26 BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH 



throughout Dixieland. It has been the privilege of the writer 

 to travel in the Middle West, and it is known that there are many 

 box hives in that region too. However, in the many portions of 

 the various southern states where there are practically no com- 

 mercial honeyproducers, the box hives far exceed the number of 

 standard hives. However, this is probably the case in any lo- 

 cality where commercial honey producers are less in number. In 

 most parts of the South, box hives containing bees are valued as 

 highly for purposes of sale, as are hives of modern style. This 

 is due to the fact that there may seldom have been anyone locally 

 who has personally advocated the real advantages of the modern 

 hive whose recommendation was valued. Southern beekeepers 

 are just as progressive as any other beekeepers, where oppor- 

 tunity is shown them to make a change for the better. The 

 work of the federal and state extension service has offered the 

 best medium of spreading this information up to date. It will 

 probably always continue to bear a strong relation to the prog- 

 ress of beekeeping in the South. 



Making a Start. 



To the beginner in beekeeping anywhere in the South, there 

 is little to be taken into consideration in choosing a hive, other 

 than there is elsewhere in the country. Probably a safe choice 

 for the South as a whole is the ten-frame "standard" hive, 

 whether for the production of comb or extracted honey. It is 

 necessary to have one hive for each colony of bees you wish to 

 keep. The bees may be gotten by purchasing swarms, trans- 

 ferring bees from box hives, or log gurfis, or may be bought 

 as pound packages of bees or nuclei from reliable breeders in the 

 South. Nuclei are one or more frames of brood, honey, and 

 bees,' with which comes a queen. One then has the nucleus of a 

 colony, and this may be put into a hive, and under favorable 

 circumstances, will soon increase in size to a full-fledged colony. 

 Pound packages are one or more pounds of bees, net weight, 

 without combs, which arrive accompanied by a queen bee, and 

 which may be put into the hive which has been prepared for them. 



