1910 



CLEAXINiiS IN BEE CULTURE 



•405 



Bee-keeping in Southern 

 California 



By Mrs. H."G. Acklin. Glendoka. Cal. 



I 



Pure orange-blossom honey is certainly 

 very fine — probably a trifle stronger than 

 pure sage, but delicious, nevertheless. 

 ■^ 



It is amusing to see "bait hives " sus- 

 pended from limbs of trees waiting for run- 

 away swarms. Many apiaries are increased 

 considerably during the season by this 

 method. 



Reports from Saugus and vicinity are to 

 the effect that the hot winds have dried up 

 the sages to such an extent that a crop of 

 light honey is out of the question in that 

 locality. 



-^ 



Orange honey, when not well ripened, 

 makes a very good explosive, I understand. 

 At least those unsuspecting freight men 

 must have thought bombardment was in- 

 deed the order of the day, and night too, 

 when those two carloads of tin cans, filled 

 with unrii^e orange honey, commenced to ex- 

 plode. One can scarcely imagine honey 

 rising so rapidly, for only the roof of the 

 freight-house kept it from going sky-high. 

 Every one immediately connected with the 

 affair must have felt considerably "stuck 

 up " for a long time. Moral. — Do not can 

 unripe honey. 



■^ 



Who will be the first to locate an apiary 

 on the new mountain road leading from 

 Glendora to the fork of the San Gabriel 

 River? This road passes fashionable moun- 

 tain resorts, and will be traveled constantly 

 by people from all stations in life, many 

 of whom will buy honey if it be put up in 

 attractive packages. A honey-store should 

 be placed by the roadside so no alighting 

 will have to Ise done by the purchaser. The 

 apiary should be stationed in a side canyon 

 in full view of the nnain road. It can be 

 made a paving investment if properly han- 

 dled. 



Our beloved State must, sure enough, 

 have a queer atmosphere. Bee-keepers say 

 it matters little about the rainfall, whether 

 heavy or light; if only the atmospheric con- 

 ditions are all right a good crop of honey is 

 almost a certainty. After a fine rain some 

 one ventures to remark that the outlook is 

 good for a honey crop; but the bee-keeper 

 !>ihakes his head dolefully and commences 

 to talk about the conditions of the atmos- 

 phere. It makes one feel creepy. Why 

 should California atmosphere be so very 

 different from any other atmosphore? We 

 surely have not a set of atmospheric magi- 

 cians who can fix up the ozone to suit them- 

 selves. 



When a bee-keeper comes to the conclu- 

 sion that he is going to put his bees where 

 he likes, regardless of the wishes and rights 

 of others in the same business, he some- 

 times "slips up" in his calculations. One 

 story is something on this wise. Persuasion 

 and threats were used w'ithout avail, and 

 the individual located where he chose. All 

 went well as long as he remained at home; 

 but provisions gave out, and the larder must 

 be replenished; and during his absence his 

 apiary was "shot-up." Honey-tanks, bee- 

 hives, honey-house, tent — in fact, every 

 thing was riddled with bullets. It is need- 

 less to say this last persuasion worked. The 

 same kind of strenuosity was exhibited in 

 another case, fire taking the place of bul- 

 lets. 



Mr. Geo. N. Salsbury, of Sierra ^Sladre, is 

 now. May 7, moving the last of his bees 

 over to the San Fernando Valley district 

 and locating them at three different points. 

 He found that his apiary of 450 to 500 colo- 

 nies, combined with other apiaries in the 

 same locality, was overstocking the district 

 around Sierra Madre. The surplus honey 

 was extracted before moving. It is a tre- 

 mendous undertaking to move such an api- 

 ary and fixtures from 35 to 44 miles by 

 wagon, and much of the way up grade. 

 The moving was all done in the day time — 

 that is, the loads were started in the morn- 

 ing, without the loss of a colony. Three 

 horses were used, and fifty colonies taken 

 at each load. Mr. Salsbury claims the for- 

 age is good where he is now located, and ex- 

 pects a good crop of honey from the sages. 

 The sages in manv places are not yielding, 

 but this particular locality may be an ex- 

 ception. 



Sierra Madre appears to be a very good lo- 

 cation for a limited number of colonies of 

 bees. Its nearness to the mountains (for it 

 is almost in the foot-hills) gives it the dou- 

 ble advantage of forage from both mountain 

 and valley. There are orange-groves and 

 grape-vineyards in the valleys, while the 

 foot-hills are covered with many varieties of 

 blooming wild flowers at the present writ- 

 ing, May 10, including black and white 

 sage ^nd wild alfalfa. The white sage is 

 not yet in full bloom; but I understand that 

 that particular variety seldom yields nec- 

 tar any way. Mr. A. Ringele has an apia- 

 ry of 130 colonies located in this favored 

 spot. He has a magnificent view of Mt. 

 Wilson while at work, as also the valleys 

 sweeping to the south. The larger part of 

 his bees are in eight-frame hives run for 

 comb honey, each of which now has two 

 supers well filled, mostly from orange-blos- 

 soms. Forty colonies are in ten-frame 

 hives with two extracting-supers each, all 

 of which are well filled. This, with the later 

 flow, if that flow materializes, will make a 

 very good showing. 



