1890 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



(597 



juice. Otlicis say thai tlicy take only injured 

 fruit that birds iuive tirst worked on. I liave 

 taken neithei- view, hut so far have only seen 

 tiie little fellows run over the fruit, lapping 

 with the wondei'ful appendage tliey have for 

 taking honey, and not using th(> parts witli 

 whicli tlu-y uncap comb honey. 1 can see. how- 

 ever, tluit. by constantly taking away tlie 

 juices, the dry sul)stance of the fruit would 

 soon shrink very much when uni)rotected by 

 the tilin of dry juice tiiat would otherwise form 

 a covering over tlie injured part. In this way 

 fruit melts away wlu>re there are many bees to 

 kee]) the juices cl(>aned off. and the owikm' n\a,\' 

 reasonably atti'ibute a loss to the agency of 

 liees. jNly neiglibors have Immmi lenient in these 

 matters, and refused to accept any tiling for 

 tlieii' losses. Yesterday, wliile piclving figs I 

 came to a wliit(» lig-tree tliat luid a sound as of 

 a swarm, because of the many bees that were 

 working on the fruit. Grapes are work(Hl on by 

 them until only the shell or skin is left: but. as 

 in the case of the tigs, it is fruit that luis begun 

 to candy in the juices, and is not ripening per- 

 fectly. A mean between the entire proliibition 

 of bees in fruit-districts and the i)utting of large 

 apiaries in jjositions close to fi'uit-farms, espe- 

 cially whei'i' othei' locations will answer as well, 

 would seeni to b(» the I'ight solution of tiiis 

 question. Where one man owns both bees and 

 fruit there will never be any trouble, and there 

 should not be in any case. 



I was rather sui-pi-ised to find honey in the 

 hives, almost ready for anotlun' extracting. The 

 bloom of most of the tlowei'S is gone, and I did 

 not suppose the bees wcvo getting enough fi'om 

 the fruit to accumulate much stoi'cs. Jiut I no- 

 ticed that the bees working on fruit would get 

 either such a large load, or the effects of the 

 juices were such that they wei'e hardly able to 

 take wing, and seemed half drunken. I have 

 caught tlie great steel-blue wasp, witii scarlet 

 wings, when it was working on fruit, as it 

 seemed to lose fear. This wasjj is over 2 inches 

 long, and is very beautiful. There is alfalfa 

 •down in the valley, aliout three or four miles 

 away, and I have hoped that our bees \\'ould 

 find it. as it would liel]) much in the present 

 dearth of bloom on the high land. I am send- 

 ing my honey home to niy brother in Ohio: and 

 there is satisfaction in thinking of my old 

 iKMghbors and friends getting my honey to use. 

 (rod bless them all. and draw them near to him 

 with the bands of love. 



The yield this year has not been as great as 

 we at one time expected. We shall get about 4(i 

 or 45 cans in all. w liich is not a large yield from 

 70 liives. The white sage put fort h mnltit udes 

 of buds which did not mature into lilooni. Had 

 they done so. four apiai'ies like ours wouhl not 

 have kejit them emptied of an ordinary honey 

 de|)osit. Hut tiiey failed, for lack of moistuic. 

 pei'liajis. and we are content with less than 

 might have been. There has been fruit to 

 work with and engage our time, (lod has been 

 mei-ciful, and we do not have a right to com- 

 jilain at all. 



COMliS MKI/riN(; DOWX WITH HKAT. 



We shaded our hives, as it is necessai'y to do 

 hei'e. and ours were in a low place where the 

 sun struck strongly. An oil-box costing live 

 cents made two shades. One very hot day 

 while we were away in Los Angeles a hi\'e 

 nudted down into a mass almost. It seemed to 

 be because of a large stone that stood on the 

 north side, and reflected tlie rays into the hive. 

 The same day a man in the village who had but 

 oiu' hive (or box. rather), in whicdi the bees 

 built to tin ti)p inside, had it melt down li.\ the 

 heat of the sun. 



(-'omb lion y at Iri'.j cents, or nicely extracted 

 lionev sent to somi' friend in the East t() s<dl. 



will pay pretty well, I think, lieiv in t'alifornia, 

 where so little capital is needed for an outlit. 

 Retailers here charge well for handling any 

 thing in the food line, though I can see that 

 theii' margin is being lowered all the time. A 

 year ago, grocers at Los Angeles sold houev, 

 that cost them l:.";.; cents, at ;iO cents. Th'is 

 year it is 1.5 cents at i-t^tail. as the style is to go 5 

 cents at a tim(\ which is a relic of early day.s, 

 when nothing less than 25 cents was accept(>d 

 for (inji thing. Where one can disjjosi! of his 

 product direct to the consumer there is a good 

 lirotit: but you can not well do this if you go 

 i)ack in the new districts away from the cities, 

 where the best bee pastui'e is. Hnt if near a 

 small village or town, there may be a pi'etty 

 smait local demand, as the majority of the \n>o- 

 ple will be engaged in other lines of business, 

 and may b(> willing to give you a better pi-ice 

 right at home than you could obtain by sending 

 to the large markets. 



p"I.XTTl^YTIOX OF PRICES IX CALIFORXIA. 



Prices fluctuate wonderfully here, especially 

 on heavy articles like potatoes, which range 

 from nothing uji to 3 cents a pound. Every 

 thing of food is sold by the pound, with the sin- 

 gl(^ exception, I thiid\. of comb honey. Husiness 

 does not move as steadily ami systematically 

 here as in the older East. There are more ups 

 and downs. True courage and moral worth are 

 recognized here as quickly as anywhere in the 

 country. A man's clothes or his |)edigree counts 

 but little. They make a quick estimate of a 

 man of \\iiat there is in him: and if he has good 

 elements of character, and \Nauts to do what is 

 right, they seem quick to understand it, and re- 

 ward it accordinglv. W. S. Ritchie. 



Sierra Madre. Cal., Sept. 8, 1890. 



Friend R., I remember vividly almost every 

 jjoint you make: and I thank you for your can- 

 did and honest statement in regard to the mat- 

 ter of bees and fruit. I noticed your concluding 

 thought, that people in California make a quick 

 estimate as to a man's real value. Fine clothes 

 and plenty of money do not of themselves give 

 him a place in society where other things are 

 lacking. I expect to see California lead us in 

 many things: and I hope and pray that it may 

 be in placing a high estimate on the value of 

 true Christianitv. 



THE FOUR CLASSES OF BEE-KEEPERS. 



A I'HOI'OSKI) 8-FUAMK CHAFF HIVK: 8 VS. 10 

 FKA.MF, L. HIVES, A(iAIN. 



Mr. /?nof.-— Now that your great rush of busi- 

 ness is over, and you have had a littli' time to 

 rest and cultivate charity towai'd those that 

 want ■■ ii'regular supplies." I wish to make a 

 sn<,rgestion of two. which I lioije will result in 

 adding a new(?) hive to the regular list. 



l''irst. let mi' say. in commendation of the 

 chati and Dovetailed hives, t hat. for the class 

 of bee-k<'epers for which they aie lifted theyar(^ 

 the nearest peid'ect of any tliing on the market. 

 If w(> classify be(>-keepei-s accoi'ding to their 

 nu'thod of wintei'ing. considered in connection 

 with the kinil of honey produced, whet her comb 

 or extracted, we shall have the four classes sug- 

 gested by the follow ing headings: 



1. Indoor wintering, comb honey. 



:.'. Indoor wintering, extracted honey. 



:i. Outdoor wint<'ring. exti-acted honey. 



4. Outdoor wintering, comb honey. 



The verdict of the leading honey-iiroducers 

 seems to be, that, for the production of comb 



