418 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 1 



more surplus during some seasons than oth- 

 ers in the same yard. While there may be 

 no bloom in the immediate vicinity of an 

 apiary, some colonies may find plenty to do 

 some distance away. 



HOW TO CLOSE HIVE- ENTRANCES. 



A unique way of closing hive- entrances 

 with screen wire cloth is that of E. R. Jones, 

 of Beeville, Texas. It is the cheapest and 



?uickest that I have ever seen or heard of. 

 have tried the scheme myself while mov- 

 ing colonies, and was highly pleased with it. 



The wire cloth is cut into strips (Fig. 1) 

 twice the width of the entrance to be closed, 

 and exactly the inside length of the same. 

 For the standard § inch-depth entrance the 

 strips would be | inch wide; for the |-inch 

 entrance, IJ inches. The strips are next 

 bent into shallow troughs (Fig. 2) by plac- 

 ing them lengthwise between two straight- 

 edged boards and letting half their width 

 extend out to be bent down by the use of 

 another board. 



On closing the entrances, simply lay one 

 of these strips down on the bottom-board 

 with its curved "back " in the entrance, and 

 by means of a piece of section box (Fig. 4) 

 push it into place about half way under the 

 end of the hive so it will be in position as in 

 Fig. 3. This finishes the job. The strips 

 are easily pushed in but not out. The sharp 

 projections of the cross- wires of these strips 

 will ' ' stick ' ' into the wood above and be- 

 low, and form a "truss" in such a way 

 that, the more pressure is put behind it, the 

 firmer the grip will be in the wood. It takes 

 "quite a pull" to remove them when re- 

 leasing the bees. The point of a pocket- 

 knife is inserted at one end, then pryed out, 

 and the screen is caught by the thumb and 

 pulled out with a hard quick jerk. There is 

 no danger of these entrance- closers being 

 pushed in or torn off en route, as they are 

 completely hidden out of the way. Mr. 

 Jones has shipped bees closed in this way in 

 a car several hundred miles without any 



trouble. When shipping out small lots of 

 nuclei he fixed them in this way also. Care 

 should be taken not to get the strips too 

 wide or the ' ' teeth ' ' will not stick into the 

 wood. They are simply inexpensive, re- 

 quiring but little wire cloth, and no strips 

 of lath and nails; besides the time required 

 in the preparation of many of the entrance- 

 closers now in use. 



WHAT COUNTIES IN TEXAS WOULD YOU SE- 

 LECT TO START IN TO KEEP BEES FOR 

 A LIVING? 



Many questions of like nature were sent 

 to me, and I have tried to answer them as 

 best I could. More or less delay occurred, 

 however, and, to kill several birds with one 

 stone, some of these questions will be ans- 

 wered in Gleanings. 



First I would refer you to the map of 

 Southwest Texas, p. 1295, 1905. There is a 

 section of country in Dimmitt and Zavalla 

 Counties, extending from Carrizo Springs, 

 in Dimmit Co., to Luma Vista, and Bates- 

 ville, in Zavalla Co., which impressed me 

 very much when I traversed that section a 

 few years ago. It is a good locality for bee- 

 keeping, with an abundance of the main 

 honey-yielding fiora, and lies in what is 

 known as the "artesian belt." Artesian 

 wells are numerous, and obtained at no great 

 depth, with an abundant flow of fine water. 

 The only consideration, to some, would be 

 the distance to a railroad shipping-point, 

 which is Dilley, on the International and 

 Great Northern Railroad, to the south of 

 this section. The roads are quite good, how- 

 ever, as this is not a sandy country, and 

 "freighting" the crop by wagon could be 

 resorted to profitably. 



There is another section of country further 

 south. This is located bolow Cotulla, in La 

 Salle Co. This locality lies along the banks 

 of the Nueces River, and offers locations 

 for bee keepers that I am well impressed 

 with. There is one section in particular, of 

 42,000 acres or more, owned by people who 

 are offering for sale any amount of it at 

 from $6 to $8 per acre for unimproved land. 

 The section has sixteen miles of river front, 

 which makes it quite valuable, as some of it 

 can be irrigated. The shipping-point here 

 would be only about fifteen miles distant. 



A section that is drawing most attention 

 is the great territory of country near Browns- 

 ville, in the m jst southern portion of the 

 State, near the mouth of the Rio Grande. 

 This section has only lately been opened up 

 by the extension of a railroad; and as more 

 railroads are built it will mean the opening 

 of many new and unoccupied locations for 

 bee-keeping. 



Besides these sections there are numerous 

 localities scattered throughout the entire 

 territory of Southwest Texas that are excel- 

 lent apiculturally. These will have to be 

 sought out. 



I do not know prices of land, as that varies 

 very much in different sections. The land, 

 too, varies. It should be remembered that 

 all this information is given for the benefit 



