1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



781 



and only tive instances of other persons of 

 whom he bought honey and wax. To one, in 

 particular, he paid five pounds for one hive, 

 which was weighed in the market-house of 

 Edinburgh: but unluckily he omits theweightor 

 dimensions of the hive. The reader is therefore 

 left to his own calculations. Mr. B., besides 

 his grand resource of fiowers, relies on preserv- 

 ing the bees of the stocks taken, and uniting 

 them with the stocks left." 



Later experience fully vindicates what Mr. 

 Keys says. 



The matter of decoy hives has been discussed 

 in these columns. Mr. Bonner claimed it is a 

 fraud to put out empty hives with combs, even 

 in our own lot, to entice bees. Mr. Keys makes 

 the following points, which, I believe, cover the 

 entire matter righteously: 



" It is proper here to remark, that Mr. Bonner 

 represents the setting of an old hive of combs in 

 a person's own garden or apiary as a fraudulent 

 practice, as such hives may allure his neighbor's 

 swarms to settle therein. So may a field of good 

 pasture allure his neighbor's cattle or sheep to 

 feed therein. What then I must he not have bet- 

 ter pasturage than those in his own vicinity? If 

 strange bees visit his hive, which he set, bona 

 fide, to entice his own swarms, should any es- 

 cape unperceived, and his neighbor's bees take 

 possession of it, ivltJiout being followed by a 

 person who saw them rise, he seems to have a 

 good title to keep them ; for who can swear 

 whose property they were? They should have 

 been better watched. The loss they deserve for 

 their negligence, which I hope will make all 

 bee-owners more careful in this point, if for no 

 other reason. No honest person will refuse the 

 restoration if they can make good their claim. 

 If a person sets such hives with a view of tre- 

 panning his neighbor's swarms, it is certainly 

 wicked. The motive constitutes the crime." 



Medina, Oct. 9. W. P. Root. 



EASTERN IMPRESSIONS OF CALIFORNIA COR- 

 RECTED. 



YELLOW OCIIEIJ IN CALIFORNIA. 



We Californians are given the credit of hav- 

 ing a hot climate, one that will melt wax with- 

 out much trouble. At times some parts of the 

 State are pretty hot: even sometimes here, 

 opposite the Golden Gate, we have a few days 

 of very hot weather. This year we had some 

 glorious days when the thermometer climbed 

 up to the ninety mark. This has been quite a 

 warm summer any way, for we have not had 

 the usual dash of rain in the latter part of 

 spring or during summer. Now, though some 

 twenty or more of our hives are painted with a 

 mixture of yellow ocher and white lead, there 

 has not been the least trouble with the paint 

 making the interior of the hives uncomfortable 

 for the bees. In fact, here in California where 

 the salt air of the Pacific is so destructive on 

 white lead, we want a paint that can resist the 

 action of the atmosphere. This we get when 

 we use the mixture I have just mentioned or 

 one composed of some of the mineral paints and 

 white lead. As far as our climate is concerned 

 yellow ocher is not any too hot in summer for 

 the bees; then in winter and spring it will draw 

 enough heat to make it better and more com- 

 fortable for the inmates than any white paint. 

 During the past year I notice that many people 

 have been painting their houses a straw color, 

 ocher being largely used in frhe mixture. The 

 fashionable style in house-painting hereabouts 

 is to liave the body of the house in some shade 

 of straw and the trimmings white. These 

 colors make a building look very pretty. 



CUCUMBERS AND HONEY. 



The article on page 635 is a little too colicky 

 for me to pass unnoticed. I do not believe that 

 encumber honey can resemble the orange-blos- 

 som honey of the two leading orange States of 

 America, and I say this svith all due respect 

 to tlie opinion of Mr. Cullinan. As the most 

 of tlie orange-blossom honey of this State is 

 gathered at a time when the bees use most of 

 it in brood-rearing, I am afraid that the deni- 

 zens of the East have not yet got much of a 

 taste of our honey of the kind I have been 

 referring to. Much of that bearing the name 

 of "'orange-blossom honey" is not orange- 

 blossom honey at all. It is a very nice name 

 for canners and adulterators of honey to place 

 on a label in order to make the contents of the 

 package sell the faster. 



I am aware that bees do gather honey from 

 the blossoms of cucumbers, for there were great 

 fields of this vegetable raised here a few years 

 ago to supply one of the largest fruit and veg- 

 etable canneries in the world, and which estab- 

 lishment was located at this place. Our bees 

 gathered some honey from the flowers of this 

 plant, but it did not amount to any thing, 

 though, as I have said, there were big fields of 

 the vegetable right near us. If cucumbers 

 were great honey-yielders this county ought 

 to be as great a cucumber-honey county as 

 Ventura County is a bean-honey-producing 

 locality. I think there are more cucumbers 

 raised in this county than there are in any 

 other county in the United States; for nearly 

 all of these vegetables that are consumed in 

 San Francisco and on this side of the bay, as 

 well as all that are used in the pickle-factories 

 in three counties hereabouts, are raised in this 

 county. Perhaps if the vegetable yields much 

 nectar the bees do not gather mucli of it, as 

 they may be afraid of taking cholera morbus. 

 Perhaps Dr. Miller l\nows something on this 

 point. What say you, doctor? 



CKACKED COVERS. 



I have not been troubled with the covers of 

 your hives warping, as some of your patrons 

 have been; but I find that a few crack badly. 

 It is possible that your Eastern pine is not 

 adapted to our climate. I think I will substi- 

 tute some of our native redwood covers for the 

 ones that came with your hives. We can get 

 such nice wide boards here, free from knots, at 

 a cheap price, tiiat I think it better to have 

 covers that project over the edges of the hives 

 on all sides. This your covers do not do, I am 

 sorry to say. 



CALIFORNIA HAY. 



Your remark about barley, etc., on page (538, 

 is not correct, please let me say, so far as the 

 kind of hay that is used in this State is con- 

 cerned. You speak of its being the great hay 

 crop of California. I know not where you got 

 your information; but I do know that the hay 

 that is used, almost to the exclusion of all 

 others, is oat hay. I have traveled nearly all 

 over the agricultural portion of this State, and 

 I have seen very little barley hay raised. Bar- 

 ley is cut for hay only where the land is too 

 dry to raise any other cereal. It matures ear- 

 lier, as is well known. All through Central 

 and Northern California, which is really "Agri- 

 cultural California," and where the great bulk 

 of our population is, we find the great wheat- 

 fields of America; there, too, is grown nearly 

 all the hay that is used to supply the markets 

 of the big cities in the vicinity of the bay of 

 San Francisco. Large quantities of hay are 

 used to feed the horses in those cities. As I 

 have said, this hay is chiefly oat hay. The best 

 hay that goes to market is a mixture of oats 

 and wheat. This sort of hay is cut when the 



