TEXAS BEEKEEPING. 



Many who see the busy honey bee, with its merry hum, flying from 

 flower to flower, in its daily toil, little realize what an intensely inter- 

 esting and fascinating study is connected with so small a bit of insect 

 life. Closer investigation will reveal that while a single bee, with all 

 its energy and industry and the innumerable journeys that are made 

 by it during its short life of toil, will collect only about a teaspoonful 

 of honey during a season, yet more than a hundred pounds have been 

 taken from a single hive, or colony, of bees. Time and again single 

 colonies have stored from two hundred to three hundred pounds, or 

 more, of honey during a year. Although this does not prevail with 

 every colony of bees, it shows to what extent nature makes use of 

 little things to accomplish large results. It is thus that these small 

 creatures, the honey bees, are responsible for no less an accomplish- 

 ment than that of placing Texas in the lead of all other States as 

 the foremost producer of crops of honey, beeswax and other products 

 of the apiary. 



From a small beginning the beekeeping industry in this State de- 

 veloped rapidly until, several years ago, Texas attained flrst place 

 in honey production. The annual output of honey gathered and 

 stored by honey bees in Texas is enormous. It is impossible to give 

 figures covering present production, since reliable statistics are not 

 at hand at this writing. 



THE OLD AND NEW BEEKEEPING. 



Although honey bees are not native to America, it was not very long 

 after they were brought to Florida by the Spaniards in 1763 that 

 they drifted westward and finally into Texas, where they fonnd easy 

 :-ubsistenee upon the great abundance and variety of natural flora. 



While the early settlers depended upon obtaining their supply of 

 honey from bees in hollow trees and caves in which they dwelt, it was 

 not long until honey bees were kept in sawed-off ' ' logs ' ' brought from 

 the forests and set on end under orchard trees, or in a convenient 

 place in a fence corner. These "logs" were later replaced by plain 

 upright box hives, or "box gums," as they were called, and which 

 are still to be seen in many places. These rudely constructed and un- 

 profitable hives 

 and the attendant 

 crude methods of 

 beekeeping are 

 waning rapidly, 

 however, and 

 modem movable 

 frame hives are 

 everywhere tak- 

 ing their place. 



The antiquat- 

 ed way of "rob- 

 bing" "b e e 

 gums" should 

 become a thing 

 of the past. The 

 Old Style Bee Gums. cruelty connect- 



