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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTHWEST 



Louis H. Scholl, New Braunfels, Texas 



The biggest part of the brood was thrown 



A MARCH HONEY CROP. 



Contrary to our expectations, on 

 account of the clrouthy conditions 

 early in spring, the mesquite 

 bloomed very profusely, and al- 

 most a month earlier than usual. 

 The mesquite ordinarily blooms in 

 April in south-central Texas, and again in 

 July, in favorable years. This year the 

 colonies were hardly strong enough to har- 

 vest the mesquite honey — at least in the fore 

 part of the blooming period. As it lasted 

 longer than the three weeks, however, the 

 bees increased rapidly on account of the 

 large amount of brood when the flow began. 

 Another obstacle was the coolness of the 

 nights and early mornings, and the many 

 days of high winds that interfered gi'catly 

 with harvesting a good crop. An average 

 of 35 pounds, half comb, the rest extracted 

 honey, is about the quantity our own bees 

 succeeded in storing. 



FORCING HONEY INTO SUPERS. 



This spring afforded us a most convinc- 

 ing experience in favor of a divisible brood- 

 chamber. When the early honey came it 

 did not take long for the bees to block up 

 the upper portion of the brood-chamber 

 with honey, and seal it. This soon crowded 

 the brood-nest to a mere handful of brood, 

 and also kept the bees from doing the best 

 work in the supers above, on account of 

 their dislike to work above sealed stores and 

 far from the brood-nest. 



Here was the same old condition of near- 

 ly twenty yeais ago, and for which reason 

 I adopted the divisible hive. What did we 

 do? When supering time arrived, and we 

 discovered this condition of the hives, we 

 did not place a single super on a divisible 

 hive before first " switching " the two halves 

 of the brood-chamber. We proceeded in 

 this manner: We worked in forces of two 

 men, one armed with smoker and hive-tool, 

 for smoking the bees and prying the hive 

 sections apart. The other then first lifted 

 off the shallow extracting-super on the hive, 

 setting it aside. He next lifted the upper 

 half of the divisible brood-chamber and 

 held it while the former, after smoking the 

 bees as needed, lifted off the lower half, and 

 set it on top of the former upper half that 

 had been rapidly placed on the bottom- 

 board by the assistant who held it ready for 

 this purpose. Thus the two halves were 

 completely reversed or interchanged. The 

 objectionable sealed honey was now below, 

 from which place the bees would remove it. 



right up to the top of the brood-chamber. 



The new super, with foundation in full 

 sheets, was then set on the newly changed 

 hive, and the shallow extracting-super, more 

 or less full of honey at this time, replaced 

 on top of all, and the bees went right to 

 work and yielded results over the loafing 

 colonies of deep-frame hives that could not 

 be thus easily manipulated. This manipu- 

 lation, which is accomplished very rapidly, 

 also stirs the colony into new life and activ- 

 ity. I have claimed that it " stirred new 

 energy into the bees " when that question 

 was up for discussion some time ago. 



That it " knocks swarming in the head," 

 as I have often claimed in these columns, 

 there is not the least doubt in my mind. 

 Besides putting the colonies to work, and 

 where we want them to work, the new cell 

 room provided in the center of the brood- 

 chamber affords plenty of laying room for 

 the queen and consequent contentment of 

 the colonies. The combs were, before the 

 change, more or less devoid of brood or 

 honey next to the bottom-board. When 

 placed above in the changing of the two 

 halves of the brood-chamber this empty 

 comb room came in the middle of the brood- 

 nest. The bees removing the honey from 

 what were the former objectionable sealed 

 combs of honey above, but now below, also 

 provided additional laying room. In fact, 

 an entire reorganization of the brood-nest 

 took place as well as of the whole colony, 

 and that with excellent results. I cannot 

 obtain them with the deep hives scattered 

 in most of my apiaries. 



MORE UNIFORM QUALITY AND BETTER PRICES. 



There has been some complaint on the 

 part of a good many beekeepers in regard 

 to the low price of honey in comparison 

 with other products. It has been a source 

 of pleasure to me to have been so situated 

 as to be enabled to look into such matters, 

 perhaps, a little more thoroly. This oppor- 

 tunity has revealed that there are several 

 causes in addition to supply and demand 

 that have to do with the regulation of prices 

 of any product. 



During the last few months I have had 

 an opportunity to observe the many vary- 

 ing methods of packing for market, not 

 only bulk comb honey but extracted as well. 

 Out of over fifty lots of honey observed 

 during the last several months there were 

 not two packed alike. There was also an 

 exceedingly great difference in the flavor 



