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EVERETT FRANKLIN PHILLIPS

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BEEKEEPING

IN THE

SOUTH

A Handbook on Seasons, Methods and Honey
Flora of the Fifteen Southern States

By KENNITH HAWKINS

Beekeeping Specialist for G. B. Lewis Company.
Former Special Agent in Bee Culture
U. 8S. Department of Agriculture, ( he
15 States South. ae

g

AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL

HAMILTON, ILLINOIS
Cs

Copyricnt, 1920,
BY

AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL

This volume is dedicated to
my father and mother and to
the memory of Sam Mottinger,
my first beekeeping teacher.

PREFACE

HE information given in this bookis intended to clear the impressions

l of many that the South is altogether an undeveloped region so

far as beekeeping is concerned and that one has only to move to
that magic region, ‘‘Dixie,"’ to escape the problems common to beekeepers
living in the North. It is also intended as a defense of the southern
beekeeper, of whose methods and opportunities so much misinformation
has been spread. This volume is not intended as a manual for the be-
ginner, but to supplement standard textbooks so as to show what differ-
ences exist in beekeeping methods in the North and the South.

An impression gained is that beekeeping operations differ but little
in the South from those in vogue elsewhere, except mainly in the time of
their application. We have little criticism of methods in vogue in the
South, except the lack of winter protection of any sort in too much of
this region. Box hives are too prevalent in many areas of the South,
but so they are in the North. An impression of southern beekeepers is
their eagerness to learn modern methods, where they happen to be
unknown, and to put them into practice.

No agency has worked so much for the betterment of southern bee-
keeping as the extension service, both federal and state. The impressions
gained and recorded here, are the result of 17 months travel in the 15
Southern States for the U. S. Bee Culture Laboratory and the U. S. States
Relations Service by the writer. We vouch for the attempt at accuracy
in these pages and will hope for constructive criticism, as this volume is
a pioneer in blazing a way toward accurate information on beekeeping
in the Southern States.

In compiling these pages, continual work and correspondence with
dozens of southern beekeepers has been necessary, over a period of nearly
two years. To credit the information to all the various sources is im-
possible for the lack of space.

We are indebted to the men of the U.S. Bee Culture Laboratory, Wash-
ington, D. C., Dr. E. F. Phillips, George S. Demuth, G. H. Cale and A. P.
Sturtevant and to the U. S. States Relations Service, both for the oppor-
tunity to work in the Southern States and for guidance regarding these
investigations and their record. We are also indebted to each of the bee
culture extension men of the South, dozens of county and home demon-
stration agents of the U. S. government in the 15 states, south, and to
each of the state and experiment station entomologists who are interested
in bee culture. The Census Bureau, Bureau of Chemistry, Bureau of
Plant Industry, Bureau of Entomology and Forest Service of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture have given valuable assistance.

Mr. Frank C. Pellett, associate editor of the American Bee Journal,
has been an almost constant advisor in the compiling of this volume and
without the assistance of Dadant and Sons, of Hamilton, Illinois, and
the G. B. Lewis Company, Watertown, Wisconsin, this volume could
not have been published. KennitH HAWKINS.
Watertown, Wis. May 18, 1920.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER
J. Shall I Go South

II. What a Beginner Must Learn
III. Apparatus of the South
IV. Making a Start

V. The Seasons in the South
VI. Wintering Bees in the South

VII. Combless Packages and Queen Rearing
VIII. The Tropical South
IX. The Alluvial Region

X. Mountain Beekeeping

XI. The Lone Star State
XII. Bee Diseases and Inspection
XIII. Southern Honey Markets
XIV. Honey Plants of the South..

ILLUSTRATIONS

Frontispiece—‘‘Dixie Bees'’ Apiary of Wilmon Newell under

Fig.
Fig.
Fig.
Fig.
Trig.
Fig.
Fig.
Fig.
Fig.
Fig.
Fig.
Fig.
Fig.
Fig.
Fig.

Fig.
Fig.
Fig.

Fig.
Fig.
Fig. -
Fig.
Fig.
Fig.
Fig.
Fig.
Fig.

Fig.
Fig.
Fig.
Fig.
Fig.
Fig.
Fig.
_ Fig.
Fig.
Fig.
Fig.

moss hung trees in Brazos River Bottoms. Page
1. A small apiary at Macon, Georgia. il
2. Table showing census data on southern beekeeping............. 13.
3. A-relic of the old days. Apiary of box hives
4. A modern Texas apiary developed from two box hives
5. A modern hive
6. A Virginia swarm.
7. Mrs. Grace Allen’s backlot bees.
8. Itis necessary to guard against high waterin many locations 35
9. Apiary of P. J. Thullen in Alabama. 36
10. Asummer meetingin Tennessee. . 37
11. J. J. Wilder,'a prominent Georgia beekeeper.._................-... 39
12. Chart of temperatures at Louisville. 40
13. When a norther hits the South. (Chart) 41
14. Whensnow fallsin Tennessee. Photo by Mrs. Grace Allen... 42
15. It is a common practice to winter the bees with supers on
the hives to prevent loss of combs by moths.._...._.2222.....-- 47
16. A West Virginia apiary in double walled hives...0.2200.0.... 48
17. By rail and boat to Florida... cece eeeteeceeeeceeeeeeee 49
18. Walker’s mating yard in Tennessee. Photo by G. M.
Bentley. 54
19. Packages crated for shipment... 22. .ee2seee cece eee 56
20. A handy funnel for filling packages... eee 57
21. Queen mating nuclei in southwest Texas.......2....2..-.-------- 58
22. Home and queen yard of J. L. Leath at Corinth, Miss......... 59
23. OneofM.C. Berry’ lene on oee chee cee, ai bees. 60
24. Apiary of B. M. Caraway at Mathis, Texas... 1... 62
25. Harry Hewitt’s apiary at Lake Apopka in tropical Fics. . 63
26. Apiary of J. K. Isbell on the Apalachicola River, Florida... 66
27. Semitropical conditions prevail in Florida and in the lower
Rio Grande Valley in Texas. 67
28. The rich flora of a Georgia swamp. eaves, 0)
29. An up-to-date apiary in the pine woods of Alabama._....._.. 71
30. There are many good locations along the streamsin Georgia. 72
31. Where Tennessee bees hum. 73
32. A Virginia clover location. 75
33. One of J. J. Wilder’s apiaries in south Georgia... 77
34. Apiary in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.......... 80
35. Attractive hillside location in Virginia. 81
36. Typical apiary in log gums... ena eeene 82
37. <A Mississippi River bottom location in Arkansas............... 83
38. Box hive apiary of a typical mountaineer... 84

7

BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH

Apiary of a Georgia farmer who is an up-to-date beekeeper... 85
E. G. LeStourgeon, Manager of the Texas Honey Producers

Association - 88
Box hives are pill: being replaced with good eqnipment, . 89
Apiary shown at Fig. 41 after being transferred... 90
When Texas beemen meet. o.oo... ceeeeeceeeece eee eeneeeeeceeeeeeeeenetenees 91
Combs built in the rocks, by wild bees... 92
L. B. Smith’s apiary at Llano, Texas... 93
Apiary in the Rio Grande Valley that produced 20,000

pounds from 90 colomies. uo... eeeecceceeeceeceeeceeceecececeeeneeee 94

Scholl arranges his hivesin groups of five in partial shade... .
Florida Bee Inspector’s Suit. Photo by Wilmon Newell.....

Texas bee inspector demonstrating transferring... 0
Think of inspecting a yard like this. 101
The wreck that follows an epidemic of disease when left
UIA CRC ALC ssc eto Cares ee ee eel Coen rik kasha n le 103
Gakler’s wagon was long a familiar sight on the strcets of
Memphis:..222 05 bo0e ee ee ee 106

This Georgia beekeeper has a honey route served direct
from the tank in his car.

Lone star label of the Texas Association
Blossoms of bitterweed in Tennessee...0.......00.2000200--ee ee

BEEKEEPING IN THE
SOUTH

CHAPTER I
Shall I Go South?

y

HIS question has been repeatedly asked by dozens of bee-
keepers whenever the author has appeared at various
beekeepers’ conventions in the North, and has prompted,
in a measure, the writing of this volume. Many inquiries sent
to the United States Bee Culture Laboratory at Washington,
D. C., and referred to the author, during his term of government
bee culture extension work in the South, showed a country wide
interest in southern beekeeping. Probably many of the writers
were disappointed at the lack of definite information and the
conservative prospects pictured in the answers to these inquiries.
However, in this volume, after seventeen months spent in in-
vestigating the honey producing resources of the South, the
author hopes to give more accurate information about bee-

keeping prospects of the South, than he was able to do before.
There are not so many bee locations which are readily accessi-
ble and untenanted in the South as the average beekeeper resid-
ing elsewhere in the United States might expect. Many of the
ideal bee locations are now taken, except in the localities rather
remote from modern transportation. In these remote localities
there remain many good bee locations. However, one of the
facts that should be taken into consideration by every man who
has at any time considered going south for beekeeping, is that
there are probably more bees in the fifteen southern states,

than in all the balance of the United States.

Northern Colonies Outnumbered.
The figures compiled from the census of 1910, which are
9

10 BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH

accurate and indicative of conditions in the localities reported,
show the following interesting comparisons:

The number of farms reporting bees in 1910 in the fifteen
southern states were 297,511. In all the other thirty-three states
of the union, there were but 288,444 farms reporting bees at the
same time.

In the 1910 census the number of colonies of bees reported
on farms in the fifteen southern states totalled 1,558,782, while
but 1,886,224 colonies of bees were reported as the total num-
ber on farms in the remaining thirty-three states on the same
census date.

When figured out, this shows that the average number of
colonies of bees per farm in the fifteen southern states on the 1910
census date, was more than five per farm. This was more than
the average per farm in the balance of the United States on the
same census date. It must be remembered that southern farms
probably cover a smaller acreage than those in the North, and
are therefore more numerous.

However, beekeepers of the North may take heart when the
production figures are compared, the difference probably result-
ing because of the number of box hives found in many localities
in the South, and the probable greater number of commercial
honey producers in the North, compared with the number found
in the fifteen southern states.

A total annual production of 16,810,945 pounds of honey was
reported on farms in the fifteen southern states by the census
of 1910, while in the other thirty-three states of the union, a
total yield of 38,003,945 pounds of honey produced on farms was
reported for the same period. The average yield per colony on
farms in the fifteen states, south, as reported to 1910 census
enumerators was fifteen pounds, while for the balance of the
country, the average yield reported by the census was a trifle
over nineteen pounds per colony, or practically 33 1-3 per cent
more than in the South.

These figures show conclusively, in the author’s opinion, that
the South has many more bees than the balance of the country.
It is also known as a certainty from personal observation, that if

BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH 11

honey production methods in the South are bettered during the
coming five years as they have been in the past half decade,
under the stimulus of extension work and higher prices, northern
beekeepers are going to have a hard race to approximate the
efficiency of their southern beekeeping neighbors.

Are You Willing to Pioneer?

One of the -questions which must be confronted by every
northerner who wishes to go south for beekeeping, is whether or
not he is willing to pioneer. If he is, there are many locations
which could accommodate settlement from outsiders. On the
other hand, living accommodations near well populated centers
in the South are fully as good as in the North. But the better
beekeeping opportunities lie in the bypaths of southern wooded
mountains and lowlands.

Fig. 1. A small apiary belonging to J. R. Durden, of Macon, Georgia.

12 BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH

Another feature which must be taken into consideration is
that in some portions of the South, especially in the lowlands,
much of the honey produced year in and year out, would average
darker in color than in the clover regions of the North. Still
another feature is that in many parts, particularly Alabama,
Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and east Texas, there are
vast beekeeping regions where bitterweed honey must be reck-
oned with. This is covered more fully in the chapter on ‘Sources
of Honey in the South.” This honey is bitter, unpalatable and
unsalable. However, bees do not work bitterweed when other
equal nectar sources are available and the season is usually
short when bitterweed honey is stored. This enables the care-
ful beekeeper to separate the flows. A feasible plan which is now
being used by some beekeepers of the bitterweed region, is to
extract and store away the entire crop of bitterweed honey. At
the end of the season the frames of the brood chamber which
may contain a fair grade of honey may be extracted, and the
bitterweed honey fed back to the bees for winter stores. The use
of bitterweed honey for winter stores has never proved un-
satisfactory, to the knowledge of the author.

We have often wondered why some enterprising patent medi-
cine man did not buy up quantities of this bitterweed honey,
which tastes like liquid quinine, and put it on the market as a
cold ‘‘cure.””. It would certainly have a ‘“‘punch”’ with it.

Honey, Bees or Queens?

A problem which must be considered by any ‘foreign’ bee-
keeper, is whether or not he wishes to go south for the production
of honey, bees or queens? Good honey producing regions are
found in nearly all portions of the southern states. Queens can
usually be raised successfully for early shipment to the North
in April and May without fail, in all the territory below a line
which might be drawn through Charleston, South Carolina,
Birmingham, Alabama, and Austin, Texas. North of this
line queen breeding is carried on just as successfully, but breed-
ers in this northern belt often experience sudden changes of

IN THE SOUTH

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14 BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH

weather in the spring of the year, which may delay cell building,
the mating of queens, and the rapid building of colonies. To
locate in Dixie for queen breeding, it would be the advice of the
author to go south of the line mentioned. This was the advice
of Ben G. Davis, H. D. Murry, and several other southern
queen breeders, at the time the author made his first trips to
Dixie, with the intention of becoming a southern queen bee
breeder.

If the motive of moving south is primarily for the production
of bees, either for the nucleus or pound package trade, then by all
means one should locate as far south as is possible. It probably
would not be advisable for a beekeeper to locate north of a line
which might be drawn through Charleston, South Carolina,
Birmingham, Alabama, and Fort Worth, Texas, if he wishes to
engage in the pound package business. See especially charts on
winter temperatures at these points in the chapter on ‘‘Winter-
ing Bees in the South.’”’ Even at these points, there are some
years when unusual weather in April may delay the shipment
of packages for several days. Zero temperatures have been
recorded near Goldsboro, North Carolina, Augusta, Georgia,
River Junction, Florida, Alexandria, Louisiana, Waco, Texas,
and El Paso, Texas. If one is going south to engage in bee-
keeping in any branch which primarily requires continued
warm weather early in the spring, the beekeeper should go
down into the real South.

Visit the Locality.

If beekeepers from other parts of the country wish to locate in
Dixie land, they should by all means make a careful study of
the average annual temperatures and rainfall, for a period of
years, at the point of interest. This information is obtainable
from the U.S. Weather Bureau at Washington, D. C.

Then one should visit the locality he has in mind fot at
Jeast one winter if possible, before moving. In this way one
may study local conditions, talk with local beekeepers and in
many other ways, ascertain whether or not he is likely to make

BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH 15

a go of the move, and whether or not he will like the com-
munity into which he settles. Beekeepers who have gone south
to engage in our industry and who have been dissatisfied,
have only themselves to blame in many cases. Insufficient
investigation of every feature of the locality selected is probably
the reason for most of the ultimate dissatisfaction which results.
The South has been given a ‘black eye’ by many a man who
went down there chasing a ‘‘pot of gold,” rather than a rational
proposition.

Morley Pettit’s Opinion.

The ultimate opinion that may be voiced by some northerners,
was summed up by Morley Pettit, well known beekeeper of
Georgetown, Ontario, Canada, in the April, 1919, number of the
“Domestic Beekeeper.’’ After spending the winter in Florida he
wrote: ‘Outside of the Appalachicola districts this is said to
be one of the best honey producing districts of the state; but
with all its uncertainties, strange pests, and the long active
season, the total surplus is probably no more than we get in a
short sharp season and have done with it. This northern bee-
keeper is satisfied to raise his honey and make his money in good
old Ontario, where he knows what to expect, and where Jack
Frost compels bugs and bees to take a few months rest in the
year. Lake Worth, Florida, February 21, 1919.’

Treating Him ‘‘Handsome.”’

While once the guest of a well known Tennessee beekeeper the
author was being entertained by the lady of the household with
tales of exploits of her brothers in the war between states. In
mentioning the army of the North, the hostess always said,
“The Enemy.” Knowing the army of the North would always
be ‘‘The Enemy” to this good: woman, nothing was thought
of the term until the young man of the household, who breeds
good queen bees, and likes a joke as well, said: ‘‘Hawkins,
do you know I was fifteen years old before I knew that ‘damn
Yankee’ was not all one word?”

16 BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH

What You May Expect.

So if you would go south to take up beekeeping, don’t impose
yourself upon an already well settled bee location. Find one of
the many locations open, investigate it thoroughly, then move
down and determine to be a booster. Your business is certain
to grow in the South, if your choice is a good one. The South
has probably made more progress agriculturally, than the North
in the past five years. Careful investigation insures success.
Your chosen home in the South is then certain to make of you
an unqualified booster for Dixie beekeeping, as the author has
long since become.

CHAPTER II.
What a Beginner Must Learn.

r NHE fundamentals of beekeeping are simple. Only the de-
tails require time to learn. To be successful in beekeeping,
one must accomplish these three things: 1—Build up

your colonies to the peak of storing strength coincident with
the beginning of bloom of your most important honey plants;
2—Prevent any division of the strength or storing instinct of
the colonies thereafter; 3—Conserve the strength of the colony
at all other seasons of the year, to prepare again for No. 1 the
next bee season. Anyone who can master those three details
will be a successful beekeeper anywhere. This is particularly
true of the South.

There are several ways these methods can be learned in de-
tail. One is to work for a season in the bee yard of a successful
beekeeper, after you have first mastered the theory of bee-
keeping. Another, harder, but often best in the long run, is to
buy a few bees and work it out yourself, with the aid of other
beekeepers and by attending conventions and beekeeping demon-
strations.

Building Up Colonies.

Stimulating colonies is a good deal like giving a man medicine.
If the conditions are right, the medicine stimulates the body to
action. If conditions are wrong, no medicine will help. So
in beekeeping, one must supply a few simple conditions and let
the bees do the rest. No colony will build up well in spring to
reach proper strength at the right time without a young queen.
Therefore, requeen at least every two years. No colony can
build up if not supplied with sufficient food, either natural or
artificial, secured the fall before, to last through the period of
rest and until natural stores are available again in spring. There-

17

18 BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH

Fig. 3. A relic of the old days. Bees in box hives are being trans-
ferred so rapidly that in many localities an apiary like this is a curi-
osity.

fore, one must learn to gauge the amount of supplies within the
hive and to feed the bees when necessary. No colony can build
up properly unless the queen and bees have ample comb room
for brood and surplus honey. Therefore, one must learn to en-
able the bees to produce really good combs and learn how to
supply them at the right time to expand the brood nest and stor-
age room. Given a young queen, ample stores and sufficient
room, the swarming problem becomes less. The proper presen-
tation of these necessities to the bees most frequently stops
swarming.

Preventing Swarming.

Of as much importance as room, stores, and a young queen, is
the time of giving this additional room so vital to swarm preven-
tion. A beekeeper should figure that he has failed in the case of
every swarm which issues. Giving the needed brood or surplus
room too late is certain to induce swarming. Every beekeeper
must have an acquaintance with the principal honey plants of

BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH 19

his locality and the time of their bloom. When this is available,
he can tell just when to give added brood room and can gauge
the building up of his colonies to have the peak of this expansion
coincident with the first honey flows. The added surplus room
must follow then, else all previous efforts are lost. The method
of giving this additional surplus room, especially in comb honey
production, bears vitally on the success of swarm prevention

Getting the Maximum Crop.

Given ‘‘strong colonies of strong bees,’’ as Dr. Miller says
and after giving the bees ample brood room ard the first storage
room, a crop failure still looms ahead for the beginner, if he does
not gauge the speed of the incoming honey. Too much surplus
room will result in unfinished sections; too little, in swarming
and a loss of part of the crop which might have been secured.
No beekeeper can succeed in honey production or in swarm

Tig. 4. A modern Texas apiary developed from two box hives.

20 BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH

prevention, if he tries to operate his bees without sufficient supers
and hive bodies. Penurious beekeepers who try to run the
season through with only two supers, juggling these between
the hives and the honey house for filling and emptying, are in
the class with the beekeeper who puts on one super and’ who
takes it off only in the ‘full moon in June.”’ Sufficient equipment
is absolutely essential. Better run fewer colonies with ample
equipment, than so many with a shortage of things essential to
good beekeeping practice.

Conserving, the Bees.

The beekeeper’s ‘‘New Year’ begins with the cessation of the
honey flow for the season. His efforts from then on gauge far
more than is frequently credited, the success he may have another
season. Toward the end of the honey flow is the best time to
requeen colonies, when the period of broodlessness coincident
with requeening does not interfere with the strength of the
colony immediately before a honey flow. This is also a time to
discourage too much brood rearing, when there is nothing ahead
to demand more bees. The introduction of young queens insures
brood later, in the fall, when young bees are so essential to pro-
duce a strong colony to live through the period of rest, whether
winter temperatures are low or not. This is also the period for
removing supers and preparing the bee yard for another season,
as well as preparing the honey crop for the market. Cooperative
marketing associations will soon enable the beekeeper to sell
his crop at a fair price without the losses incident to poor sales-
manship so frequent in the beekeeping past.

Wintering the Bees. -

Whether the beekeeper be in a land where snows fall and
temperatures drop low in winter, or in a land of sunshine, winter
is the time for the conservation of the bees. At this time good
beekeeping makes definite plans for the next spring. Ample
stores for winter and the succeeding spring, until natural honey
is available, are essential. Space for the bees to heat and care

BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH 21

for in winter should be reduced to a minimum. Remember that
a temperature of 57° F., requires work on the part of the bees
to prevent a lower temperature in their cluster. The more of
this work they do, the more the colony loses in numbers and in
the vitality of its individuals. Have good hives, tight, water-
proof covers, reduced entrances, and protection by fence or
trees, against the prevailing winds of winter days. If your part
of the South is where snow falls and temperatures drop low,
your bees might profit by being packed. Send for the govern-
ment’s free bulletin on ‘‘Wintering Bees Outdoors.”

The Theory and Practice.

The theories of successful beekeeping have been stated in the
first paragraph of this chapter. Learn them well first. This
will enable you to separate the chaff from the wheat in what you
read, or what you are told by beekeepers who may not be as well
posted as they believe. Given the mastered theory, the prac-
tice will not only become easy, but will prove the most interesting
study you ever attempted, if you are destined to be a beekeeper.
If you are not, give up beekeeping right now. There are already
too many men and women masquerading under the title ‘‘bee-
keeper.”

Subscribe for bee papers and get one or two of the better
bee books, which give the results of practice, and not theory
alone. Attend the short courses for beekeepers and witness
demonstrations in handling bees made by the bee culture ex-
tension men. If there are no such meetings near you, take the
initiative and arrange for some. Begin to put your theories into
practice modestly, search your practices for a confession of
fault as you go. Above all, remain open-minded about your
beekeeping methods and you will be sure to succeed. In any
event, invest modestly at first and make the bees keep you.

CHAPTER III
Apparatus of the South.

ONTRARY to what might be expected, the needs of the
C beekeeper in the South are quite similar to the needs of a
beekeeper in the North. There is no style of hive which
has proved better for all conditions in the South than the stand-
ard ten-frame hive sold by all manufacturers. If there is any
pointed difference in the needs of the South so far as a hive is
concerned, it is that the hive should not be too small. The
author was rather surprised to find at first that the ten-frame
hive was perhaps more widely distributed and used in the South
than elsewhere in the country. Probably the reason for this is
because extracted honey is almost universally produced through-
out the South among commercial honey producers. This is
probably due to the difference in intensity in the nectar flows,
especially in the more tropical South, where longer, lighter
secretions of nectar are common. However, there are many
locations in the South where comb honey is produced and many
where it ought to be produced, in view of the fact that comb
honey always brings an average higher price in normal times,
than extracted honey. Even for comb honey there is no neces-
sity for reducing the size of the brood chamber for southern bee-
keeping.
‘Another factor which has probably tended to gradually in-
crease the use of the large brood chamber in the South, is that in
most cases more honey is consumed by a colony of bees during
southern winters than would be the case, say in Illinois. This
is not due to cold weather, but on the contrary, to the warmer
winter, during a great part of which some brood rearing may
be carried on and the stores thus be rapidly depleted. There are
many locations in the South where the honey contained in one
ten-frame brood chamber in the fall will seldom sustain a colony
until the next year’s surplus nectar flows. This is true of the
23

24 BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH

author’s apiaries in the vicinity of Dallas, Texas, and in parts of
Florida, where even two ten-frame bodies for winter at times
fail to supply sufficient honey. On the Appalachicola river in
Florida, for instance, it is often necessary to store honey for
brood use the next year. Many southern beekeepers prefer to
store away the sealed combs of honey rather than to leave too
much honey on the hive. If left where the bees have access to it,
they seem to get that “Millions at Our House’”’ feeling described
by G. M. Doolittle, and proceed to turn it into brood out of
season. This is inadvisable in most parts of Dixie, since the
sustaining honey flows often come many weeks after the begin-
ning of brood rearing is possible. Consequently the bees might
frequently starve if left to their own 1esources.

A Southern Hive.

There have been numerous attempts to invent a hive which
would exactly fulfill southern needs. One might expect to find
the long idea hives of Poppleton throughout central Florida
where he lived in late years, and the Danzenbaker hive popular
throughout the vicinity of Richmond, Virginia, for a similar
reason. This is not true. The opinion of good beekeepers, like
the choice of the majority in American political life, is one of the
safest guides to value. No man has succeeded in making up a
strictly “southern” hive.

The tendency throughout the South, whether the beekeeper
runs his bees for comb or extracted honey, has most certainly
been toward a deeper hive. With the standard size hive taking
Hoffman frames popular throughout Dixie, this deepening has
often been accomplished by the addition of another brood cham-
ber, or by the use of a shallow extracting brood super above or
below the brood chamber. Although this nears the idea intended
in the use of the once popular sectional hive in parts of Texas,
the author saw but comparatively few of the sectional hives there.
The tendency, as elsewhere, was to add another full brood cham-
ber. Whether or not a deeper frame, such as used by Dadant,
to combine this increased brood room all in one body will be
popular in the South or elsewhere, is problematical. It is the

BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH 25

opinion of the author that this style of hive will be adopted in
the North long before the South accepts it, because of the winter
stores problem. The need of greater brood room later in the
spring is mentioned by J. J. Wilder of Waycross, Georgia, in the
“Dixie Beekeeper,” page twenty-two, April, 1919. He advo-
cates the use of a nine-frame hive and the addition of a shallow
extracting super later in spring. Mr. Wilder’s bees in the south
of Georgia ‘are run both for comb and extracted honey.

F The Box Hive.

While census figures show that there are more colonies of bees
in the South than in the North and West, this number is appre-
ciably increased by the number of box hives which are found

E Se
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2 SEE)
é 153
a yae
= iz
= d5e
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z 428
=) Sm
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wil 60
ale Bos
Odp>p qis
282 see
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Fig. 5. A modern hive.

26 BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH

throughout Dixieland. It has been the privilege of the writer
to travel in the Middle West, and itis 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 honey: producers, 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 gums, 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.

BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH 27

This book is not intended as a manual of beekeeping, but only
to differentiate southern beekeeping conditions from those of the
North. Every beginner of beekeeping should purchase one or
more of the standard bee books, send for all the free bulletins
issued by the United States Department of Agriculture on bee-
keeping, and discuss with local beckeepers the best methods of
making a start.

G

-

CHAPTER IV

Making a Start.

T IS necessary before beginning to keep bees to become
as familiar with the care and habits of the honey bee as is
possible. The more one knows about bees, the more cer-

tain one is to succeed. In every line of work, it is the specialist,
who is best acquainted with his business, who reaps a harvest
where others may fail. This is particularly true of bee culture.

One may learn the essentials of bee culture from a study of
bee books. One must grasp the theory before beginning to keep
bees, since it is necessary to know why certain methods are used
in the production of honey, if their application is to be success-
ful. An excellent way to gain much first hand knowledge, is to
visit the yard of a neighbor beekeeper, and put on a bee veil,
and go with him through a day’s work in the apiary. It is well,
however, since not all beekeepers are good beekeepers, to make a
study of the work by studying bee culture before undertaking
such an expedition. If you know when the beekeeper is right
and wrong in his speculations regarding what happens in the
hive, in case he doesn’t really know, you will be able to avoid
absorbing a lot of bee lore which you may have to unlearn.

The beginner will learn much more from handling bees than
any other way, and first hand information is easiest learned. It
is not necessary to learn a great mass of statistical and rule of
thumb plans, to be a successful beekeeper. Practical beekeeping
requires a simple knowledge of a few fundamental reasons as to
why bees increase and protect themselves against their natural
situations. When this is known, practical beekeeping becomes
applied bee behavior, or learning how to shape the work of the
bees naturally toward your own ends. When you have fully
grasped these fundamentals, you will know more real beekeeping
than many beekeepers,

29

30 BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH

Start in Spring.

The best time to start with bees is in the Spring of the year.
Then the bees have the full season to build up in, to prepare
themselves against the rigors of cold weather, and to return to
you something for the labors of caring for them.

It is impossible to fully guide the beginner in these columns,
as the space is limited. Secure from the United States Bee Cul-
ture Laboratory, Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C.,
one of their free bulletins on bees and learn to recognize the
different parts of a hive and the hive inmates. Study the dia-
gram at the beginning of this chapter. If one wishes to invest in
a bee book, all right. The trouble with many bee books is that
they give too many different plans for the same work and go
into such varied details that the beginner is lost in the maze
and knows not where to start. The government bulletins make
excellent text books, since they treat of but one topic at a time.
By all means one should subscribe to one or more of the bee
journals, since this tends to keep one flush with bee lore, and.
abreast of the times on beekeeping topics and methods. Never
make the mistake of buying a lot of bees before you have learned
the essentials of beekeeping. Failure is as certain as death in
that case.

Beginner’s Needs Are Simple.

The needs of a beginner are rather simple, depending largely
on the scale which marks the beginning. No beginner should
attempt to handle bees without a bee veil, which protects the
face from stings. The more timid may also buy bee gloves tc
protect the hands. A smoker is an absolute necessity in every
apiary, be you professional or beginner. Bees are smoked before
handling, by driving a puff or two of smoke from rags or waste,
into the hive entrance. When the cover is removed, a few more
puffs to the tops of the frames follow. This makes the bees
rush to fill themselves with honey and to forget the intruder,
when they may be handled without stings, if care is used. Every
beekeeper gets stung sometimes. Careful beekeepers seldom get

BEEKEEPING

IN THE

SOUTH

Fig. 6. A Virginia swarm.

31

32, BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH

stung. Your gentleness and actions with the bees largely deter-
mine their treatment of you. A bee brush, hive tool and other
articles are useful. Get a supply catalog and study its pages.
There is a wealth of information in the pages of a good supply
dealer’s catalog. You will find there why the various appliances
are used, and much of the ‘“‘how”’ of their application.

If swarms, nuclei, or packages of bees are bought, the hives
must first be purchased, set up, and made ready for the bees.
Delays of shipment make it imperative that the supplies be or-
dered long before they are needed for the bees. Waiting for hives
with the bees on hand means their certain loss to you. In choos-
ing hives, it is well to avoid fads. The ten-frame so-called “‘stan-
dard” hive is the standard of the bee world of today. This hive
is a good one to choose. Do not choose more than one style or
size of hive. Inability to interchange parts of hives is a nuisance
in the’apiary. The value of wcll made goods cannot be over-
estimated, and it is-well worth while to pay a price which will
bring you materials to last a lifetime, rather than flimsy, shoddy
goods at a lower price.

Comb or Extracted Honey?

Every beginner is confronted with the problem of whether

or not to begin with comb honey or extracted (‘‘strained’’)
honey production. Here are some simple rules for guidance.

What does your grocer sell best? He is most willing to buy that...

Find out. Then learn what your principal nectar secreting plants
are, and whether or not they yield in short, intense flows, or
give nectar over long, slow periods. Short, sharp flows of light
colored nectar are excellent for section honey. Slower flows,
and dark colored nectar, are best for extracted honey. The
adoption of either should be governed also by what you can sell
best in your locality. Pick out your hive supers to correspond.
Most beginners in the past have begun with comb honey, be-
cause the initial expense was less. Comb honey usually sells for
more on the market than other styles of honey packages. How-
ever, it requires a better beekeeper to produce comb honey than

read

BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH 33

extracted, and the choice should be largely your own. By
choosing supers for your hive which are made to take either comb
or extracted honey appliances, the cost is less for a later change
which may appear advisable.

Choosing Paraphernalia.

After a good hive has been found, the beginner should insist
on Italian or yellow bees, if it is possible to get them. They
have proved in the hands of American beekeepers, to be the
best from all points. They are gentler, more resistant to the bee
disease European foul brood, active against the inroads of wax
moths and are good workers. No beginner should fail to use
full sheets of bee comb foundation in the lower part of the hives,
where the bees live and rear their brood. Foundation should
also be used in the surplus boxes, but the use of full sheets is
not so necessary there. A study of catalogs and bulletins will

Fig. 7. Mrs. Grace Allen's backlot bees, Nashville, Tenn.

34 BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH

convince you of the value of using comb foundation, even
though it costs more at first.

The location of the bee yard may be determined after a study
of the bulletins as to why partly shaded places, facing away from
the prevailing winds and toward the sunlight, are best. The
style of covers, hive stands, and other minor details are more a
matter of individual choice. In every move you make toward
becoming a beekeeper, find out first why you do everything, and
then you will make fewer mistakes. When bees refuse to do
what we think they should do under given circumstances, usually
itis the beekeeper who is at fault, be he beginner or expert.

A Means of Study.

Many of the colleges of agriculture in the several states are
annually giving short courses in bee culture. The federal and
state departments of agriculture have several men in the field
teaching beekeeping. Find out about these and take advantage
of them. They are usually men who know what they are talking
about, and their guidance will be valuable to you as a beginner.

Tf study, communion with good beekeepers, careful examina-
tion of bee behavior and applied beekeeping do not interest you,
don’t start beekeeping under any circumstances. You are
destined to fail without them. The beekeeper who doesn’t
care, and who will not learn is already a curse of beekeeping,
keeping down honey prices, spreading bee diseases by careless-
ness and ignorance. It seldom pays to do anything unless
you will do it well. If you do not intend to be a good beekeeper,
do not venture into the field at all. That is only justice toward
those you may hurt unintentionally, not to speak of your own
financial loss and the eventual loss of your own self-esteem.

CHAPTER V

The Seasons in the South.

RACTICAL bee culture everywhere is largely an or-
ganized system of beekeeping manipulations. It should
be also the study of bee behavior. Since the condition of

the bees influences largely what the beekeeper must do at the
time, bee culture in the South differs only slightly from the same
science in other parts of the country. Any difference in bee
culture in the South, from the same science elsewhere, is only
because of the difference in the exact time when most of the
common manipulations of bee culture must be attended to. The
more carefully one studies bee culture methods in vogue among

Fig, 8. Itis necessary to guard against high water in many desirable locations
35

36 BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH

better beekeepers in Dixie, the more one is impressed with the
fact that methods practiced there are common in their funda-
mentals. There appears to be no such entirely different system
of bee culture in the South, as beekeepers in other parts of the
country might suppose. The prime differences, as they appear
to the author, result from the prolonged seasons when manipu-
lations common at certain times only in the North, may be com-
mon several times during the season in the South. If you area
good beekeeper in the North, you can be a good beekeeper in «
the South, providing you pay attention to the difference in honey
sources, and the influence of these upon the bees.

Fig. 9. Apiary of P. J. Thullen in Alabama.

BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH 37

,

Fig. 10. A summer meeting of Tennessee beekeepers.

A Primary Difference.

In the North the beekeeping calendar may be readily divided
into two parts, the season of preparation, and the season of honey
flow. In the South, speaking of the South as a whole, this is
not quite so feasible. A primary difference is in the much shorter
season of inactivity and the much longer season during which
bees rear brood. An additional important point in connection
with the season during which bees may rear brood follows:
Bees in parts of the South often begin rearing brood weeks be-
fore the main honey flow. They may swarm, become impover-
ished for lack of stores and bring about unusual conditions at
several seasons of the year, which the beekeeper of the North
is seldom accustomed to meet but once during the season.

38 BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH

Many beekeepers have been forced to cope with such a situa-
tion as a honey dearth for a week or more between two honey
flows. This situation may face a beekeeper in certain parts of
the South, half a dozen times in a season. Then there are some
few locations in the South where there is seldom ever a honey
flow in spring, sufficient to more than sustain the bees. Naturally
the bees are slow to build up in spring and may often face star-
vation unexpectedly, with the speedy use of their honey for brood.
There is one offset to these situations. Honey flows in the South
are usually longer than in the clover, buckwheat or alfalfa regions
of this country. Otherwise bees might seldom get in shape in
time for a honey flow in some of these southern localities. To
anyone who has tried to build up weak colonies, with sugar
stores alone when all colonies in the yard were weak, and when
but little natural pollen was available,—that person knows what
the beekeeper faces in such “‘late”’ locations of the South. How-
ever, in many sections the reverse is true. The problems become,
in most cases, to find plans to prevent too rapid building up and
to prevent excessive swarming. That remains largely a problem,
except for the shippers of combless packages or the man who
wants increase.

The ‘“‘High”’ Spots.

Such a type of honey flows, which might be dubbed “languid”
is not without exception. There are a few locations in the
South where the entire surplus honey crop of the locality is
harvested in a few days. The Appalachicola River region
in Florida is one of these. Here titi furnishes some stimulation.
Black and white tupelo follow immediately in February and
March and furnish the total surplus crop, blooming only a few
weeks altogether. To see bees working tupelo in this region is an
inspiration. They go “honey crazy.’ So great is the secretion
of nectar that but little attention has been paid to overstocking
any tupelo location while the flow is on. Rather the beekeepers
there have tried to estimate how much of the nectar goes to
waste.

BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH 39

Then there are other locations where there are one or more
short, sharp flows and one or more longer, slower flows of nectar,
during the several months of the season. In some of these, comb
honey is produced during the heavy flows, and extracted honey
during the lighter flows. The partridge pea region of south
Georgia and north Florida is one of these locations. Together
with gallberry, tupelo, and some other nectar sources, the bee-
keeper is enabled to run for both comb and extracted honey.
This practice has proved quite sensible when the usual price of
comb honey is considered.

A Changing Prospect.

There are so many different kinds of soils, honey plants, cli-
mates, and peculiar conditions found in the South as a whole,

Fig. 11. J. J. Wilder of ‘‘Dixie Beekeeper.”

40 BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH

that it is impossible to write accurately of conditions that will
apply widely. These conditions necessitate different periods for
the application of the common manipulations of bee culture,
bring up the old explanation of ‘‘locality.’”’ But the best prac-
tices do not have to vary materially. Rather their time of
application varies.

Of this situation, J. J. Wilder says: ‘Starting at the highest
point of our country, along the Blue Ridge Mountains, and
gradually sloping off down to sea level out along the great coast
region, we have all kinds of climate from the most rigid to the
most mild. We may have some winter problems in the most
rigid sections but none elsewhere.”

The statement concerning the winter problem, except as it
applies from Florida to Mexico, along the gulf coast only, is
open to debate. This is a question upon which but few southern
beekeepers agree. There certainly can be room for improve-
ment in the practices of wintering common in many parts of the
South (see chapter on ‘‘Wintering’’). The author has never been
convinced that there was not some better beekeeping practice

Jannp.%, DAILY TEMPERATURES RELATIVE TO 57°F. AT LQUISVILLE, KENTUCKY.
2 Monch purr May Se Oquet

Only 42 daye cuntng the: entire season when at sane time
@

temperature d not fall below 57*F, Based on U.S.
Weather Bureau reoords, Courtesy R.P.Distzman Louisville.
Lowest temperature never above 57*F, in Jan. Feb.Nov.Deo.

Fig. 12. Daily Temperatures at Louisville, Kentucky.

BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH 41

UL 8. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, WEATHER BUREAU.
Obaries F. Marvin, 0!

Fig. 13. Chart showing lowest temperatures.

which could be worked out in parts of the South, than to winter
bees outdoors without protection and often with one or more
supers on, where the snow may often be six inches deep for a week
or two in winter. There is no frostless winter in the South until
one goes very far south. There are few winters in the South
when snow does not fall throughout West Virginia, Virginia,
Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas and Oklahoma. The writer has
seen snow near Pensacola, Florida, Shreveport, Louisiana, and
in Dallas, Texas. The best beekeeping practice is the one which
cares for all eventualities. Certainly there may be a wintering
system worked out for the South, which will’ protect in extremes,
and which can be turned to additional advantage in the means.
No beekeeper who is a thinker will deny that.

Honey for Winter.

There have been very few of the many localities visited by
the author, where it is often necessary to feed bees in fall to
provide sufficient winter stores. It is our opinion that this is onc

42 BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH

of the dominant differences between many bee ranges in the
North and in the South. In many beekeeping localities in the
South, there are good fall flows of nectar, which tend to put
bees in good shape for the coming season of inactivity. Of more
import, it tends to put them in good condition for the longer
season of spring activity, when there may be little nectar avail-
able, even in quantities to care for brood rearing.

Migration.

In a number of localities in the South, migration is practiced
with some success. However, the great migration from South
to North has never proved out for southerners, any more than
it has for beekeepers of the North.

One of these localities may be on any of the navigable rivers
in the far South, where a good sized launch may go well up into
a different type of country than that which may be found on the
coast. Gus Hensler, who lives at Wewahitchka, Florida, told
the author he could take bees up the Appalachicola River from
his tupelo locations and locate them in the regions cf southern

Fig. 14, A Winter Snow in Tennessee. (Photo by Grace Allen)

BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH 43

Georgia and Alabama to a great advantage. By moving up there
along in early fall, he could get sufficient honey in many years,
to draw out one or two sets of foundation into combs and to fre-
quently get twenty or thirty pounds of surplus honey to the
colony. The value of combs never appears so pre-eminent to
the beekeeper as in such a location as on the Appalachicola River
where the principal feature of getting a tupelo honey crop is to
supply enough ready built combs.

Further south in Florida, on the east coast, at Miami, the
author met several men who said they made a success of moving
their bees down among the Keys off the coast, where they could
take advantage of valuable nectar sources, such as black ma-
grove. This also proved to be the case on the west coast in the
vicinity of Ft. Myers. However, no one was met who had made
a great success of moving bees on the Mississippi, the Red, the
Missouri, or any of the other main water arteries of the South.
Bees can undoubtedly be moved to advantage in the swamp
regions in many cases. There is probably no nicer means of
moving bees than on a quiet, steady launch. But it’s all off
when the ‘‘blows’’ come up suddenly. One beekeeper at Pensa-
cola, Florida, recently lost a launch, bees, and a good share of
his season’s honey crop in a squall of wind which caught him
unawares in Pensacola Bay.

CHAPTER VI

Wintering Bees in the South.

stand if viewed from three standpoints: namely, from

the standpoint of the beekeepers who live in the tropics,
in the alluvial region and in the mountain sections. Viewed in
this way, the problem is as different in the three belts named as it
possibly could be.

For the sake of convenience in considering the winter problem
of the southern beekeeper, let us divide the territory into the three
belts named above, which practically coincide with the divisions
cited in the chapter on honey sources. This will give us a narrow
belt along the gulf coast, touching Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi
and Louisiana, and widening out at either end to take in most of
Florida and the great region of south Texas. In that territory
the problem is not one of low temperatures, but of working
out feasible methods to solve the problems of insect pests, winter
stores and increase, during the very short period of inactivity on
the part of the queen, which nevertheless depletes the numerical
strength of the colonies. The problem there is altogether one of
combating pests and supplying stores, rather than one of com-
bating the effect of low temperatures.

Many beekeepers have complained to the writer that they had
great difficulty in keeping moths out of empty combs during this
period, even when these combs are left with the bees. In parts of
Florida the writer has seen frames of foundation or empty combs
in hives of bees taken possession of during winter months by ants
and mud. wasps, until in some cases the combs were ruined. In
some cases this has been obviated by setting hive stands in
troughs filled with oil or water, but where the mud wasps are
considered, the problem is still largely to be solved. Small
entrances do not always completely do away with such condi-
tions. Frames of foundation seem to be particularly desired by

45

4 NHE wintering of bees in the South is easiest to under-

46 BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH

the wasps. So far as is known to the writer, these conditions
do not apply much to southwest Texas, except that in certain
localities, the problem of combating the ants often necessitates
tracing them to their nests and the use of the spade, fire and
carbon disulphide to eradicate them. Even with these agencies,
this remains a hard problem.

The problem of winter stores is pertinent at many times, both
in Florida and west Texas, perhaps more so in the latter region,
because of the frequent drouths, when no material natural sources
of nectar may be available for months. In south Florida there is
usually some source of nectar at every season, and fresh nectar
may often be found in the brood combs in varying quantities at
every month of the year. In Texas the problem becomes one of
storing or feeding back honey, if early sources of nectar such as
huajilla, catclaw, cactus and similar flowers fail. The food supply
problem is not so hard to solve, however, unless the beekeeper
goes through a period of drouth extending over many months,
such as was the case of Texas in 1916-17.

The Alluvial Regions.

Extending north of this tropical belt well up into the foothills
of the mountains in north Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkan-
sas and Oklahoma, is a region of early activity on the part of
the bees, frequently accompanied by only light flows of nectar,
until several months after brood rearing may begin. Some
beekeepers in this region are fortunate enough to have early
surplus flows, as is usually the case in. northern Louisiana, for
instance. Otherwise the colonies often reach swarming strength
several weeks before a source of surplus nectar may be available.
Holding the numerical strength of the colony intact where no in-
crease is desired, is then a problem indeed. Similarly the ex-
cessive use of stores to rear this brood when nectar is scarce often
makes the food supply an equally important problem. Most
beekeepers in this region are against any sort of winter protection
as it is understood -by northern beekeepers. With no means of
using the bees, which would be raised here out of season in in-

BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH 47

creased numbers, under northern winter protection, who shall
say that they are not right?

The winter problem has been long considered from the tem-
perature standpoint only. In this case the rule of temperature
alone does not apply always. Gauged only by temperatures,
the packing of bees in winter cases would be proper in most
parts of this belt. Note that the U.S. Weather Bureau reports
that a temperature of zero has been recorded as far south as
Raleigh, North Carolina, Flomaton, Alabama, Natchez, Missis-
sippi, Natchitoches, Louisiana, Waco and El Paso, Texas.

However, the average beekeeper in this region, when heavy
protection is given against his normal winter temperatures,
finds his colonies at swarming strength several weeks before they
would be otherwise, and too strong a number of weeks before
he has available a surplus source of nectar. Consequently, heavy
winter protection for this belt is a mooted question.

Fig. 15. It is acommon practice to winter the bees with supers on the hives
to guard against moths.

48 BEEKEEriNG IN THE SOUTH

eine

Fig. 16. A West Virginia apiary in double walled hives.

The Mountain Region.

North of this alluvial country begin the mountains of the
South, and in most parts of Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia,
North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, and Oklahoma,
the proposition of heavier winter protection deserves the serious
attention of the beekeepers. It has been customary for beekeep-
ers of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Oklahoma to assert that such
a practice was wholly unnecessary. The truth of the proposition
will never be known until the practice has been tried out on many
colonies for a period of years and the results in honey production
compared with colonies not so protected. Such an experiment
is now being carried on in a small way by Mrs. Armstrong (Grace)
Allen at Nashville, Tennessee, with results so far not particularly
favorable to heavy packing. However the test is far from com-
plete, and the best feature of Mrs. Allen’s work is her open-
mindedness on the proposition. The winters and the honey
plants in much of this section approximate in source, tempera-
tures and seasons, the white clover belt of the North, so that it
would seem that some packing might pay. It is certain from the

BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH 49

census, from reports of extension men and from other reliable
sources, that winter losses of this region are frequently appalling.
In the portion of this region embraced in the Appalachian moun-
tains, spring losses are frequently enormous, due to European
foulbrood ravages. However, this disease should be considered
as an effect and not a cause in this case, since we know weak
colonies are more susceptible and less resistant to European
foulbrood than strong colonies. With great losses in numerical
strength certain among many of the colonies of this region which
usually are not adequately protected, European foulbrood finds
a ready and fertile area for its deadly work.

Temperatures here are good indicators of the need of protec-
tion, since swarming time and honey flows approximate those of
the white clover belt. The beekeeper here has a different prob-
lem than in the alluvial regions, where late flows and early

Fig. 17. By rail and: boat to Florida (F. W. Sommerfield, Ohio).

50 BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH

swarming are common. An instance of temperatures in the
relation to 57° F., the critical temperature at which bees have
to begin clustering in the hive to continue heat and life, was
brought out at a meeting of the Kentucky State Beekeepers
Association at Lexington. The association president, Hon.
Richard Priest Dietzman, showed a chart taken from the U. S.
Weather Bureau records, for 1917 at Louisville. There were in
1917 but sixty-nine consecutive days during which the tempera-
ture did not at some time go below 57° F. The value of adequate
protection in such a locality is evident. (See Page 40.)

What Is Protection?

Adequate winter protection need not mean in all southern
locations the use of heavy packing. It always means first the
several other necessities, which are too often considered to be
minor. Of prime importance is a vigorous queen to insure many
young bees in the hive in the fall. Next is the supply of honey,
which should be adequate to keep the colony in seasonable con-
dition from the end of the honey flow one year to the beginning
of the honey flow the next, whether or not all of it is le{t'on the
hive in the fall.

Next is the hive. Too many leaky covers, loose bottom boards,
hives set on the cold ground and similar faults are frequent among
our fraternity. Too many supers should not be left on the hive,
even in the South. Why heat the ‘‘spare rooms’”’ when there are
no ‘guests?’ The location of the hives in winter in relation to
moisture and wind protection is important, as is the use of a
small entrance.

When all these things have first been supplied, the need of
packing is not great, in parts of the South. Too many bee-
keepers do not supply them. Even packing will not remedy all
mistakes on the part of the beekeeper. Constant attention to
little details leads to beekeeping success.

Sources of Winter Supplies.

This feature of successful wintering in the North is not so
pertinent a problem in the South. With a greater flow of honey:

BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH $1

dew and similar poor winter foods available for bees in many
parts of the South, this is providentially offset by the fact that
there are usually more frequent periods when the bees may fly
during the winter. In parts of the South where cane grinding
goes on, great quantities of cane juice are often appropriated by
the bees, but without serious effects in most cases, because of
the much shorter period of winter confinement in the hive.

In the regions of Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia and Mary-
land, there are areas where asters are found flowering in the
fall, in vast beds on the hillsides. There is as yet but little
evidence that the winter losses of this territory may be attributed
solely to aster honey for winter stores. It is probable that aster
honey makes an excellent winter food for bees in most parts of
the country from the clover belt south. No trouble was ever
experienced with this winter food in Illinois, Texas, or Florida, by
bees owned by the writer and it is possible that the humble aster
has been blamed for a lot of winter troubles really due to other
causes.

Successful Methods.

To winter bees successfully in the South, especially where
lower temperatures are recorded, one must know well the normal
seasons and honey flows. The question of more protection than
is now given bees in the South during winter is one for experi-
ment, and this must be done in the South. Open minded beekeep-
ers there can do a great service for beekeeping. Narrow minded
beekeepers never do any good anywhere.

Tests Are Best.

E. R. Root is quoted as saying of good winter protection:
“We believe this advice is as valuable for beemen of the South,
even in Florida, as it is further north, especially so in November,
December, January and February. In the latter two months,
bees need it for the sake of early breeding, the two former for
the sake of the life of the bees and the conservation of honey.”

The writer does not mean to unreservedly recommend heavy
winter packing for the South. But he does wish to emphasize

52 BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH

the need of more winter protection in many parts of this region.
The best test for the beekeeper is for him to ask himself
if he is really satisfied with his present yields of honey. If not,
and his methods of beekeeping practice are sound during the rest
of the season, look to wintering and springing for a remedy.
Experience should furnish the best means to judge. Be open
minded and try out better methods of wintering.

CHAPTER VII

Combless Packages.

beekeeper is swarm prevention, whether or not the beesare

kept in modern hives. While readers will say this is just as
true of the beekeeping problems elsewhere, it is especially true in
theSouth below Tennessee and east of the Mississippi River, since
in many such localities even the Heddon method of after-swarm
prevention is often a failure. So are most methods of swarm
prevention, for many beekeepers of this region. Because of the
long brood rearing season, when bees may begin to breed up some-
times four months before the main nectar flow, and be sustained
by a continual light flow of nectar, swarm prevention becomes a
problem indeed. In such localities bees frequently cast a swarm
and after all, store about as much honey as those which do not
happen to swarm. Imagine the northern beekeeper confronted
with such a problem as that. Probably this excessive swarming
is one of the reasons for the great number of colonies of bees in
the southern states, compared to any other region of similar
area in this country. Add to this the box hive and swarming
seems at first the bane of southern beekeeping.

So far as is known to the author there is no method of swarm
prevention which is widely used in the South, that differs from
swarm prevention methods in the North. In the Carolinas,
Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, Arkansas, Oklahoma and north
Texas, swarm prevention methods used in the North are feasible
and in use by all commercial honey producers of the region
named. Adequate room seems to be a paramount requisite.

In much of the area of Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi,
Louisiana and south Texas, all swarm prevention methods too
often fail. The writer never met a beekeeper in this region who
did not face the swarm problem every year and who was not
often, ina good year, without remedy except to take bees away
from the colonies. Increase is a simple method in most parts of

6) NE of the most serious problems which faces the southern

53

54

BEEKEEPING

IN

THE SOUTH

Photo by G. M. Bentley.

Walker's mating yard in Tennessee.

Fig. 18.

BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH 55

the South and the extent to which it could be successfully carried
in the regions where the early summer honey flow is constant
but light, is only to be conjectured. The direct relation of the
swarm problem is probably the reason behind the popularity
of bulk comb honey in Texas and probably explains the pro-
duction of extracted and chunk honey rather than comb honey
in much of the South. There are many regions where section
honey could he successfully produced and some where comb
honey is being produced extensively. A hindrance to comb honey
production in this region, as scen by the author, is the large
number of bees operated by most commercial honey producers.
With an aggravated swarm problem, a change from extracted
to comb honey in much of the South will probably await the dis-
covery of more successful swarm prevention methods for out-
apiaries.
Combless Packages.

The combless package has proven a blessing to dozens of
honey producers in the South. The early failures in package
shipping caused many of the best known beekeepers of the
North to put little faith in the future of the combless package
business. First, the northerners did not know the value of taking
bees from colonies in the South to prevent swarming; and second,
they had little faith that shipments would ever be made success-
fully.

The shipping problem is rapidly being solved and has been
found to be largely the fault of some who advocated the use of
too small a shipping cage for combless packages, to insure rea-
sonable success in shipping. There are dealers in the South
now who ship hundreds of packages annually with little loss.
T. W. Burleson, of Texas, told the author recently that he had
shipped several hundred combless packages in a year without
the loss of more than a dozen packages. Another fault was that
some shippers in the South took orders, for bees, too far from
them, to insure reasonable safety in shipping. Those who
condemned combless packages when the industry first started
either executcd a right about face as to their value, or have been
left behind in beekeeping progress.

56 BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH

Swarm Prevention by Packages.

Southern beekeepers have always krown 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.

BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH 57

Fig. 20. A handy funnel for filling packages.

lem has disappeared. They are enabled to remove enough
bees, often as many as five or more pounds from each of their
strong colonies, and the hatching brood after this depletion will
usually bring the colony to full field strength for the beginning
of the main honey flow. By giving plenty of room at all times
and watching the yards carefully, they experience little further
trouble from swarming in average years. Thus, the combless
package has a demand in the North and in the South, and solves
a real problem at either end.

Rearing Queen Bees.

Another prominent feature of beekeeping in the South, in a
belt of country wider than that from which combless packages
may be shipped, is the early rearing of queen bees for the market.
This belt extends up into Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and
Arkansas, where the same long, slow nectar flow early in the year,
common in many parts of the South, is ideal for the production
of good queen cells and the rearing of vigorous queen bees.

58 BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH

Fig. 21. Queen mating nuclei in Southwest Texas.

There are many beekeepers in this region, who devote much
or all of their time to the production of queen bees, like Ben G.
and John M. Davis, of Tennessee. With a large home apiary
for a mating yard and several outyards from which to draw
bees for mating nuclei, swarm prevention in the outyards loses
its significance and an interesting and profitable business results.
Probably one of the first ambitions of most beginners in bee-
keeping is to be a breeder of queen bees. That there are fewer
beekeepers really fitted for this work than any other phase of
beekeeping, is the opinion of the author. The production of
good queen bees, reared in strong colonies and mated in nuclei
strong enough to be worthy of the name, is a science by itself.
Like the small combless package for shipping bees, one of the
greatest hindrances to successful queen rearing has been the
early advocacy of the ‘‘baby’”’ nuclei. Every queen breeder
whose business is growing in the South, and whose yards have
been visited by the author, is leaning more strongly toward ithe
use of larger queen mating nuclei each year. Some even have
gone to the extreme of using four and five full Hoffman frame
nuclei. Needless to say this trend has improved the quality of
the queens.

BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH 59

Early Breeding Up.

In Farmers Bulletin 975, on the Control of European Foul-
brood, is written: ‘‘If it is certain that there will be no honey-
flow until midsummer or later, it is not so necessary, from the
standpoint of good beekeeping, to have all colonies strong so
early in the year, but it is surely an exceptional locality where
there is nothing for the bees to get in early summer.” Applied
to northern conditions this is eminently true. Applied to much
of the South and the need of a use other than swarms for early
hatched bees is plainly seen. At present, swarm prevention is
being handled largely by shipping combless packages or in mak-
ing queen mating nuclei. With others, unless they are careful
beekeepers indeed, swarms are the result. Excessive swarming
is probably the best reason for the average lower yield per colony
of honey in the South, if the last federal census figures are to be
credited.

Fig. 22. Home and queen mating yard of J. L. Leath of Corinth, Mississipzi.

60 BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH

Fig. 23. One of M. C. Berry’s yards for breeding package bees.

A Drone Reservoir.

The practice common among southern queen breeders to pro-
tect their supply of drones, when shortages of honey come be-
tween flows, is interesting in the application of a known bee
instinct which it makes use of. Queenless bees welcome drones
and seldom kill them off in any number. By keeping certain colo-
nies in the yard permanently queenless at the approach of a
dearth of honey or fall weather, drones will congregate there and
be available for queen mating purposes long after they might
otherwise be driven out. This is called by some beekeepers, a
“drone reservoir.”’

CHAPTER VIII
The Tropical South.

HE area which may be called tropical really occupies a small

part of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and south

Texas. It differs from other parts ofthe South, so faras bee-
keeping is concerned, in many ways. Primary among these is
the average higher temperatures and relative freedom from frost.
The honey plants are also quite different and are in turn in-
fluenced in their nectar secretion by both the excessive rainfall
and the dry weather common to that part of the ‘Great American
Desert’ which lies in southern Texas. There are regions along
the coast of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, where tropical
temperatures are approximated in most years. However, the
chances of frost in this latter area are greater than further south.
Because of the higher temperatures which prevail throughout
the year in this tropical area, there is a much shorter period of
inactivity and a much longer one when bees are active, than in
other parts of the country. The climate of southern California
approximates it.

One of the primary differences in this area, when compared
to others, is the soil. The effect of soils on the secretion of nectar
by honey plants has not been studied to any great extent, but it is
known that soils have a considerable effect on honey plants.
Throughout much of this region the type of soil is somewhat
sandy. Much of tropical Florida is sandy, with occasional
patches of black, loamy land, while most of southwest Texas is
sandy and rocky. The fact that this land is sandy does not
mean in all cases that it is infertile. The opposite is true of many
parts of Florida and Texas alike, where a sufficient water supply
is available for commercial plant life. Honey plants, fortunately,
are not necessarily of commercial importance to other lines
of agriculture, and the beekeeper here benefits thereby.

In Florida the rainfall is fairly constant and many parts of
the state where tropical temperatures prevail are so near sea

61

62 BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH

Fig. 24. Apiary of B. M. Carraway, Mathis, Texas.

level, that the moisture problem is nil so far as the beekeeper is
concerned. Drouths do not figure largely in beekeeping in
Florida, although several of the most important honey plants of
the state are greatly affected, as to yield of nectar, by the tem-
peratures. Cabbage palmetto bloom, for instance, will stand
neither extremes of heat or cold. Rainy, cool weather seems to
stunt its bloom, while very hot weather seems to ‘‘burn’”’ the blos-
soms. It yields best in even, moderately warm temperatures.
Black mangrove has a similar tendency and frequently yields
at certain hours of the day, or ceases nectar secretion altogether,
like buckwheat in New York state.

Migratory Beekeeping.

This tropical country, particularly Florida, was the original
home of migratory beekeeping. O.O. Poppleton, who lived for a
time at Stuart, and whose locality was visited by the writer, was
perhaps the first exponent of migratory beekeeping, but gave up
the practice in later years. The Marchants, of Georgia and
Florida, have practiced migratory beekeeping with some success.

BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH 63

as have many other beekeepers of the Appalachicola section.
Beekeepers have been visited at Miami, who place their bees
on lighters and tow them further down the east coast to the man-
grove locations on the Keys. On the west coast, this plan has
not been so thoroughly tried, but is proving feasible. However,
migratory beekeeping, either in Florida, or from other states to
Florida, has been largely given up. Success has not usually
attended the efforts to make it pay. Most of the beekeepers
of this area have permanent locations for most of their bee
yards.

Queens and Packages.

One feature of tropical locations, both in south Florida and
southwest Texas, is the value of such locations to raise queen

Fig. 25. Harry Hewitt’s apiary at Lake Apopka in Tropical Florida,

64 BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH

bees and for the early shipment of pound packages of bces.
Many bees in such locations are run for packages alone, as the
surplus season frequently closes early. In locations like Texas,
where mesquite, a principal source of surplus honey, may bloom
two or three times in a season, it is possible to get honey in addi-
tion to bees. The shipment of queens and packages ceases earlier
in the tropical locations, than a little further north, because of
the higher temperatures of summer and because of the later
demand for bees from more northern points.

One of the hardest problems of the man who ships packages
of bees, from any of the locations north of the tropics, is to fur-
nish the necessary queen bees at the time the packages are
shipped. In many cases the package shipper is not a queen breed-
er. The demand for packages without queens is comparatively
light. Breeders of the far South have solved this problem.
With their bees at swarming pitch by the time the package man
makes ready to ship, the queens to accompany the packages
are often reared a few hundred miles further south, as by B. M.
Caraway for T. W. Burleson, both of Texas.

Bee Pests. “a

There is no locality in the tropics where insect pests and
even animal pests do not have to be figurcd on. This is more
especially true of Florida than Texas. ‘Bee hawks,”’ a common
name for large dragon flies, have often proved to be preventa-
tives of successful rearing queen bees in the swampy tropics,
at certain seasons of the year. Queen becs prove casy prey to
the dragon flies, and many missing queens is frequently the lot
of the breeder in such localitics.

Mud wasps have proved to be another source of frequent
annoyance in portions of south Florida where they often take
possession of empty combs and sheets of foundation, while bees
may be in possession of other parts of the hive. In Florida the
writer visited a number of beekeepers who showed him combs
with patches of brood chewed out nearly as large as the hand,
which was blamed to tree-toads. The beekeepers reported having

BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH 65

caught the animals in the act. Predatory animals also figure as
pests, in Texas, as well as Florida.

Probably the most common insect pest is the ant, both in
Texas and Florida. In many places in the latter state, the
bees are kept on raised platforms, with the legs of the stands
resting in troughs, which are kept full of water. In the case
of outyards, it frequently becomes necessary to keep the surface
of such water covered with oil, in order to decrease evaporation.
In Texas, the ant pest is probably the most serious one and with
J. W. Reid near Uvalde it is often necessary to hunt out ant
nests and by the use of scalding water, the spade, carbon bisul-
phide and fire, attempt to destroy the nests of the maurauders.

In both these states the bee moth is a serious menace where
combs are left without the bees to cover them, but this pest never
proves to be serious in the hands of the careful beekeeper.

Wax Production.

In many tropical countries where there is usually much dark
honey produced, beekeepers frequently make a practice of pro-
ducing all the wax possible. Wax production alone was not found
in any locality visited by the writer in either Florida or Texas.
In Texas at the apiary of J. W. Reid, Uvalde, the writer saw
3,547 pounds of beeswax in one pile. In southwest Texas where
mostly extracted honey is produced, wax is one of the principal
sources of income of the beekeeper. Quantities of wax are also
shipped from Florida, where the custom of using eight frames
in a ten frame super for extracted honey adds to the crop of wax
in uncapping.

Variety of Honey Plants.

One is impressed in visiting any good location in tropical Flori-
da, Alabama and Mississippi, near lowlands, with the variety
of plants available as nectar sources for bees. At DeLand, the
home of Prof. E. G. Baldwin, the writer was shown a list of about
120 plants on which bees had been seen working at some time.
One is impressed by the fact that fewer of the surplus nectar
sources are small plants and more are shrubs or trees, in the trop-

66 BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH

Fig. 26. Apiary of 300 colonies belonging to J. K. Isbell on the Apa-
lachicola River, Florida.

ics. In Texas they are typically desert trees and shrubs, pro-
tected by thorns in nearly every case. This is seldom true in
Florida, where the trees which yield nectar are simply featured
by the rank growth which is typical of the lowland tropics.
In Texas, the variety is not so great as in Florida, probably due
to the greater available water supply in Florida. R. B. Willson
reports an cnormous variety of honey plants, as yet largely un-
classified, growing along the Gulf in southern Mississippi.

Nectar Sources.

There are probably four or five plants or trees in Florida which
would be considered the important nectar sources of the state.
Primary among these is the saw or scrub palmetto, which grows
practically throughout the state, and which is a very dependable

BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH 67

source. Black tupelo probably comes second, although it is a
question which of the two yields the better quality honey.
Black mangrove is a very important honey plant in southern
Florida and is gradually assuming the importance throughout
the greater part of the lowlands and coast that it had before
the big freeze of 1894, which destroyed the trees throughout the
state. Orange honey is somewhat important in Florida, es-
pecially in the locality near Orlando, but is not often gotten in
its purity. Gallberry is found growing throughout a great por-
tion of Florida and increases in value as a honey plant as one goes
toward Georgia. It does not seem to yield so well further south.
Pennyroyal, a low growing plant, is an important source of spring
stimulation throughout tropical Florida, particularly back from
the coast. It is like the fruit bloom of the North and in some

Fig. 27, Semitropical conditions prevail in Florida and in the lower Rio
Grande Valley.

68 BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH

parts of the state frequently yields surplus honey, where colonies
are in shape to gather it beginning early in the year.

Texas tropical honey plants are fewer. Mesquite is probably
the most important and is a tree varying in size up to fifteen feet
in height, which may bloom as many as three times a year. Cat-
claw and huajilla are other important nectar sources coming
early in the year. Further west alfalfa is becoming quite im-
portant, where a greater water supply is available. (See Chapter
on Honey Plants.)

CHAPTER IX

The Alluvial Regions.

ETWEEN the tropics of the South and the mountain regions
B toward the North lies a vast alluvial region of rolling clay-
sand hills, interspersed here and there with patches of rich,
black land. This belt extends across South Carolina, Georgia,
Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and up into parts of Ten-
nessee, Oklahoma and Arkansas, between the mountain ranges
there. We are concerned principally with the region east of the
Mississippi, where beekeeping conditions differ radically from
the tropics and from the mountain regions and where beekeeping
conditions more rearly approximate the Northern ‘‘white clover
belt.”” It is this vast alluvial region which forms what most of
us are accustomed to think of as the ‘‘South.”

On the line next the tropics, the seasons approximate tropical
beekeeping conditions, as with J. E. Marchant of Columbus,
Georgia, while as one goes north toward the distant mountains
of Tennessee and the Carolinas, the season shortens and the
winters become more severe. In the centre of this belt from
north to south, conditions are not unlike those of the Middle
West, except for shorter, lighter winters and longer summers.
One of the cardinal points, which has impressed the writer, is
that most of the honey sources of the alluvial section are plants
and shrubs and few of them are trees. In both the tropics and
the mountainous section of the South, many of the most impor-
tant honey plants are found among the trees. While there are a
great variety of honey plants in this alluvial section, the terri-
tory may be roughly divided into belts, as to the most important
honey plants.

Another influence on the secretion of nectar in honey plants
is the soil and climate. Neither of these features has been studied
much as yet. However, it is quite interesting to notice that the
alluvial region differs in soil types from both the mountain

69

70 BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH

Fig. 28. The rich flora of a Georgia swamp.

and tropical parts of the South. In the tropics, sand predomi-
nates, while in the alluvial section, it is scarce, the red and blue
clay types being in the majority. There are many sections, as in
Alabama and Mississippi, where the soil is well supplied with
limestone and where sweet clover abounds. Along the
Mississippi River in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas,
the swamp flora of the tropics is somewhat duplicated and
we find again trees largely dominating as honey plants. Just
back from the Mississippi River, the soil is usually of the
black type, and the shrubs and smaller honey plants are largely
in the majority, according to F. M. Morgan, J. F. Archdekin,
and Frank Pease of Louisiana. On the Atlantic coast of Georgia,
North Carolina, South Carolina and north Florida extends the
famous gallberry region, where this plant alone is often sufficient
to give an entire crop of honey. In all these lowlands, vines

BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH 71

figure also largely in the list of honey plants, as for instance the
rattan in west Louisiana and east Texas.

Queens and Packages.

In this alluvial section queen rearing and pound packages of
bees figure as an important source of income for the beekeeper.
The season when nectar may be found by the bees is long enough
to permit queen rearing to continue through most of the season
that queensare neededin other partsofthecountry. Inthe tropics,
however, the honey flows often cut off when very hot weather
comes. Then, too, the alluvial section honey flows, except in a
few localities, are long and steady, or at least are not so intensive
as the beekeeper in the white clover belt is accustomed to.
For the most part extracted honey is produced, although there
are many parts of this vast region where some comb honey is
produced and many more where it would pay well for the bee-
keeper who. has not too many bees, to handle the problems of

Fig. 29. An up-to-date apiary in the pine woods of Alabama.

72 BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH

Fig. 30. There are many good locations along the streams in Georgia.

the comb honey producer. The writer would estimate the
commercial production of extracted honey to comb honey in the
alluvial section as about 80 to 20 in 1919. It is probable that
lowering prices for extracted honey following the peace treaty
may increase the production of comb honey again, since prices
on comb honey in the past have been more stable.

Much of this region is covered with pine woods and in such
locations but few of the big beekeepers of the South are found.
However, much of the woods is being cut and when cultivation
of this region has gotten well under way in all parts of the
South, it is probable that the pasture for bees from such culti-
vated crops as field peas, soy beans, cow peas, cotton and alfalfa
may increase. Some very good alfalfa honey is reported in parts
of Mississippi along the “river’’ where the soil types seem to
differ radically from the bulk of the soils of this region. This is

BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH 73

one of the first instances of this plant’s yielding surplus honcy
east of the Mississippi River which has come to the attention of
the author.

The Melilotus Area.

Northern beekeepers who are accustomed to seeing fields of
cultivated sweet clover grow, should visit the sweet clover or
“black land” belt of Mississippi and Alabama, where thousand
of acres of this plant grow wild. The land is of a limestone typ®
and the plant makes a thriving growth. This makes a veritabl
paradise for bees, and as sweet clover wherever found makes a
dependable honey plant in spite of drouth or flood, the value of
this region as a honey producer can easily be seen. However,
much of this land in Alabama, near W. D. Achord, is being
bought up for pasturing and is being fenced, where blooded stock
is being introduced. This may mark the end of honey plants
in much of this region at a not far distant time.

Fig. 31. Where Tennessee Bees hunt Apiary of J. M. Davis at Spring
ill.

74 BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH

Pound Packages.

In this territory the pound package business has assumed
proportions only equaled in parts of Texas. Thousands of pounds
of bees in combless packages go north each year to Canada and
the northern states, and add to the income of the southern bee-
keeper. In this vast sweet clover belt, where melilotus is the
principal source of surplus honey, but where a stimulative nectar
flow may begin weeks before sweet clover blooms, the package
trade has become the salvation of the beekeeper. The apiarist
of this region is enabled to take from one to ten pounds of bees
from his colonies at the time they may approach the swarming
strength, but when it is yet several weeks until the sweet clover
may bloom. This enables him to handle the swarming problem
at an advantage to himself, both financially and from a stand-
point of beekeeping practice. With the package shipping season
over, the colonies easily regain surplus strength for the sweet
clover flow, and a crop of honey follows the crop of bees. We
often wonder what in the world the beekeepers of this region did
before the advent of the package business. Answers to this
query from some of the extensive beekeepers in Alabama indicate
that there was often nothing to do but let the bees swarm, even
where no more increase was wanted and the honey flow was yet
several weeks distant. This may account for the hundreds of
colonies of ‘‘wild’’ bees found in the woods of this region.

Much Honey Produced.

By far the greater portion of the honey produced in the South
is secured in this alluvial region and one of the weakest points of
beekeeping here is the absence of any marketing organization.
This has made it impossible in the past for some of the bee-
keepers to secure an equitable return on their investment. Most
of the honey of this belt is light in color, being of light amber
or lighter. There is no more beautiful honey in the comb than
the partridge pea honey of Georgia and the gallberry regions of
the costal lands produce a product worthy of greater attention
than it has received in the past from the connoisseur of honey.

BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH 75

Winter Losses.

While winter losses in this region are frequently heavy, when
an unusual winter occurs, it is doubtful if beekeepers of this
region will ever adopt northern methods of winter protection.
This is because of the discrepancy in the time between the peak
of strength of the colonies of bees and the beginning of the main
honey flow through most of this belt. In the North there is
every reason for packing bees, so as to reach the peak of brood
rearing before the main honey flow is in progress. There is as
yet but little reason for using methods of wintering which will
increase the number of bees in a colony in parts of the South,
at the season when there is no immediate need for bees and no
way to use them. Low winter temperatures are not unusual here
and snow often falls in winter in much of this entire region.
However, it seldom remains on the ground for long and there
is seldom a stretch of many days when bees may not fly, accord-

Fig. 32. A Virginia clover location.

76 BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH

ing to George H. Hummer of Prairie Point, Mississippi. If the
beekeeper in many parts of this belt can bring his colonies through
alive, even though weak, he can build them in time for the
crop. The excellent wintering, so necessary to a honey crop
further north, is not so necessary here. A temperature as low
as 10° F. below zero has been recorded near Atlanta, Georgia,
Birmingham, Alabama, and Greenville, Mississippi, according
to the U.S. Weather Bureau. However, this is the exception.

Deeper Brood Chambers.

One item of progress which is to be noticed here is the gradual
placing of the eight-frame hive and all hives of small brood cham-
ber size, into the discard. The standard ten-frame dovetailed
hive is found in use by most of the beekeepers in the western
section of this region. In Georgia and South Carolina, where
smaller hives have been used in the past, sentiment is also
changing toward a bigger body. In Georgia and northern Florida
many beekeepers have in the past used an eight-frame body and
a shallow extracting super in addition, for the brood chamber.
This is continued to some extent and is also serviceable where
it is not feasible to leave all the ‘‘winter’’ honey in the brood
chamber in the fall. Bees wintered with the brood chamber filled
with honey may then be given the shallow super of honey in the
spring when a dearth may threaten, or a few weeks before the
main honey flow. However in much of this alluvial territory,
the entire supply of honey is left on the hive. But the need of a
larger brood chamber than is afforded by the eight-frame hive
and in some cases by the ten-frame hive, is noticeable. Many
beekeepers of this section run the year through with two full ten-
frame bodies for the brood chamber. It is our opinion that this
custom increases as one goes west from the Atlantic coast,
across the South. In all parts of this territory, excessive swarm-
ing is a real problem. Some of the largest apiaries in the world
are located in the centre of this belt and with them are found some
of the best beekeepers in the country.

Cotton as a Honey Plant.
One of the distinct features of the honey plants of the alluvial

BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTII 77

region is the frequent failure of cotton to yield much nectar in
all parts of this belt. There are some locations in Alabama and
Mississippi where cotton is scheduled as a nectar producer, but
for the most part throughout the entire alluvial region, cotton
does not rank as an important plant for the beekeeper. Thisisa
peculiar fact, and is possibly due to the difference in soil types,
since in northeast Texas, cotton is the principal honey plant
and there often yields enormous quantities of nectar. However,
in this portion of Texas the soil is a deep, black, waxy loam, while
in some of the Alabama and Mississippi cotton belt red and bluc
clays often predominate. It is the opinion of the writer that
where cotton yields in the alluvial section, the soil types more
nearly approximate the black land of Texas, than elsewhere in
this region. This is an interesting topic for research by southern
beekeepers.

Fig. 33. One of J. J. Wilder’s apiaries in South Georgia.

CHAPTER X
Mountain Beekeeping.

CROSS the northern tier of states usually classed as part of
A Dixieland, ranges of mountains extend, increasing the alti-
tude of most of the country and transforming much of the
season and many of the types of honey plants. It is this region
with which we will deal in this chapter, principally to differenti-
ate the seasons and honey plants, rather than to show a different
type of bee culture or bee appliances. These latter are much
the same as in other parts of the South.

East of the Mississippi River, some of this mountain bee terri-
tory is included by flora, in what is commonly known as the
‘white clover region.’ Indeed, it is the white clover region, for
no beekéeper ever tasted finer white clover honey than that
produced by such men as Porter C. Ward, in the rolling hills of
Kentucky. This plant is also an important source of nectar in
some parts of West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland and Tennessee.
West of the Mississippi River in this same hilly region, through
the Ozarks of Arkansas and their continuation into eastern
Oklahoma, white clover is seldom mentioned as a source of honey
and nectar comes from other sources too numerous to name.

With the arrival of the beekeeper in the mountains of Ten-
nessee and Kentucky, particularly along the lines of the Louisville
& Nashville and Queen & Crescent Railroads, the type of soil
found throughout the alluvial region is absent. Nearing the
famous bluegrass regions, one finds a soil not unlike that of
Illinois and Indiana in some places, -but the presence of the
mountains brings about an entire change of flora from that of
the alluvial region.

Trees Predominate.

As in the tropics, many of the most important sources of honey
are again trees. Prominent among them rank the tulip poplar,
basswood and sourwood, as well as locust, sumac, and lesser

79

80 BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH

Fig. 34. Apiary in Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.

trees, according to G. M. Bentley, of Knoxville, Tennessee.
Basswood yields in greater quantity as one approaches the
mountain country where temperature conditions of climate,
during its period of bloom, are similar to those of Wisconsin.
Tulip poplar also varies in yield according to its elevation and
the type of soil in which it is growing. The reasons for this are
as yet a mystery and offer a fertile field for investigation.

In Maryland, for instance, according to G. H. Cale, of College
Park, there are regions where tulip poplar grows in abundance
and where, with identical trees within a few dozen feet of each
other, some fail to yield nectar, while others do. It has been
noticed that the tulip, growing on an clevation, apparently yields
nectar abundantly. Trees growing further down the slope, in
exactly similar weather conditions throughout the year, often
fail to yield nectar appreciably. It is believed that the tyre of
soil, which is known to vary in such cases, has much to do with
this variation in value of tulip poplar as a nectar producing plant.

BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH 81

Basswood also shows a difference, in the type of wood, since
basswood from trees in Tennessee, for instance, has never given
satisfaction when used for section making by manufacturers of
bee supplies. This is particularly true of those which grow on
lower land in the South and Southeast.

Mountain Climate.

The climate in the higher altitudes in this region is almost
identical with that in many parts of the North, in the so-called
“White Clover Belt.” In West Virginia, in altitudes in the
vicinity of Webster Springs, the winters ard summers approxi-
mate in length and intensity, those of Wisconsin. This also
applies to much territory in eastern Tennessee, eastern Kentucky
and western Virginia, where heavy snowfall, heavy rainfall, quite
low winter temperatures and shorter hot summers are common.
This makes it almost needless to say that bee culture in such
localities in the South requires almost identical bee behavior
operations as in the North.

Fig. 35. An attractive hillside location in Virginia.

82 BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH

Fig. 36. A typical apiary in gums.

Throughout a great part of this mountain region, however,
the altitudes are not nearly so high, and while the winters fre-
quently approximate those of central Illinois, they are usually
milder. However, in practically all cases, the summers are long-
er, frosts disappearing in early spring, returning only late in the
fall, often after Thanksgiving. This, of course, results in a
different type of bee culture, necessitating the application of
white clover region bee behavior operations earlier and later in
the season.

Box Hive Common.

The box hive is well distributed over this territory, usually
exceeding in number many times, the modern hive, in the
higher regions of the mountains. It is probable that there are
ten box hives to every one modern hive in many parts of moun-
tainous West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee.
However, these regions are often so rich in honey producing
flora that it is difficult to induce beekeepers unacquainted with
modern methods, to adopt them. They often get a fair return
in chunk honey from box hives, in spite of poor beekeeping, and

BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH 83

are skeptical of the initial expense incident to the adoption of
better methods. However, the success of one influential bee-
keeper in their vicinity, using more modern methods, usually
turns the scale in favor of modern beekeeping. This does not
mean that there are no good beekeepers in this mountain region.
But they are somewhat the exception and are usually found in
scattered localities, where the success of some modern pioneer
has attracted others.

Winter Losses Heavy.

Winter losses among the uninitiated of these mountain bee
keepers are often enormous. H.L. McMurray, formerly of Ken-
tucky, C. A. Reese, of West Virginia, and C. E. Bartholomew,
formerly of Tennessee, as extension workers in bee culture, have
frequently reported very heavy winter losses in their respective
sections. The writer is inclined to believe this is due primarily

Fig. 37. A Mississippi River bottom location in Arkansas.

8+ BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH

ty y

Fig. 38. Box hive apiary of a typical mountaineer.

to excessive swarming. After-swarms even to the number of
five or six are not infrequent from a single ‘‘gum.’’ These later
swarms are always smaller, build up slowly for winter and are
often hived so late that it is impossible to suppose they can gather
enough honey to winter on. The fact that excessive swarming
is allowed may account for the great number of bees in these
localities, as the census map of bee culture shows. The applica-
tion of modern methods of uniting late swarms and the preven-
tion of excessive swarming works wonders in this fertile country.
It is hard to convince beekeepers in these regions that they can

BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH 85

often get ten times the amount of their average annual yield by
modern methods, when their average annual yield is frequently
less than twenty pounds to the colony. Custom plays an im- °
portant part with some of these mountain people, too, for ex-
cessive swarming is undoubtedly due, among other causes, to
the habit in some localities of ‘‘robbing” the bees but once in a
season.

Diseases Are Endemic.

Happily American foulbrood has not yet found its way into
many of the localities mentioned, in the mountains of the
South. European foulbrood is endemic to this territory and
epidemics of the disease frequently devastate large areas. A
glance at the census figures for 1910, shows a depreciation in the
number of colonies, from the previous year. It has come to
light that hundreds of colonies were lost that year from Euro-
pean foulbrood. Among these box hive beekeepers European
foulbrood is seldom recognized and never treated. Yet it exists
throughout their territory. The writer remembers one Spring
trip through Virginia, where not a single county of the two
dozen or more visited failed to show evidence of European foul-

Fig. 39. Apiary of a Georgia farmer who is an up-to-date beekeeper,

86 BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH

brood. Similar conditions have been reported in Tennessee and
Kentucky, in the mountains. No up-to-date beekeeper has much
to fear from European foulbrood in this territory, for the adoption
of good strains of Italians usually results inits eradication. Most
of the bees kept in this territory are blacks. Occasionally one
runs across a colony of beautifully marked Italians which the
mountain beekeeper has caught as a swarm in the woods. This
brings up speculation as to how far these bees traveled before
they were hived and became ‘‘mountain’’ bees.

Fall Flows Dependable.

Fall flows are usual in all of the mountain regions of the
states mentioned. There is no more beautiful sight in the
South than a West Virginia or Virginia mountain side covered
for acres with masses of aster and goldenrod in the fall, on which
the bees make an excellent harvest. This probably accounts for
the fact that bees in this region survive the poor methods of bee-
keeping, since excessive swarming and poor wintering go hand in
hand. The winters are often severe and, in the higher regions,
good protection pays well. Bees in the lower foothills of Ten-
nessee are seldom protected, and successful beekeepers there
make the adoption of heavy winter packing in their territory
doubtful.

The territory west of the Mississippi River is similar to that
of the region previously discussed. Honey sources are different
and but few of the common plants of the eastern belt of the
mountains afe known across the ‘‘Father of Waters.’’ The
writer is not so familiar with honey sources in that locality, where
the Ozarks of Arkansas and Oklahoma give lower altitudes than
the mountains of Kentucky, Tennessee, and the Virginias.
There are fewer cofmmercial beekeepers located there and not as
many colonies of bees. However, there are some fertile fields
in both states, which are as yet but partly developed and which
offer a field for extension work and modern bee culture. The
climate in this region is somewhat mild in both winter and sum-
mer and the honey sources in good localitics are equally varied,
according to C. E. Sanborn, of Oklahoma, and Frank Horsefal,
of Arkansas.

CHAPTER XI
The Lone Star State.

T is only just to readers and to Texas beekeepers, to treat
of conditions in that state, even in the meagre way possible in
this short chapter, in a separate classification. Until ‘‘Four

Minute Men” of the late war told millions that Texas alone had
more acreage than the whole of Germany, few Americans
realized the vast extent of the state. Until writers point out the
vast differences in beekeeping which necessarily obtain in so
vast a region as Texas, beekeepers elsewhere may never get a
proper conception of the variations in methods, climate, flora
and honey sources which are peculiar to the state.

Following the lead of Louis Scholl in his bulletin on ‘Texas
Beekeeping,’’ published by the Texas State Department of Agri-
culture, 1912, the writer prefers to divide Texas apiculturally
into six divisions, in comparing bee culture there. The Scholl
divisions are: ‘‘North, Central, East, South, West and South-
west.”

North Texas.

Imagine a line drawn through from east to west, which would
cut off the northern tier of counties of the state, to include the
famous Panhandle district. Here the winters are frequently
severe and the summers usually hot and dry, and often not best
suited to bees. Mesquite is found in some portions of this area
and in certain sections, such as the black land portion north and
east of Dallas, some of the finest cotton honey in the world is
produced. Sweet clover is entering the state here in a wild
growth, according to E. W. Cothran, of Roxton. Some horse-
mint, a famous honey plant of the state, is found on the southern
edges of this district. Nearing the Oklahoma line, beekeeping
is rather lax. Near the Arkansas line better practices are in
vogue and in the vicinity of Texarkana, are some of the best

87

88 BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH

Fig. 40. E. G. LeStourgeon, the genial manager of the Texas Honey
Producers Association.

beekeepers of the state. In some localities the lack of early
honey sources prevents rapid building up in spring and probably
not enough attention to scientific wintering is given.

East Texas.

East Texas abounds in minor honey plants, especially along
the river bottoms, and in some sections fruit growing is adding
materially to the stimulative and surplus sources for the bee-
keeper. Near the Louisiana line and farther south large growths
of basswood are found. It is unlikely that basswood in this sec-
tion ever vields as it has been known to yield in Ohio, Wisconsin
and Michigan. Neither is the timber suitable for honey sections,

BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH 89

as is the northern linden. However, there are some reliable
reports of heavy flows from this source. Holly and chinquapin
are mentioned as important honey plants and innumerable vines
figure in honey production, giving a large share of the product
a light or light amber color, according to T. A. Bowden of Pales-
tine.

Central Texas.

In this region are tne main black land fields of Texas and here
the famous horsemint flourishes in all its glory. However: this
famous plant is gradually decreasing in acreage before cultiva-
tion, like the famous blue thistle of Virginia. In the southern
belt of this region, mesquite is common and is an important source
of honey. Sumac is named as important here and in some sec-

Fig. 41. Box hives like these are rapidly being replaced with good equipment.

90 BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH

Fig. 42.

1

tions. broomweed, sometimes called summer farewell, is an im-
portant source.

South Texas.

The famous rattan vine of which one hears wherever he goes
in the eastern portion of this belt, is an important yielder. In
much of this country beekeeping is not profitable and a share of
the honey produced here is of dark color. Reports have reached
the author which indicate that frequent heavy winds from the
Gulf interfere with the bees’ flight in many localities in this
region.

West Texas.

Much of this section is unsuitable for bee culture because of
protracted drouths and soil conditions. In some of the valleys
alfalfa is mentioned as an important honey plant and in some

The apiary shown in Fig. +1 after it had been transferred to good hives.

91

IN THE SOUTII

BEEKEEPING

yea sisdaayseq sexay, UusyM

92 BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH

Fig, 44. Combs built by wild bees in the rocks of Texas.

seasons heavy yields are secured from mesquite, which is found
generally over this belt. There are many lesser honey plants
here, such as catsclaw, which figure in the total yield of the
apiary.

Southwest Texas.

In some years this region is one of the most important honey
producing areas in the world. In others, such as during 1917
and 1918, drouths devastate the country and necessitate the
abandonment of portions of it. Mesquite is probably the most
important honey producing plant and in some years, three
blooms to a season have been known from this source, the
first occurring usually in April. This honey is very light colored,
of a fine flavor and forms the principal source in the famous
“Uvalde” region. Other honey plants are huajilla, catsclaw and
innumerable flowers of the desert regions of much of this terri-
tory. Huajilla honey is rated by many, among them Scholl, as

BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH 93

one of the finest honeys of the state. There are sources in this
region which are available most of the year, but the main sur-
plus flows usually come early in the season and are frequently
‘of short duration. However, the flows are usually very heavy
and big yields frequently result.

Methods in Use.

Not long since, bulk comb honey production was one of the
principal methods used in this state, in which honey produced in
shallow extracting supers was cut out and sold in pails or other
receptacles, being first covered with extracted honey. This
style of production is still quite popular in Texas. Extracted
honey is probably the favorite method followed in this state at
present, and because of the intensity of flows and their short
duration in many portions, is likely to long remain popular.
Commercial beekeeping in the state is mainly modern and the
extension service of the state and disease eradication work,

Fig. 45. L. B. Smith’s modern apiary at Llano, Texas. -

94 BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH

Fig. 46. .\ Texas apiary in the Rio Grande Valley that produced 20,000
pounds of honey from 90 colonies.

under the direction of F. B. Paddock, College Station, (now of
Iowa) is probably second to that of no other state in the union.
Many of the better sections of the state for honey production
are well taken up, but there are still others where more bees
could be kept profitably.

Soils and Climate.

Texas varics radically in soil types, from the black loam of
northeast Texas to the desert of the southwest and the sands of
northwest. Many plants are found in the state which do not
yield as they do in other localities. Dandelion is found abun-
dantly in north Texas, but H. D. Murry reports: ‘I donot mean
to say that becs do not work on dandelion here. I have caught
them in the act, but you would never know it by looking in the

BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH 95

hives.” This seems indeed peculiar to the beekeeper of the North
where dandelion is a mainstay of spring.

Climate varies here as one might expect, who knows the vast
stretches of territory included in the state. In the north, in the
vicinity of Fort Worth and Dallas, snows are not infrequent in
winter and quite low temperatures are common at that season.
However, throughout the state high summer temperatures are
common and in the southwest, temperatures of the desert are
well known. All this naturally tends to have a vital influence
on the seasons when honey plants will yield and more as to the
intensity of the honey flows. There is no prettier sight than the
prairies of the state colored with flowers as far as the eye can see.
In some such sections a bee is seldom seen on these flowers.

Commercial Production.
Excepting California, there are probably more commercial

SSIES
a

Fig. 47. Scholl arranges his hives in groups of five in partial shade.

96 BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH

honey producers in Texas than in any other state. One is im-
pressed in visiting the state by the number of beekeepers who do
things in a big way, operating hundreds of colonies and marketing
their honey in carlots. Inthe southern part of the state, much of
the common labor in the Scholl apiaries has been managed by the
use of Mexicans, and it is in this part of the state that the most
honey is produced and marketed. In spite of the enormous
quantities of honey produced in Texas, one is impressed by the
similar quantity of honey which is sold within the state and
consumed there, according to E. G. Le Stourgeon.

The breeding of queen bees and shipment of combless packages
forms an important source of revenue for dozens of Texas bee
men. The value of this work was evidenced during the Euro-
pean war, when Texas beekeepers shipped thousands of pounds
of their surplus bees to western states, where heavy winter losses
had threatened the production of honey. The shipment of comb-
less packages in Texas is somewhat different than in other parts
of the South, since not all of the package shippers are confronted
with colonies at swarming strength long before the honey flows.
Many of the flows come nearer the natural peak of strength than
in Alabama and Mississippi.

Texas beekeeping has already taken advantage of most of the
good locations, with the exception of a few counties in the
northern and eastern parts. These, for the most part, are
not the counties where one would be most successful. However,
there are many localities occupied too much by box hive men,
as in all other states, which would be the better for settlement by
bee men of- modern tendencies.

CHAPTER XII
Bee Diseases.

LTHOUGH bee diseases are quite prevalent throughout
A the southern states, fortunately but a small percentage of
the total infections have been found to be American foul-
brood. Consequently the losses to commercial beekeepers who
use Italian stocks are slight. On the other hand, in the Appala-
chian mountains, where the hundreds of ‘‘beekeepers’’ have 90
per cent black bees, European foulbrood is endemic and fre-
quently epidemic, causing the losses of thousands of colonies
at least once in a decade. This was noticeably true in the year
1909, when the regions mentioncd were visited by a European
foulbrood epidemic. Most of the South is as yet unorganized
to fight bee diseases, and if American foulbrood had ever gained
a substantial foothold in this section, the bees would probably
have been lost ina short time. In one case the writer visited in a
southeastern state for one month in 1916 and found actual evi-
dence of European foulbrood in every one of forty-two counties
visited. In this state there was no inspection or extension service
for bee culture and consequently but few rcal commercial bee-
keepers. Such conditions do not obtain in most of the South,
however, and fortunately the writer does not remember of hav-
ing seen but one or two cases of American foulbrood in seven-
teen months spent in this territory, investigating such conditions
for the U.S. government.

A Prospect.

Since European foulbrood is considered to be primarily a
spring disease and to often cure itself when settled warm weather
comes, one might think its ravages in the South might be nil.
Such, however, is not the case, as it is the opinion of the writer
that more losses, winter and summer, are due to European foul-

97

98 BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH

brood than any other cause, except excessive swarming. Prob-
ably the infection is a sequence of excessive swarming, since the
disease is known to readily affect weak colonies. Again, the con-
sequences are fatal in so large a percentage of cases because of
the prevalence of black bees in most of the apiaries conducted
by non-commercial beekeepers and novices. The writer has
visited hundreds of bee yards in spring, where the beekeepers
were discouraged with the outlook and believed the cutting of
timber had ruined the territory for bee pasture. Examination
of combs showed in many cases that the death of colonies was
often due to European foulbrood, which disease may at least be
retarded by the introduction of pure Italian queens. For this
reason, it is the opinion of the writer and many of the beekeepers
of this region, that extension work in bee culture is more vital
to the immediate future of beekeeping, than is inspection work.
When American foulbrood shall have ‘made some inroads into
the territory, inspection work will be necessary and probably
more successful, for the preceding educational work which may
have been done by the extension men and women.

American Foulbrood.

Practically speaking, widespread infections from this bee dis-
ease in the South are rare. Fortunately too, the few states where
American foulbrood continually crops out in a minor fashion,
have an adequate inspection service. This is true especially of
Texas and it is the opinion of the writer, that so long as the
present system of handling bee diseases in vogue in Texas is
continued, beekeepers there will have nothing to fear from Amer-
ican foulbrood. The inspection work in Texas has been by areas,
in counties where the beekeepers thought enough of their pro-
fession to organize. Some cases of the disease have been found
in Tennessee and Kentucky and some in West Virginia. In
Tennessee a good inspection service is maintained at this writing,
in charge of J. M. Buchanan, Franklin. Charles A. Reese at
Charleston was in charge of the work in West Virginia (now
abandoned), and his work was entirely successful. Wilmon
Newell and staff are doing good work in Florida. No other

REEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH 99

Fig. 48. Suit worn by a Florida Inspector,

100 BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH

Fig. 49. Texas inspector giving a demonstration of transferring.

southern state is known to the writer to be maintaining an
adequate inspection service at this time.

Two Big Hindrances.

In the eradication of bee diseases, there are two great hin-
drances: first, too many box hives, and second, too many non-
commercial beekeepers. Both can be obviated by extension
work. The box men can either be taught to adopt modern meth-
ods or be forced to get out of business. Modern beekeeping has
no place for the man who keeps bees in other than a movable
comb hive, whether it be manufactured or home made. The
primary object is the ability of examination afforded by the
movable comb hive.

The non-commercial beekeepers will be largely done away
with when modern methods have been taught by the extension

BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH 101

men. At present the South is not by any means overstocked
with bees, even though 48 per cent of the total number of colo-
nies of bees in the United States are said to be located in this
territory. This means that more commercial beekeepers could
be welcomed without overstocking either the pasture or the
market. -Even the fellow who keeps only a few bees for his own
honey supply has no excuse for not using movable frame hives,
since he can make them himself, if he does not wish to buy
supplies. Every well posted beekeeper knows not only that it
is impossible to eradicate bee diseases efficiently in non-movable
frame hives, but he knows what is of more import: that disease
cannot be recognized until much harm has already been done in
the vicinity by its spread, where the bees are kept in logs and
boxes.

Fig. 50. Think of inspecting a yard like this.

102 BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH

Other Diseases.

From some parts of the more tropical South come frequent
reports of considerable trouble from bee paralysis. This disease
is common to hot climates, but there have been few really
serious losses from this disease, which unfortunately, does not
vield to treatment in all cases. There have been reports of a
“Disappearing Disease’ but most of these have revealed nothing
of import when investigated.

Just why the South with its great number of colonies of bees
should be fairly immune from American foulbrood so far, is
unknown. A conjecture which the writer believes a good one is
this: There is little honey shipped into the region for human
consumption and most of the shipping of bees is out of the
South. While the facts are not known, it is reasonable to sus-
pect that shipment of honey from apiaries where diseases exist
is responsible for much disease spreading, through the robbing
of used honey cans, etc. Whether or not much disease is usually
shipped with bees is only to be conjectured. However, it is
quite unlikely that much disease is ever transmitted by pound
packages, and the shipment of nuclei is rapidly giving place to
package shipments, Most men who buy bees in the South buy
them from their own region and consequently run a smaller
risk of buying disease than if purchased in the North, where
disease is all too prevalent.

Need of Education.

The need of acquainting beekeepers with the symptoms of
bee diseases is seen throughout the countryas well as in the South.
Beekeepers, as a rulc, seldom harbor the disease when they know
it is present. Taught to recognize the symptoms and to rec-
ognize the infections at sight, the end of serious disease losses
would soon come. There is no more efficient method of accom-
plishing this than by extension work, either by purely extension
or by inspectors who are authorized to give part time to educa-
tional work.

Not enough publicity is given ihe dangers of disease incident

BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH 103

Fig. 51. The wreck that follows an epidemic of disease when left un-
treated.

to various phases of beekeeping. Too few of the beekeepers who
must be eventually reached, take bee journals. The newspaper
columns of most dailies are open to short articles on such sub-
jects, when written by reliable men. This fact is being taken
advantage of by some of the extension forces, in order to get
the box hive beekeeper thinking and to reading free government
bulletins, even when he will not buy bee journals and books.
Of necessity the appeal must be to his greater chances of financial
success by the change to modern methods and the eradication
of diseases. Too much time has been given to patriotic appeals
and attempts to reach his sympathy, which, except in war time,
are largely preordained to failure.

No one can estimate the financial loss from epidemics of Euro-
pean foulbrood in the Appalachians, where most of the honey
is consumed at home. The total would easily reach thousands of
dollars. We are a wealthy people, too much given to belittling
losses from waste. Every southern beekeeper should get behind

104 BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH

the educational forces of his state and should see that the free
government bulletins on bee diseases and bees receive far wider
distribution among the little fellows, than they have ever had in
the past. Dr. F. B. Paddock wrote of Texas extension and in-
spection work: ‘We have always felt that the inspection work
in this state was most entirely a matter of education. While we
have taken the stand that we could not legitimately, under the
provisions of the law, engage actively in extensive extension
work, we have nevertheless given the inspector every encourage-
ment in this work. We are going farther and suggest that the
inspectors put on demonstrations of transferring and the treat-
ment of disease.”’

The Value of Asepsis.

Considerable interest among southern beekeepers is centering
on the inspection work in Florida begun in 1919, where a large
appropriation has been granted to fight bee diseases. The work
is under the direction of Wilmon Newell.

Experience with the citrus canker in Florida, where success
in the eradication of this plant disease has made Mr. Newell
famous, has brought about extreme methods in asepsis among
the inspectors. Very thorough methods are taken in disinfecting
instruments used, and workers wear a regular suit, which is
also disinfected, as are their shoes, before they leave the prem-
ises where bee disease may have been found. The success
cf this project will be watched with interest, as Florida has more
to gain from preventive measures than from treatment of bee
diseases, since the latter are happily rather scarce in that state.

CHAPTER XIIi
Southern Marketing Problems.

HERE is probably no region of this country in which the
honey produced in any area is discriminated against
as much as the honey produced in the South, east of the

Mississippi River, when sold in northern markets. An obsolete
and unfair classification of all honey produced in this region as
“Southern’’ has been common. In this case the producer of
light colored honey does not fare as well as he should, when his
price for honeyis compared with that of the producer of darkcolored
honey, who may also sell on the northern market. The present
classification of honey based largely on color and not on food
value and “‘foreign’”’ content, no matter where produced, is ob-
viously unfair, but it will take years of education to climinate it.
However, it will not take years to eliminate unfair discrimination
against the fine honeys of the South. The best remedy is or-
ganization and honest grading.

Most of the emergency funds of the Bee Culture Laboratory
during the war were spent in increasing honey production, some
of itin the South. This was right. Nearly half the bees of the
whole country are there and not much more honey than could
be consumed locally has ever been produced in hundreds of south-
ern localities, Texas excepted. Emergency funds could bring
great results there where producers are anxious to increase
their output and where their mental attitude was far more re-
ceptive to changes in their methods, than in much of the North
and East. One of the good features of the work there was or-
ganization.

Southern Honeys.

For the most part, the honey produced in the South is light
amber or amber in color. There are some regions where quite
105

106 BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH

Fig. 52. Gakler's wagon was long a familiar sight on the streets of
Memphis.

dark colored honey is produced, but these regions can not fairly
bring upon the balance of the product, the unjust classification
ot “Southern.” From some regions, namely Florida, where
black and white tupelo honey is produced, there comes some of
the finest honey which any man has ever eaten. Similarly in
southwest Texas, huajilla yields a wonderfully fine grade of
nicely flavored, white honey. For the consumer of the middle
South, it is hard to better his purchases, than from the regions
ot Mississippi and Alabama, where wild sweet clover yields, or
in south Georgia, where partridge pea abounds. Yet how many
consumers of honey elsewhere in the country and how many
beekeepers ever heard of these honeys at bee conventions orinthe
market? The need is publicity and cooperative marketing.

BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH 107

Honey Prices.

Not alone to justify the standing of the South as a honey
producing region, is cooperative marketing advisable. The un-
fair prices paid many southern producers by unscrupulous buyers
of the North and South, give a more important reason for in-
telligent marketing. In one region, many barrels of honey
were bought during the war at six cents per pound, and resold
in New York City to a foreign government for seventeen and a
-half cents per pound. Surely this is not fair to the producer,
whose honey, in this case, was one of the finest samples ever seen
by the writer anywhere. It is quite likely that the average south-
ern producer has received less for his honey than the producer of
the other parts of this country, and in many cases, considering
his product as graded by flavor, color, and body, he deserves
a higher market price.

Honey Exchanges.

Organization is beginning in parts of the South, mainly through

Fig. 53. This Georgia beekeeper has a honey route and serves his cus-
tomers direct from the tank in the back of his car.

108 BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH

the activity of agents of the U. 5. Department of Agriculture.
One of the best of these, the Tupelo Honey Exchange at Wewah-
itchka, Florida, was organized during a visit made there by the
writer. There can be no doubt but that this was a move in the
right direction, as the region served by this exchange has re-
ceived but little of the benefits of war time prices. In Mississippi
the writer has been informed by R. B. Willson that a number of
the county agents, in localities where much honey is produced,
have aided their beekeepers in marketing cooperatively. This is

a movement which is bound to spread. "4
)
The Texas Honey Producers.

One of the most notable and most successful moves among
beekeepers of the South for marketing their honey and receiving
an adequate payment for their labor, is the case of the Texas
Honey Producers Association of San Antonio, of which E. G.
LeStourgeon is manager. This association handles the output
of most of the large apiaries of Texas, has its own brand, enforces
honest grading and safe packing, and has added several cents per
pound, in many cases, to the total received by Texas beekeepers
for their product. The association is also cooperative in buying
supplies for the beekeeper and has served to put beekeeping of
Texas on a more safe and sound basis. This is a system which
could be adopted safely by many other sections and is a method
of selling which must be adopted in some form, before the South
as a whole is to receive her just deserts in the honey markets of
the world.

Southern Production.

The total production of the South is low, when the total
number of colonies of bees in the entire region is considered.
Some whole counties have been gone over by the writer, with
never a sight of a modern hive. The work of county agents, who
have gone into such regions, with a modern hive strapped on the
back of their buggies, where an auto could not go and the best
means of travel was horseback, notably northern South Caro-

BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH 109

lina, but where honey plants abounded in numbers, cannot be
estimated as to the total ultimate value. The opportunities are
great in most parts of the South; where often enough bees are
already there to handle the flora, if properly managed. Southern
beekeepers will have to get together and work to eliminate the
box hive man by changing him into a modern beekeeper or elimi-
nating him from the game by honest means, before the South
will receive its proper share of the money spent annually in this
country for honey. Present production is about two and one
half pounds per capita for the entire country and this probably
is cutin halfin the South. There is great room for expansion and
education of the market, before over production ever need be-
come a bogey.

Progress in Marketing.

Although the South probably has made greater strides than
any other part of the country in the past five years, in bettering

|
TEN POUNDS : NET WEIGHT |

Fig. 54. Label of the Texas Cooperative Honey Producers Association.

110 BEEKEEPING IN THE SOTTH

methods of honey production, comparatively little has been
done to better the marketing conditions. This is absolutely
necessary if sales are to keep pace with production, and prices
remain within reason for the producer. A few beekeepers
like J. J. Wilder are pioneering in aiding others to sell their
honey at a reasonable price, and still others are venturing into
bottling and exploiting their own markets. The good effect of
such ventures has already been felt in all such territories where
the work is under way. Southern beekeepers, with their fingers
on the pulse of sales and prices, should endeavor to keep up
prices in comparison with increased production and to educate
all markets to use southern honey. The classification ‘‘Southern”
should soon become as famous as that of ‘‘Uvalde’’ or ‘‘Lone
Star.’

CHAPTER XIV
Surplus Honey Plants of the South.

O COVER this topic in the space of one chapter is ob-
T viously impossible. However, no book about beekeeping
would be complete without some reference to honey
plants. The greatest difficulty in arranging the contents of this
chapter has been to get reliable information. This does not
mean that information which has been furnished the writer has
been unreliable, but that the scientific name of individual honey
plants was seldom known by the informants. That the task of

Fig. 55. ‘Blossoms of bitterweed in Tennessee.
111

112

BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH

Fig. 56.

Blossoms of black locust in Virginia.

BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH 113

tracing these to a reliable source is too great to accomplish in a
short time is certain.

Therefore the contents of this chapter will show only the ten
or twelve plants in each state from which a sufficient portion of
the surplus honey is secured, to make the plants of real apicul-
tural importance. The scientific name of the plant has been de-
termined by reference of the case in question to the botany
department of the several states in question, or to recognized
scientific workers in the locality. The writer assumes no re-
sponsibility for the accuracy of other than the common names,
although every effort has been taken to make this report worthy
of credence.

What Is a Surplus Honey Plant?

Another feature which is seldom recognized by beekeepers is
that frequently honey plants should be classed as surplus honey
plants, when they are by custom placed in the stimulative or
pollen-producing column. Too frequently beekeepers say this or
that plant does not yield surplus. Many cases investigated have
shown that the plant ordinarily yielded surplus honey, but that
the bees owned by the man in question were seldom in shape
to get surplus from the plant at the season of its bloom. Too
frequently this is because of poor beekeeping, rather than be-
cause of the season or other conditions.

The mistakes of northern farmers who settle in the South,
have frequently been pointed out to the writer, by government
men in that territory. Attempts are made, unsuccessfully, to
raise crops wholly unadapted to the South or by methods pre-
destined to failure, merely because such crops or methods suc-
ceeded in the North. The Northern beekeeper settling in the
South frequently makes the same mistakes. Many plant buck-
wheat or alfalfa, because they have come from portions of the
United States where these were staple honey plants. Notenough
attention has been given by beekeepers to the influence of tem-
perature or soils on nectar secretion of honey plants. No atten-
tion can be given to these factors in this chapter, but they
undoubtedly explain the failure of buckwheat or alfalfa to yield

114 BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTII

Fig. 57. Beehives among the wild asters in Virginia.

nectar in nearly every part of the southern states. Many plants
have nectar secreting qualities attributed to them, when in reality
such plants are seldom visited by bees. Doubtless many will
criticize the lists given here. We leave their accuracy to the test
of time. We enter a plea that beekeepers do more careful ob-
serving in their beekeeping practice. There are few industries
in which less is known of the ‘‘why”’ of things than in beekeeping.
Method of Listing.

Plants are listed by states in the alphabetical order of their
commonest local names. No attempt has been made to arrange
the plants in the order of their importance. There are few sur-
plus honey plants which are always important throughout one
entire state. The scientific name follows the common name as
nearly as it has been determined. The usual order of its bloom
in a normal season, compared with others on the list, varies too
greatly because of the elevation and latitude to list. Plants con-
sidered as surplus honey plants in this list are those credited by
better beekeepers in the several states as being their principal
sources of surplus honey, or those which the author knows to be

BEEKEEPING IN THE SOUTH 115

important sources. All other plants, although worked hard at
times by the bees, are omitted. The states chosen as southern

states are those classed as such by the United States Department
of Agriculture.

Alabama.
Aster—A ster Spp. Clover (Sweet)—Melilotus alba
Clover (White)—Trifolium re- Cotton—Gossypium hirsutum
pens Gallberry—ZIlex Glabra

Fig. 58. Mesquite is an important source of honey in Texas.

116 BEEKEEPING

Huckleberry—Vaccinium Spp.

Locust (Honey)—Gleditsia tria-
canthos, L.

Prairie Clover—Trifoltum caro-
linianum?

Palmetto—Sabal megacarpa

Partridge pea—Cassia chamae-
crista, L.

IN THE SOUTH

‘ Sourwood—Oxydendrum arbo-

reum (L) DC.
Spanish needle—Bidens Spp.
Sumac—Rhus Spp.
Titi—Cyrilla racemiflora
Tupelo (Black)— Nyssa Spp.
Willow—Sahx Spp.

Arkansas.

Blackberry—Rubus

Clover (Sweet) —Melilotus alba

Clover (White)—Trifolium re-
pens

Cotton—Gossypium hirsutum

Huckleberry—Vacciniaceae

Persimmon—Dutospyros virgin-
tana

Spanish needle—Bid ns Spp.

Sumac—Rhus Spp.

Tupelo— Nyssa Spp.

Florida.

Clover (Prairie)—Trifolium
carolintianum?

Chinquapin—Castanea pumila

Gallberry—Tlex glabra

Gum (Black)— Nyssa Spp.

Holly (White)—Ilex opaca?

Mangrove (Black)—Rhizopho-
ra mangle Linn?

Orange—Citrus Spp.

Palmetto (Saw)—Sabal mega-
carpa

Palmetto (Cabbage)—Sa-
bal palmetto

Partridge pea—Cassia chamae-
crista, L.

Spanish needle—Bidens Spp.

Summer farewell—Aster Spp.

Sunflower (Wild)— Helianthus
Spp.

Wicky (Basswood)—Tilia am-
ericana

Georgia.

Aster—A ster spp.

Black tupelo— Nyssa sylvatica

Gallberry—Ilex glabra

Locust (Honey)—Cleditsia triz-
canthos, L.

Huckleberry—Vaccinium spp.

Partridge pea—Cassia chamae-
crista, L.

Prairie clover—Trifolium caro-
linianum?

BEEKEEPING

Sourwood—Oxydendrum arbo-
reum (L) DC.

Tulip poplar—Liriodendron tu-
lipifera, L.

IN THE SOUTH

117

Titi—Cyrilla racemiflora

White tupelo— Nyssa aquatica
L

White holly—TIlex opaca

Kentucky.

Aster—A ster Spp.

Buckwheat—Fagopyrum fago-
pyrum ,

Clover (White)—Trifolium re-
pens

Clover (Alsike)—Trifolium hy-
bridum

Clover (Crimson)—Trifolium
incarnatum

Cowpea—Vigna sinensis

Dandelion—Taraxacum taraxa-
cum

Daisy (Whiteweed)—Chrysan-
themum leucanthemum

Goldenrod—Solidago Spp.

Locust (Black)—Robinia pseu-
dacacia

Linden (Linn-Basswood)—
Tilia americana

Melilotus (Sweet Clover)
—Melilotus alba

Melons (Cultivated)—Citrullus
etc.

Maple—A cer rubrum

Persimmon—Duvospvros virgin-
tana

Redbud—Cercis canadensis

Tulip tree Tulip Poplar)—
Liriodendron tulipifera

Willow—Salix Spp.

Louisiana.

Alfalfa—Medicago sativa

Boneset—Eupatorium perfolia-
tum

Clover (White)—Trifolium re-
pens

Cotton—Gossypium hirsutum

Gallberry—IJlex glabra

Goldenrod—Solidago Spp.

Heartsease (Smartweed)—Per-
sicaria persicaria

Locust (Black)—Robinia
Pseudoacacia, L.

Orange—Citrus Spp.

Partridge pea—Cassia chamae-
crista

Peppervine—A mpelopsis arbo-
rea

Rattan—Berchemia scandens.

Saw Palmetto—Sabal mega-
car pa

Tupelo (Black)— Nyssa Spp.

Willow (Button)—Salx Spp.

118 BEEKEEPING

IN THE SOUTH

Maryland.

Aster—A ster Spp.

Chestnut—Castanea dentata

Clover (White)—Trifolium re-
pens

Clover (Alsike)—Trifolium hy-
bridum

Clover (Sweet-Melilotus)—
Melilotus alba

Goldenrod—Solidago Spp.

Joe pye weed (Boneset)—Eu-
patorium purpureum

Locust (Black)—Robinia
pseudoacacia

Sumac——-Rhus Spp.

Thistle (Blue )—Echiumvulgare

Tulip poplar (Tulip tree)—
Liriodendron tulipifera.

Mississippi.

Aster—A ster Spp.

Bitterweed—(N o commercial
value)

Carcot (wild)—Daucus Spp.?

Clover (White)—Trifolium re-
pens

Clover (Sweet) —Melilotus alba

Cotton—Gossvpium hirsutum

Gallberry—lIlex glabra

Gum (Tupelo)— Nyssa aqua-
tica

Gum (Black)— Nyssa sylvatica

Heartsease—Persicaria perst-
caria

Holly (White)—Jlex opaca?
Locust (Black)—Robinia
Pseudoacacia, L.

Palmetto (Saw)—Sabal mega-
car pa

Partridge Pea—Cassia chamae-
crista, L.

Sourwood—Oxydendrum arbor-
eum

Spanish Needle—Bidens Spp.

Sumac—Rhus Spp.

Titi—Cyrilla racemiflora

Willow—Salix Spp.

North Carolina.

Asters—A ster Spp.
Blackberry—Vaccinium Spp.
Clethra—Clethracae
Gallberry—ZIlex Glabra
Goldenrod—Solidago Spp.
Holly (White)—TIlex opaca?
Ironwood (White Titi)—Cy-
rilla racemiflora, L.

Sourwood—Oxydendrum arbor-
eum

Sweet Bav (Laurel Tree)—
Persea Borbonia, L—Spreng.

Tulip poplar—Liriodendron tu-
lipifera

BEEKEEPING

IN THE SOUTH

119

Oklahoma.

Alfalfa—Medicago sativa

Aster—A ster Spp.

Clover (Sweet)—Melilotus alba

Clover (White)—Trifolium re-
pens

Cotton—Gossypium hirsutum

Goldenrod—sSolidago Spp.

Heartsease (Smartweed)— Per-
sicaria persicaria

Locust (Honey )—Gleditsia
triacanthos, L.

Milkweed—A sclepias Spp.

Partridge pea—Cassia chamae-
crista, L.

Persimmon—Diospyros virgini-
ana

Sumac—Rhus Spp.

South Carolina.

Alder—AInus Spp.

Clover (White)—Trifolium re-
pens

Gallberry—Ilex glabra

Gum (Black)— Nyssa sylvatica

Gum (Tupelo)— Nyssa aqua-
tica

Holly (White)—Jlex opaca?

Persimmon—Diospvyros virgini-
ana

Privet—Ligustrum Spp.

Tulip poplar—Liriodendron tu-
lipifera

Sourwood—Oxydendrum arbor-
eum

Rattan—Berchemia scandens

Vetch—Vicia Spp.

Tennessee.

Aster—A ster Spp.

Basswood—Tihia Spp.

Bitterweed—(N 0 commercial
value)

Boneset—Eupatorium perfolia-
tum

Clover (White)—Trifolium re-
pens

Clover (Alsike)—Trifolinm hy-
bridum

Clover (Crimson)—Trifolium
incarnatum

Goldenrod—Solidago Spp.

Heartsease (Smartweed)—Per-
sicaria persicaria

Locust (Black) —Robinia pseu-
doacacta, L.

Sourwood—Oxydendrum arbor-
eum

Spanish needle—Bidens Spp.

Tulip poplar—Liriodendron
Tulipifera

120 BEEKEEPING

IN THE SOUTH

Texas.

Cotton—Gossypium hirsutum
Horsemint—Monarda punctata
Mesquite— Prosopis glandulosa
Huajilla— Havardia brevifolia
Catsclaw—Acacia Greggit &
Wrightit
Cactus—Opuntia Spp.
Broomweed—Gutierrezia Tex-
ana

Sumac—Rhus Spp.

Persimmon (Mexican)—Dto0s-
pyras Texana

Holly (Youpon)—ZIlex opaca,
etc.

Rattan—Berchemia scandens

White brush—Lippia ligustrina

Virginia.

Apple—Malaceae etc.
ceae)

Aster—A ster Spp.

Basswood—Tilia Spp.

Blue thistle—Echium vulgare

Clover (White)—Trifolium re-

(Rosa-

pens
Clover (Crimson)—Trifolium
imcarnatum

Gallberry—Ilex glabra

Goldenrod—Solidago Spp.

Persimmon—Dv0s pyros virgint-
ana

Sourwood—Oxydendrum arbor-
eum

Sumac—Rhus Spp.

Tulip poplar—Liriodendron tu-
liptfera

West Virginia.

Aster—A ster spp.

Basswood—Tilia spp.

Buckwheat—Fagopyrum | escu-
lentum

Clover (White)—Trifolium re-
pens

Clover (Sweet )—Meltlotus alba

Clover (Alsike)—Trifolium hy-
bridum

Goldenrod—Solidago spp.

Gum (Black)— Nyssa sylvatica

Red bud—Cercis canadensis

Sourwood—Oxydendrum arbor-
eum

Sumac—Rhus spp.

Tulip poplar—Liriodendron tu-
lipifera

INDEX

Pages
A. F. B... f 98-102-104
After Swarm Losses. 84
Alluvial Regions. os 46-69

Amount of Bees Necessary.
Aster Honey for Wintering.

Bee Pest 64
Beginners’ Needs 30
Building Up Colonies 17

Color of Southern Honey...
Comb or Extracted Honey.
Combless Shipping Packages.
Conserving the Bees.........
Cotton as a Honey Plant..
Cultivated Nectar Secreting Plants...

Deeper Brood Chambefs................:.c--cceeeeeee 76

E. F, B.

Fall Flows in the Mountains......

Hindrance to Disease Eradication.
Honey Flows, Time of.

Honey Flows, Type of.

Honey Shipments and Disease.
Honey Sources:

Alabama. 115
Arkansa 116
Florida 116
Georgia 116-117
Kentucky. 117
Louisiana... 117
Maryland 118
Mississippi 118
North Carolina. 118
Oklahoma 119
South Carolina

Tennessee

TOKAS eenccstaccece, te aussds

Virginia... -.

West Virginia.

Inspection Service for Bee Disease...........-.. 98

Making a Start 29
Melilotus Area
Migratory Beekeeping
Modern Hive, A
Mountain Climates...
Mountain Regions...

Organizations, Honey Selling.............. 108-109
Overstocking. 101

Palmettos Affected by Heat.
Prices Paid for Honey

Queens for Package Bees__..........22..--.-:20----+4 64
Rearing Queen Bees 57
Seasonal Operation 35
Shallow Supers as Brood Chambers............ 24
Snowfall in the South 41
Soils and Nectar Secretion................ 61-69-80
“Southern Honey”’ Classifications.............. 105

Style of Hive for the South...
Surplus Honey Plant, What is a..
Swarm Prevention

Swarm Prevention by Packages. _................-

Texas Beekeeping Notes..
Time to Ship Bees ee
Time to Start Beekeeping in the South......30

Trees as Honey Plants 79
Tropical Regions. 45-61
Tulip Poplar Vields 80
Variety of Honey Plants 65

White Clover in the Mountains
Wilder on Wintering.

Winter Losses Heavy...........---2seeeeeeeeeee ee
Winter Protection
Winter Stores, Greater Use of.........2...000.-...
Winter Supplies...
Winter Temperatures, Chart of Kentucky..40

Vields of Honey in the South.__0..... 10-13

Zero Temperatules...........----ssccecesseenesereennes! 47-76

BOOKS ON BEEKEEPING FOR SALE BY AMERICAN
BEE JOURNAL

Practical Queen Rearing

BY FRANK C. PELLETT

1 ic ca ' In preparation for this book Mr. Pel-
PRACTICAL QUEEN-REARING lett visited many of America’s fore-
rie raeTT most beekeepers and queen breeders,

both north and south, and has de-
scribed their methods fully. ”'

The methods of the older queen-
breeders and writers, Alley, Doolittle
and others, ‘are explained with the
variations which are the development
of later years.

Simple methods of rearing a few queens in a small apiary,
as well as methods used for rearing queens in wholesale
quantity, make the book valuable alike to the ordinary
beekeeper and commercial queen breeder.

Cloth binding, 105 pages, 40 illustrations. Price $1.

American Honey Plants
BY FRANK C. PELLETT

The first book in the English language on the subject of
honey plants

A knowledge of the sources of nec-
tar is fundamental to the success of
the beekeeperwas the difference of
a mile or two in distance often
doubles the returns from the api-
ary on account of better pasturage,
This book is the result of years of
study and visits to important hon-
ey producing sections, from New
England to California, and from
Canada to Florida and Texas.

An authoritative book by an expert
beekeeper and reliable naturalist.
Profusely illustrated with original
photographs.

300 large pages, 155 fine illustra-
tions, cloth bound. Price $2.50.

AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL
Hamilton, III.

BOOKS ON BEEKEEPING FOR SALE BY AMERICAN
BEE JOURNAL

OUTAPIARIES

BY M. G. DADANT

A clear and concise explanation of the requirements for
proper | placing, arranging and managing outapiaries.
Special chapters devoted to Apiary Sites, Basis of Placing
the Apiary, Systems of Management, Moving, Autos and
Trucks, Honey Houses and Equipment, with treatment of
apiary work during different seasons, as applied to out-
apiaries.

This book is especially valuable to the beginning out-
apiarist and will contain many items of interest to the
older veteran. Cloth Bound. 125 Pages.

Price $1.00. Mailing weight one pound. 50 Illustrations.

American Honey Plants
BY FRANK C. PELLETT

The First Book in the English Language on the Subject
of the Honey Plants

A knowledge of the sources of nectar is fundamental
to the success of the beekeeper, as the difference of a
mile or two in distance often doubles the returns from
the apiary, because of better pasture. This book is the
result of many years of study and personal visits to im-
portant honey producing districts, from New England to
California and from Canada to Florida and Texas. An
authoritative book by an expert beekeeper. Profusely
illustrated with original photographs. 300 large 8vo
pages; 155 fine illustrations. Price $2.50. Mailing weight
3 pounds.

American Bee Journal, Hamilton, Ill.

BOOKS ON BEEKEEPING FOR SALE BY AMERICAN
BEE JOURNAL

Langstroth on the Honeybee
REVISED BY DADANT

This book, originally written by Rev. L. L. Langstroth,
the inventor of the movable frame hive, has been revised
and kept up to date by the editor of the American Bee
Journal. It is the one book that no beekeeper can afford
to be without. It contains careful and accurate accounts
of the life and habits of the honeybee and the mysteries
of the hive. Full and reliable information concerning
the detection and treatment of disease, the sources of nec-
tar and pollen, and care of the apiary throughout the year
are included. The best methods of producing and mar-
keting large crops of honey are made clear. This book is
nicely bound.in attractive cloth cover and contains 575
pages. The price is very low for a book of this size and
quality. Price $2.50.

First Lessons in Beekeeping
BY C. P. DADANT

The senior editor of the American
Bee Journal, who is the author of this
book, has spent nearly all his life in
a beekeeping atmosphere. His father,
the late Charles Dadant, was an in-
vestigator who became well known
on both sides of the Atantic. As a
: young man, the author of this book
: was associated with his father in
honey production and assisted him in
the many experiments which he con-
ducted in his efforts to make bee-
keeping a practical success.

Contains just the things you want to
know, in a style easily understood
and with many pictures to explain
the text. You may safely recommend
First Lessons in Beekeeping to your
friends.

FIRST LESSONS
IN BEEKEEPING

i
SEELEY

P, DADANT i

167 pages, cloth bound, well illustrated. Price, $1.00.

American Bee Journal, Hamilton, Ill.

BOOKS ON BEEKEEPING FOR SALE BY AMERICAN
BEE JOURNAL

Scientific Queen Rearing
BY G. M. DOOLITTLE

An old work that has had a big sale. Gives Doolittle’s
methods of queen rearing by artificial grafting. We ad-
vise “Practical Queen Rearing” as preferable, but the
student ot commercial breeder who desires to practice
cell grafting will find this work interesting.

Price, cloth binding, $1.00. Leatherette, 50c

American Bee Journal
Edited by C. P. Dadant and Frank C. Pellett

Oldest Bee Journal in the English Language. A 36-page
Monthly Magazine

Subscription $1.50 per year. Canadian postage 15c;
Foreign 25c extra

Every phase of beekeeping is cov-
ered in the Journal, every section of
the country receives attention. The
market page alone is worth several
times the subscription price to bee-
keepers with honey for sale.

New methods, latest news, illustrated
articles on honey plants, free legal
service department, questions an-
swered, profusely illustrated.

First and best in its field.

If the American Bee Journal is wanted in combination
with any one of our bee books, add $1.25 to the regular
price of the book and both book and Journal will be sent
postpaid.

American Bee Journal, Hamilton, IIl.

BOOKS ON BEEKEEPING FOR SALE BY AMERICAN
BEE JOURNAL

A Thousand Answers to Beekeeping

Questions
BY DR. C. C. MILLER

For over 25 years Doctor Miller answered questions for
beginners and veterans alike through the columns of the

American Bee Journal. More than
10,000 of these questions have been
answered in this manner. These have
been sifted and more than 1,000 of
them included in this new book, ed-
ited by Maurice G. Dadant.

Alphabetically arranged by subject,
this book will clear up many problems
not touched by other bee books.

The texts all tell a connected story of
bee life and the principles of honey
production, while this takes up singly the many questions
which perplex the beekeeper in every-day practice about
his bees.

Should be in every list of bee books.

Attractive cloth cover, 276 pages illustrated. Price $1.25.

OUTAPIARIES

BY M. G. DADANT

A clear and concise explanation of the requirements for
proper placing, arranging and managing of outapiaries.
Too many beekeepers expand into outapiary beekeeping
without fundamental knowledge of its requirements. The
result is that apiaries are often located improperly and
have to be moved after errors are discovered by costly
experience.

Special chapters are devoted to apiary sites, basis of ‘plac-
ing the apiary, systems of management, moving, autos and
trucks, honey houses and equipment, and treatment of
apiary during different seasons of the year, with special
apparatus used by large beekeepers.

This book is especially valuable to the beginning out-
apiarist, but will contain many items of value to the ex-
perienced outyard man.

The book is cloth bound, has 125 pages and 50 illustra-
tions, and is printed on fine paper. Price $1.00.

American Bee Journal, Hamilton, Ill.

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