i 



1901 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



69S 



colonies. The hives were full of brood, but 

 the bees had to "play nurses" instead of 

 storing honey. When the force of gatherers 

 was on hand, mesquite bloom was over. It 

 was impossible to get the colonies into pi'op- 

 er shape so early. A great consolation is 

 that the mesquite blooms again in June or 

 July, and preparations for that flow will be 

 made. Cotton is the only other important 

 source with me at most of my yards, and be- 

 gins after mesquite and lasts until fall. Some 

 of my yards often get surplus honey from 

 sumac in the fall, and store up well on 

 broomweed, so they are in tine condition for 

 the winter. There are a great many other 

 sourcei of honey, but of minor importance. 

 Cotton is not counted on as a honey-plant 

 for Southwest Texas, while it is throughout 

 the black land, or cotton- belt districts. 



POULTRY, BEES, AND FRUIT. 



They say that the above makes a fine com- 

 bination. I've thought it worth while to try 

 it and — get rich! While I am writing this I 

 am at one of my out-yards, 197 miles away, 

 and have been musing in thiswise: "Sup- 

 pose 1 had not a good bettei'-half at home — 

 how in the world would I be able to feed sev- 

 eral hundred chickens, hunt the eggs daily, 

 and— well, enough I If I stayed at home, on 

 the other hand, how would I be able to keep 

 the bees from swarming at this long range? 

 There are two apiaries here, besides eleven 

 others a little nearer home. No, I can't do the 

 stunt by myself; besides, coming to the fruit 

 part of the combination, the schoolboys who 

 pass the large or hard every day are already 

 keeping their eye on the largest of the ripen- 

 ing fruit; and if I am not there during the 

 nights of the next moon I am afraid those 

 fruits will belong to somebody besides 

 me. Now the question is, How can I keep 

 poultry, bees, and fruit successfully? or if I 

 can't do it, which should I give up? A per- 

 son favorably situated can combine the three 

 quite profitably in two ways, I think. The 

 first is on only a small scale — an orchard of 

 fruit, to be used for the poultry-yards, and 

 the apiary, in the same 2^l(i'Ce. The poultry 

 can be attended to in the morning and eve- 

 ning; the bees during the warmer part of the 

 day, while the fruit is looked after between 

 times. A home market should be worked up 

 by such a producer, and there should be no 

 trouble in making a lucrative business out of 

 it. To combine the three in any other way 

 would mean to carry them on on such an ex- 

 tensive scale that extra help could be hived, 

 so each of the three can be looked after prop- 

 erly. I don't know but such a combination 

 might be made profitable. 



Since this is the day of speciah'^wi, it may 

 be better not to make the combination, but 

 take up only one of them by itself and spe- 

 cialize in it. That is what I have concluded 

 to do since I have had the experience of find- 

 ing that a bee-keeper can not make the most 

 out of bee-keeping if he dabbles in any thing 

 not pertaining to bees. 



Yes, there's much good advice in Mr. Hutch- 



inson's words, "If you want to combine 

 any thing with your bee-keeping, get more 

 bees. " But locality has much to do with this 

 subject. Where out-yards can be established, 

 such advice is good. If locations are limit- 

 ed, then something besides bees must be 

 added. Since there are many localities where 

 only one apiary can be kept, the above com- 

 bination would still be a good one. For the 

 one wishing to specialize, another location 

 would have to be sought. It is well to adapt 

 ourselves to conditions surrounding us, 

 whether specialization is being preached or 

 not. 



,^ 



TO KNOCK SWARMING ON THE HEAD. 



To prevent swarming I have proceeded as 

 follows for many seasons: The main object 

 with me is to break up the solid brood-nest 

 and its crowded condition, affecting the 

 whole colony, and bringing on the swarming 

 fever. Providing laying room for the queen 

 is important toward securing a large lot of 

 young larva3 for the great army of young 

 nurse-bees to get rid of the accumulating 

 chyle. At the same time, clustering room 

 for the bees is provided. If the desire to 

 swarm can be retai'ded until the honey-flow 

 begins, the object has been won; for, in 

 most localities of the South, swarming is 

 given up, and the whole energies of the col- 

 onies are turned toward rolling in the honey 

 — the swarming seems to be forgotten. 



It is easiest accomplished with the divisible- 

 brood-chamber hive. As soon as the bees 

 become crowded, a case of shallow combs is 

 slipped in between the lower and upper cases 

 of the brood-chamber. Here is room for the 

 queen and the bees. The upper case now 

 becomes a super for extracted honey, the 

 brood being crowded down, and honey (not 

 used up in the brood-nest) stored in its place. 

 This pi'events clogging the brood-nest, which, 

 with us and long flows, leaves the colony 

 very weak for any subsequent flow; or, if 

 later in the season, too weak for successful 

 wintering. At the beginning of the main 

 flow the comb-honey supers are slipped in 

 under these shallow extracting-supers, and 

 the bees go to work at once and finish them 

 better than when simply set on top of a 

 brood-chamber in the old way, and a crowd- 

 ed lot of combs of honey below the supers 

 fiven. Besides, an extra super of extracted 

 oney is obtained. 



With the regular deep L. hive it is not so 

 easy, without going to a lot of trouble in 

 handling combs. It is done so extra bodies 

 are prepared with full sheets of foundation 

 in the frames. Then half of the brood-combs 

 are removed from the brood-chamber of each 

 colony and placed in these, alternating them 

 with the frames of foundation. The orood- 

 chamber is arranged in the same way, thus 

 making each colony two-story, with combs 

 of brood and frames of foundation alternat- 

 ing in each story. When the noain flow 

 comes, should the upper stories be filled with 

 honey the comb-honey supers can be given 

 under these. But a ten-frame full-depth 

 body is too large for this purpose. The 



