September, 1917 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



685 



FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



then, and our Irishman was fired. More 

 consideration was promised to us beemen 

 for the coming year; and, be it known, 

 others there were who lost three times as 

 many as I did, and could afford it better, 

 for that matter, when all is said. So, once 

 again I began at the bottom of my bee- 

 ladder and slowly started again to climb. 



Perhaps the forestry folk were consider- 

 ate, or meant to be. I did not get a chance 

 to learn; for the fired Irishman set up for 

 himself as a sprayer-by-the-job, and once 

 again I lost what bees I had. Remember, 

 too, each time my hives were simply crowd- 

 ed with young, all of which starved to death 

 for lack of bees to nurse them. 



Right there I gave it up. It was too 

 heartbreaking. So to this day, in the late 

 fall the forestry folk go thru the land spot- 

 ting egg - clusters and clipping wintering 

 nests of moth; and in the spring they spray; 

 and in June they spray again, and in that 

 June spraying they end all hope of honey- 

 work for me.* There are others who are 

 not near woodlands; and for them there 

 still is hope and stores of honey. I see 

 their happiness, and rejoice with them that 

 the earth is not all evil — -only in spots there- 

 of. But as to that — did you ever read of 

 a certain most beauteous and amiable lady 

 of high degree surnamed Macbeth, and her 

 terse comment concerning a certain spot? 

 One Shakespeare reported it, 'tis alleged — 

 tho some deny it — and anyhow 'twas most 

 ungentlemanly of him or siomebody — to 

 listen. However, she said it. Nuff eed. 



Boston, Mass. John Preston True. 



Just Jerk 'em Oft 



That P. C. Chadwiek should express sur- 

 prise at Louis H. Scholl's ability to jerk off 

 40 pounds of honey per minute certainly 

 astonishes me. Several years ago I worked 

 a few days with Mr. Scholl and have since 

 adopted his management thruout, except 

 the shallow divisible-brood-chamber hive. I 

 see no reason in the world why a person 

 should spend a minute to take off a 40- 

 pound super of comb honey when he can 

 just as v/ell take off from 20 to 30 supers. 



* Since the above-recorded tragedies occurred, it 

 is but fair to add that the city forester has made 

 efforts to spray with a mixture that is repellant to 

 bees. I understand that it has had some success. 

 A considerable proportion of the bees were repelled 

 by it and escaped the poison — not all, by any means, 

 but enough to encourage further experimentation. 



Why, in the name of common sense, monkey 

 away so much time, unless it should be to 

 encourage robbing among the bees"? 



In my earlier years of beekeeping I fol- 

 lowed closely the advice given in bee-text 

 books — I have a lot of them — but at differ- 

 ent times I lost several colonies by robbing. 

 Then one day I received an invitation from 

 Mr, Scholl to oome to New Braunfels, 

 Texas, and see how honey is taken off the 

 hives. Since then I am no longer bothered 

 with robbing. 



The hive-covers are jerked off, smoke is 

 blown over the frames, while the hive-tool 

 is forced under the super, and off goes the 

 super on end in front of the hive. These 

 manipulations are repeated with other 

 supers ; and before the bees of the first colo- 

 ny know what has happened to them, 20 to 

 30 supers are off and ready to be loaded on 

 the Ford auto. To save time is the main 

 object. Get the supers off in a hurry, no 

 matter if some queens are canied along. 

 The whole point is to start with your load 

 before any bees think of robbing. Is not 

 this much more simple than closing up hives 

 and smearing them over with kerosene to 

 prevent robbing which you have encouraged 

 with your tinkerings? 



Slow driving for a mile or two with occa- 

 sional stops of a minute or so will clear the 

 supers of all bees unless perchance a queen 

 happens to be present; but even that does 

 not cause me to lose any sleep, for the 

 queenless colony will raise a new queen and 

 these late queens will produce the best hon- 

 ey-gatherers the next season. I have often 

 wished that every single queen had been kill- 

 ed the summer before ; for in that case, when 

 it came to jerking off honey there would 

 always be something to jerk. 



Last season I increased from 440 colonies 

 to 560; and, altho receiving a low price, I 

 sold over $2000 worth of honey. I have my 

 bees in 16 apiaries from 4 to 30 miles away 

 from home. Last year my wife and I did 

 all of the work and hauled all the honey 

 home on the Ford. At home the old combs 

 were extracted, and the nice white comb 

 honey was all packed into cans, every can 

 labeled, weighed, cased, and hauled to the 

 railroad station — all this without any out- 

 side help. Only 75 days were actually 

 spent on the bees and their honey. 



Do not fool with bees unless you know 

 how. If you do not know how, come to 

 Texas and learn. 



Lacoste, Texas. Louis Biediger. 



