1918 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



297 



only thirteen miles apart, yet he 

 never gets a full crop in all of the 

 yards in the same year. Every year 

 some locations will get showers 

 which do not occur in others, with 

 the result that the yield will be 

 much increased. In the rare seasons 

 when the rainfall is well distributed 

 throughout the year, the honey-flows 

 in this region are wonderful. 



In 1900, at Mathis, there was a flow 

 from catclaw in March, followed by 

 huajillo. In May there was a good 

 flow from mesquite, and in June and 

 July a very unusual flow from cot- 

 ton. There was a further flow from 

 plants that rarely are of value. 



For several years following this 

 favorable season commercial bee- 

 keeping was an important industry 

 about Mathis. The past two years, 

 with no honey, have proved so dis- 

 astrous that nearly all the beekeep- 

 ers who depend exclusively upon the 

 business have moved out. It is very 

 probable, however, that seasons of 

 great abundance will follow the lean 

 years, and thus equalize things, after 

 all. Wm. Atchley was the last of the 

 extensive honey producers remaining 

 at Mathis, but he was preparing to 

 go shortly unless conditions changed. 

 The bees were finding it so hard to 

 maintain themselves, even with 

 enormous amounts of sugar, that it 

 seemed impossible to continue 

 safely. 



There are few places in America 

 where beekeeping has attained the 

 importance that it holds in south- 

 west Texas. In towns like Beeville 

 and Uvalde they talk about bees and 

 honey as .they do corn and hogs in 

 Iowa or Illinois. Under normal con- 

 ditions a good many cars of honey 

 will be shipped from a single town. 

 The public has a proper appreciation 

 of the commodity that brings in the 

 cash for conducting the business of 

 the community. In Alabama it is 

 cotton, in Iowa it is corn. California 

 oranges and raisins are exchanged 

 for perfectly good money in east- 



ern markets. In southwest Texas 

 honey is one of the leading cash 

 crops. The two years drought has 

 hit the beekeepers and the country 

 generally pretty hard, but other sec- 

 tions and other industries hit the 

 bottom at times. Beekeeping is on 

 too firm a footing to suffer perma- 

 nently from a bad season. There are 

 a good many men who have upwards 

 of a thousand colonies of bees un- 

 der normal conditions and who con- 

 sider less than a carload of honey a 

 short crop. 



Apicultural Don'ts 



By D. M. Macdonald 



DON'T tinker with Inferior Bees. 

 Most cheap articles are dear 

 in the end. Poor, mongrel 

 bees cost as much to house as those 

 which may be called first class. They 



are as costly to start when furnish- 

 ing the new home. Frames, brood 

 foundation, the wire, the process of 

 inserting, fixing and wiring, cost the 

 same. The result of the first sea- 

 son's work in the one case is gener- 

 ally all that could be desired, in the 

 other, comb construction is poor in 

 quality and frequently proves defec- 

 tive, then and for all time. Poor 

 bees often propolize over much, thus 

 causing the workers needless labor 

 and imposing on their keeper worry 

 which proves a heavy tax on his tem- 

 per when manipulating, and not con- 

 ducive to good temper in the bees. 

 Mongrels are almost invariably 

 cross-tempered. At the end of the 

 season with the good bees, bumper 

 crops of well-finished, shallow frames 

 or sections are all but a certainty. 

 The poor bees, in nine cases out of 

 ten, at least, give poor returns, and 

 that of poor quality and defective 



Fig. 6. A group of beemen in the Edwards apiary at Sabinal 



finish. The first will give several 

 crates, the others will lag far behind. 

 Packing for winter is a pleasure with 

 the best bees. Every colony has 

 strong forces, ample stores, and 

 many newly-hatched bees. In the 

 other case few bees, a poor cupboard, 

 and too many aged workers make 

 wintering a doubtful asset. Keep the 

 best bees, in the best way, packed 

 with the best winter packing — bees. 



Don't Keep Low Grade Queens. — 

 This point is not quite on all fours 

 with the previous don'ts. The same, 

 or somewhat similar results, may oc- 

 cur here again, but there are added 

 drawbacks. A queen guaranteed to 

 lay 50,000 eggs in the time a weakling 

 takes to lay less than half that num- 

 ber gives the population an enor- 

 mous pull over the inferior one. The 

 results are not in proportion to mere 

 numbers alone. The strong one will 

 not only have double the population, 

 but will present its owner with at 

 least four times the surplus, a point 

 well worth considering. Its work, 

 too, will be more highly finished, be 



