Februakv, 1918 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



95 



College of Agriculture, Berkeley, Calif., will 

 reach him. A special field agent is con- 

 stantly visiting beekeepers and is learning 

 new " kinks " and "wrinkles." He is ever 

 increasing his knowledge regarding improv- 

 ed methods of manipulation, and in many 

 other ways familiarizing himself with the 



more up-to-date phases of beekeeping. 



» » * 



The outlook for next season is anything 

 but satisfactory. During the past 49 years 

 we have never experienced such a dry sea- 



son. At the present writing (Jan. 10) our 

 section of the state has not averaged an 

 inch and a half of rain for the season, and to 

 make matters worse, a cold north wind has 

 been blowing for the past two days, which 

 will mean a considerable reduction in the 

 early honey plants. Fortunately, most colo- 

 nies went into winter with ample stores but, 

 unless we have rain in the very near future, 

 a large portion of our contemplated spring 

 increase will never materialize. Foothill 

 beekeeping will suffer especially. 



w 



l,J-,;!e,i'^ SOUTHERN 



ing of Cali- r> i i 



fornia beekeep- Reported by 



ers in Los Angeles, Dec. 28. About 175 

 people were present. F. A. Alexander, presi- 

 dent of the California State Beekeepers ' As- 

 sociation, gave a good talk on buying and 

 selling collectively. E. F. Atwater, special 

 field agent for California, New Mexico and 

 Arizona, told us what Uncle Sam hopes to do 

 for the beekeepers of California. Harris 

 Weinstock, state market director, told of 

 selling methods as carried on by California 

 producers of walnuts, almonds, raisins, 

 prunes and other products. The problems of 

 these peofjle are much the, same as those of 

 the honey-producer. The formation of lo- 

 cal organizations is perhaps the most practi- 

 cal method at the present time. 

 * * » 



Our eastern friends often do not consider 

 the location, general conditions nor sources 

 from which the honey comes in California. 

 In a state which is over 800 miles from north 

 to south and over 300 miles from east to 

 west, there is sure to be a great variation in 

 the climate and flora. One man has his 

 apiary in the great Imperial valley 200 

 feet below sea level, where rain is scarcely 

 known and the Colorado river furnishes the 

 water supply. Another, with an apiary in 

 the Owens river valley at an elevation of 

 5,000 feet, has many different conditions to 

 meet. Both depend largely upon alfalfa for 

 their surplus honey and upon irrigation for 

 moisture. In the Imperial valley it is neces- 

 sary to have a brush-covered shed over all 

 apiaries, and the weather is so hot that it 

 is not considered profitable to produce comb 

 honey. Often it is too hot to extract unless 

 combs are taken into the house in the cool 

 of the morning. In the Owens valley the 

 conditions are the reverse, being such that 

 they cannot produce extracted honey success- 

 fully. The nights are cold and the days 

 often so cool that the honey is quite thick 

 and the extractor can not throw it from the 

 combs without tearing them to piec-^s. In 

 the sage and orange districts the bulk of the 

 croj> is sometimes harvested by the first 

 week in May, while there is a vast terri- 

 tory thruout the state where the honey flow 



CALIFORNIA 



scarcely begins 

 before the mid- 



L. L.Andrews JJ^ ^^ June. 



Many apiaries 

 are so situated that the bees gather hon- 

 ey at elevations from a few hundred 

 to thousands of feet, over which the bloom- 

 ing period is sure to vary considerably. 

 Some ranges produce a very fast flow of nec- 

 tar, while others give honey very slowly. 

 Localities such as the sage and orange dis- 

 tricts at times produce honey almost as clear 

 as water, while there are places where a 

 good crop is often harvested so dark that it 

 is called " black-strap " or "bug juice." 

 A banner season in southern California has 

 occasionally produced more than 300 pounds 

 per colony in large apiaries. On the other 

 hand I have seen apiaries of a few colonies 

 in Humboldt county (where our old bee- 

 keeper friend H. E. Wilder now resides) 

 which were able to gather only a very little 

 surplus honey — perhaps enough for family 

 use, from five or six colonies. 



* * * 



In looking thru some hives a few days ago, 

 (Dec. 31) I found several colonies that had 

 one, two and even three frames with sealed 

 brood in patches as large as your hand. All 

 colonies with good queens had eggs and lar- 

 vsd. The extremely warm, sun-shiny winter 

 has caused a very heavy consumption of 

 stores. With brood-rearing starting so 

 early, it will be well to look carefully to all 

 light hives and see that they have enough 

 honey to last until spring. There has been 

 very little rain this season; hills and pas- 

 tures are dry. 



* * * 



A company that operates very largely 

 thruout Utah and Idaho has shipped a car- 

 load (300 colonies) of bees to Eiverside and 

 intends running there largely for pound 

 packages and early queens for their north- 

 ern yards. Early queens and the shipping of 

 combless bees is becoming more and more an 

 important industry in California. Many 

 times the heavy winter loss thruout the 

 northern states can be made good in this 

 way and a crop of honey produced, sufiicient 

 to pay all expenses and leave a good profit. 

 Some pound packages received in Idaho as 



