Septk.mhke, 1917 



G L K A N I N G S IN BEE CULTURE 



703 



since. The avera.iiv yield is about tit'ty 

 pounds. At times she has had as many as 

 eiiihty colonies; but four or five years aijo 

 a mysterious epidemic wiped out practically 

 all the bees in that section, leavin.y lier only 

 one or two colonies. The trouble was with 

 the adult bees, all of them deserting' hives 

 containing- brood and honey — enough honey 

 so that she sold several hundi'ed pounds 

 from these desei'ted hives. Since that dis- 

 aster, disease or poisoning, or whatever it 

 was. she has run along with a smaller 

 yard — about twenty colonies. 



Mrs. Hunerwadel says it gets pretty cold 

 on the mountain, yet she winters on the sum- 

 mer stai'ds with no pi'otection, and has had 

 jiractically no winter losses. The woods run 

 right up to the attractive home. Scattered all 

 thru these woods, on mountain top and side, 

 is an abundance of locust, ]ioplar, basswood, 

 and sourwood. th? cliief sources of nectar. 

 At the hotel "real count ly honey" was in 

 great demand, that wliicli was being sei'ved 

 during our stay being- mostly from poplar — 

 dark, rich, a bit reddish, served in chunk, 

 and mighty fine on hot biscuit or muffins. 

 For steady diet, however (and we eat it 

 pretty steadily ourselves), we prefer the 

 lighter honeys — probably because that's 

 what we're used to. 



Mr. John M. Davis, of Spring Hill, and 

 his son, Mr. Ben G. Davis, were the hosts 

 of the 1917 Annual Field Meet of the Ten- 

 nessee Beekeepers' Association, August 1. 

 Tliere were about forty present, and the 

 day was packed full of pleasure and profit. 

 The morning' session was held on the lawn 

 of the Davis home, under beautiful maple- 

 trees. Mr. G. I. Matthews was chairman 

 of the meeting'. Mr. Porter G. Ward, a suc- 

 cessful honey-producer of AUensvill'^', Ken- 

 tucky, gave an interesting- talk on the honey 

 and bee industry in Kentucky. Conditions 

 in Maury County were discussed by Mr. 

 Freeman. Mr. Yost, who has come to Ten- 

 nes.see to embark in commercial beekeeping, 

 talked entertainingly on his experiences in 

 Indiana. Mr. Henry Pointer, a prominent 

 local fruit-grower, emphasized the mutual 

 interests of the beekeeping- and fruit-grow- 

 ing industries; and Mr. J. M. Buchanan an- 

 swered and discussed various questions, re- 

 lating chiefly to the effects (;f spraying and 

 tiie part the honeybee plays in tlie spread 

 of a]iple-blight — an insigniticanl ])art, Mr. 

 Buchanan concluded. 



The lunch was a delight — ]>lates hea{)ed 

 with sandwiches, unlimited iced tea. and a 

 sure-enough bumper crop of ice-cream cones 

 — right in t' ? middle of a hot da v. Then 

 after l-.r.:ch Mrs. W. B. Romine. of" I'ulaski. 



whose editor-husband is an ex-president of 

 the association, and who is lierself a talented 

 wi'iter, reader, and lectui'er, delighted every 

 one with a charming, informal talk, followed 

 by several i)leasing' original short stories 

 a:;(l poems. 



Later we wandered out into the queen- 

 yard, wiiere so many tliousands of three- 

 band Italian queens have started their 

 careers. Talk about bees! It didn't make 

 a bit of difference where you stood, your 

 skii'ts l)rushed against some entrance any- 

 how, i^ut the bees were gentle and well- 

 behaved. Indeed, Mr. Davis, announcing 

 that he could demonstrate the gentleness of 

 his bees in a way that his son could not do 

 with his bees, brought a laugh by brushiig 

 them off a comb with his whiskers! Aid 

 Mr. Ben cannot do that with his bees, be- 

 cause — he has no whiskers! We hived a 

 naughty little nucleus playing' truant in a 

 tree, and captured and caged several queens 

 as for shipment, while in the honey-house 

 artificial cells were prepared for the edifi- 

 cation of the visitors. 



Then a goodly part of the crowd motored 

 three or four miles over to the yard where 

 Mr. Ben Da\'is raises golden queens. After 

 admiring the attractive yard and the bright, 

 beautiful bees, a little group still lingered to 

 discuss the conditions of the honey market, 

 deciding it was wise and practically neces- 

 sary, in the face of a short crop and the 

 increased cost of production and marketing, 

 to advance the price over that of last year. 

 We don't want to be greedy or unwise, but 

 we do look for a dignified, suitable, and 

 fairly substantial recompense for our labor. 



There has not been time enough for many 

 wintering- rej^orts and opinions to come in 

 yet ; but among the advance guard are two 

 interesting- ones, from North Carolina and 

 Alabama respectively. Mr. Bruce Ander- 

 son, county agent for Forsythe County, 

 North Carolina, who has been experiment- 

 ing the past two seasons with different ways 

 of wintering, says that to date he can see 

 very little difference between the results 

 fi'oni regular winter cases and the method 

 shown in the picture — packed supers with 

 hives wrapjied in heavy paper. He him- 

 s-^lf is recommending the latter, the cases 

 being- "too unhandy and costly for most 

 farmers." Yet he adds conservatively. 

 "More experience is wanted yet, before any 

 final conclusions ai'e drawn." 



Mr. .1. C. Parks, of Scottsboro, Alabama, 

 had referred in a previous letter to a drop 

 of seventy degrees in three days, with the 

 (lueiy. "Doesn't this sIk w a great need of 



