56 



BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH 



Swarm Prevention by Packages. 



Southern beekeepers have always known that in most years 

 their bees bred up too fast and were so strong long before the 

 main honey flow began, that to prevent swarming was an almost 

 impossible task. This was particularly true of the region south 

 of the Carolinas, Tennessee and Arkansas. Along came the 

 combless package demand and behold, their problem was 

 solved . ■ 



Such package shippers as M. C. Berry, Hayneville, and W. D. 

 Achord, Fitzpatrick, Alabama, T. W. Burleson, Waxahatchie, 

 Texas, as well as many Georgia, Florida, and Mississippi bee- 

 keepers, feel that combless packages have solved a problem for 

 them, and at the same time offered a means of increasing the 

 profit from their bee yards several fold. In the localities men- 

 tioned, bees frequently begin breeding up in January and Febru- 

 ary. The most important honey plants of south Alabama, 

 Mississippi, Georgia, and north Florida come into bloom in these 

 localities about May fifteenth on the average. 



With breeding up well on the way by March first and two 

 whole months ahead before surplus honey may often be expected, 

 one can readily see the swarming problem which results. But 

 since they are enabled to fill combless package orders for ship- 

 ment to the North in latter April and May, their swarming prob- 



Fig. 19. Packages crated for shipment. 



