1902 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



471 



a good-sized ladder to reach up into those 

 same trees. Besides the quantities of beau- 

 tiful fruit they produce, they afford line 

 shade for the hives. 



Fig-. 2 shows a near view, giving one a 

 more exact idea of the general arrange- 

 ment of the apiary. If one will look at No. 

 1 he will see on the right below the apiarj' 

 the Big Sespe River — not big in size, but in 

 name; and as the beautiful clear sparkling 

 mountain water gurgles b}', one can take 

 in the magnificent scenery and listen to the 

 music of nature to his fill. 



A glance at Fig. 1 shows a natural slant 

 of the ground toward the extracting-house, 

 shown over to the right, so that heavily 

 loaded combs can run down to the extract- 

 or. As I have before pointed out, this is a 

 common characteristic of the best Califor- 

 nia apiaries. 



As is the case with many bee-keepers" 

 families, Mr. Mclntyre's girls seem to be 

 perfectly' at home among the bees. Indeed, 

 the little ones would run out among the 

 hives barefooted, utterly oblivious to the 

 fact that the bees were cross that day, and 

 would sting whenever they had a chance. 

 While Mr. Mclntj're and I were in the yard 

 with veils on, these little rudd}' youngsters 

 would run out among the hives as free and 

 careless as though such a thing as a sting 

 was never known. 



One of the secrets of Mr. Mclntyre's suc- 

 cess is due to the fact that he adapts him- 



self to the season, whatever that may be. 

 If there is insufficient rainfall, and heknows 

 by that that there will be little or no honey, 

 he takes away a large part of the stores 

 from each colon}', and compels the bees to 

 economize in brood-rearing and scrimp on 

 their meager food supply. When the hon- 

 ey-flow is past, and the bees know there is 

 no more honej^ to be had (or apparently 

 know it), he gives them back their combs of 

 stores, and bj^ so doing avoids feeding and 

 the rearing of a lot of useless consumers 

 when they would be utterly of no use. 



He is not given to any new schemes, such 

 as trying pastures new when his own lo- 

 cality fails. If he has secured a good crop 

 of honey, in a good year, and prices rule 

 low, he holds it in storage, and sells it the 

 next season, which possibly (and even prob- 

 ably) will be poor if the previous season 

 was good. Sage honej' is not likely to can- 

 dy, and is just as good when one year old 

 as when a month old. He manages busi- 

 ness so successfull}^ he can afford to hold 

 over the crop, if prices are too low, and 

 then sell when thej' are right. 



B}' inquiry I learned that Mr. Mclntyre 

 has the reputation of somehow making his 

 bees get honey when other bees in the same 

 locality will gather none, notwithstanding 

 he has 500 colonies in the one location. 

 While, perhaps, his average per colony 

 might be larger with fewer colonies, j'et 

 considering the expense of going to and 



FIG. 2. — SESPE A.PIARV (NEAR VIEW) 



