303 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



Apr. 15. 



Nevada and the Eastern States, and A. alpina, 

 found high up on the White Mountains; and 

 from Katahdin northward, are the only eastern 

 representatives. 



Buckeye, or horse-chestnut, is represented 

 here by one species, Aesculus Californica, 

 found from San Luis Obispo Co., of Central 

 California, to Mt. Shasta and the Oregon line. 

 When black sage has gone out of bloom in 

 May, buckeye is just ready to take its place; 

 and an excellent extension of the honey har- 

 vest is thus afforded. The honey is inferior to 

 that of sage, having an amber color and a fla- 

 vor that, after reminding one of something 

 familiar, seems finally to be suggestive slightly 

 of cherry bark; yet it makes a palatable and 

 very acceptable sweet where one can not get 

 sage honey, and I have seen many kinds of 

 honey not so good as this. In favorable sea- 

 sons considerable harvests of it are obtained in 

 the central coast region. It grows in sheltered 

 localities on northern slopes of hills, mountains, 

 and along the valleys, wherever it can find 

 shaded and moist locations. Generally it is a 

 dome-shaped shrub, 10 to 15 feet high; but in 

 fertile stations it becomes a tree 30 to 40 feet 

 high, branching very low, and often several 

 feet in diameter near the ground. With its 

 handsome leaves and large white flowers it has 

 a cool refreshing look in summer; but it drops 

 its leaves very early, and becomes a coarse- 

 branched ungainly object till the following 

 spring. Considering this species, I am led to 

 wonder why I never hear of honey from Aescu- 

 lus glabra, or fetid buckeye, of Ohio; Ae. flava, 

 or sweet buckeye, of Virginia to Indiana, or 

 Ae. pavia, or red buckeye, of Virginia, Ken- 

 tucky, etc. 



Poison oak, Rhus diversiloba, is much like 

 poison ivy, R. toxicodendron of the East, ex- 

 cept in size. In wooded places it climbs the 

 tallest trees in much the same way and with 

 the same appearance at a distance as the Vir- 

 ginia creeper; and on open hillsides, etc., it is a 

 bush growing in thickets from 2 to 6 feet high. 

 Bees work very freely on it in early summer. 

 The species abounds everywhere in the State, 

 and causes much inconvenience to those who 

 are poisoned by it, causing an itching rash and 

 swellings. Others can handle it without the 

 slightest harm. I have never seen what I knew 

 to be poison-oak honey; but I have seen bees 

 upon it freely season after season. 



Among the valleys and mountains of Santa 

 Cruz Co., and northern Monterey Co., where the 

 rainfall is plentiful, tarweeds and "tuccolo'te" 

 are so abundant as to contaminate the honey 

 with their strong flavors. I have seen tarweed 

 honey that was fairly eatable. But I once cut 

 a bee-tree at the base of the Santa Cruz Moun- 

 tains, among fields rank with the later plant, 

 which is a Centauren, related to the dooryard 

 "bachelor's button," but with yellow flowers. 



and with the whole plant covered with spines, 

 and presenting more the appearance of a this- 

 tle, which sometimes makes it almost impossi- 

 ble to bind grain by hand. The bee-tree was 

 plentifully supplied with honey; but only a 

 little of it was eatable, which, of course, was 

 from other flowers. The most of it was of a 

 greenish color, as if the green juice of leaves 

 were mixed with it; and I would readily have 

 believed that it would stop a chill and fever; 

 for it had the taste of quinine. This bitterness 

 of taste was so strong that all flavor of sweet- 

 ness was completely disguised, and the taste 

 clung in the mouth after eating— not long, like 

 quinine, but still disagreeably. 

 Monterey, Cal., Feb. 28. 



[These drawings were first submitted to 

 friend Norton before being eneraved, and were 

 bv him pronounced correct.— Ed.] 



B Y G.M.DOOLITTLE.BORODINO.N .Y. ^ 



UNITING BEES IN SPRING NOT PROFITABLE. 



Question. — I have fifty colonies of bees which 

 are hardly half what they should be at this 

 time of the year. What shall I do to get the 

 most comb honey and also a little increase? 



An,swer. — Some years ago I should have said, , 

 " Unite these weak colonies at once," the same 

 as nearly all the books will tell you; but after 

 an experience of over twenty years I say, leave 

 each colony in its own hive till June; for where 

 two or more colonies are so weak that they will 

 not live till summer, if left in their own hive 

 without reinforcing, they will not live through 

 till summer if united, no matter if as many as 

 half a dozen such colonies are put together ; at 

 least, such has been my experience and that of 

 all those who have tried the same thing and re- 

 ported in the matter. Deciding that it is not 

 best to unite weak colonies in early spring, what 

 shall be done with them so we can secure comb 

 honey from them? After trying every thing 

 recommended in our different books and papers, 

 and not being pleased with any, I finally work- 

 ed out the following after much study and prac- 

 tice: All colonies which are considered too weak 

 to do good business alone are looked over, when 

 pollen comes in freely from elm and soft maple, 

 and each shut on as many combs as they have 

 brood in, by means of a nicely adjusted divi- 

 sion-board, seeing that each has the necessary 

 amount of honey in these combs, or within easy 

 reach, to last them at least two weeks; for if we 

 would have brood -rearing go on rapidly at this 

 time of the year the bees must not feel poor In 

 honey. Such weak colonies can send only a few 

 bees to the field for stores, even when the flowers 

 yield nectar, should there be early flowers in 

 our locality which do so ; hence if we would 



