March, 1915. 



American Bee Jonrnal| 



amount in a short time it may be bet- 

 ter to reduce the chamber to (i or even 

 .'i frames, thus forcing them to do 

 most of their work in the supers The 

 earlier we can get bees into supers, 

 on either old colonies or new, the 

 sooner we are likely to get them filled, 

 and the less partly rilled sections to re- 

 move and extract and carry over until 

 the following year. 



There are other conditions where a 

 small brood-chamber is much to be 

 preferred to a large one for securing 

 section honey. In the South there is 

 considerable territory where bees 

 gather a sort of nectar from the base 

 of the leaves where it is e.xcreted by 

 little glands in the cotton and partridge 

 pea plants. While working on these 

 plants there is apt to be a shortage of 

 pollen in the hives, and brood-rearing 

 proceeds very slowly, as brood cannot 

 be reared without a good supply of 

 pollen. As a result of slow brood- 

 rearing the colonies are small, and in- 

 creasing the size of the brood-cham- 

 ber will not increase the size of the 

 colony, because the trouble comes 

 from lack of pollen. If section honey 

 is to be obtained the hive must of 

 necessity be brought down to fit the 

 size of the colonies, which is found to 

 be not more than S frames, and a 

 smaller size is often preferable. With 

 a large brood-chamber under such 

 conditions, section honey is pretty 

 much out of the question, while with 

 a small one very satisfactory results 

 are secured. 



Mr. Barone says in the article above 

 referred to, that " The importance of 

 principles, of judgments, as well as of 

 inventions of great scientists, men of 

 letters and artists is always relative to 

 the circumstances of time and place." 

 Just so, and so we may conclude that 

 while a large brood-nest is desirable 

 under many, perhaps we may safely 

 say a majority of cases, yet there are 

 many conditions and circumstances 

 where one may succeed better with a 

 smaller one. After using a smaller 

 brood-chamber for a number of years 

 for section honey, I thought I would 

 try one or two yards for extracting. 

 For this purpose I found myself going 

 back, almost instinctively, to a larger 

 hive as far better for securing the 

 largest amount of extracted honey. 



The object of this paper is not for 

 the purpose of booming a large or a 

 small brood-chamber, but to suggest 

 to beekeepers that theythink for them- 

 selves and study the conditions and 

 circumstances with which they are 

 surrounded, and adopt such hives and 

 appliances as are best adapted to secure 

 the largest measure of success in their 

 environment. 



Middlebury, Vt. 



southern Europe and northern Ainca, 

 and only about a dozen species are 

 known. In early stages they are para- 

 sitic in the nests of wild bees, as .s'. 

 io//ei,s of southern France, and in 

 those of bees of the genus i'o/leles, 

 where they undergo hypermetamor- 

 phosis." 



The female imago of the Sitaris is 

 about half an inch long, and the article 

 lam quoting shows seven illustrations 

 of the varions changes the insect un- 

 dergoes. 



The mention of the " wild bees 



of southern France " would seem to 

 clear up the matter alluded to, and I 

 was about to let it go at that, but a 

 further search revealed the fact that 

 the wild bees alluded to under the 

 genus ('o//t/i'i "usually burrow in the 

 ground to the depth of several inches. 

 These solitary bees all belong to the 

 family Jndrenfdic, "A family of acule- 

 ate melliferous hymenopterous insects ; 



the solitary bees All the species 



are solitary, and most of them burrow 

 in the ground, though some live in the 

 interstices of walls. The cells are fro- 

 2'isioned zvitli pollen or honey, in the 

 midst of iphic/i the female deposits 

 her eggs." This is, I believe, the classi- 

 fication of Latreille, a noted French 

 zoologist of the last century. 



The italics above are mine. 



Mr. Ward was evidently somewhat 

 careless in his handling of this subject, 

 or quoted without sufficient research, 

 for the first larva of the Sitaris is fully 

 one-eighth of an inch long, and in the 

 second development, caraboid, almost 

 half an inch in length, and this would, 

 it seems, have some difficulty in doing 

 as he describes : "Rests on the shell 

 (of the bee's egg, I opine) and under- 

 goes its first metamorphosis. Now it 

 eats the honey prepared for the grub 

 of the bee and develops into the perfect 

 beetle." Mr. Ward ignores the six 

 stages of development described by 

 Latreille, mentioned above. 



Buck Grove, Iowa. 



Sitaris 



BY A. F. BONNEY. 



COMPLYING with your general re- 

 quest in the December issue of 

 the American Bee Tournal, I hand 

 you what the Century Dictionary says 

 about the Sitaris, as follows : 



"Sitaris (sit'aris), n. \ genus of 

 blister beetles of the family Cunthar- 

 id<r, having filiform antennx and sub- 

 ulate elytra. They are found only in 



California Notes 



BY U. .\. PRY.\L. 



THIS year of grace has opened in a 

 way that gladdens the bee-ranch- 

 ers' heart, for throughout the 

 greater part of the State the rainfall 

 has been sufficient to warrant, with the 

 showers that are sure to follow in reg- 

 ular sequence, a splendid growth of 

 vegetation. The honey-secreting flow- 

 ers will be plentiful ; the apiarist must 

 see that his colonies breed up so that 

 there will be a big force of workers to 

 gather the nectar, should it come at 

 the right time. \nd there's the rub ! 

 The grass may grow, the shrubs and 

 vines luxuriate in plentiful garbs of 

 newness, and be jeweled and spangled 

 gorgeously in brilliant array, and yet 

 these beautiful flowers fail to produce 

 any nectar. All, usually, on account 

 of some queer freak of the weather. 



This was the case with the writer 

 last season. We had splendid rains at 

 opportune times, and yet the honey 

 crop fell far below the average for wet 

 years. Here with me, it was because 

 the nights through .April and May and 

 a portion of June were too cold. 



Toward the end of last summer I, in 



company with my little family, made 

 an automobile trip into the wild moun- 

 tains of Monterey county, where dwell- 

 eth Seneca A. Niver, well known in 

 years gone by as the genial honey man 

 of Wisconsin. The versatile Niver 

 managed my apiary here the year he 

 came to California, some four years 

 since. The location of his apiary 

 seems ideal, judging by the vast honey- 

 flora that abounds thereabouts. .And 

 the past year the plants grew luxuri- 

 antly and bloomed profusely, and still 

 they did not yield any nectar. So scant 

 was the amount of honey stored by the 

 bees that artificial feeding had to be 

 resorted to in order to prevent them 

 from starving. I was told that the 

 altitude was too much ; that above 1800 

 feet nectar secreting begins to wane. 

 I believe the Niver-Colburn apiary was 

 some 2000 feet above sea level. And it 

 was for this reason that the apiary was 

 moved the past fall to a lower level. 



The winter so far has been rather 

 an open one; yet I never knew a win- 

 ter when there was such a dearth of 

 flowers that the bees cared to visit. 

 They do not bring in any stores at all, 

 though it is common here for them to 

 do considerable foraging during the 

 winter time. It is through lack of getting 

 such winter pasturage that more colo- 

 nies than usual will be starved out, un- 

 less the apiarist feeds them. 



By the death of John Muii, the noted 

 California scientist and writer, the bee- 

 keepers of the State have lost a good 

 friend. I remember with pleasure his 

 two articles in the " Century Magazine " 

 some 30 odd years ago on "The Bee 

 Gardens of California." It was one of 

 those prose nature poems with which 

 the delightful scientist charmed his 

 readers, and which few other writers 

 could excel. 



What I should like to see is the Na- 

 tional Beekeepers' ,A.ssociation hold a 

 convention in Oakland this year. Some 

 30 big conventions from all over the 

 United States are to meet here. The 

 new Municipal Convention building, 

 costing over a million dollars is about 

 finished, and it is ofTered free — the 

 finest meeting place west of St. Louis, 

 And it's fair time and so near San 

 Francisco, too; only 10 cents ferry 

 service to the grounds with direct ser- 

 vice over a picturesque marine route. 

 Then there are a large number of in- 

 teresting places and objects to visit, 

 making the sojourn in Oakland well 

 worth while. 



While touring northward early last 

 summer I spent several days in Sacra- 

 mento city. While there I called at the 

 office of Prof. A. J. Cook, our State 

 Commissioner. I was sorry to find 

 that the Professor had gone to the 

 southern portion of the State on busi- 

 ness connected with his office, so my 

 call was in vain. Since Gov. Johnson 

 has been re-tlected, it is fair to pre- 

 sume that he will continue Prof. Cook 

 in office. Our Horticultural Commis- 

 sioner is giving satisfaction, though 

 for a time his enemies tried to make it 

 unpleasant for him. When the Gover- 

 nor found that the complaints against 

 Prof. Cook were groundless, he turned 

 them down, and commended the com- 

 missioner for his energetic manage- 

 ment of the office. 

 Oakland, Calif. 



