238 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Apr. 15 



Bee-keeping in the South- 

 west 



By Louis Scholl, New Bramifels, Texas 



A HANDY WIRE-KEEL. 



About a year ago, while helping unload 

 sonie of a fellow bee-keeper's truck from a 

 car in which he had moved to this locality, 

 I came across one implement \vith which I 

 was not acquainted. After some guessing 

 I decided that it was a reel for holding the 

 fine wire used in wiring frames, and per- 

 mitting of easy cutting-up into suitable 

 lengths, as required for the frames used. 

 The spools, or coils, as the case might be, 

 were placed in a holder on the base, and 

 one end of the wire carried over a board of 

 the proper length, so arranged as to be 

 turned with a crank, thus making a reel. 

 When all the wire was wound around this 

 board, and then tied near each end with a 

 stout string, it could be cut at each end of 

 the board, and then one wire after another, 

 just the right length, pulled out by the op- 

 erator when wiring the frames. 



TEXAS HONEY-CROP PROSPECTS. 



Here in our immediate neighborhood, and 

 so far as we have been able to learn over a 

 great part of the State, the prospects for a 

 good honey crop are most favorable. Boun- 

 teous rains in most portions assure this 

 now, although there are always some spots 

 that are not as well favored as others. 



We have had here, besides numerous oth- 

 er rains at various intervals, a 4 >^ -inch rain 

 recently. This assures us a goodly quanti- 

 ty of moisture until well along in the sum- 

 mer months, and is very favorable for a 

 good honey yield. 



A late freeze in the early part of March 

 did some damage to the earlier blooming 

 plants. We have learned from sources 

 further South that this freezing weather, 

 coming, as it did, when the most of the 

 honey-yielding shrubs and trees there had 

 already taken on considerable growth, gave 

 these quite a set-back, so that ihey may not 

 yield as well as if they had been uninjured. 

 This, however, was in the more southwest- 

 ern localities, while further north of this 

 section, which includes our own localities, 

 the growth of the different honey-yielders 

 had not advanced to such a degree, and con- 

 sequently were not harmed in the least. 



Taking it all in all, the prospects are very 

 good. Still it is entirely too early to tell 

 very definitely what the season will be. 



PARTIAL TO THE DIVISIBLE HIVES. 



Since we began to use the divisible or 

 shallow-brood-chamber hives extensively 

 more than ten years ago, we have learned 

 of many others who have tried them after 

 reading what we have had to say about 

 their advantages; and not a few, indeed, 

 have adopted them in preference to any of 



the deeper hives that they had used pre- 

 viously. Their experience with the shallow 

 and divisible-brood-chamber hives and the 

 shallow bupers, which are identical and in- 

 terchangeable, shOi\s the many advantages 

 that may be obtained by the use of the 

 shallow hives and supers just mentioned, 

 and that results may be secured that are 

 not possible with the deeper hives and 

 frames. Right in this connection we have 

 the following letter from a bee-keeper in one 

 of the States of the Middle West, who uses 

 these shallow hives to advantage. We 

 quote part of his letter: 



After having read your many articles and Mr. 

 Wilder's letter, p. 493, Aug. 1, 1910, I was especially 

 interested in his statement, that the shallow frames 

 are too small to allow both brood and honey In 

 them, and therefore there is no rim of honey above 

 the brood as in the deep frames! Great argument, 

 this! That is the meat of the cocoanut. The bees 

 put the honey in the supers above. By having 

 two shallow stories for the brood-nest we can alter- 

 nate these and keep the rim of honey away from 

 above the brood. By putting the upper story with 

 the honey above the brood below, and the lower 

 story with the combs filled with brood above, the 

 bees store all the honey in the supers. They begin 

 work in the supers immediately, and do not loaf as 

 they do with the deep combs and a rim of honey 

 below the supers. 



This alternating also furnishes as much brood as 

 is wanted, as it stimulates brood-rearing and gives 

 the queen and bees plenty of room; and if they are 

 kept busy storing the honey above, there is not the 

 least desire to swarm. With the deep hives and the- 

 rim of honey next to the brood, the brood-nest be- 

 comes crowded and the swarming fever begins. 

 That is just what starts queen-cells and swarming 

 right at the time when the bees ought to be in the 

 best shape for storing honey in the supers. In deep 

 frames, the rim of honey around the brood can not 

 be gotten out of the way, but with shallow frames 

 it can be removed without any fussing. 



I wonder how much longer others are going to- 

 keep arguing in favor of those bulky deep frames 

 which are often stuck to the walls of the hives, or 

 buckled down during hot weather on account of 

 their depth, or the foundation stretched to such an 

 extent below the top-bar as to allow the rearing of 

 nothing but drones in them. Yes, and queen-cells 

 are built anywhere in the middle of the combs 

 where they can not be seen except when the frames 

 are removed, while with shallow-brood-chamber- 

 hives all that is necessary to do is to raise a story; 

 and the cells, if there are any, are found along the 

 lower edges of the combs. 



Then, again, a shallow story with either honey or 

 brood may be removed in a jiffy: and with a snap, 

 a few jerks, and a shake, every bee will be shaken 

 out of an entire super in the same time required by 

 the other fellow to dig out a single comb from a 

 deep hive. In this way much more has been ac- 

 complished. Time and again I have been asked to 

 reveal my secret of success in getting a larger yield 

 of honey than some other bee-keepers. It is so sim- 

 ple any child can understand it. My bees gave me 

 150 sections to the colony. Seven old stands gave 

 me 1680 1-lb. sections. I have foul brood to contend 

 with. For the lack of swarms I am compelled to 

 make all my increase artificially each year, or some- 

 times I buy nuclei. This is because I cut out all 

 swarming by the use of the shallow hives. 



Our experience has been so much like that 

 given in the above letter that we give it 

 place here. While there are points of su- 

 periority in the shallow divisible hives it 

 must always be borne in mind that, unless 

 the right kind of system of manipulation is 

 used with it, these can not be taken advan- 

 tage of, as there is no value in shallow hives 

 if they are used in a manner similar to deep 

 ones; i. e., frames handled individually in- 

 stead of handling them in full shallow 

 stories, etc. 



