February, 1909. 



American Vee Journal 



soon being the proud possessor of 3 of 

 those colonies of banded beauties. Last 

 season they did exceptionally well, in- 

 creasing from 3 to 10; I also let 2 or 3 

 swarms escape to the woods. I also got 

 400 pounds of very fine honey from the 

 10, some of the first swarms storing 

 more surplus than the parent colonies, 

 one sending out on the 28th day, a fine 

 swarm. 



All went well. All hives were very 

 heavy at the end of the season. All 

 working busily till November. All win- 

 tered well, but a late cold spring and 

 constant rains necessitated some feed- 

 ing, which was attended to promptly, 

 and soon every colony became very pop- 

 ulous, and it was very apparent that 

 they were only waiting for fair weather 

 to get busy. I was all in readiness for 

 this. A long row of new, empty, fresh- 

 ly-painted hives, with sheets of founda- 

 tion stood waiting for new swarms, one 

 of which had already come out, but alas, 

 "Man proposes, but God disposes." 

 Thunderstorms and floods became al- 

 most daily occurrence, flowers were 

 blooming profusely, sweet scented al- 

 falfa fields on every hand. Oh, how 

 I wished for "that good old summer 

 time." 



Sunday, May 10, was warm and pleas- 

 ant. I lay on the bank of a ravine in 

 the shade of a persimmon grove, watch- 

 ing the countless numbers of yellow toil- 

 ers humming busily among the white, 

 bell-shaped blossoms. I lay there build- 

 ing "Castles in Spain," but happily ig- 

 norant of what the near future had in 

 store for me. Night came, also a thun- 

 derstorm. Monday dawned bright and 

 clear, a perfect day; my hope rose ac- 

 cordingly. Perhaps after all we would 

 have some fine weather; but not so. 

 Tuesday dawned dark and threatening, 

 great heavy clouds hurrying overhead 

 urged along by a strong south wind. 

 These became thicker and heavier till 

 about 2 o'clock p. m., when the muf- 

 fled rumble of the thunder far to the 

 southwest betokened a coming storm, 

 and at once put a damper on my new- 

 born hopes. I was in the field trying 

 to save my first cutting of alfalfa, and 

 5 or 6 tons of such hay is no small item 

 to the average farmer. Therefore that 

 thundercloud had to "show me" before 

 I would quit work. This it proceeded to 

 do with a vengeance, and when the 

 rain began falling so thick that I could 

 hardly see, I cast one sad "Maud Mul- 

 ler" look at that S-acre hayfield, climbed 

 into my wagon, turned a very unwilling 

 pair of mules' heads square in the face 

 of the wind and rain, and pulled for 

 wife's house a half-mile away. 



To unharness, and change my wet 

 clothes for dry ones, was only the work 

 of a few minutes. It was still raining 

 with deafening thunder, but I paid lit- 

 tle attention to it. I picked up "Lang- 

 stroth on the Honey-Bee," and was soon 

 lost in its pages. I had read only a 

 short time — some 20 or 30 minutes, I 

 suppose — when I suddenly became con- 

 cious of a profound stillness. It was 

 still raining hard, but the wind that 

 hitherto had been dashing the rain in 

 sheets against the window panes was 

 ominously still. I had but little time 

 for conjecture, for almost as I became 

 aware of these facts, a gale struck the 



house from the east, then suddenly 

 veered In tlic west. Then came an awful 

 roar. Windows and doors were crashed 

 in, the air was filled with gravel, flying 

 timber, etc., and I instantly realized 

 that I was in the midst of a Texas cy- 

 clone. Two little children playing on 

 the floor ran screaming into an adjoin- 

 ing room. I quickly followed, not wish- 

 ing to become separated from them. I 

 caught them, wrapped a strong arm 

 around either, and calmly waited for 

 the worst, but in a few seconds it ceased 

 as suddenly as it came. Meanwhile my 

 wife came into the room with the baby 

 cooing serenely despite the fact that 

 both were drenched and daubed with 

 mud and dirt. Our house was left 

 standing with only windows and doors 

 blown out, books and furniture were 

 scattered and overturned. I stepped out 

 into the yard ; fences were gone, large 

 shade trees, oaks and elms, were split 

 and twisted off like so many weeds; 

 lumber and debris of all kinds was scat- 

 tered everywhere. 



Almost the first thing I noticed was 

 that I didn't have a single bee-hive left. 

 The shady elm that stood in their midst 

 was a shapeless mass of foliage ; pieces 

 of comb and their splintered hives were 

 strewn everywhere, while the ground 

 was literally covered with dead and 

 half-drowned bees. As the rain was 

 still falling these were washed and 

 drowned by thousands. 



To the south I could see the once 

 nice house and barn of my nearest 

 neighbor, now almost totally destroyed. 

 One little fellow sitting on the back 

 porch churning was blown 50 yards and 

 dropped unhurt to the ground. To the 

 north there were 2 neighbors living 

 very close together. One house was 

 badly wrecked : the other entirely swept 

 away, being blown into a raging creek, 

 and contents washed away, but luckily 

 the family were at a neighbor's only a 

 short distance away, but entirely out of 

 the storm's path, which was from 50 to 

 300 yards in width. 



The next day while clearing up wreck- 

 age, I came across a super upside down, 

 wet and soggy, but containing about 

 V2 gallon of bees. The super frames 

 being intact, I picked up a partly 

 wrecked hive-body, shook the water 

 from several frames of brood-comb ly- 

 ing about, placed these in the body, and 

 put the super on top, doing this more 

 for a place for the bees to congregate 

 than from any idea of saving them ; 

 but several days later, whi-n I had got- 

 ten things straightened up a little, I 

 noticed those bees were workmg in and 

 out, apparently contented, and, as som.e 

 were carrying in pollen, I decided to in- 

 vestigate, and found not only larvae 

 and sealed brood in the extracting 

 frames of the super, but the very finest 

 queen I had owned. The super being 

 painted different I knew at once where 

 it had come from. Fine weather fol- 

 lowed, and I soon had a strong colony. 



Not daunted at my loss, I purchased 8 

 colonies from my old-time friend. He 

 also made me a present of a very fine 

 colony. These I brought home the lat- 

 ter part of May. Those I bought I 

 have divided to the very limit, breeding 

 my own queens as per directions given 

 in the Langstroth book, all being bred 



from my "storm queen," as I call her, 

 an<l a very fine, pure, imported Italian 

 direct from Italy, which arrived about 

 June I, having placed my order last 

 fall. 



With the 4 colonies of blacks that I 

 had been keeping at my father's, which 

 1 have since requeened, I now have 32 

 colonies, all with beautiful, prolific, 

 golden queens, which are now laying 

 right on (Oct, 22) as f they never ex- 

 pected any winter. From the colony 

 presented me which has not swarmed 

 nor been divided, I have taken 150 

 pounds of comb honey, and it is in fine 

 condition for winter. 



I have just read Mr. Doolittle's meth- 

 od of queen-rearing, and, with the 

 American Bee Journal and Gleanings, I 

 intend to be master of the situation next 

 season, provided no cyclones come this 

 way. O. Saunders. 



Trenton, Tex., Oct. 22. 



Foul Brood Work in Texas. 



The great danger of spreading of 

 bee-diseases, foul brood especially, re- 

 quires that special precautions be made 

 in due time at least to check the spread, 

 if not entirely to eradicate these dis- 

 eases. This is the aim of the Texas 

 Bee-Keepers' Association, and strong 

 efforts have been made for an annual 

 appropriation from the legislature for 

 this purpose. Five thousand dollars 

 has been asked for this year to be used 

 in two years, or $2,500 annually ; part 

 of which is for salary of a State in- 

 spector and the rest for traveling and 

 other expenses. On account of the size 

 of the Lone Star State, the traveling 

 expenses will be quite an item. Hence 

 it is apparent that such an appropria- 

 tion is hardly ample. 



I hope to be able to report further 

 on this matter later. There are numer- 

 ous letters of enquiry sent me that I 

 can not reply to until further develop- 

 ments. 



Regarding Letters of Inquiry. 



It should be remembered that I am 

 not "an information bureau," and can 

 not spend my entire time writing letters 

 in reply to enquiries about locations in 

 Texas, where to buy bees, and a thou- 

 sand other questions of the same na- 

 ture. Besides, I do not think it fair 

 for me to neglect my business and hunt 

 a "nest" for others, so all they need to 

 do is to jump into it. I was not helped 

 that way when I started, but had to 

 hunt my own nest. If I were in the 

 real estate business it would be differ- 

 ent, but I receive annually several hun- 

 dred letters, many without return post- 

 age stamps even, and I can not con- 

 tinue to answer them. If I were in a 

 position to do so, it would, of course, 

 be a pleasure to me. All other letters 

 are highly welcomed, however. 



A "Trick" on Robber-Bees. 



A. H. Knolle, of Hondo. Tex., gives 

 me the following plan in a recent let- 

 ter: 



"I note what j'ou say about robber-bees in 

 fall, and I will give you my plan, although 

 you likely know it. If the bees are not work- 



