Makcu, 19'J- 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



FROM NORTH, EAST, WEST AND SOUTH 



boes to be put up with plenty of stoics and 

 all young queeus. This should give us plenty 

 of young bees for the early package trade. 



The demand for honey for the past few 

 montlis has been very slight, caused prin- 

 cipally by the big crop of cane syrup. When 

 the very best syrup can be bouglit at 50 

 cents per gallon retail, and honey at four 

 times that figure, there is naturally little 

 demand for honey. Conditions will doubt- 

 less be much better in the spring when the 

 syrup begins to get strong. As honey re- 

 tains its delicious flavor many people will 

 use it regardless of price. J. M. Cutts. 



Montgomery, Ala. 



In Mississippi.- j;; STe-^eepe™" 

 Association met on Jan. 12 in its second 

 annual business meeting. The report of the 

 secretary-treasurer showed that the Associ- 

 ation had served a good purpose. Most of 

 the honey crop had been sold. A dealer 

 from a branch house of one of the well- 

 known supply manufacturers announced 

 that, due to the increased business done 

 with his firm last year, he had been author- 

 ized to offer a still larger discount to the 

 Association. 



The Association passed resolutions urging 

 the Legislature, now in session, to appropri- 

 ate sufftcient funds for the State Plant 

 Board to continue its bee-disease inspection 

 and eradication service. Altho 1921 was 

 the first year of this work, with five men in 

 the field during the summer, American foul 

 brood was reduced over 84% and European 

 foul brood over 62%. The beekeepers in 

 the Delta section (to which section foul 

 brood in Mississippi is confined) not only 

 are anxious to eradicate these diseases that 

 they may make more honey, but they are 

 eager to eradicate tlieni so that they may 

 enter the nucleus and package bee business. 

 Colonies build up strong and swarm in April 

 in the Delta, but no honey flow comes until 

 June. These beekeepers realize that they 

 can sell two or three pounds of bees from 

 each colony in April, the removal of which 

 will stimulate their colonies to increase 

 brood-rearing, which in turn will bring the 

 colonies up to the honey flow in better con- 

 dition than they would be Avere no package 

 bees taken. The present State Plant Board 

 regulations prevent a man from shipping 

 bees unless his apiaries are free from foul 

 brood diseases, as far as rigid inspection can 

 ascertain. People buying bees from Missis- 

 sippi can rest assured that they are not 

 importing any foul brood with their pur- 

 chase. 



Altho the Mississippi & Yazoo Delta Bee- 

 keepers' Association is not as yet affili- 

 ated with the American Honey Producers' 



League, they are interested and agreed at 

 the meeting to hold their next meeting at 

 the convenience of the speakers who, we ex- 

 pect, will tour the country this year in the 

 interest of the League and beekeeping in 

 general. 



Apiary inspection in seven Delta counties 

 has thrown a revealing light on census fig- 

 ures. According to the last census these 

 seven counties had 1,024 colonies of bees. 

 According to the apiary inspection service 

 there were 2,769 colonies in these counties. 

 Such glaring discrepancies as this should 

 provoke all apicultural interests to such ac- 

 tion-as would secure for us a fair census re- 

 port of our industry. 



The census figures point out a mere 11% 

 growth in the number of colonies kept in 

 Mississippi during the past decade. These 

 figures, of course, do not point out the enor- 

 mous growth in commercial beekeeping dur- 

 ing this period. In 1910 the queen, nucleus 

 and package bee business was unknown. In 

 1921 over 3.5,000 queens were shipped from 

 Mississippi, besides over 10,000 nuclei and 

 pound packages. We are ideally located for 

 the production of early bees that can be 

 rapidly delivered to the East and Middle 

 West. Mississippi expects to ship $12.5,000 

 worth of bees in 1922. E. B. Willson. 



Agricultural College, Miss. 



Tn Flr»rirla — '^'he winters in the extreme 

 m rionud. southern part of Florida 

 and on the Keys are much more trying on 

 the bees, and the winter losses are much 

 greater, on the average, than in the clover 

 belt. This is due to the warm dry winters 

 when every day the temperature is around 

 80 degrees and there are no nectar-produc- 

 ing plants in bloom. The bees work them- 

 selves to death in the fields and there is no 

 brood-rearing, or so little of it that the 

 young bees do not come on in sufficient num- 

 bers to take their places. The present win- 

 ter has been an extremely trying one on ac- 

 count of dry weather. There has been less 

 than an inch of rainfall from the first day 

 of November to the first of February. 



A serious winter loss is caused by the 

 disappearance of queens at a time when 

 drones are absent and matings can not be 

 secured. This loss of queens is not confined 

 to the winter months, but is distributed 

 thruout the year. It amounts to about 25 

 to 30 per cent for the year. Other beekeep- 

 ers with tropical beekeeping experience, 

 with whom this trouble has been discussed, 

 have experienced the same difficulty, but 

 none have been able to give a satisfactory 

 answer as to the cause. It is not from su- 

 persedure, with the young queen lost on her 

 wedding flight, as it is the young and most 

 prolific queens that more commonly disap- 



