GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



June, 1920 



FROM NORTH, EAST, WEST AND SOUTH 



flow when the colonies are to be doubled in 

 number. There was a great amount of old 

 combs not yet filled with honey this season 

 that went into a huge pile to be later ren- 

 dered into beeswax. Mr. and Mrs. Kelly 

 are greatly interested in the improvement 



A few of the huge " gums " from which the Kelly 

 bees were transferred to Standard hives. The bar- 

 rels contain the lowest-grade honey to be saved for 

 bee feed. The shack in the rear was occupied by 

 Mr. and Mrs. Sams during the week of transferring. 



brought about in their old gum apiary, and 

 both will assist in caring for the colonies 

 now in modern hives. 



The Caintuck section is noted for its 

 honey resources and for its great number of 

 owners of gum-hive beeyards. Mr. Sams 

 believes that the establishment of this thoro- 

 ly modern apiary in the heart of this region 

 will have the effect of greatly quickening 

 the interest in improved methods of bee- 

 keeping, and that before a great while 

 gum hives will be decidedly the excep- 

 tion, thereby multiplying many times the 

 honey production of this section. Mr. Sams 

 is now in the northeastern section of the 

 State making demonstrations in this same 

 work of transferring bees, in co-operation 

 with a number of county agents. 



Raleigh, N. C. W. J. Martin. 



* * * 



Tj. Texas "^^^ weather for the past 



month has been very unfa- 

 vorable; very little rain has fallen in the 

 State; very dry weather, accompanied by 

 high winds and northers, have given the 

 bees a very severe setback. Feeding is the 

 order of the day, and where not done many 

 stands of bees have starved. In southwest 

 Texas the bees are making a bare living, in 

 the central portion conditions are better, 

 but north and east they are far below nor- 

 mal. The same weather conditions are hold- 

 ing the honey plants back. Where the 

 frosts of last month killed back many plants, 

 now new flower buds are just ready to open. 

 This is true of mesquite, honey locust, dew- 

 berries, and others. Texas beekeepers are 



a very optimistic class; while reporting the 

 above adverse conditions they are unani- 

 mous in the belief that the prospects are 

 yet favorable for a normal honey crop, and 

 that a week of good weather will bring on a 

 heavy honey flow. 



The shipment of queens and bees in comb- 

 less packages has started off nicely. The 

 cold weather has retarded the rearing of 

 queens somewhat, but most of the queen- 

 l)reeders are able to fill their contracts on 

 schedule time. The fact that the spring is 

 backward in the North is a great advantage, 

 as buyers are asking that shipments be held 

 uj) until warmer weather. Shipments of 

 combless packages as early as April 15 were 

 successfully made. 



The whole cotton-raising portion of the 

 South is interested, as never before, in cot- 

 ton. The relationship of this plant to the 

 pink boll worm, the boll weevil, and the 

 honeybee are subjects of the everyday con- 

 versation of farmers, business men, and en- 

 tomologists. Today, as the planters are 

 planning to test the methods of Coad and 

 Newell for boll-weevil control by means of 

 the application of arsenates in the powder 

 form, the beekeepers are asking what effect 

 this poison will have on the bee. I am 

 forced to say I can not give the least in- 

 formation. Plans are already made to dust 

 many acres of cotton in Texas, and the Ex- 

 periment Station is planning to gather data 

 on this subject, including the action of the 

 poison on the honeybee and the supposed 

 storage of arsenates in honey. 



The queen yard of the Experiment Station 

 apiaries has been able to distribute its first 

 queens. One of the objects of this yard is 

 to put good queens in the hands of farmer 

 beekeejDers who have black or hybrid bees, 

 and thus improve the bees of the State as 

 a whole. To do this, a ruling was made to 

 send out but a very few queens to one 

 party. Notice of the distribution of the 

 queens was made thru the farm journals of 

 the State. In 14 days after the notice was 

 put out, over 100 applications were received. 

 Of this number, three-fourths were farmers 

 whose names were not on our list of bee- 

 keepers. These men are interested in the 

 general betterment of farm work and are 

 in the process of putting the bees in proper 

 shape. 



County Agent O. S. Gray of Ellis County 

 is an enthusiastic beekeeper. Among his 

 other farm organizations is a boys' bee club 

 of 15 members. These boys own from one 

 to seven stands each. Most of the boys are 

 entering their second year of bee-club work. 

 As an incentive to better work each one of 

 these boys will receive an Italian queen, the 

 gift of the county agent. At the annual 

 boys' club fair this fall the bee section will 

 have an exhibit. 



When cold and drought put an end to the 



