November, 1922 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



I 



of stores the first of November when a tem- 

 perature near zero came three weeks later. 

 Bees will not die under those conditions, 

 even if experts say they will. Try it and 

 be convinced. With our large hives we feed 

 less, and quite too often the natural stores 

 prove to be poor for wintering. It is need- 

 less for me to comment on just what hap- 

 pens under tliose conditions. This year the 

 only dysenter}'^ we have noticed was in one 

 yard where the hives are very large and the 

 bees had a large amount of natural stores. 

 Some colonies actually perished on combs 

 of honey mostly granulated, and everything 

 inside the hive was a smeary mess. 



Standard Prame Easier to Handle than 

 Jumbo. 



Then again since disease has become so 

 common in our section, the Standard comb 

 is much more easily handled than the 

 Jumbo, and aside from the disease question, 

 in ordinary manipulation the Standard 

 combs handle the nicest. Commercial bee- 

 keeping seems to be fast drifting to the cen- 



tral-extracting plant idea, and here again a 

 smaller frame is best for reasons that need 

 no explaining. In conclusion, let me say 

 that I have no thought of "knocking" any- 

 body or any particular hive in saying what 

 I have. Commercial beekeepers are free to 

 use what they like, just as I am doing, and 

 I can only liope that beginners who may 

 have exaggerated ideas as to the merits or 

 demerits of any particular hive may have 

 tlieir minds cleared of such ideas, as one 

 hive will give practically as good results as 

 another, provided each size is given the 

 management suitable in each case. I can 

 only repeat what I said in the beginning; 

 and that is, if I had an apiary in any of 

 tliese different-sized hives, that I would not 

 change them into any other simply because 

 I thought I would get more honey, for, after 

 our varied and rather extensive experience 

 with all the hives on the market, I positive- 

 ly know that there is little in such a con- 

 tention. J. L. Byer. 

 Markham, Ontario. 



OPERATING 10,000 COLONIES 



Honv One of the Most Extensi've 



System of oApiaries in the World 



is Managed 



By E. R. Root 



ONE hundred 

 apiaries over 

 a range of 

 200 miles; 100 

 apiaries of an 

 average of 100 

 colonies each, or 

 a total of 10,000 

 colonies of bees, 

 with an annual 



production of over 2,000 barrels of honey of 

 550 pounds each — such, in brief, is the 

 story of 'a man and his sons who possibly are 

 producing more honey and shipping it to 

 Europe than any other one mau or family 

 in the United States or the West Indies. 

 There are syndicates or corporations in 

 Honolulu that perhaps own and operate 

 100,000 colonies of bees; but no other sin- 

 gle individual or family, so far as I know, 

 unless it is our friend, J. J. Wilder of Way- 

 cross, Ga., owns and operates so many bees. 

 Mr. Hernandez started shortly after the 

 Spanish-American war. At that time, he 

 did a general export business. He bought 

 up a lot of honey and sold it in Europe, but 

 lost in the deal. He knew little or nothing 

 about bees, and, as he said, this experience 

 in the honey business was enough to cure 

 him. Some of the beemen asked him if he 

 could not sell their honey for them. No, 

 sir; he would not buy and sell again, but 

 he might handle the honey on commission. 

 The deal was made, and both he and his 

 friends made money. This convinced him 

 that he could do something in the way of 

 selling honey. Could he produce it? To 

 make a long story short. Mr. Hernandez 

 calmly bought up 1,500 colonies of bees for 

 a start. Instead of making the mistake 

 that most people do who go into the busi 



ness heavily, he 

 and his sons 

 made a success 

 of the business 

 at the very be- 

 ginning. His old- 

 est son, who had 

 studied at one of 

 the universities 

 in this country, 

 became interested. He read his A B C of Bee 

 Culture over and over before he did anything 

 with the bees. In fact, he became saturated 

 with the theory, and hence all lie needed 

 was practice. He then went among the 

 bees, and it was not long before he was tell- 

 ing some of the old hands some new tricks 

 of the trade that he had read about in his 

 ABC book. The other boys, with the fa- 

 ther, in the mean time took a hand in the 

 business; and, as we would say in American 

 parlance, they made a "howling success." 

 Transporting Honey by Mule Trains. 

 Tliis remarkable family of father and 

 sons increased their holdings of bees from 

 an initial start of 1,500 colonies until they 

 had 10,000 in 100 different apiaries scat- 

 tered over remote places, many of which 

 were accessible only by mules. The business 

 got to be so large that they organized mule 

 trains to carry honey to and from the yards 

 that could be reached only by trail. They 

 had galvanized cans made in such a way 

 that they could be loaded on a mule with a 

 special saddle, each mule carrying from 240 

 to 300 pounds of honey. In each mule train 

 there would be from 10 to 12 mules with 

 one driver. Strange to relate, these mule 

 trains make anywhere from 25 to 50 miles 

 a day; and 10 mules — ^figure it out for your- 



