THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



J 69 



Field Notes From Tennessee 



J. M. BUCHANAN, Franklin, Tenn. 



Up to the present time, February 

 5th, this has been the mildest win- 

 ter in years. There has been no 

 snow and very little rain; in fact 

 there have been few days on which 

 the bees could not fly. Brood rear- 

 ing has been going on, and the 

 consumption of stores will be heavy. 

 Luckily most of the bees were in 

 good shape at the beginning of 

 winter, owing to the good fall flow. 

 Some, however, will need looking 

 after if the warm weather contin- 

 ues. 



Perhaps the best meeting in the 

 history of the Tennessee BeeKeep- 

 ers' Association was held at Nash- 

 ville on the 30th of January, di- 

 rectly following a two days' session 

 of the State Horticultural & Nur- 

 serymen's Association. These three 

 organizations are co-operating to 

 some extent, and the relation be- 

 tween the bee and fruit industries 

 is being brought out as never be- 

 fore. Our Association now has over 

 a hundred members on its roll. 



A lively discussion took place in 

 regard to the control of swarming. 

 The point was forcibly brought out 

 that the majority of the bee-keep- 

 ers made very little effort to pre- 

 vent swarming and it was shown 

 that with the production of comb 

 honey the bee-keeper has very lit- 

 tle control of the matter anyway. 

 It was thought that producing ex- 

 tracted honey, plenty of drawn 

 comb for storage room and good 

 ventilation would go a long way 



toward prevention of swarms, the 

 use of young queens was also advo- 

 cated. 



Mr. F. Li. Watkins of Nashville 

 told how he cleaned up his apiary 

 of American foul brood, and at the 

 same time produced a good crop of 

 fancy comb honey. He had a hard 

 fight and made some mistakes, but 

 by keeping at it he came out suc- 

 cessfully at the end of the season, 

 with nearly 100 pounds of comb 

 honey to the colony, an increase 

 of fifty per cent and the loss of 

 very little equipment. He has about 

 100 colonies and the work with the 

 bees was in addition to the man- 

 agement of a farm of 200 acres. 



Mr. J. M. Davis, the retiring 

 president, gave a history of the 

 bee industry in Tennessee, and also 

 a paper on the "Value of the Bee 

 in Fertilizing Fruit Blossoms." Dr. 

 J. S. Ward, State Apiary Inspector, 

 gave a review of the inspection 

 work for the past season. He re- 

 ports that there is great improve- 

 ment in the foul brood sitaution 

 in the State. A discussion on the 

 "Marketing of Honey" brought out 

 some valuable points. Emphasis was 

 given to the necessity of holding 

 up the price of our products. An 

 election of officers for the ensu- 

 ing year resulted as follows: T. J. 

 Ayers, of Cedar Hill, President: W. 

 B. Romine, Pulaski, Vice-President; 

 J. M. Buchanan, Franklin, Secre- 

 tary. 



The Secretary's Corner 



GEO. W. WILLIAMS, Red Key, Ind. 



At the St. Louis convention some 

 of^ the brothers offered to "chip 

 in'* and subscribe liberally to a 

 fund to lift the Review debt. Since 

 that, it has been suggested that any 

 amounts sent be not more than 

 $5.00, thus giving a larger number 

 the privelege of assisting. Send in 

 the littles, and let's get out of 

 debt. 



Your Secretary has given the 

 Publicity subject considerable 

 fhought the last few years, and 

 lately has taken some pains to as- 

 certain the attitude of representa- 

 tive producers and manufacturers 

 and to hit upon the proper means 

 of "Boosting" honey. There is a 

 general feeling that the bee-keepers 

 have not been quite as aggressive 



