428 



Gleanings in Bee Culture 



fly over that stretch of water on their iiuj)- 

 tial flight. For lo years he has kept bees in 

 Florida, seven of them being in his present 

 location. He says that five dollars would 

 cover the cost of doctors' bills for himself 

 and family in all that time. His family, by 

 the way, consists of eight. He has the only 

 really ant-])roof honey-house in the State, 

 so far as I can judge (see Fig. S). It is lo- 

 cated over the water, and approached by a 

 loO-foot walk. The onh' objection to the 

 location of the honey-house is that the salt 

 sea-water quickly corrodes any metal sur- 

 faces. He also uses the ten-frame 1^. hive 

 and produces extracted honey only. 



His honey-sources are chiefly saw palmet- 

 to, cabl)age ])almetto, and fall flowers. He 

 comes as near to ])roducing an absolutely 

 IJitn article of ])almetto honey as it is pos- 

 sible to secure anywhere. The flavor and 



Fis. 9.— A few of tlie bees from one of the hives of I. T. Sliumard. 



color of the palmetto honey that he secures 

 are exipiisite and striking. He has no or- 

 ange honey; sutlers heavily from forest 

 flres, as the cattlemen own that part of the 

 country, and their roaming herds are every- 

 where, for which they burn over the flat 

 woods or ])almetto hummocks as often as 

 they will burn. Fortunately it will not 

 burn every year. 



Mr. Shumard's hive experiences have 

 been varied. He began with the old Amer- 

 ican (i)ictured in (iLEANiXGS, 1910); soon 

 changed to a hive called the Buckeye (a lo- 

 cal name), then to the so-called Hoffman 

 hi\e (not that of the Hoffman frame); 

 finally he adoptetl the L. hive as best for 

 all i)ur|)0ses. He uses the narrow to])-bars. 

 however, from long familiarity with their 

 use, Frienil S. uses only two-story hives 

 in all of his outyards because he thinks that 

 more stories do 

 not ])erm.it suf- 

 Hcient bees to 

 fly abroad, but 

 keep them at 

 home caring for 

 the ])iles of su- 

 pers, etc. In this 

 it seems to the 

 writer that he 

 makes a mistake; 

 for in the season 

 of 1910 he had 

 many of his out- 

 yards fill their 

 hives "chock-a- 

 block " with hon- 

 ey, and then 

 swarm and go. 

 More surplus 

 room, even ahead 

 of needs, would 

 h a \- e obviated 

 this loss. 



He is also a 

 genius at getting 

 full sheets of 

 worker comb 

 from mere start- 

 ers of founda- 

 tion, and with 

 no S])lints. I 

 have never seen 

 truer combs nor 

 more regular cell 

 structure than is 

 visible in his 

 hives, and secur- 

 ed without foun- 

 dation. His se- 

 cret is to place 

 the frames of 

 starters in small 

 colonies, or in 

 n e w 1 y h i \' e d 

 swarms. He uses 

 no wires, but has 

 never had a comb 

 breakdown in 

 extracting, nor 

 melt ilown with 



