June, 1909. 



American Hee JoarnalJ 



them say that the bees are 111 good 

 shape, it speaks volumes for the cellar 

 and the nature of the stores in the 

 hives. My own bees that were in the 

 cellar, were taken out April ist, and I 

 have an idea that they were better out 

 than in the cellar so long. Although 

 the weather was cold during April, 

 when I examined them hastily on May 

 5th, a great lot of young bees were 

 present, and the bees were in good 

 shape. However, I do not pretend to 

 know much about cellar-wintering,- so 

 for ought I can prove to the contrary, 

 perhaps they would have been as well 

 off in the cellar for another 4 weeks. 



Wintering Bees — Introducing 

 Queens. 



During the past week I have attended 

 two of the local conventions — York and 

 Victoria counties — and at each there 

 was a fair attendance with a whole lot 

 of enthusiasm. At the latter conven- 

 tion, held at Lindsay, Mr. H. G. Sib- 

 bald was present, being sent by the De- 

 partment of Agriculture. He gave two 

 addresses, one on the wintering of 

 bees, and the other on the introduction 

 of queens. Both subjects were handled 

 well, as might be expected of a bee- 

 keeper of Mr. Sibbald's calibre. Space 

 will not permit to give more than a few 



words as to what was said, but the main 

 thing, as Mr. Sibbald sees it, that is es- 

 sential for good wintering, is a good 

 queen coupled with abundance of good 

 winter stores. AH who have studied the 

 subject will agree with hiin. 



On introduction of queens, Mr. Sib- 

 bald gave some of the quick methods as 

 used by him in his apiaries. One of 

 them is as follows : Hunt the queen 

 out that is to be removed and put her 

 in a wire cage on top of the frames. 

 Then the queen that is to be introduced 

 is laid on top of the same frames, too, 

 and all left till evening. Now remove 

 the old queen, and put the new queen 

 in the cage from which the old queen 

 lias just been taken, and over the end 

 of the opening fasten a piece of comb 

 foundation. Place on the frames again, 

 after punching a few small holes with 

 a pin through the foundation over the 

 opening. In a few hours the bees will 

 gnaw through the foundation and re- 

 lease the queen. 



I forgot to state that in changing the 

 queens, he sometimes rubs the dead 

 Imdy of the old queen that has just 

 lieen killed, over the outside of the cage 

 she just came out of. Mr. Sibbald says 

 it is a sure plan with him ; and I might 

 say that today I tried the scheme with 

 3 queens, so 1 hope to be able to re- 

 port favorably next montli. 



outhern 



Conducted by LOUIS H. SCHOLL. New Braunfels. Tex. 



Roiintiful Rains in Texas. 



Tlic Texas bcc-mcn arc rejoicing over 

 the bountiful rains that have fallen in 

 nearly all parts of the South. There lias 

 been a long-continued drouth since last 

 fall, with very little rain, and the usual 

 spring honey crop has been a short one. 



Everybody is looking forward to a 

 bountiful summer harvest now, and it is 

 very probable that such will come. The 

 first blooming period of mcsquite, in 

 .^pril, was very little. This has given the 

 trees a long resting period. With the 

 good rains the second blooming period, 

 which comes in June or early July, ought 

 to be an extra-heavy one. 



The bees are in excellent shape in 

 the most apiaries, and it is hoped that 

 they will fill the hives to the full ex- 

 pectations of their keepers. 



Cactus Blooms Destructive to Bees. 



The following from .Mr, Otto .Sucltcn- 

 fuss, of San Antonio, is of interest : 



"Have you ever noticed how destructive the 

 prickly pear blossoms are to the bees? To- 

 day 1 thought I would go and sec if there 

 were many ticcs working on grickly pear blos- 

 soms. I found thcijl working on the blossoms 

 busily. While standing near a large prickly 

 pear bush and watching them I thought I 



would open a blossom that was already closed 

 up, and through with blooming, and did so 

 out of mere curiosity. And what do you 

 think I found? The closed blossom had a 

 dead bee in its embrace. Then I opened up 

 more blossoms and found more dead bees in- 

 side of them. Then 1 thought I would open 

 up an even 1(»0, and in the 100 blossoms I 

 opened I foimd ' S.*! Ines. Some of the blos- 

 sitms contained 2 bees. Now anybody can 

 easily figure out what an enormous drain that 

 means on the bees in a locality where prickly 

 pears abound." 



Since receiving the above, several 

 examinations were made of the blos- 

 soms near our apiaries, to ascertain if 

 possible the cause and extent of the 

 trouble. 



Those of the North who are not fam- 

 iliar with extensive areas in the South- 

 west that are covered with the cactus, 

 commonly known as "prickly pear," on 

 account of the pear-shaped "leaves," 

 which are really the thickened green 

 stems of the plant, covered with very 

 sharp spines, have little idea of the 

 amount. When these arc in bloom 

 there are thousands upon thousands of 

 large yellow flowers into which the bees 

 go eagerly for the nectar which is abun- 

 dant in the lower part of the flower. 

 Often there can l)e found from 5 to 8 

 bees, all digging down among the sta- 

 mens, of which there is a great cluster, 



and on account of which the nectar is 

 hard to reach, unless the weather is 

 so favorable that much nectar is secreted 

 and it rises higher up in the blossom. 

 Owing to the long drouth, it may be that 

 the bees which I have observed, could 

 not reach the nectar, and simply wor- 

 ried themselves to death in trying to do 

 so. Many of the bees I found were so 

 worked up about it that they paid no 

 attention to any disturbances from the 

 outside, and were so much fatigued and 

 worried that they ran around as in a 

 frenzy. Right in among these I found 

 dead ones, often 2 in a blossom, long 

 before it closed up. 



Another observation at nearly sunset 

 showed that in their eagerness to get 

 some of this nectar, which they smell 

 but can not reach, they remain in the 

 blossoms while they close up for the 

 night. Many bees even enter such blos- 

 soms when nearly closed already, and 

 then are caught. I do not think that 

 the nectar from these cacti is poisonous 

 to the bees, although I have many tiines 

 seen them after "loading up," run around 

 in a frenzied manner as if they were in- 

 toxicated. 



While the mortality in an apiary where 

 these cacti abound may be great, yet as 

 the blooming period comes just in a 

 time when our bees are often near 

 starvation, we may welcome them even 

 if we lose some of the bees. One year 

 cacti were the only thing which saved 

 me from feeding barrels of sugar or 

 letting the bees starve. 



The honey is not very good, being 

 amber in color and rank flavored. It is 

 what I call "blubbery," very much like 

 the sap of the thick green stems. We 

 do not get enough of it to injure our 

 good honey when we have an early flow, 

 and the bees do not work on the cacti 

 then. 



.\ Te.\as Foul Brood Bulletin. 



"The Foul Brood of Bees, and the 

 Texas Foul Brood Law," by Prof. Glenn 

 W. Herrick and E. E, Scholl, is a bul- 

 letin issued by the Department of En- 

 tomology of the Texas Experiment Sta- 

 tion. It should be in the hands of every 

 Texas bee-keeper. 



While a great number of these bulle- 

 tins have been mailed to bee-keepers, 

 yet, since the mailing list of bee-keepers 

 is incomplete, there are many who may 

 not have received a copy. Such should 

 address a postal to the Department of 

 Entomology, at College Station, for a 

 copy. 



.Attention to the importance of know- 

 ing about diseases of bees, more especi- 

 ally foul brood, has been called by me 

 several times in these columns. Foul 

 brood is very little thought about so 

 long as it is not in one's apiary, and 

 when it has made its appearance, it is 

 generally too late to study up the sub- 

 ject. The greatest trouble lies in the 

 fact that the disease is not discovered 

 until it has played much havoc in the 

 whole apiary. I'lspecially is this true of 

 the careless bee-keepers or the one with 

 large numbers of colonies. The disease 

 may not be discovered until some of the 

 brood is actually decayed, or the colonies 

 even dead. In many cases such hives 

 are left alone, and robbers carry the 



