1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



449 



N. A. BLAKE S COMB-HONEY APIARY NEAR PASADENA, CALIFORNIA. 



A COMB-HONEY APIARY IN THE ORANGE- 

 BLOSSOM REGION OF CALIFORNIA. 



BY N. A. BLAKE. 



The engraving shows my home apiary 

 two miles west of Pasadena. It contains 

 1)50 colonies in eight-frame hives which are 

 run mostly for comb honey. I secure the 

 comb honey from the orange-blossoms, the 

 nearest grove being \yi miles away. 



The trees shown are California oak, and 

 in the center will be noticed some stalks of 

 white sage that are just shooting up. Some 

 of the colonies that built ud this apiary 

 were taken from the hills in the distance. 

 We clip all our queens and make but little 

 increase. 



I have taken Gleanings 25 years. We 

 sold our apiary in the far East nine years 

 ago, and came out here and built up again. 



Pasadena, Cal. 



HOW MUCH IS THERE IN SHAKING? 



An Appeal for Actual Experiments to Test the 

 Value of the Plan. 



BY GEO. W. WILLIAMS. 



The theory of shaking bees in a system- 

 atic manner with the idea of simplifying 

 some of the various manipulations of the 

 apiary and stimulating the waning energies 

 of a stale colony has been discussed to some 

 extent in the journals, both intelligently 

 and otherwise. It is amusing to note the 

 ease with which some decide as to the merits 

 of things (in their own minds) without giv- 

 ing them a test, and, forthwith, proceed to 



advise the fraternity. This display of per- 

 sonal egotism could be passed over with a 

 smile if it were not sometimes a little dan- 

 gerous. We can not afford to allow a valu- 

 able hint or idea to be laughed out of court 

 without a fair trial. 



Some time ago a theory was advanced by 

 myself and others, supported on my part by 

 25 years of observation and practice, and by 

 others on actual results claimed. The theo- 

 ry was that "shaking" (i. e., any extraor- 

 dinary disturbance such as hauling bees 

 over rough roads, transferring, shaking out 

 on the ground, etc.), accomplished desirable 

 results per se, and that this simple process 

 in itself could be made to take the i^lace of 

 the more complicated manipulations. 



Although last season was an unfavorable 

 one for actual trials, some satisfactory prog- 

 ress was made in the achievement of results. 

 The Roots report some measure of success 

 in introducing queens by the shaking plan. 

 They report good but not uniform success. 

 They hope to find the cause of their failures. 

 Bro. Doolittle reports a rather complicated 

 plan for uniting by shaking which he con- 

 siders a success. By the way, Bro. Doolit- 

 tle, I have had uniform success by shaking 

 the bees from the two or more colonies to 

 Vje united upon a cloth, or even on the ground 

 two feet from the entrance of a hive placed 

 on either of the locations or any other de- 

 sired, for that matter, alternating frames 

 from the different hives, and allowing the 

 bees to run in all mixed together, doing the 

 work at dusk so as to be sure to get all the 

 field-bees in. Others have rei)orted more or 

 less favorably, while a few like Mr. Holter- 

 mann "think " there is nothing in it. 



Then on page 322, May 15, Leo Gately 

 takes the position that shaking is illogical 



