverer 

 of parthenogenesis in bees. We are 

 also indebted to C. W. Aeppler, of 

 Wisconsin, for a translation of this 

 letter. We give the letter below. Our 

 readers will notice that Dr. Dzierzon 

 praises his own hive. No one who has 

 used the Langstroth principles of 

 free-hanging frames can for a mo- 

 ment contemplate accepting the bar 

 hive of Dzierzon. But a father is sure 

 to love his son best, and we can only 

 look indulgently upon Dr. Dzierzon's 

 preference, and admire his wonder- 

 ful experiments and discoveries with 

 so inconvenient an implement. 



The letter is without date, but it 

 must have been written some 40 years 

 ago, if we judge by the yellowness of 

 the paper and the faded appearance 

 of the ink. Dr. Dzierzon has been 

 dead IS years. 



The Dzierzon Hive 

 By Dr. Dzierzon 



The most practical and at the same 

 time the cheapest movable-comb 

 hive is without a doubt my twin hive. 

 Many will imagine in this new home 

 for bees something very elaborate 

 and costly, while as a matter of fact it 

 is simplicity itself, and through this 

 simplicity I see only the greatest pos- 

 sibilities for the future. Its practica- 

 bility will be substantiated by its 

 many good points, of which I will tell 

 in future articles, but for the present 

 will describe its manufacture, which 

 also goes to show how simple it really 

 is. I believe that I can do this most 

 clearly by comparing it with some 

 other good movable-comb hives. 



At the time that I was pursuing my 

 university studies at Breslau, my at- 

 tention was called to an article in bee 

 literature by one of my colleagues 

 who was also an interested bee- 

 keeper; this article arousing my keen 

 interest. The work of the English- 

 man, Stutt, was announced, who had 

 patented a hive that was claimed to 

 give a surplus of 100 pounds of honey 

 in a single season. Immediately a 

 sample was purchased. The Stutt hive 

 was quite practical. It consisted of a 

 large box in which was a compart- 

 ment for the brood and the wintering 

 of the colony, and two compartments 

 half as big on the gable sides. This 



must he called quite practical, since 

 on either side of the brood-chamber 

 is a convenient place to have the ex- 

 tracting combs. But the price of this 

 hive was enormous, more than twice 

 as much as my twin hive. One twin 

 hive will entirely replace two Stutt 

 hives, the latter consisting of 6 pieces. 

 Each of the two compartments fur- 

 nish in the center the brood-nest, 

 which usually consists of 8 combs, and 

 on either side the surplus compart- 

 ments in which there are 4 combs 

 each, or together there are 16 combs. 

 These furnish an inner depth of 60 

 centimeters. The twin hive, however, 

 on account of its mobility, stands 

 forth as a practical home for bees- 

 something that one cannot have if he 

 uses a house-apiary. Four pieces of 

 plank or two pieces of lumber ordi- 

 narily used for sills will make 3 or 4 

 twin hives ready for use, the only 

 other thing needed being the cover, 

 which consists of tin properly 

 shaped and fastened. On account of 

 the unobstructed daylight, and the 

 l^nlimited room for a hive-stand in 

 using this hive, it is a real pleasure to 

 work with the bees, whereas in a 

 dark house-apiary it is a veritable 

 torture. He who adheres to the use 

 of house-apiaries, which the Ameri- 

 cans do not recognize, will never ac- 

 complish very much in beekeeping. 

 My motto has, therefore, always been 

 do away with house-apiaries! 



Dr. Dzierzon. 



FIR SUGAR AGAIN 



I was vei-y glad, indeed, to see the 

 photograph of fir sugar in the last 

 number of the American Bee Journal. 

 I have just read Davidson's note and 

 should like to call attention to one or 

 two of his remarks. I am unable to 

 say positively without further infor- 

 mation whether the sweet Substance 

 gathered at Victoria was an 

 excretion of Homoptera or of the 

 leaves of conifers. The beekeeper, 

 however, states that it was gathered 

 mainly from the Douglas fir, chiefly 

 from isolated trees; it was stored in 

 mid-summer, the dryest and hottest 

 time of the year; and the "honey" 

 seems to have been similar to that 

 stored from the Douglas fir. There 

 certainly seems reason for thinking 

 that it may have been an exudation 

 of this tree. It is not altogether safe 

 to lay down too rigid rules for the be- 

 havior of either plants or animals. 

 Manifestly it would be an absurdity 

 to imagine that the substance was 

 a resin, since bees would not g.ither 

 two or three supers of it in secti>ns 

 and cap it over, neither would it have 

 a fair flavor. 



I fully agree that fir sugar should 

 not be called honeydew. I would 

 restrict the use of this word to the 

 sweet exudations of insects gathered 

 by honeybees. 



Maine. John H. Lovel! 



"It is really disgraceful for such a 

 country as ours to import wax or 

 honey. We ought ourselves to export 

 thousands of tons of each every 

 year." (American Bee Journal, De- 

 cember, 1871.) 



