330 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



June, 1920 



dozen others with from 1,000 to 3,000; and 

 they all say there is more territory open 

 not yet covered by bees. 



Further north, in North Carolina and 

 Georgia, particularly along the rivers, is 

 some very fine bee country, and yet not a 

 modern beekeeper within 40 or 50 miles in 

 some places. 



The old slogan, "Go west, young man," 

 has been the slogan of the young beekeeper; 

 but the Editor predicts that there will be a 

 new slogan, "Go southeast, young man." 

 And remember that with all its wonderful 

 opportunities this region is close to the 

 great centers of population — that is, the 

 great honey-consuming public. 



Do not get an idea that this country is all 

 "velvet," and that there are no obstacles 

 to overcome and no failures. It should be 

 made very plain that some of this wonder- 

 ful bee country is swampy, and always will 

 be so. In the language of a county exten- 

 . sion man, ' ' There is too much land to navi- 

 gate, and too much water to cultivate." The 

 very swampy character of the land means 

 mosquitoes and venomous snakes in a jungle 

 of honey plants. The population is sparse, 

 and the villages are small and primitive. 

 There are no electric railways nor electric 

 lights, and some of the country roads 

 are abominable. The winters and springs 

 are often chilly and damp, and the summers 

 are very hot; but in spite of mosquitoes 

 and redbugs there is but very little malaria, 

 for the reason that the malarial mosquito can 

 not develop in sour soil. 



After all, is there any good thing without 

 some drawbacks? The Editor of Gleanings 

 believes that, in spite of these bad things, 

 there are hundreds of beekeepers who will 

 migrate into this country, buy up bees in 

 log gums, transfer them, and reap splendid 

 returns, but not until they have learned the 

 country and the wintering and starvation 

 problems. Success will not come the first 

 year. There will be a lot of that kind of 

 experience that Josh Billings tells about. 

 The bees there breed enormously, the queens 

 wear out fast, and, unless one knows the 

 conditions, he will be a sadder (yes, and a 

 madder) man — mad at Gleanings for ever 

 getting him into such a mess of swamps, 

 mosquitoes, redbugs, chiggers, snakes, worn- 

 out colonies, worn-out queens, and a home in 

 a jungle miles from nowhere. 



The Editor took several hundred photos, 

 and later on will give his readers pictures 

 and detailed statements of all these places. 



UNDEE THE PEESENT unprecedented 

 sugar situation beekeepers are unable to 

 obtain enough 

 sugar for fall feed- 

 ing; and, even if 

 they were able to 

 obtain it, they 

 could ill afford to feed it to their bees at 

 present prices and then sell their honey at 

 a lower price than they paid for the sugar. 



Plan for It Now! 



Planfor It Now! 



! Plan for It Now! 



If this month were October instead of 

 June and the sugar shortage had stolen upon 

 us all unawares, we would feel that those 

 beekeepers who had foul brood to contend 

 with could not safely feed back honey a 

 part of which might have come from dis- 

 eased colonies, and that they, therefore, 

 must have the sugar, even if they have to 

 pay 50 cents a i)ound for it; otherwise there 

 would be nothing ahead for their colonies 

 but foul brood or starvation. But, fortu- 

 nately, the shortage (or hold-up by profi- 

 teers) arises early enough in the season so 

 that another and very satisfactory alterna- 

 tive is at the command of the beekeeper who 

 is foresighted enough to plan his work a 

 few months in advance — and right now is 

 the time to do that planning. 



All he needs to do is to produce, in old 

 combs suitable for wintering and of the 

 same size as those in his brood-chamber, 

 enough good honey to carry his bees thru 

 winter. If there is danger of foul brood in 

 any of the colonies, the winter stores should, 

 in each case, be retained by the colony that 

 stored them, in order that the risk of spread- 

 ing disease be avoided. 



When the time for extracting comes, the 

 high price of honey may tempt a few to ex- 

 tract too closely, but let any such remember 

 the oft repeated warnings given by Glean- 

 ings last year, and let him recall how these 

 warnings were verified by the starvation of 

 50 to 75 per cent of the colonies in some api- 

 aries (and even 100 per cent in a few cases 

 that have come to our attention). Think of 

 it — such a great loss as this from starvation 

 alone! We cannot give the per cent loss 

 from starvation thruout the United States, 

 but we know it was very large. Another 

 similar loss the coming winter would indeed 

 be a calamity to the beekeeping world. 



Let us all make it our business to show 

 as much foresight as the bees themselves, 

 and no matter how it may cut into our sur- 

 plus let us see that each colony has 30 to 40 

 pounds of good stores in good combs set 

 apart for winter. These stores in the hives 

 will be of much more value to the beekeeper 

 than manj' times their money value in the 

 bank. 



=»^OJ= 



UNFOETUNATELY, many have misunder- 

 stood the claims made by the Aluminum 

 Honey Comb Com- 

 Aluminum pany. This com- 



Comb — What pany, we believe, 



About It? never claimed that 



aluminum combs 

 would cure foul brood, and yet, it seems that 

 many beekeepers have believed that with 

 tlie purchase of these combs all foul-brood 

 troubles would be over. Now, if it is true 

 that aluminum combs infected with foul 

 brood may be sterilized and made clean 

 enough to rewax and return to the bees, 

 then the price of a set of combs would be 

 saved anil the unpleasant work of wax-ren- 

 dering avoided; but, with this possible ex- 



