FEBRUARY 15, 1916 



ir.side the loom we shoiikl be able to uiaiii- 

 tain an equable warmth without much dif- 

 ficulty, since the warmest portion of the 

 room is next to the ceiling. 



Empty combs under the brood-nest may 

 be left for winter in sunny Australia with 

 perfect impunity. That the same scheme 

 will be uniformly successful in the United 

 States with a greater diversity of weather 

 is debatable. In a recent issue of the Amer- 

 ican Bee Journal I dealt with the eight- 

 frame hive and empty combs from a stand- 

 l^oint not altogether disassociated from the 

 above subject. In the same issue Samuel 

 Cox states, " It is almost impossible to do 

 successful beekeeping with eight-frame 

 hives." Gosh! Samuel, you're an intrepid 

 man to father such a sweeping statement. 

 Your humble servant harvested an average 

 of 360 pounds of extracted honey per eight- 

 frame hive in 1912 in an apiary of 150 

 colonies. Now I want to ask you, Mr. Edi- 

 tor, how much, over and above that amount, 

 would ten-frames have yielded? But per- 

 haps you had better look up the American 



lire Journal to absorb my ideas of what 

 constitutes an eight-frame hive. No, Mr. 

 Cox, a man who can make a success of api- 

 culture with ten frames can repeat the trick 

 with eight, twelve, or fourteen, divisible or 

 revei-sible, Long Idea, or any other pat- 

 tern. 



However, I appear to have got on to a 

 side line. What I wanted to do was to 

 ;Urect attention to the method of amalga- 

 mating, if it is permissible so to describe it 

 — tAvo sizes of bodies into one whole. Mr. 

 E. Garrett, one of the pioneer apiarists of 

 Australia, and a neighbor of mine, uses a 

 super considerably larger than the brood- 

 chamber. In the drawing I have endeavor- 

 ed to illustrate his method of adaptation, 

 which may be used with any odd-sized 

 bodies. It will be noticed that the scheme 

 permits the combs of the super to cros^ 

 those of the brood-nest at right angles, 

 which is quite a desideratum. The " over- 

 hang " of the super is closed underneath by 

 two slats, 3 X 20 X y2 incli. 



Briagalong, Victoria, Australia. 



BEE CULTURE IN LOUISIANA; SOME OF THE HONEY SOURCES 



BY J. p. ARCHDEKIN 



The honey-t^ow in this section is divided 

 into three distinct periods. These overlap 

 or merge into each other, so that there is no 

 stop in the flow after it begins in the 

 spring. The bees always have some flowers 

 available to work on. In the following I 

 will mention only the main honey sources, 

 and make no mention of many others. 



The spring crop is secured from willow, 

 tupelo, and white clover. WilloAv is a good 

 yielder, and the bees gather a considerable 

 amount of nectar from it. Where I came 

 from (Missouri) willow yielded only pollen 

 so far as I could see, and 1 was, therefore, 

 surprised at the amount of honey stored 

 from it here. Tupelo opens a day or two 

 after willow, and a little later white clover 

 comes on. Tupelo is the main source, how- 

 ever, as it is more abundant than the other 

 two. The honey is classed as tupelo, and is 

 white in color, heavy in body, and of fine 

 flavor. It is hard to find words to describe 

 the intensity of this flow. It comes in a 

 veritable flood, and the bees work with 

 might and main. They start out at the first 

 streak of dawn and remain afield until long 

 after sunset. The flow is of short duration, 

 and they seem to realize that the time in 

 which to fill their hives is limited. 



The summer flow begins at the close of 

 the tupelo, and continues in a long slow 

 flow all summer. This is gathered from 

 numerous flowers, only a few of which I 

 can name. It is sufficient to say that prac- 

 tically all the honey-plants common to the 

 central states are found here in addition to 

 a world of others. There is a profusion of 

 bloom all thru the season. Cotton is the 

 main field crop, but I have never seen a bee 

 on a cotton-blossom. It is very strange, 

 too, as I understand it is a good source in 

 most sections. This summer honey is red 

 in color, and of very poor quality. The 

 flavor is rank, with a distinctly sour twang. 

 Strange to say, this honey fermented in the 

 comb both before and after it was sealed. 

 As it was stored very slowly T don't under- 

 stand what caused it to sour, especially in 

 view of the fact that the weather was dry 

 all summer. 



Goldenrod, horsemint, and boneset are the 

 mainstays of the fall flow, which is in full 

 swing by September 10. Asters and smart- 

 weed are also abundant. This flow is as 

 heavy as the spring flow, and a good crop 

 is secured besides putting the colonies in 

 shape for winter. It lasts about a month. 

 This fall honey is a light amber, of good 



