September, 1917 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



689 



FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



Hives and Methods Applicable to the 

 South 



Beekeeping in the South offers peculiar 

 conditions, and is an entirely different 

 proposition to that of the more northerly 

 states. The beginner naturally reads and 

 selects the methods of the successful prac- 

 titioners of the North only to find them en- 

 tirely inapplicable to southern conditions, 

 and practically all of the literature is by 

 northern authors unfamiliar with conditions 

 which confront beekeepers in the South. 



The very beginning of the season presents 

 a difference; and while the man further 

 north is putting his bees out of the cellar, 

 or unpacking, the southern man finds his 

 hives boiling over with bees, and he is face 

 to face with the swarming problem which 

 is followed by steady brood-rearing until as 

 late as October. So it is evident that meth- 

 ods must be adjusted to different conditions. 



The beekeeper in the South who tries to 

 use the contracted brood-chamber or even 



The 10-frame .Tumi n hivo, tlio i(lo;il liivr for south- 

 ern beekeeping, in pi-iictical use in the town lot 

 apiary of L. E. Webb, Morganton, N. C. 



The divisible brood-chamber hive. Both the shade- 

 board and the extra ventilation are important. 



the standard brood-chamber is doomed to 

 failure at the outset. The bees must be 

 fussed with continually, and he finds that 

 the methods of forcing the bees into the 

 suiter generally force them out instead. 

 The key-note of success in the South is the 

 plan of having an unlimited brood capacity, 

 which is the only way a man giving but pan 

 of his time to the apiary can be successful. 



Getting bees into the supers offers no 

 trouble if during the long breeding season 

 the queen is given unlimited room. Why, 

 the way they pour into the supers is a reve- 

 lation. And with our breeding conditions, 

 the queen, if given room, will put tre- 

 mendous colonies in the supers ; otherwi.se 

 she will worry one with swarms thruout the 

 year, regardless of manipulations, unless 

 they are so radical as to be impracticable. 



Three methods are adapted to southern 

 conditions as proven by careful tests ; the 

 use of the ten-frame Root Jumbo hive; tlie 

 divisible brood-chamber under a modified 

 Scholl method, using three shallow bodies 

 permanently for brood and shifting the top 



