1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



417 



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Watch the weaklings! 



Pinch the heads of the worthless queens. 



j^ 

 Will Texas get the National convention 

 this fall? 



It is the good queen and the good manage- 

 ment that work to the best advantage in an 

 apiary. 



" Water- white " is the grade of my honey, 

 yet I can not call it ' ' white as water, ' ' ac- 

 cording to S. E. Miller, in Progressive. If 

 "clear" should be used instead of "white," 

 how would "water-clear" sound for a term 

 in grading honey? 



j0 



If. as is estimated, 3,500,000 visits from 

 the iDee must be made, and 62,000,000 heads 

 of clover must be deprived of nectar to col- 

 lect one pound of honey, how many acres of 

 clover are required to yield an average of 

 one hundred pounds per colony in an apiary 

 of one hundred colonies? 



The fellow who thinks he can not afford 

 to buy a good smoker that he needs is the 

 fellow who can't afford to do without it at 

 any price. It's a waste of time and money 

 to bungle along with some bad or worn-out 

 smoker. Don't tolerate it. A good new 

 one will give better satisfaction, cause less 

 annoyance and delay, and will pay for itself 

 in a short time. 



The time to put the apiary in "tip-top 

 shape" is at hand. The yard needs a gen- 

 eral "cleaning up." The "floors" of all 

 the colonies should be cleaned to free them 

 of the winter's "droppings." The roofs 

 should all be good ones, or be replaced by 

 such. While doing this, notice which colo- 

 nies are weak or short of stores, and need 

 feeding. Supply all these with syrup, and 

 those that are not queen-right should receive 

 "one brood" or "two broods" as needed from 

 a stronger colony from which to rear a new 

 queen, and also to strengthen them. Unite 

 any that are too weak to pull through. 

 While you are doing all of these things you 

 will still find sufficient time in which to 

 learn, between jumps, some of our "short 

 apicultural terms." 



BEE-VEILS SHOULD BE USED. 



A beginner should never undertake to 

 hive a swarm or work with bees without be- 

 ing well protected by a veil and gloves. An 



experienced apiarist works often for months 

 without either veil or gloves, and, indeed, 

 they are a nuisance. The apiarist, however, 

 knows the nature of his bees, and knows how 

 to manage them to avoid stings; yet it is 

 really folly not to use a bee- veil at all times. 

 It can never be known what accident may 

 happen, and result seriously. If the veil is 

 not worn constantly over the face it should 

 at least be kept over the hat so that it can 

 be drawn down upon a moment's notice when 

 necessary. For years I had no use for a 

 veil about my face. It was in the way, and 

 did not allow a free circulation of air, so 

 beneficial in a hot climate. Being so overly 

 tall in person it was also quite an annoyance, 

 for limbs catch on the veil, especially when 

 in a rush. But after experiencing several 

 " stinging- scrapes, " and working in large 

 apiaries of bees where veils had to be worn, 

 and after several instances, more or less 

 serious in nature, of stinging accidents had 

 come under my observation, it was decided 

 best to use a veil at all times and places; 

 hence I prefer to wear a veil whenever 

 among the bees. A good veil does not cost 

 very much; and if made at home the cost is 

 only a trifle. I prefer black cotton tulle 

 with silk facing only, for cheapness, and the 

 silk face is not really necessary except for 

 minute work. For rough work the tulle is 

 all right, and black can be seen through bet- 

 ter, and does not blind the eyes as white 

 does. 



HOW FAR DO BEES FORAGE PROFITABLY? 



An item of interest that I came across 

 while with Mr. W. H. Laws in some of his 

 outyards about twenty miles west of Bee- 

 ville was the following: The bees in his 

 Dowd yard were being fed, giving them sev- 

 eral hundred pounds of syrup in a trough, 

 outside, and some little distance from the 

 apiary. All colonies were soon busily at 

 work storing it away. When they were well 

 under way, or about the second day, a visit 

 was made to neighboring yards to ascertain 

 to what extent the bees there might be par- 

 taking in the fray. Another apiary belong- 

 ing to Mr. Laws, half a mile away, was 

 working as busily in storing the syrup as 

 the first. An apiary belonging to a neigh- 

 bor one mile distant also worked as busily 

 at it, the whole number of colonies in the 

 yard engaging in it. But of an apiary of 75 

 colonies \\ miles away, only 14 found the syr- 

 up being fed, while only 7 out of 60 colonies, 2 

 miles from where the syrup was being fed, 

 found it. These few colonies worked just as 

 busily as those in the Dowd yard ; but on ac- 

 count of the distance, and, probably, a later 

 discovery of the syrup, they did not store as 

 large an amount per colony. The remaining 

 colonies of the two latter yards, IJ and 2 

 miles distant, did not discover the syrup at 

 all during the three days of feeding. "This 

 should help us in getting at an idea of how 

 far bees may forage profitably, and also the 

 distance out- apiaries should be located from 

 each other. It should also give us a clew by 

 which to explain why one colony may store 



