682 



Gleanings in Bee Culture 



B(B©o[k®©[pD[iDg] DDD GOD© ©(DQEGDDMCg^ll 



Louis Scholl, New Braunfels, Texas 



It will pay to feed those colonies that are 

 short of stores, even if honey is not at hand, 

 and 8-cent sugar has to be bought to do it 

 with. Don't save at the wrong end. A few 

 dollars well expended in feeding now may 

 mean a return of tens of dollars next year 

 when the honey-flows come again. 



4?- 

 Our prospects for next season begin in the 

 fall; and if abundant rains continue as they 

 have in many parts of Texas within the last 

 month, the season of 1912 promises to be a 

 good one. Some of us are naturally expect- 

 ing a bumper year after two shorter-crop 

 years than we are used to, as we are still 

 staunch believers in "three bad years do 

 not follow each other in succession." 



By October 1, practically the entire Texas 

 honey crop was disposed of, and buyers 

 offered gcod prices. The few scattered pro- 

 ducers who still had some honey had no 

 trouble to get it ofif their hands. This was 

 particularly true of bulk comb honey, the 

 standard honey product of Texas. The 

 consequence is, that some of the larger i^ro- 

 ducers received orders for such, amounting 

 to hundreds of cases above their annual 

 output. 



Foul-brood samples, and samples of comb 

 infected with any other disease or trouble 

 of any kind should never be sent in any 

 thing but a stout and secure box, and this 

 well wrapped with strong paper, and well 

 tied, to prevent exjjosure of the contents. 

 On several occasions, such samples of comb 

 were sent to us in very frail paper packages, 

 or enclosed in only a single paper wrapper 

 from which the diseased comb was exposed 

 with danger of spreading the disease far and 

 wide, and into our own apiaries. We feel 

 as though we could never forgive the person 

 guilty of infecting our own or other apiaries 

 by such gross carelessness and negligence; 

 hence we hope that hereafter such combs 

 of this nature as are sent us will be securely 

 enclosed in a proper box made either of 

 wood or tin, and then wrapped properly be- 

 fore sending them away. This is import- 

 ant. 



KEEPING UP THE PRICES. 



The bee-keeper can do a good deal to keep 

 up the prices of honey. This we have proven 

 repeatedly to our own satisfaction in our ex- 

 perience of many years in selling hundreds 

 of tons of honey. We have at all times aim- 

 ed to keep prices a little in advance of " the 

 other fellow," and we are confident that we 

 have made some progress, not only toward 

 keeping up the prices here in Texas but in 

 bringing them up to a higher notch than 

 honey prices have been for the last fifteen 



years. We are glad to note that there are 

 several others who are doing the very same 

 thing, and the result has been that each 

 year the prices have gradually crept up half 

 a cent or more a pound. This is one way of 

 getting for our honey what is due us, and 

 our Texas bee-keepers are not complaining 

 nearly as much about low prices of honey as 

 is the case in many other parts of the coun- 

 try. 



A HANDY APPLIANCE. 



Nothing is more disagreeable than to have 

 a load of honey near an apiary ready for the 

 team to be hitched to the wagon, but the 

 entire load completely in possession of thou- 

 sands of infuriated robber bees that can not 

 be driven back by smoke or any thing else. 

 After having several experiences along this 

 line, some of which very nearly ended seri- 

 ously, we contrived a method of drawing 

 the loaded wagon some distance from the 

 yard by means of a long stout rope. This 

 is arranged with a strong hook at one end, 

 so that it can be quickly hooked to the end 

 of the wagon-tongue, while at the other end 

 a set of light doubletrees and singletrees are 

 fastened to which the horses are temporari- 

 ly hitched. This outfit is always carried 

 along on the wagon so that it can be used 

 whenever needed. When the wagon is once 

 away from the yard the team is hitched to 

 it, and there is no more trouble. We hope 

 that others will try this easily-made contri- 

 vance which we have found indspensable. 



Perforated zinc has advanced, but the 

 price does not concern us, for we do not use 

 zinc excluders. We know that opinions as 

 to the use of queen-excluders differ; but 

 our own twenty years of extensive experi- 

 ence, and that of many others, have proven 

 that queen-excluders can be dispensed with 

 altogether when colonies are properly man- 

 ipulated. In this management the brood- 

 nests are placed in such ideal condition that 

 there is no desire on the i)art of the queen 

 to leave them and to go into parts of the 

 hives where they are not wanted. That 

 this can be done we know from the fact 

 that we have accomplished it for more than 

 fifteen years. We want it understood that 

 we are not making these claims without 

 good grounds, for we have produced large 

 crops of honey year after year, during 

 which hundreds of supers have been re- 

 moved from the hives, entirely free from 

 brood, making the use of excluders abso- 

 lutely unnecessary. 



We save, therefore, not only the extra ex- 

 pense of first cost of these, but the handling 

 of over a thousand excluders. Since we 

 manipulate our -brood-nests several times in 

 a season, these excluders would have to be 

 handled as many times also; but, enough 

 .said. 



