166 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mak. 1. 



years ago with pleasure and was quite desir- 

 ous to make her acquaintance. Having in 

 mind Messrs. Miller's. Root's, and Murray's 

 vile matrimonial intentions toward my present 

 freedom and happiness, and fearing some kind 

 of a trap in waiting, I took the shot-gun and 

 approached the house. After reconnoitering, 

 making slow advances, and finally a coup de 

 main I captured the premises and found them 

 deserted. Now, I know not whether or not 

 the original Widow Bedott lived here or not. 

 Be the case as it may, I was glad to find no 

 widows around, for that infernal Cupid that 

 the artist stuck to my left pedestal still haunts 

 me. 



The Jameson bee-ranch was our next stop- 

 ping-place; but that, too, was deserted by the 

 owner, and he had left for a more congenial 

 neighborhood. Mr. J. had introduced the 

 Langstroth hive, and his apiary of about 200 

 colonies was a portion Langstroth and the rest 

 Harbison. As in many other apiaries, we found 

 several colonies that had been destroyed by 

 moths. The moth is not, however, such a 

 troublesome factor in this climate as I had sup- 

 posed; but when an apiary is left alone for 

 weeks, and weak swarms become the prey of 

 robbers, the combs become a prey of moths. It 

 would be a most interesting item in the line of 

 bee-keeping statistics to know the amount of 

 wax destroyed or wasted in California apiaries. 

 I opine it would astonish even California bee- 

 keepers themselves. 



The mountains rise up grandly all around us 

 now. We have left Tecarte Peak behind us, 

 but it looks down upon us yet. From the 

 Jameson ranch we rattle down hill again, and, 

 upon a sudden turn in the road, we overtake a 

 man and woman in a big wagon — a team ahead, 

 and several horses following after. My friend 

 thought he would play smart, so he pulled out, 

 and, nourishing whip and persuader, rushed by 

 the astonished nalive. Our wild career was. 

 however, brought to a sudden stop ; for. in 

 oing over a sharp water-break, snap went 

 Kimball's whiffletree. "There,"' said I, as we 

 leaped from the wagon, " that's just as I ex- 

 pected from your reckless driving, and here 

 we are. ten miles from a house, in a howling 

 wilderness, with bears, wildcats, coyotes, and a 

 broken whiffletree — it's all your fault."' 



"Yes," shouted Mr. Hansen, with his German 

 blood up; " yes, and who's a kicking?' 



I said not a word, but carefully removed my 

 Waterbury watch, and began to wind; and be- 

 fore my task was complnted. the nalive we had 

 so gaily passed came up. His name, we after- 

 ward learned, was Joe Beals, an ex-Dutchman 

 with a Spanish wife and a dozen (more or less) 

 children and dogs. Joe. seeing our sad plight, 

 reached down into the bottom of his big wag- 

 on and fished up an old but serviceable whif- 

 fletree and generously loaned it to us. and in 

 due time it was carefully returned. We were 

 thus delayed but a few minutes, and the 

 adverse clouds that hung over us for a few 

 minutes had indeed a silver lining. IJlessed be 

 the name of Joe Beals and his Spanish wife. 

 Blessed be his dozen (more or less) half-breeds; 

 and blessed be his horses and oxen, his dogs, 

 and his bees. 



With these two thoughts we continued our 

 journey ; and to imitate the example of Joe 

 Beals in helpfulne ss to strangers is the resolve 

 of Mr. Hansen and the Ramislek. 



Later. — I wish to inform the I'eaders of Glean- 

 ings that Mr. Nelson, of Potrero. the happy in- 

 dependent bachelor mentioned above, lias dis- 

 appointed all of his bachelor friends by recent- 

 ly introducing into his residence a meddler 

 with pots, kettles, brooms, etc., and bearing the 



name of " wife."' Mr. Nelson was captured 

 during the late autumn months while laboring 

 under a cerebral aberration of the mind. He 

 wandered too near the enthralling glances of a 

 lonely syren, and was made a life-prisoner. It 

 is a sad episode, and shows the frailty of a Cali- 

 fornia bachelor's best intentions. It will, how- 

 ever, serve as a warning to the rest of us, and it 

 will be a long time before the capture of anoth- 

 er bachelor bee-keeper will be recorded. R. 



QUEENS BY MAIL TO AUSTRALIA. 



A NEW STYLE OF CAGE. 



All the readers of Gleanings who have pre- 

 served their numbers for 1803 will find, by turn- 

 ing to pages 232 and 233, something regarding the 

 mailing of queens to Australia, together with 

 illustrations of the shipping-cages which I had 

 used for this purpose. During 1891 I succeeded 

 in getting about 66 per cent of the queens mail- 

 ed to that country alive, which I considered 

 quite an achievement, and I still consider it 

 the same. During the past year I sent nearly 

 double the queens to that country that I did in 

 1891; but as the first queens sent were returned 

 to me on account of the postal laws, some of the 

 colonies in Australia not allowing queens in the 

 mail, I had to devise some way of their going 

 through the postoffice at San Francisco, Cal., 

 without detection. For this purpose I used 

 cage No. 1, as illustrated in the article above 

 referred to, wrapping the same in perforated 

 paper, then inclosing both in a perfoiated en- 

 velope, sealing the envelope, and slipping that 

 in a larger envelope with very slight perfora- 

 tions. In this way all went through safely so 

 far as being stopped was concerned ; but not so 

 with the queens, for I have to report only about 

 33 per cent as arriving there alive, against the 

 66 per cent in 1891. 



There were some things the past year which 

 I can not account for. The success on the July 

 steamer was very poor, only one out of all sent 

 arriving alive, while of those sent on the August 

 steamer about one-half went alive. Of those 

 sent on the September boat, nearly all went 

 alive; and of those sent on the October vessel, 

 not one went alive, unless, perchance, two did 

 which I have not heard froiu. Now, why the 

 difference when all were put up alike".^ Again, 

 all the queens to certain parties went alive, and 

 other parties received all of theii's dead, from the 

 samesteamer. I am studying over these matters, 

 but as yet no reasonable solution of the matter 

 has been arrived at. There is a possibility that 

 those on the October steamer were fumigated 

 in San Francisco on account of the cholera scare: 

 yet, if I understand friends Root aright, some 

 from them went through alive on that boat. 

 Could it be possible that those from me were 

 fumigated while others were not ? It hardly 

 seems possible. 



There is one thing worthy of note, which is, 

 that the queen that went alive to New Zealand 

 in 1884 went in September, and nearly all went 

 alive which weie started last September: and 

 during September, 1891. I had by far the best 

 success. I account for this by the fact that our 

 weather here during the month of September is 

 of a medium temperature, while on arrival over 

 there tiny have a similar state of affairs. Dur- 

 ing all till' other months they either arrive over 

 the](^ duting cool or cold weather, or else must 

 have 3000 to 5000 miles of travel in the cold in 

 our northern hemisphere, which we generally 

 have during October. 



Fp to th(^ ymir 1893 we had been restricted in 

 our operations, owing to no law in our favor re- 

 garding the mailing of queens to Australia; 



