3C4 



December, 1912. 



American Hee Journal 



mento River, two miles from the Capi- 

 tol building. The year of the big flood, 

 about 1863, his nursery and many of 

 his bees were swept away, and he had 

 to make a new start. 



"He returned to New Castle, Pa., in 

 1865, and was married to Mary J. White, 

 and brought her to California. 



"In 1869 Mr. Harbison established 

 apiaries in San Diego county, and 

 moved to San Diego in 1874. He was 

 then the largest honey-producer in the 

 world, and won many silver and bronze 

 trophies and diplomas for finest honey 

 exhibited at the Centennial and other 

 exhibitions and fairs. 



"He patented the Harbison hive, 

 which was used almost entirely in the 

 West until the one-pound section 

 boxes were introduced. He also pub- 

 lished a book on bee-culture. The last 

 years of his life he kept an apiary of 

 250 colonies, and also experimented on 

 the grafting of English walnuts on to 

 the native California stock, with great 

 success. 



" Four weeks before his death he at- 

 tended a bee-keepers' convention at 

 El Cajon, San Diego county, and urged 



them to consider the following: 'That 

 San Diego is to have a Panama Califor- 

 nia E.xposition in 11115, to celebrate 

 the opening of the Panama Canal, and 

 that this is the first American Port of 

 Call on the Pacific ; that the conditions 

 in the grounds for the said Exposition 

 are ideal in every way for the planting 

 and maintenance of all honey-produc- 

 ing plants, and for the establishment 

 of a model apiary in conjunction with 

 the same.' 



"He believed that by a judicious use 

 of glass and wire-screen, this could be 

 made one of the most attractive exhib- 

 its of the Exposition, and if carried 

 out to show the old and new methods 

 of handling bees and honey would be 

 a splendid advertisement, and most in- 

 structive from every point of view, and 

 he urged those at the convention to 

 make such an exhibition, and to start 

 the plantation of bee-flora at once. 



"After attending this convention he 

 sent thr^e varieties of sage seed to the 

 nurseries connected with the Exposi- 

 tion, that the plants might be ready to 

 set out the coming year. 



" Mr. Harbison died Oct. 12, 1912, at 

 the age of 86 years and 13 days." 



¥ar Western <^ Bee-Keeping 



Conducted by Weslev Foster. Boulder. Colo. 



The Honey Market in October 



The potato crop is reported to be 

 one hundred million bushels above 

 normal this year. The price has " gone 

 to pieces " to such an extent that there 

 is little profit to the grower. In many 

 cases the crop will be a loss. But the 

 cost of potatoes is down when the con- 

 sumers are considered. The consumers 

 are benefitted this year along with the 

 dealers and shippers, while the growers 

 lose. The apple crop is in a like con- 

 dition, but from present indications it 

 does not seem that the consumers are 

 to get much advantage of cheap apples, 

 and the growers are not getting much 



for their crop. The dealers and carriers 

 get the big lumps there. 



The rush of these two crops to mar- 

 ket has engrossed the attention of the 

 dealers to such an extent that they 

 have not had time for honey; hence 

 the slow sale of western comb honey 

 in car lots. The larger part of this 

 honey will probably be shipped before 

 Nov. 15. 



The market has dropped somewhat 

 on comb honey, and $3.00 is the high- 

 est price that has been secured for No. 

 1 comb honey since early in the sea- 

 son. Somewhat lower prices may pre- 

 vail before all the honey is moved, 



-<^# 





I- t¥k 



although there is not'much more honey 



unsold. 



^-•-* 



Wanted--A Queen-Breeder in Colorado 



There is not now a queen-breeder in 

 Colorado who makes a business of it. 

 There are several bee-keepers who sell 

 queens, buttheyare not soliciting busi- 

 ness. The mailing of queens to Colo- 

 rado from the South and East is a haz- 

 ardous process. Many queens are lost. 

 It takes three days from eastern Colo- 

 rado. You may see what a queen is up 

 against if she has already traveled 

 from several days to a week before 

 reaching the eastern Colorado line. I 

 believe that there is a business for a 

 queen-breeder here, that would keep 

 him busy. The bee-keepers need to 

 get queens within a day or two from 

 the time they are mailed. 



If a location could be found where 

 queens could be reared as early as 

 May, the breeder would prosper. 



Coi.oKAUo Mountains in Wine'Ek-Thk Source of Ikricathin Water. 



More About Moving Bees 



In the September number I gave an 

 account of a bee-keepers' week. Per- 

 haps I should now tell how those 

 smothered bees came out. Thirteen of 

 of them were lost from the combs 

 breaking down and drowning the bees 

 as much as from smothering. 



The Monday following the events I 

 have told, we had the bee-meeting in 

 Corfez, reported in the November 

 American Bee Journal. The next day 

 George and I started down the canyon 

 again with a spring wagon after what 

 bees we could haul. We reached the 

 place where we had left them before 

 sundown, and got the bees straight- 

 ened up before dark. I placed the 

 combs of the smothered colonies on 

 top of the strong ones, first cleaning 

 out the dead bees and broken combs. 

 We loaded up the e.xtra covers and 

 bottoms and 22 colonies, leaving 11 

 with the e.xtra bodies on top for ex- 

 tracted-honey production. We started 

 about 6 o'clock aud reached the ford 

 of the McElmo River about noon. 



A heavy rain had fallen some days 

 before, and the river bed was changed 

 somewhat, so we unhitched and rode 

 the horses back and forth to find the 

 best fording point. Then we hitched 

 up again and began the fording. Upon 

 reaching the homeward bank the rear 

 wheels cut down into a sort of quick- 

 sand, and they settled down until the 

 wagon bed was but a short distance 

 above the water. We had started with 

 a shovel, and it came in play here. A 

 half hour's shoveling and removing 

 branches and boulders so that the 

 horses could have a good footing, we 

 were ready to pull out. The rear wheels 

 raised nearly two feet when the horses 

 started, and had our team been at all 

 unsteady we would have had serious 

 difficulty. 



We reached the apiary in good time, 

 and had no overheating of tlie bees at 

 all, as I had the supers, with section 

 holders removed, on top, and wire-net- 

 ting over that. Frequent sprinkling 

 keot the bees contented. 



Thursday, Aug. 1, was busy fixing up 

 the bees and putting on supers, finish- 

 ing the honey-house, etc. The cracks 

 in the walls of the house I covered with 



