1879 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



311 



black, an<l is sunk in the ground, in an open trench 

 two inches wide and three inches deep, so as not to 

 interfere in walking about, or in wheeling honey 

 from the hives to the centre, &c. 



The apiary contains 408 stands of bees, and scatter- 

 ed outside are 75 nuclei for raising queens. The 

 Lives are arranged in the hexagoual form, six ft. 

 and six in. from centre to centre, with entrances to 

 the south. 



The right hand of the photo is south, the left hand 

 north. The streets in the apiary run north and 

 south. Every other space is reckoned a street, and 

 is named after some prominent bee-keeper in this 

 vicinity. The hives are numbered from right to left, 

 like houses in a city, and, instead of placing the 

 numbers on the hives, we have small stakes with W 

 for Wilkin's, C for Carey, &c, and Nos. 1—6—12—18- 

 24—30—36—42, &c, each placed opposite its respective 

 hive, so that, by glancing at the nearest number, it 

 is an easy matter to recognize the number of inter- 

 mediate hives. 



The first image seen in the photo is your humble 

 servant, who has just hived a swarm of bees which 

 you can see sitting on the top of the step-ladder at 

 his right hand. • The second is R.Wilkin sitting on 

 his three-wheeled perambulator, with awning over- 

 head to keep eff the sun, tool-box, empty hive, &c., 

 beside him, opening a hive. At his left hand, is his 

 little daughter, Mary, with a two-wheeled cart, ready 

 to draw away the combs to the centre for uncapping, 

 exti acting, &c. At the north of the centre, is his 

 oldest daughter, Hattie, looking to see when they 

 are coming with some honey for her to extract. 



The ground in the apiary is smooth, hard, and dry, 

 with a descent of about one foot to the rod, from 

 from west to east. This is the second year's growth 

 of the grape vines in the apiary. He only has a few, 

 as he was fearful that they would be in the way; 

 but he has now come to the conclusion he wants 

 more of them. 



The building in plain view is the shop, with empty 

 hives piled in front ready for use. South-west of 

 the shop is the wagon shed, and fumigating house. 

 The fumigating house has a capacity of 1700 combs; 

 rags are kept saturated with sulphur, at all times, 

 ready for use. Sixty paces directly south of the 

 apiary is the dwelling house. The grounds are set 

 out to pear, apple, peach, apricot, orange, lemon, 

 tig, and English walnut trees, all in fine condition. 

 The fig produces 3 crops in the year. Trees the sec- 

 ond year from the cuttings are now full of figs, the 

 second crop of the season. The apiary is elevated 

 about 1,275 ft. above the ocean, and is 27 miles from 

 Ventura, the county seat, a sea-port town. Mr. 

 Wilkin's home is in Ventura. The nearest post-of- 

 fice is Sciencga, miles; the nearest school, two 

 miles. From Ventura the road comes up the Santa 

 Clara valley, a rich agricultural country, then up 

 the Sespe valley. The apiary is located at the ex- 

 treme upper end of the Sespe valley, and on the 

 west bank of the Sespe river, which is 160 paces 

 from bank to bank, at high water mark. The coun- 

 ty road runs along the east bank, going up to the 

 oil regions. The mountains on all sides except the 

 south are elevated about 2,650 ft. above sea level, 

 some of the highest peaks being snow capped in 

 winter; yet, at the apiary, geraniums, roses, &c. are 

 in bloom all the year. Ripe strawberries can be 

 gathered every month in the year. Tomatoes area 

 perennial, and melons are a weed; that is, you eat 

 the melon and scatter the seed, and, as soon as the 



rainy season sets in, plow the ground, thin out the 

 young melons, and keep the weeds down, and you 

 have melons to perfection. The trees seen in the 

 photo are the sycamore, live oak, and California 

 walnut. The hushes arc willow, water mote, alder, 

 and California sumach. The bushes in the apiary 

 are the white or sweet elder. All produce more or 

 less bee forage in their season. 



Beyond the county road, and nearly midway in the 

 valley, on the east side of the river, is a rocky patch 

 covered with cactus, or prickly pear, the home of 

 the California quail, rabbit and squirrel. Away up 

 the mountains, near the top, at the left hand, is 

 where one of the neishbors was killed bv a grizzlv 

 bear, while herding his sheep. The top of those 

 mountains affords excellent grazing for sheep, 

 horses, cattle, and mules. Sheep produce two crops 

 of wool in the year. The sides of the mountains are 

 usually covered with the different kinds of sage, or 

 a dense growth of brush of different kinds, called 

 "chaparral" by the Spanish. 



The brush produces bee forage also. About half 

 way up the mountains, in front, are three swarms of 

 bees, located in the limestone rocks, and taking care 

 of themselves in their own fashion. West and south- 

 west are nearly 300 acres of white sage, all in one 

 body. We have measured stalks 14ft. in height. It 

 does not look much like the white sage pictured in 

 Gleanings. Thousands of acres of mustard are in 

 the valleys, and on the hillsides, or mesa, as it is 

 called here. 1 measured a stalk yesterday 13ft. high, 

 with branches in proportion. It is a great pest to 

 the farmer, but produces large quantities of honey. 

 I will give more history of the surroundings in my 

 next. E. Gallup. 



Scieneaa, Cal., July 17, 1879. 



FEEDING COLONIES THROUGH ON SUGAR SYRUP, TO 

 SAVE THEM FROM THE BRIMSTONE, ETC. 



Ir^Mf^ neighbors, close to me, are box hive bee 

 JLwHl k ee P ers with black bees, and I have no 

 »Y» reason to expect they will ever change, or 

 desire to do so. Will it be of any use to Italianize? 

 Will I be able to keep my own stocks pure? 1 don't 

 care in the least to even hybridize their stocks, at any 

 expense of mine. They laugh to themselves and 

 others at my "patent*' hives, and "patent"' comb, 

 but the laugh was on my side last spring, when my 

 6 colonies well protected with cushions came 

 through all right, and theirs were many of them 

 dead. Even those I drove from their stores (to save 

 them from brimstone) late in Oct. and Nov. ami fed 

 on sugar syrup, and supplied with 3 frames from 

 other hives, did ver y well indeed. It was risky tak- 

 ing them so late, too. 



I think J. S., from Bethel, Conn., needn't "growl" 

 so hard; for I heard him say the cold blast smoker 

 iriis a success. I have used one anil like it much. 

 Then, too, he has said he thought the story and a 

 half hive was just splendid. Mrs. T. M. Squire. 



Bedding, Conn., Aug. 4th, '70. 



If you can take colonies that were rescued 

 from the brimstone pit through such a win- 

 ter as the last, Mrs. S., you can certainly 

 set the full benefit of the* Italians, no mat- 

 ter how many black stocks there are around 

 you. To be sure the. laugh was on your side, 

 and it will continue to be, so long as you 

 bring your bees through the winter as you 

 have done. 



My husband sent for a copy of Gleanings last 

 spring, and I at once became interested in bees, i 

 bought a couple of Simplicity bee hives all fitted up 

 nicely. We had four swarms In common box hives. 



The 5th of June, we hived a large swarm, and after 

 two or three weeks put on the upper story. The 6th 

 of August, we opened the hive and took out over 

 Sixty lbs. of beautiful white honey, much to oursur- 



prise, as the colony did not seem to be making 



much. 1 indeed felt very proud of it, as it was the 

 first section honey sold in Batavia. 



Mrs. E. M. Crossman. 

 Batavia, N. V., Aug. 13, '79. 



