528 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



CONDUCTED BY 



Floyd, Hunt Co., Tex. 



Apiarian Ignorance, Reports, Etc. 



What few bee-keepers that are here, 

 are ignorant of the management of bees, 

 and they think they know it all. If you 

 talk to them about rearing bees, they 

 want to know how long the " king-bee " 

 lives. Last summer they took all the 

 honey their bees had, and now they 

 have no honey nor bees, and then they 

 say that Texas is "no good " for bees. I 

 say Texas is a good land for bees and 

 honey, and almost everything else. 



Edwin Cook. 



Tioga, Tex., Sept. 3, 1892. 



Friends, send me your reports, let 

 them be good or bad, with bits of bee- 

 news, short articles, or anything that 

 you think would likely interest our read- 

 ers, as Mr. Cook has done above, and I 

 will appreciate them. If you do not let 

 us know that you keep bees, how many 

 colonies you have, who you are, and 

 where you are, how much honey you are 

 getting, what you get for it, etc., why, 

 we will not know that you are a bee- 

 keeper, and our statistics will leave you 

 out. Now, do not neglect this, and let 

 us make our department interesting. 



Please remember that it makes the 

 printer or typesetter "put up his lip " if 

 we write on both sides of the paper ; for 

 the typesetter usually has a copy-holder 

 which clamps the paper at the top, and 

 as soon as the top sheet is used, he can 

 turn the leaf right over, and not take it 

 out of the holder ; and the under side 

 would be upside down if written on both 

 sides, and he would have to take it out 

 and turn it over, which takes too much 

 time. 



Twenty pounds of honey is plenty to 

 winter any colony of bees in the South ; 

 but if the spring is unfavorable, you 

 may need that much more to " spring " 

 them over. It is our cool, wet, back- 

 ward springs that hurt us here. 



Trouble with Laying "Workers. 



I transferred a colony of bees a few 

 days ago that was queenless, and I 

 found from one to eleven eggs in every 

 drone-cell, and no eggs or brood in the 

 worker-comb. What was the matter 

 with them ? Edwin Cook. 



Tioga, Tex., Sept. 3, 1892. 



Friend Cook, your bees or hive was 

 infested with laying workers, called 

 "fertile workers." But, as worker-bees 

 are never fertilized, the right name is 

 " laying workers." This seems to take 

 place when a colony becomes hopelessly 

 queenless, or when they have no eggs or 

 larva? to rear a queen from. By the 

 way, friends, did any of you ever notice 

 a colony with laying workers, where 

 there were hatched drones with them at 

 the time they were queenless ? 



Some bees are very quick to take lay- 

 ing workers. I have known the Cyprian 

 bees to have workers laying in 48 hours 

 after their queen was taken away. The 

 old three and five banded Italian bees, I 

 think, are slower to take laying workers 

 than other races. Bees having laying 

 workers are harder to get to accept a 

 queen than others ; but, when you suc- 

 ceed in giving them a queen, the laying 

 workers soon give way. 



Southern Bee-Keepers, don't forget 

 about the bee-meeting at the Dallas, 

 Tex., Fair, on Oct. 27th. A grand time 

 is expected. 



Bee-Scouts Selecting a Home. 



I have noticed several articles in the 

 Bee Jouknal on scouts selecting a home 

 for the swarm before it issues from the 

 old hive. As I have had an interesting 

 case of that kind, I will give you the 

 details. 



Three years ago, when I lived in tim- 

 ber regions, I hived a fine swarm, and 

 they appeared to be entirely satisfied 

 with the new hive. One of my neigh- 

 bors, who lived % mile from where my 

 bees were, came one day and stated that 

 he was somewhat of a " beeist " himself, 

 as he had found bees working in a hol- 

 low tree in his yard, and wanted me to 

 advise him as to when the moon would 

 be right to cut it, and save the bees ! 



The next day, about 10 o'clock, my 

 new swarm, from some unknown cause, 

 became dissatisfied with the new state 

 of affairs, and all bundled up to hunt 



