GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE Algist, 1918 



FROM NORTH, EAST, WEST AND SOUTH 



turn a trifle brown before they are ready 

 to give up much nectar. In most sections, 

 there is a good healthy growth and an abun- 

 dance of bloom. The prospects are, there- 

 fore, good, at least for one extracting. The 

 sumac, which is scattered all over the Coast 

 Eange of mountains of southern California, 

 and blooms the latter part of June and the 

 early part of July, looks fine. But the un- 

 certainty of this plant makes many beekeep- 

 ers consider themselves lucky, indeed, if the 

 bees fill up for the winter from this source. 

 These are the last of the wild shrubs to fur- 

 nish honey of any considerable amount in 

 the uncultivated sections of the southern part 

 of the State. It is too early yet to say what 

 the blue-curl will do. This plant grov-s 

 most successfully on the cultivated fields 

 and comes up just after the grain has been 

 cut. In some sections it yields considerable 

 honey and continues to bloom until the rain 

 comes or a frost kills it. It is a drouth 

 plant and rain seems to be its ruin. 



That section of the country along the 

 Colorado Eiver, near Yuma, Ariz., where the 

 niesquite usually furnishes a great early 

 honey flow, has not made the usual crop. 

 High winds during the blossoming period 

 are held responsible for much of the trou- 

 ble. In those parts where they also have 

 the palo verde and alfalfa, they still hope 

 for at least half a crop. This includes the 

 extreme eastern part of Eiverside Count}' 

 and lies along the Colorado Eiver. It has 

 much the same climate and soil conditions 

 as the Imperial Valley. However, the Im- 

 perial County beekeepers will fare better 

 and are getting a fairly good crop, but they 

 have no hopes of getting anything like the 

 old-time bumper crop when yields of 250 

 to 350 pounds per colony were not unknown. 

 Inyo County, the great comb-honey district 

 of California, promises a good crop. The 

 southern end of the valley is about three 

 or four weeks earlier than the northern part. 

 While the apiarists of the northern end of 

 the county are just beginning to put on su- 

 pers, some beekeepers in the southern part 

 have them stacked four and five supers high. 



After several picnics and ' ' get-together ' ' 

 meetings, the beekeepers of San Bernardino 

 and Eiverside Counties have organized 

 themselves into the Orange Belt Go-opera- 

 tive Honey Producers' Exchange with head- 

 quarters at Eiverside. The following are 

 the ofiicers of the exchange: H. A. Wagner, 

 Eedlands, president; J. A. Mack, Bloom- 

 ingiton, vice-president; E. W. Home, 1551 

 Victoria Ave., Eiverside, secretary and 

 manager; E. Powell, Eiverside, treasurer; 

 L. L. Andrews, Corona, director. Wagner 

 and Andrews were elected delegates to at- 

 tend the meeting at San Francisco for the 

 formation of a state exchange. Ten dis- 

 trict exchanges have been organized thru- 



out the State, with nearly 100,000 colonies 

 signed uj^. Imperial County exchange sign- 

 ed up about 95 j^er cent of the colonies; San 

 Diego County, about 15,000 colonies; and 

 Orange County has a good membership. Los 

 Angeles County has a good start for a suc- 

 cessful exchange. Inyo and the south coast 

 counties also have excellent organizations. 

 The state exchange was organized and Los 

 Angeles chosen as the principal place of 

 business. Details are being worked out ]iy 

 a directorate of six beekeepers selected 

 from the various parts of the State. It is 

 not certain yet whether the Exchange wiH 

 be in a position to handle the lioney crop 

 this year or not. There is no doubt but 

 that by next season we will be able to buy 

 supplies for the beekeeper at a good saving 

 over the retail prices. We will also be able 

 to sell the honey of members of the Ex- 

 change for as much as the commission men 

 do, thereby helping the members, 'ind still 

 not having the product cost the consumer 

 any more than it does now. Poultry men, 

 almond-growers, peach, walnut, prune, apri- 

 cot and orange-growers of southern Cali- 

 fornia have successful exchanges — and why 

 not the beekeepers? 



Honey prices are firm and buyers are of- 

 fering as high as 18i/i> cents per pound for 

 light amber and 21 cents or more per pound 

 for white honey. Buyers seem willing to 

 take any quantity of the darker shades, but 

 a car at a time seems to be the way they are 

 buying the white. An order that came to 

 the secretary for 100 tons of amber honey 

 will undoubtedly be filled by the boys of 

 /the Imperial Valley. They said they woiJd 

 have no trouble in filling this order with 

 light-amber alfalfa honey at a price of from 

 18 to 181/2 cents per iiound. 



The value placed in Florida on having 

 bees near the grapefruit trees is a fact that 

 all of the beekeepers should try to impress 

 upon the minds of citrus and deciduous 

 fruit-growers. Each year it becomes more 

 and more difficult to secure locations near 

 the orange groves. If Florida people real- 

 ize the value of bees placed near their 

 groves during the blooming period, why can 

 we not have the CaMfornia fruit-growers do 

 the same"? Yet we find many who still 

 question their usefulness in the fertilization 

 of the navel orange. In talking with grove 

 owners, I find many who say that they saw 

 very few bees on the orange blossoms this 

 year. This must have been on account of 

 the profusion of blossoms and the abun- 

 dance of nectar in each blossom. Even with 

 so many blossoms, a great number of locali- 

 ties will have considerably less than a nor- 

 mal crop of oranges for next season. I 

 sometimes wonder if there were not enough 

 bees to j)ollinaite such a quantity of flowers. 



Corona, Calif. L. L. Andrews. 



