MARCH 15, 1915 



221 



BEEKEEPING IN CALIFORNIA 



P. C. Chadwick, 



Unite your weak colonies, secure 

 your honey crop, then divide jusi 

 at the close of tlie season, thus 

 jietting' service out of two weak 

 colonies that neither alone could 

 liave given, and still maintain the 

 oriuinal number of colonies. 



A bee heavily laden witli pollen became 

 chilled before reaching its hive. It was 

 forced to alight, but failed to take wing 

 before it was accidentally w'ashed from its 

 position by a flush of water. It became 

 soaked, and was washed to the gTOund. 

 Mrs. (liadwick carefully picked it up and 

 placed it on top of a warm hive-lid in the 

 sun. After a time it regained its usual 

 activity, but for some reason removed the 

 pollen from its legs before trying to con- 

 tinue its journey. 



As much old honey as possible should be 



taken from the extracting-combs before the 



ilow begins if a light grade of honey is 



expected. Most of our southern California 



bees have more honey than they will be able 



to use before llie new crop comes in. The 



larger part of this left-over honey is dark 



and inferior in grade, and, if blended with 



the new crop, it will cause it to be off in 



color with a resulting: lower price. It is 



not safe to extract close, however, for a 



week or ten days of bad weather when a 



colony has much brood and many bees will 



put them on the starving list. A number of 



combs set aside and not extracted are worth 



much at such times. In fact, if the season 



is doubtful it is much the better plan to set 



' all surplus honey away in the combs until 



j the season is far enough advanced to enable 



; one to know whether it is best to extract or 



return it to the hives. Remember sealed 



honey is superior to sugar as bee food. Do 



not remove it so closely that it may dis- 



[ courage the free use for breeding. Do not 



r try to remove old honey after the combs are 



i partially filled with raw nectar. The result 



will be that you will have a lot of sour 



honey on liand that is neither fit for feed 



nor for sale. It is a good plan to keep a 



few cases on hand in case of need for feed. 



Mr. H. hired a small boy to assist him 

 ill bis work with his bees. The boy was at 

 the question-asking age, and kept a contin- 

 ual line of questions coming all of the time. 



I, Cal. 



One hot summer day Mr. II. and the boy 

 wore slowly traveling up a mountain can- 

 yon toward Mr. II. 's apiary. Even the old 

 horse seemed to have been affected by the 

 drowsiness of the occasion. Mr. H. was in 

 a deep brown study, while the boy was 

 asking questions without number. Mr. H. 

 answered in a half-conscious manner to fill 

 only the place of courte,sy. The boy said, 

 " Mr. H., how many bees are there in a 

 hive"?" 



Mr. H. lazily said, "Oh! about 40,000." 



" How much honey will a bee gather in 

 a year?" said the boy. 



" Oh ! about half a pound." 



There was a sudden change in the boy's 

 voice, and Mr. H. came out of his stupor in 

 time to hear the boy say, "Twenty thousand 

 pounds! Mr. H, you are the biggest liar 

 I ever heard of." 



Mr. H. could but catch the mirth of the 

 occasion, and had to agree that he might 

 have estimated too high. 



What has become of our foul-brood bill? 

 1 have heard nothing from it since our state 

 convention. However, I must admit I am 

 not very enthusiastic over it, for the reason 

 that its passage seemed to me to have de- 

 generated long ago into a political matter, 

 especiall}' after it was decided to force it 

 on to the Governor with the same objection- 

 able features it contained when he refused 

 to sign it before. It lacks entirely one 

 provision of gTeat importance. It has no 

 provision that will do away with selfish 

 county ordinances that we have to contend 

 with, and of which there is a chance for as 

 many different kinds as there are counties. 

 There should be a freedom of commercial 

 shipments from place to place. One in- 

 spector's work should be equal to that of 

 any other. When a shipment of bees goes 

 to a county line with a health certificate 

 from an inspector they should be admitted 

 on that certificate. The traffic in bees should 

 not be stifled by local ordinances that really 

 have no object except as a pretext to keep 

 other bees out. As an illustration I will 

 cite the fact that ray apiarj^ is in Rivei-side 

 Co., yet my home and a part of my bees are 

 in San Bernardino Co. I often wish to 

 take bees and fixtures from place to place, 

 and such an ordinance would be an intoler- 

 able nuisance to me, though I never move 

 bees from either place to the otlier witlmnt 

 inspection. 



