1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CQLTURE. 



431. 



June when the mercury is indulging in its 

 climbing propensities, and gets up to 110 in the 

 shade, and somewhat higher in the sun. At 

 such times I have thought that some of my 

 hives cracked just from pointing my fingers at 

 them. I might have bnen mistaken, however. 

 Hives are sent here largely from the East, and 

 they also may be classed as good and bad, 

 and some are like a species of ham sent here in 

 cans, I believe it is called •' deviled " ham. You 

 can infer what kind of a hfve that would be; 

 then put into it a colony of Cyprian bees, and 

 an attempt to class it utterly fails. 



The Rambler is controlling two apiaries this 

 season, and one of them contains in part a hive 

 of the above description. When I had to give 

 my whole attention to one apiary I hired a very 

 patient-appearing man hailing from Tennessee, 

 to take charge of said hives. The style of hive 

 I refer to is manufactured in Wisconsin. It is 

 of the L. pattern, and I believe it is called the 

 Wisconsin hive. There are no rabbets for the 

 frames, and they all rest on the top of the hive, 

 and the supers " sort o' " telescope over them. 

 After the super has been on a few days, and a 

 fine lot of brace-combs put in by the bees, you 

 can loosen the super from the body of the hive; 

 and, in raising it, lift outevery brood-frame with 

 it. If you wish to release the frames from the 

 super before taking it off, you have to stand al- 

 most on your head and look up under that tele- 

 scopic joint and start each frame off with a 

 strong "sharp -pointed lever. While thus bent 

 over, with the pants drawn tight over the— the 

 knees, the Cyprians get in some fine work. 

 The manufacturers of this hive had the misfor- 

 tune to have their factory burned a few years 

 ago; and. soon after. Mr. Hunt and one of his 

 helpers were at work over these hives, when 

 the helper shouted, in a frenzied tone, " Mr. 

 Hunt, do you know why that V/isconsin bee- 

 hive factory happened to burn ?" 



"Why, no; I don't know that I do." 



" Well, somebody bought a quantity of these 

 hives, and became so mad when working with 

 them that he sought a sweet revenge by burning 

 the factory." 



In many cases, in order to return the telescop- 

 ic super or cover, owing to climatic changes and 

 propolis the super becomes a tight fit; and to 

 get it down to where it belongs it has to be 

 stamped down with the foot. Take it all in all, 

 the hive is the most provoking thing to handle 

 that I ever '^aw, and I am utterly opposed to 

 telescopic joints of any kind in a bee-hive. 



Another Ea'itern hive put in its appearance 

 during the past winter. The inventor and man- 

 ufacturer came to California for the benefit of 

 his wife's health. The gentleman's name is 

 Mr. G. K. Hubbard, whose advertisement has 

 been seen so much in Gleanings. Your read- 

 ers have all no doubt heard of that good old 

 damp Mother Hubbard, who went to her cup- 

 board, and how kind she was to her poor dog. 

 Well, judging from the kindly ways of Mr. and 

 Mrs. Hubbard when here, I should judge they 

 were lineal descendants of that fine old dame. 

 Mr. H. introduced a few of his hives; but I fear 

 it will hardly suit the general run of California 

 bee keepers, for I understand it to be an exclu- 

 sively comb-honey hive; and while I should like 

 to see Mr. H. sell a large number of hives. I 

 di'^like to see another style of hive added to the 

 number we already have in this State. The 

 greater variety, the further we get from a uni- 

 form hive. 



At the present writing, April 29, the season is 

 opening up in fine style in this locality, and I 

 have been converted to th.^ belief that bees will 

 profitably fly five miles and further for honey. 

 While keeping bees in tin- East, I was taught 

 and believed, after much experience, that bees 



would profitably fly only about three miles. 

 But here for the past ten days the bees in this 

 apiary are all working toward the Riverside 

 orange-groves, which commence at four, and 

 are abundant at five and six miles and over; 

 still, the honey with a distinctive orange flavor 

 is being stored so rapidly as to restrict the 

 queen's field of operations. Balled sage is in 

 bloom all around the apiary, and an examina- 

 tion of the flower- tubes reveals the minute drop 

 of honey, but still the great mass of bees leave 

 it for the more abundantsecretion in the orange- 

 flower, and in quality it is equaled by none. It 

 seems to be about this way with the bees: If 

 honey is abundant five miles away, and a load 

 of nectar can be obtained by visiting a few 

 flowers, it is better to fly five miles than to wor- 

 ry around a nearer field and visit a great many 

 flowers spending much time to get a load. As 

 the bees have nearly a straight course across 

 the valley, with nothing to impede them, their 

 flight is very rapid. It is also evident that bees 

 will fly further for nectar upon a level plain 

 than they will where hills intervene. Our friend 

 Wilder's apiary is about seven miles from the 

 same orange-groves; but hills intervene, and 

 his bees get but little if any of this orange hon- 

 ey. 



Perhaps I may be allowed a word with some 

 of my good friends who have held me up .in 

 words jocund and otherwise. I would say, by 

 way of explanation to Mrs. Mclntyre. in an- 

 swer to her correction on page 267, that she 

 should never judge from outward appearances. 

 A man in my native town would always smile 

 wTien he was mad, and really laugh aloud when 

 he was ready to knock a man down. That man 

 was a relative of mine, and I am like him in 

 that respect. That smile at the convention was 

 no indication of pleasure. It covered a great 

 amount of gall and bitterness and silent kick- 

 ing; my report was correct, and I hereby recor- 

 rectMrs. M. 



Mr. Pryal also fell into a grave error on page 

 303, and, I must say. drew largely upon his viv- 

 id imagination, judging from the noise Mr. 

 Mendleson and I heard in their room the night 

 previous. They were practicing for some kind 

 of a blow, and both seemed to have lungs ab- 

 normally developed, or what physicians call 

 snore lungs; and while Bliss tried to imitate a 

 thrashing-machine, Pryal tried to outdo the 

 famous Golden Gate fog-horn. Oh. no! the 

 Rambler was not sad over being outdone on the 

 lung-tester; it was owing to being kept awake 

 all of the previous night by these snoriferous 

 friends. Mr. Pryal is now at the World's Fair, 

 and his report will deal largely with lung-test- 

 ers. Rambler. 



— ^ ■•■ m 



CHIPS FROM DIFFERENT BLOCKS. 



WOODCHOPPER SCOHES ALL AROUND THE LOG. 



The straw man says. March 15th, that more 

 deaths occur now in a day than in a week at the 

 beginning of winter. The births are more now 

 in a day than in a week then, so it's all right, is 

 it not. doctor? But may be your bees are not 

 hatching in the cellar; but those in chaff hives 

 outdoors are. 



Pulled queens, to get rid of laying workers, 

 sometimes works, and then, again, it doesn't. 

 Sometimes they will keep the pulled queen and 

 the laying worker both until the queen is mat- 

 ed. I suppose they are waiting to see whether 

 she is a good one, so that, if not, they can fall 

 back on the worker again, and sometimes they 

 kill them at once. 



SEALED COVERS NO GOOD. 



The Straw man wants to know whether there 



