January, 1915. 



11 



American Hee Journal 



)>=^^mi^ 1 



and trees I can get. Last year I sowed 

 a sample package of sweet clover, and 

 this summer I gathered some 14 to l(j 

 pounds of seed. I also sowed some 

 borage, and it bloomed all summer 

 and fall until the frost stopped it. [ 

 sowed some this spring, but late, and it 

 did not grow until now. I have an 

 herb in the garden called " rue," that is 

 blooming and the bees work on it. I 

 expect to have a good honey-flow 

 from sweet clover next year, as I sowed 

 some on waste land and in the garden 

 for seed. I have a fine location here 

 for bees, a creek is running by with 

 willows and hawthorns. In March, 

 when the snow is going, there appear 

 some flowers we call salt and pepper, 

 and soon after my bee-yard is yellow 

 with the dandelions. I cannot set a 

 foot down without stepping on bees 



working on them. VVe have a little 

 orchard with prunes and plums, and 

 will plant more next year or some time 

 later. [Mrs.] Margaretha Green. 

 Weiser, Idaho. 



Honey is such a wholesome food 

 that it is too bad not to be able to eat 

 it. At least it would be worth while 

 for Mr. Green to make considerable 

 effort along that line before giving up. 

 If he tries eating a very small amount 

 at first, gradually increasing the 

 amount, in time it may not disagree 

 with him at all. It is also possible that 

 it is the kind of honey. Dr. Miller uses 

 a good deal of honey, taking it in place 

 of sugar in his hot drink every day, 

 and yet there are some kinds of honey 

 that he cannotuse at all, such as strong 

 flavored fall honey. 



Caufornia ^ Bee-Keeping 



Conducted by J. E. Pleasants. Oranee. Calif. 



Beekeepers of the Pacific 



We of the Pacific Coast are always 

 much interested in the personal experi- 

 ence and methods of our eastern bee- 

 keepers. VVe like to see the names and 

 photographs of the prominent men in 

 print so that in a way at least we feel 

 acquainted with them. 



This being a strong feeling with our 

 men here, we thought the readers of 

 the .American Bee Journal might feel 

 the same about us. We have conse- 

 quently prevailed upon a few of our 

 leading beekeepers here to give us 

 sketches of their ways of getting re- 

 sults in their chosen work. 



This month we will introduce Mr. 

 Andrew Joplin, the largest beekeeper 

 of Orange Co., Calif., who, by the way, 

 is especially strong in the line of 

 spring increase. 



METHOD OF MR. ANDREW JOPLIX. 



I have been asked to explain how I 

 keep my bees so strong and in such 

 good working condition when the 

 early honey-flow comes, and as I have 

 no patent on my methods, I freely give 

 away the secret. 



We Californians usually let our su- 

 pers of extracted combs remain on the 

 hives in the fall, for sometimes a late 

 honey-flow happens along after ex- 

 tracting season has closed, and the 

 bees gather their winter's store of 

 food. 



By Oct. 15 I will have been over all 

 my yards (three in number), closed 

 the ventilators, weighted down the lids. 

 As a part of this examination, I look 

 for signs of skunks in front of each 

 colony, to see if they are feeding on the 

 bees. Incidentally. I will say that a 

 little egg mixed with strychnine put 

 out in shallow cans at the entrance of 

 the hives that are being disturbed 

 usually stops them. These night ma- 

 rauders do more harm than is gener- 

 ally supposed, and if let alone will 

 weaken colonies, and make it possible 



for them to be robbed out. 



After closing ventilators I do not 

 bothei my bees much until about 

 March 10. Very rarely do I open the 

 brood-nests of colonies after the ex- 

 tracting season, until the date men- 

 tioned above, but that does not mean 

 that my bees are neglected that long. 

 About Jan. 1 to 15 I lift each hive clear 

 ofTthe ground (hefting them, I call it), 

 to ascertain the amount of honey 

 stored, and by a system of marking on 

 the front of the hive I register the con- 

 dition of each, so I can begin my work 

 of building up the weak ones. My 

 method of marking is in plain nu- 

 merals from 1 to 5. The lightest ones 

 are marked 1 and the heaviest ones 5. 

 Those that are between the light and 

 heavy are from 2 to 4. 



The yard that has the most I's and 

 2's calls for attention first. These I put 

 feeders on. My method of feeding is 

 very simple. I take any kind of quart 

 cans or .)-pound lard pails that are 

 thrown away and melt off the top. 

 These cans serve as covers. Then I 

 take milk cans and melt the top off of 

 them, leaving a milk can (small size) or 

 regular feed cups for each cover can. I 

 then bore a ^s of an inch hole in the 

 hive lid and place my feed cup beside 

 it, full of feed syrup, and cover all with 

 the quart cover can. The Js-inch hole 

 gives the bees access to the feed and 

 the cover can shuts out robbers. 



I find it a splendid idea to take a lit- 

 tle warm feed syrup and drop it 

 through the hole in the lid onto the 

 combs below, and then blow my breath 

 into the hole, which causes a great 

 commotion among the bees, and they 

 come up and soon find the feed which 

 they immediately begin to devour. 

 .After this I have no trouble getting the 

 bees to take the feed from the cans. 



I also found it necessary to put a 

 bunch of excelsior in the feed cup, so 

 the bees can get out if they should fall 

 into the syrup. 



Understand me now, I am only treat- 



ing those marked 1 and 2, for from -i 

 to 5 1 consider rich enough to pull 

 through without feeding. The 4's and 

 5's can be drawn from if I wish to feed 

 some of my weak colonies honey in 

 the comb. 



After feeding a few times I can tell 

 the exact condition of the colonies by 

 the way they take the feed below. As 

 soon as a colony is slow about taking 

 the feed down, they should have the 

 supers removed, and they are usually 



Andrew Joplin. 



too weak to need so much comb space, 

 so I remove them, putting them upon 

 some hive marked 4 or 5. 



In my location it is often dark, 

 cloudy weather for a couple of weeks 

 at a time during the spring months, 

 and if I did not have feeders on and 

 keep feed in them the weak colonies 

 would starve. 



My three apiaries are in a mountain 

 district and are some miles apart, and 

 it kreps me busy during cloudy or 

 rainy weather to keep feed in all my 

 weak colonies, but as that is an essen- 

 tial part of my success in building up 

 my colonies I do it just as the farmer 

 plows and prepares hi; ground before 

 seeding it. So when night comes and 

 I hear the rain falling outside I feel 

 good to know that my bees have not 

 been neglected, but have feed to eat 

 and are getting stronger all the time. 



March is the month to roll up the 

 sleeves and get down to business and 

 go down among the bees themselves, 

 foi at this time of the year colonies 

 are of various strength, and if there 

 are many weak ones it means lots of 

 hard work. 



In my location we have then only 

 two months in which to build up weak 

 colonies, as the harvest of honey us- 

 ually commences about May 1, and 

 colonies must be in shape by that time 

 if we would expect them to do their 

 best, whether there is any honey-flow 

 or not. 



So about March 1 I begin to work 

 on my weak colonies that I have been 

 feeding since January, examining the 



