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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



]VlAYl5 



Bee-keeping in the South- 

 west 



By Louia SCHOLL, New Braunfels, Texas 



A REAL TREASURE. 



A complete library of the best books on 

 the subject of bee-keeping in all its branches 

 is a real treasure to the bee-keeper. This 

 is something that we have worked hard to 

 procure for many years, and we rejoice in 

 having secured so far nearly all the leading 

 books on bee-keeping, and also back num- 

 bers for several years of most of the bee- 

 journals. For the purpose of reference at 

 any time, this is not only a great conven- 

 ience but an advantage. 



One of the latest acquisitions to our libra- 

 ry, and one that has given us a great deal 

 of pleasure, is Gleanings from the very be- 

 ginning of its existence, nicely bound in 

 book form. By comparing the first issue 

 with those of to-day the progress which has 

 been made is evident. We become aware 

 that in this age we are enjoying a simpler 

 bee-keeping than in the days of yore, and 

 that our path has been made easier to tra^'- 

 el by those veterans to whom we are in- 

 debted for the ways they have opened. 



BEES AND POULTRY. 



It may be interesting to our senior editor 

 to hear that he is not the only poultry en- 

 thusiast connected with Gleanings, but 

 that we are also "in the ring of poultry 

 cranks." To tell the truth, keeping poul- 

 try works well with bee-keeping if the per- 

 son so engaged understands the manage- 

 ment of the combination. We have become 

 entangled in these two lines of work for two 

 Trasons: First, because of the old saying, 

 that a busy business man should have 

 some kind of hobby on which to spend his 

 spare time, and thus divert his mind from 

 his cares. We have always suggested that 

 there is no other side line like bee-keeping 

 for busy men. But why have we never 

 thought about a hobby for the busy busi- 

 ness bee-keeper ? It might be said that for 

 him "more bees" would be a remedial 

 measure; but would not that make his 

 business life still more strenuous ? For this 

 reason we have made fancy poultry-keeping 

 our hobby, and we like it immensely, as we 

 get a lot of fun out of it. 



The second reason has been the fact that, 

 aside from the pleasure that we have gotten 

 out of the hobby, we have found this new 

 venture so remunerative that we have had 

 to increase our poultry business to such an 

 extent that it is really not a hobby any lon- 

 ger. The consequence is, we now have two 

 businesses to look after, and will continue 

 them as long as they work as well side by 

 side as they have. Since most of the poul- 

 try work is early and late in the day, while 

 the bee work comes in between these two 

 periods, the combination works very nicely; 



and as long as we get our share of profits 

 from both, as well as a lot of real pleasure, 

 why should we not combine them? Of 

 course, we are well aware of the fact that 

 this is a time of specialty in all lines of 

 work, and this is what we are trying to ad- 

 here to even now. Can we do it ? We are 

 trying to make a specialty, and strictly so, 

 with our bees; at the same time we are try- 

 ing to do the same with the chickens. Can 

 we? 



THE VALUE OF A GOOD ARMOR. 



Time and again we have been in position j 

 to show that it pays in the long run to be I 

 well armored for extensive work in the api- * 

 ary, especially if a great deal is to be ac- 

 complished. We have often had argu- 

 ments presented to us to show that it is not 

 so necessary to be protected absolutely by 

 a good veil and by gloves. While all this 

 advice may work very nicely with a few 

 colonies of very gentle bees, we have not 

 been able for many years to work our own 

 apiaries in that manner. While we did 

 not believe in wearing even a veil during 

 the first eight years of our bee-keeping ca- 

 reer, bearing many a painful sting unnec- 

 essarily, we do not now work in the apiary 

 without gloves. The veils we have adopted 

 are much more substantial than the flimsy 

 makeshifts with which we were satisfied at 

 first. These are now made of wire cloth, 

 very much like the Alexander veil, but so 

 that they can be worn with a hat — a thing 

 that we must do here in the South. With 

 such a veil, gloves on our hands, and every 

 thing else bee-tight, we have stood our 

 ground when "the other fellow" was re- 

 treating from a sudden onslaught. Of 

 course, we realize that our bees are much 

 more vicious than ordinarily. This is gen- 

 erally the case where they are handled in a 

 hurried fashion. In this respect we believe 

 they are very much like the Coggshall kind 

 of which we used to read so much; and we 

 venture the assertion that, where bees are 

 handled by lightning operators to any ex- 

 tent, they are not the gentle kind that can 

 be handled without veils and gloves. 



It has been argued that slower manipula- 

 tions should be practiced in preference to 

 the rapid lightning methods of some of our 

 most extensive bee-keepers; but we have 

 found, after trying this, that, unless we got 

 a more lightning-like move on us, we were 

 not able to accomplish as much. And in 

 our mind this is the only real business way 

 of wholesale bee-keeping — a system whereby 

 the maximum amount of work can be done 

 in the shortest length of time, by which 

 every cut-and-dried shortcut and labor- 

 saving method can be put into play with 

 good results. 



Bee-keeping Not Such a Bad Business. 



I took 454 tens of extracted honey from 52 hives, 

 spring count; sold all at 12 cents per lb. I have a 

 good market in Ottawa City. I have 91 colonies in 

 the cellar. 



Yarm, Quebec. March 28. R. McJankt. 



