January, lft2n 



G T, E A N I N G S IN BEE CULTURE 



SI 



FROM NORTH, EAST, WEST AND SOUTH 



publicity agent of the same department, has 

 placed notices of this meeting and feature 

 stories relative to it in the hands of 250 

 editors in the State. H. J. Reinhard, acting 

 State entomologist, has sent information 

 to the apiary inspectors of the State urging 

 them to use their influence to see that many 

 ntteUti this school: 



^Inthis, San Patricio County, has long 

 beeti the home of noted beekeepers. Sev- 

 eral years ^go Mathis was meiitioned with 

 t'^valde as a center of the bee indilstry. By 

 death of some of the veterans and by dis- 

 couragement due to drouth this town had 

 somewhat lost its standing, but you can't 

 keep a good bee location hidden. This was 

 a good year and next will be better. A coun- 

 ty beekeepers' association with IT. A. McCar- 

 ley as president and G. W. Coltrain as sec- 

 retary was recently organized. Both men 

 are of the right sort and Mathig is again on 

 the bee map. 



Most fruit trees have lengthy blooming 

 periods and have more than one blooming 

 sieUson to the year. The blooming period of 

 the apple is so prolonged that it is hard to 

 control the codling moth l>y spraying. A sin- 

 gle tree will often continue blooming during 

 a period of oO days. The blooming of the 

 peach is greatly prolonged, as the same or- 

 chard may be in bloom for six ^Weeks. Again 

 in the fall of the year these same trees 

 bloom but not as heavily as in the sj)ring. 

 Bees were collecting nectar and pollen from 

 plum an<] peach Nov. 12-20. It is this pro- 

 longation of blooming season that makes the 

 fruit bloom of such importance to the bee- 

 men of Texas. In onler of production of 

 honey, fruit blooms collectively rank sev- 

 enth. 



One of the peculiar problems arising from 

 the late Corpus Christi storm is the dispo- 

 sition of the hives, bee fixtures, comb, and 

 oven bees left in the drift by the receding 

 flood waters. Some few apiaries in the 

 storm-swept region were known to be con- 

 taminated with foul brood. Few of the 

 beekeepers had names or brands on their 

 fixtures. Now these hives, clean and foul. 

 are mixed and scattered over a hundred 

 miles of river valley and no one knows from 

 where they came. So great was the num- 

 ber of such fixtures deposited in one county, 

 that the State ?]ntomologist. on the request 

 of the beekeepers, placed a c|uaraiitine on all 

 such articles, and advised the interested 

 I>arties to hunt out and burn all worthless 

 fixtures and comb found in drifts. 



Not withstanding the fact that a heavy 

 frost occurred Nov. 12, the bees are still 

 gathering small amounts of stores. There 

 was new honey on three or four frames to 

 the colony Nov. 20. Most of this nectar 

 came from Astrr JntrrifloruH. A few other 

 asters are still in Vjlooni, but none of them 

 can in any way equal the above, as it has 

 been in bloom and heavily worked by the 



bees for six weeks. From a few places come 

 reports and rumors of bees without winter 

 stores. In those sections which were storm- 

 swept, the keeper is in no way to blame, but 

 in a few locations where the beekeepers 

 took off the honey too closely and sold at a 

 very low price, the keeper ttlohe is to blamf': 

 We knoiv of oiie mah 's buying back tis owil 

 honey at twice the sellihg price. Beekeepers 

 must realize that they cannot take all the 

 honej' froni a hive at any time and that A 

 supply of honey on hand for feeding is the 

 best insurance one can have for another 

 year's crop. 



It is the belief of the best-informed bee- 

 keepers that there will be but few bees in 

 Texas which will have to be fed sugar. In 

 order that no beekeeper really needing sugar 

 for feeding purposes should go without it, 

 the manager of the Texas Honey Producers' 

 Association induced the Imperial Sugar Co. 

 to send a car of raw sugar to Ban AntohiO 

 for tile use of beekeepera; It is hard to sdy 

 just what the result of feeding this grftd^ 

 of sugar will be. Some beekeepers who have 

 used brown sligaf report good results, but 

 on the whole it is recommended only as aii 

 emergency ine&sUre. If you have to feed 

 and can get Uninfected honey do hot hesi- 

 tate because of the price. Save your bees. 



There is yet in the hands of the producers, 

 the Texas Honey Producers' Association, 

 and dealers much honey of known origin. If 

 you are buying honey to feed, make your 

 wants known and you can obtain honey from 

 apiaries which are free from disease. This 

 fact is guaranteed by the certificate of the 

 county apiary inspector, which will accom- 

 pany the shipment if you ask for it. Let it 

 be remembered that if you have ever had 

 foul brood in your apiary, there is liable to 

 be an outbreak next spring whether you feed 

 honey or sugar. It is common experience 

 that after a period when the bees are on 

 starvation rations, foul brood will again put 

 in its api^earance, even tho it has not been 

 seen for several years. It is thought that 

 this is caused by bees cleaning up the old 

 honey which exists in the few isolated cells 

 alwavs present in the brood-combs. 



College Station, Tex. H. B. Parks. 



* * « 



In Iowa '^^^ Eighth Convention of the 

 Iowa Beekeepers' Association 

 will be considered as one of the most suc- 

 cessful meetings in the history of the or- 

 ganization. All of the sessions were well at- 

 tended and were thoroly enjoyed by every 

 one present. The papers presented were of 

 a very high character and are worthy of a 

 wide distribution among the beekeepers of 

 the State. The honey and biscuit banquet 

 was the distinctive feature of the conven- 

 tion. The association had as its guests at 

 this banquet some of the foremost people 

 of Iowa, and all of them will be grateful to 

 the honeybee for some time to come. The 



