58 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 1.1. 



ing of poultry furnishes just what we are look- 

 ing for; namely, an occupation not laborious, 

 but whose returns for faithful attention are 

 sure, and where the most active labor comes at 

 that season of year when bees need the least 

 attention. This is equally suitable for the bee- 

 keeper who does the work himself, or for him 

 who, like ourselves, while actively engaged in 

 professional work, wants something at home 

 which, by way of change, furnishes pleasure 

 and relaxation, and still makes it profitable to 

 keep a good active man of all work. By keep- 

 ing a few standard-bred fowls of a variety giv- 

 ing a profusion of eggs and fine bodies, we have 

 the pleasure of seeing fine birds of uniform size 

 and color, and having on our tables fresh eggs, 

 and fowls of our own raising; and, even with- 

 out any special effort bv advertising, there will 

 be a demand among our friends and neighbors 

 for settings of eggs, with an occasional call for 

 a trio, or pen of birds from our pure-bred stock, 

 which, sold at even a moderate price, will soon 

 more than repay the difference in the original 

 cost between starting with thoroughbreds and 

 common fowls; and in nothing does blood tell 

 more surely than in fowls. 



Our acquaintance with bee keepers, as form- 

 ed at conventions and elsewhere, has proven to 

 us that they are universally intelligent and 

 skillful in those nice little points of observation 

 and care that go to make up a successful 

 poultry-keeper— especially if artificial incuba- 

 tion is practiced. It does not require a great 

 outlay of money to purchase a small self-regu- 

 lating incubator and a brooder which, even in 

 the hands of the novice, does very satisfactory 

 work, enabling one to hatch his chicks in March 

 or April, thus giving them pullets that will 

 begin laying in November; and, with proper 

 care, will just "shell out " the eggs during the 

 winter months when prices are high. 



In May or June, when the bees begin to re- 

 quire close care and attention, the chicks will 

 be out of the brooder; and, if allowed free 

 range, will require little care, save feeding 

 morning and night. 



At this time eggs are low; and. if desirable 

 on account of lessening labor, or for lack of 

 room, the year-old fowls may be disposed of, 

 either in market or, as is often the case, to 

 farmers who desire to introduce standard blood 

 into their flocks, thus leaving June, July, 

 August, and September to devote almost ex- 

 clusively to the bees. In October, dispose of 

 extra cockerels and cull out the pullets, and 

 begin to prepare them for their winter's work. 



As one by experience becomes proficient in 

 the use of incubator and brooder, broiler-raising 

 offers a very substantial increase in the income 

 from the poultry-yard. 



Chicks hatched in January will be ready for 

 market in March or April, if of a variety suit- 

 able for broilers, and should then be sent to city 



market, pullets and all, where they will bring 

 fancy prices, leaving brooders ready to receive 

 our March-hatched chicks from which to select 

 our pullets for the next-winter layers. 



Bee-keepers will find the shop and tools so 

 necessary to the apiary just the thing with 

 which to make the numerous little appliances 

 which go with the chicken and egg business. 



Machias, N. Y. 



M ^ 



CALIFORNIA WILD BUCKWHEAT. 



WHERE found; HONEY OF GOOD QUALITY; THE 

 RAJMBLEK ARTICLES. 



By A. Norton. 



Rambler calls for notes from othnrs relative 

 to the California "wild buckwheat" as a hon- 

 ey- plant (see Dec. 15th issue). I will merely 

 support his testimony, for he has stated the 

 case just about as I have observed it, not only 

 as to the value of the plant for honey, but as to 

 the conditions of the seasons that are most fa- 

 vorable to it. 



In the season of 1884, after an unusually 

 heavy rainfall for the winter, almost all of 

 which fell after Jan. 30, supplemented by that 

 great rarity for California, two considerable 

 rains in June, I had bees in Gonzales, Monterey 

 Co., that gathered from 50 to 60 lbs. of nice hon- 

 ey per colony in August after I had taken what 

 I thought to be all the surplus that I could get. 

 I left only a few colonies in shape for storing 

 this extra surplus, otherwise I might have ob- 

 tained much more. The honey was light am- 

 ber, and not very thick, but possessed a good 

 flavor. 



This plant, Erigonum fasciculatum, is found 

 principally in the southern counties of Califor- 

 nia; but it is abundant in many parts of Mon- 

 tery Co., and will, I doubt not, be found scat- 

 tered over about the same area that is occupied 

 by the black sage, and extending beyond the 

 eastern limits of the latter, especially in the 

 south. It is rather remarkable that the genus 

 Erigonuyn, which is not represented east of the 

 Rocky Mountains, but is about as closely relat- 

 ed to smartweed and buckwheat as beans and 

 peas are to clover, has upward of 60 species in 

 California; and yet that E. fasclculatum is the 

 only species generally known as a honey-plant. 



Here at Monterey, and southward along the 

 coast strip as far as Santa Barbara, this species 

 is not frequently found, but is replaced by an- 

 other of the same sub-section of the genus B. 

 2>ari'J/o/iurn— taller, more leafy, and with larg- 

 er heads of deeper-colored flowers. The bees 

 work on this sparingly in the fall. Has Ram- 

 bler found this as far south as where he lives? 

 ' If not, he should have met, near the coast in 

 Los Angeles Co., especially at San Pedro, the 

 other species of that snh-section, E. cinereum. 

 These three species are so closely related as to- 

 form a sub-section by themselves. If Ramblei 



