GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE October, 1918 



FROM NORTH, EAST, WEST AND SOUTH 



result of swarming several times and going 

 farther into the mountains. 



Today I spent a very pleasant hour with 

 Muth Easmussen of Independence. For 35 

 years he has lived on the same place, three 

 miles from the county seat of Inyo County. 

 At one time he had about 300 colonies of 

 bees located on his home place. But two 

 very severe winters, together with Euro- 

 pean foul brood this year, has reduced his 

 numbers somewhat. Wild buckwheat is one 

 of the principal honey plants of his neigh- 

 borhood. This year the sheep were kept 

 grazing so long that the honey from that 

 source was almost a complete failure. Al- 

 falfa and sweet clover follow and furnish 

 some honey in most seasons. Mr. Rasmus- 

 sen 's apiary is especially attractive for a 

 southern California apiary, being located in 

 a dense shade of honey locust trees planted 

 by himself. 



The ravages of European foul brood over 

 the valley in general have caused a very 

 heavy loss of bees, and many small apiaries 

 have been almost entirely lost. The honey 

 crop of the Owen 's valley — practically In- 

 yo County — is all comb honey. Extracting 

 has been tried here, but has not proven to 

 be satisfactory. Owing to the dryness of 

 the atmosphere, the honey is so thick that 

 extracting is almost impossible. The crop 

 in this valley is much below normal. Only 

 in a few localities do they report a satisfac- 

 tory yield. Almost all of the beekeepers 

 here have joined the State Exchange. Here- 

 tofore they have been at the mercy of un- 

 scrupulous buyers. With the price of honey 

 as high as it is this year, the producers 

 have been offered as low as $2.50 per case. 



Bees are generally in good shape in south- 

 ern California, and disease is well under 

 control. Most of the honey has been sold 

 at very good prices. Perhaps from five to 

 ten carloads are still in the hands of pro- 

 ducers. As high as 23 cents has been offered 

 for the entire crop of some small ^jro- 

 ducers. Comb honey brings about six and 

 one-half dollars per case for No. 1. Bees 

 are very much in demand at big prices. Oc- 

 casionally an apiary is offered for sale by a 

 man going to war, but, generally speaking, 

 most beemen consider them as good an in- 

 vestment as they can make. Many of our 

 beekeepers who moved their bees to the 

 bean fields, have not met with the success 

 they expected. A few very warm days 

 seemed to cut the flow short, and many bee- 

 keepers will consider themselves lucky if 

 their bees fill up well for winter. The lima 

 bean, which does the best near the coast 

 where there are heavy fogs, seems to be the 

 only variety that yields honey in sufiicient 

 quantities to really pay for the extra move. 

 The foggy days are not the best for the bees 

 to work in, and consequently a yield of hon- 

 ey is not certain even from that source. 



(iorona, Calif. L. L. Andrews. 



In Minnesota— J^o^<i ,,^^^, . >f* ^o™« 



from Washington thru 

 our new special field agent that the man 

 who has honey can not get sugar for feed- 

 ing bees. If he has sold his honey, he will 

 be compelled to accompany his application 

 for sugar with a receipt from the Red Cross, 

 showing that he has paid to the Red Cross 

 the difference between the price of the 

 sugar and that of the honey. This order 

 comes rather late for Minnesota, since we 

 have been assured that we could secure the 

 sugar, and, as a consequence, many have 

 extracted all their honey where otherwise 

 they would have kept a sufficient amount in 

 combs for feeding. We prefer feeding with 

 combs of honey. In the fall we place on 

 the brood-chamber a division containing 

 a sufficient amount of honey of good quali- 

 ty to last the colony thru the winter. No 

 excluder is used. The bees and queen will 

 move into the upper division, and they will 

 also remove all the uncapjied honey from the 

 lower division. Later the lower division is 

 removed and put away for the winter. The 

 honey that still remains in the combs will 

 come handy in the spring, when this divi- 

 sion is again placed on the bottom-board 

 and under the brood-chamber shortly after 

 the bees are removed from the cellar. We 

 also put aside other combs of honey for 

 .spring feeding. [We are pleased to say that 

 Dr. E. F. Phillips of Washington (who cer- 

 tainly knows) has telegraphed Gleanings 

 that there is no truth whatever in the report 

 that the man who has honey can not get 

 sugar for feeding; or that the beekeeper 

 who has sold his honey cannot get sugar to 

 feed unless he pays the Red Cross the differ- 

 ence between the price of the honey he may 

 have sold and the price of the sugar he asks 

 for.— Editor.] 



During the last three seasons several of 

 our beekeepers have experienced consider- 

 ble trouble from the loss of queens. This 

 loss occurs generally in the early part of the 

 season just when the queens should be lay- 

 ing their best. The mortality seems to be 

 the greatest among young queens — 'those 

 reared the fall before. Generally they 

 simply disapijear, but, in some instances, the 

 queen has been found still alive on the bot- 

 tom-board or in front of the hive, scarcely 

 able to crawl. 



Our State Fair was held during the first 

 week in September. The honey exhibit was 

 fairly good, considering the fact that we 

 have had a poor year. Still it was far from 

 being what it might have been had the bee- 

 keepers taken hold of it as they should. How 

 to arouse greater interest in our annual 

 honey exhibit is one of the problems facing 

 the Minnesota beekeepers. During the six 

 days of the fair the average daily attend- 

 ance was 71,614. Manifestly this is one of 

 our great opportunities to advertise honey, 



