GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTHWEST 



Louis H, Scholl, New Braunfels, Texas 



Co-operation and organization 

 should be the slogan of the bee- 

 keeper. Never before in my own 

 beekeeping experience have I 

 seen a greater need for it than 

 now. 



Texas has had an excellent honey crop 

 for 1916. There were some important bee- 

 keeping sections that did not fare as well as 

 otliers. The north central and the northern 

 parts of the state did not harvest the cot- 

 ton honey until the fore part of August. 



Texas honey prices have been anything 

 but satisfactory this season. With an in- 

 creased cost of production and low prices 

 commercial beekeeping cannot last long; 

 and not only the beekeeper, but all who are 

 dependent upon him, must eventually suf- 

 fer. Any effort in the direction of obtain- 

 ing better prices for our product should be 

 welcomed by not only the beekeepers them- 

 selves but by the sujDply dealers, founda- 

 tion-makers, bee-journal publishers, manu- 

 facturers, merchants, and all others who 

 appreciate the beekeeper's dealings. 

 * * * 



It is a fact that Texas honey has been 

 selling at a considerably lower price this 

 year when compared with the advanced cost 

 of all other products and commodities on 

 the market. It is also passing strange that 

 such a condition should exist when the de- 

 mand for honey was hardly ever better, and 

 when the honey prices in competitive mar- 

 kets of other states were from 11/2 to 2 ets. 

 per pound higher. The lack of organized 

 effort on the part of the beekeeper is to 

 blame. There does not seem to have been 

 an overproduction in the state; and on ac- 

 count of the higher prices in other states 

 there has been no danger of eom.petition. 

 There should have been a better system of 

 marketing. 



XIX ON THE RABBET-SPACERS. 



Just recently I had an occasion to assist 

 an extensive beekeeper in apiary work and 

 in the honey-house with hives and supers 

 equipped with metal frame-spacing rabbets. 

 Plain frames are used, and these hang in 

 the notched rabbets; altlio I had never had 

 any actual experience with them before, the 

 idea that they are not very pi-actical has 

 ahvays possessed me. Here this proved 

 Irne, for, being used to the self-spacing 

 Hoffman frames that can be " thrown " into 



hive or super and become projicrly spaced, 

 or that can be handled in pairs or trios, or 

 even fours, it was quite difficult for me to 

 become used to handling each frame indi- 

 vidually. Neither could I spread frames 

 apart for the easy removal of a comb or 

 shove them from one side of the hives or 

 supers to the other. There was not that 

 stability of the frames in the filled hives 

 and supers so essential for hauling them, 

 especially when filled with tender comb 

 honey, of which we produce so much. Be- 

 sides the greater expense in addition to the 

 above apparent drawbacks, this kind of 

 equipment did not appeal to me as well as 

 the simpler and (in my hands) more easily 

 maniuplated self-spacing frames. 



FRENZIED SELIilNG. 



Honey prices have been driven still lower 

 by comi^etitive dealers as well as by produc- 

 ers who were anxious to sell honey quickly. 

 If the selling could be regulated so that the 

 honey crops might find their way to market 

 gradually, and thus prevent the apparently 

 flooded markets, better prices would obtain. 

 The main trouble is brought about by those 

 who are over-anxious to sell and by those 

 who are after handling a great volume of 

 the honey business so as to enable them to 

 make their per cent of profit irrespective of 

 what the producer will get. A lower price 

 of one to two cents per pound amounts to 

 a difference of something like .$oO,000 to the 

 beekeepers of Texas. Is this worth taking 

 care of? It is time efforts were being made 

 for a thoro organization. 



CLEAN vs. DISORDERLY YARDS. 



The condition an apiary is kept in makes 

 a material difference in the manner the bees 

 in such yard will be cared for. My expe- 

 rience has been that the bees in the yards 

 located in the more attractive places, or 

 even those kept in clean and orderly condi- 

 tion, if not so ideally located, have given us 

 the better returns. In the more neglected 

 apiaries the bees were continually more or 

 less neglected also, while much more ^care- 

 ful attention was given them in the case of 

 the former. It affords one not only greater 

 pleasure to work in an apiary in a more 

 favorable location, with everything in the 

 apiary in " apple-j^ie order;" but the work 

 is done with greater enthusiasm and inter- 

 est in what needs to be done for the better 

 welfai'e of the bees and b&st results for their 

 owner. It affects the owner as well as the 

 employees in the same manner. 



