1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



289 



Beekeeping in theSoithwest 



BYLOmSH.SCHOLL. COLLEGE STATION TEXAS I 



Bees are humming in Texas. 



"Cut it out!"— that superfluous drone 

 comb. 



Feed your bees if they need it, even if it 

 be sugar syrup. 



Breed from the best queen in the yard, 

 whether she be pure or hybrid. 



"Honey" is the saccharine liquid gath- 

 ered by the bees from natural sources, and 

 stored in their combs. 



If you must have drone comb in your api- 

 ary, keep it in your best colonies so that the 

 result will be select drones. 



Everybody seems to be trying to define 

 ' ' honey. " It is hoped that a satisfactory 

 definition may be arrived at in the end. 



Have selected drones in your yard to fer- 

 tilize your young queens. They will not 

 cost you more to keep than poor ones. 

 j0 



Now is the time to see that your bees 

 have enough stores. They consume more 

 during the heavy breeding season than at 

 any other time. 



My thanks are due "Swarthmore" for 

 two copies of a series of ' ' Papers on Api- 

 culture ' ' by that author. The first is enti- 

 tled "Increase;" the second, "Baby Nu- 

 clei. ' ' These souvenirs are gotten up in neat 

 style * ' by hand, in the Swarthmore shops. ' ' 



Colonies short of stores are fed with the 

 least trouble by simply placing shallow ex- 

 tracting- supers with combs of honey on the 

 hives. Such supers are kept on hand on 

 strong colonies the year round, and come 

 very handy in early spring. 



"Bee Pranks," a neat booklet of facsimile 

 newspaper clippings of "bee-yams," was 

 was kindly sent me by the compilers, the 

 G. B. Lewis Company, of Watertown, Wis. 

 There is a great variety of the funny, droll, 

 humorous, and even the ridiculous. Many 

 thanks. 



There are several ways of managing weak 

 colonies. Unite two or more and make one 

 good one, being sure to provide them with a 



good queen. Or help the weaker colonies 

 along and use them for artificial increase 

 later while the strong colonies are used for 

 honey-production exclusively. 



In Stray Straws, February 15, Dr. Miller 

 makes fun of us chaps 'way down South. 

 Why, doctor, I am afraid you have things a 

 little mixed. I feel sorry for you chaps 

 'way up North. You can never experience 

 the feeling of satisfaction one gets out of 

 going in shirtsleeves outside where the sun- 

 shine is bright and balmy ; where the bees 

 hum and the birds sing, and where the roses 

 bloom the year round. You see, I've spent 

 this winter here in the North, so I know. 



That fellow with the "new and unreliable 

 glasses," in the American Bee Journal^ 

 pages 136 and 168, comments on some of the 

 St. Louis convention happenings. He gives 

 some good ' ' afterthoughts ' ' to some ' ' fore- 

 thoughts ' ' mentioned by the writer, at the 

 meeting in connection with an outline of 

 work in apiculture to be taken up at the 

 Texas Agricultural and Mechanical College. 

 Some valuable hints are advanced, and good 

 use will be made of them. More, later, 

 when results are obtained from some of 

 these experiments. 



Mr. H. A. Mitchell, of Shepherd, Texas, 

 writes me: "I expect 300 colonies to go 

 into the supers by the first of April. Pros- 

 pects are fine for a crop of honey this year. 

 We have had a hard winter, but the bees are 

 in fine condition. Weather is fine now, Feb. 

 24, and the bees are rolling in honey and 

 pollen from maple. Wild peach will be in 

 bloom in a few days ; and if the weather 

 continues good we shall be in the swim for 

 a good crop. ' ' This comes from a place in 

 the heart of the basswood and holly district 

 of East Texas. He has four apiaries, and 

 runs 200 colonies in a yard. His honey-flows 

 are heavy, crops large, and the quality of 

 the honey is fine. Most of it is section 

 honey, 4| square; 7-to-foot sections are used, 

 without separators. The flow comes with a 

 rush, and his strong colonies take possession 

 of the whole super at once. This, together 

 with large narrow sections, insures a fancy 

 product of comb honey. 



HOFFMAN FRAMES, AGAIN. 



It is to be hoped that a decision of manu- 

 facturers of Hoffman frames, to abandon 

 the V edge, will not prevail, if such ever 

 existed at all, for square edges are as great 

 a nuisance to some of us as the V edges may 

 be to others. The V-edge frames can be 

 used where propolis is bad, while the square 

 can not. The assertion that there will be 

 no trouble if the frames are crowded close 

 together every time they are handled does 

 not count for much ; for where propolis is 

 bad it will roll on to the flat surface, and is 

 packed solid with each successive handling. 

 You can not squeeze in out of the way with 



