138 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



March, 1919 



in a day in the wareliouse, while the aver- 

 age daily variation of the bee-cellar is less 

 than 2 degrees; and the greatest change in 

 any one day was 3 degrees. This goes to 

 show that a uniform temperature may be 

 maintained by having a long narrow cellar 

 with a large amount of wall and roof sur- 

 face, all of which comes in direct contact 

 with Mother Earth at a depth below the 

 frost-line. 



The -earth covering our cellar is 5 feet 

 deep at the center, sloping back each way to 

 the level ground, and is 3 feet deep at a 

 point directly over the side walls. 



There are 376 full colonies in the cellar, 

 and 18 hives, each of which contains two 

 three-frame nuclei. This does not fill the 

 cellar, as its capacity is 600 colonies. 



Up to the present time there has been no 

 disturbance among the bees. We visit the 

 cellar for the purpose of taking the ther- 

 mometer readings, and stay several minutes 

 looking in at the entrances and noting the 

 general condition. This is done with a flash- 

 light, and scarcely a bee leaves the hives, 

 while the amount of dead bees on the floor 

 has not been more than a quart. 



ONE HEAES THE GEEETING, "A fine 

 day, Sir, ' ' very often in California in spite 

 of the fact that al- 

 ' A Fine most every day is a 



Day, Sir!" "fine" day, and 

 all days are alike. 

 The days of cloud in southern California 

 are about as rare as the days of sunshine in 

 the Great Lakes region where the editor 

 came from. What, then is the significance 

 of the remark in this land of perjjetual sun- 

 shine and fine weather? The editor has 

 figured it out this way: It is a habit ac- 

 quired from the East, or that part of it 

 where for a month at a time during winter 

 the overcast leaden skies seldom let the sun 

 take even a peek at us. A cracker of Flor- 

 ida once said to us in his native drawl, 

 ' ' The folks heah ah f rum evawha else. ' ' If 

 that observation fits Florida it is certainly 

 applicable here. Small wonder, then, that 

 tourists (and the towns and cities are full 

 of them) offer the salutation of the East 

 that has some significance back home, but 

 which means little in this land of sunshine. 



But as soon as the sun goes down, the 

 temperature begins to drop; and during the 

 night it is cool enough so that two or more 

 bed-blankets are none too much, and a real 

 steam radiator, with real steam in it, is very 

 welcome till old Sol warms things up again. 



This naturally brings up California 's win- 

 ter problem and packing. Some of the old- 

 time beekeepers aver that there is no such 

 problem. The editor and some of the very 

 best beekeepers here agree that there is. 

 It is "different" from the one in the East, 

 it is true; but it is here nevertheless. The 

 warm days and the cool nights, going down 

 almost to freezing and sometimes below it. 



are hard on the bees. The warm days stimu- 

 late the bees to activity. They fly to the 

 fields, gather some pollen, and sometimes a 

 little nectar. Breeding starts. The bees in 

 the single-walled hives try to protect the 

 brood. Some of it chills, and then comes 

 the foul-brood scare. The fine days take a 

 heavy toll on the adult bees, while brood- 

 rearing may or may not replenish the loss. 

 The editor has actually seen colonies go 

 backward. The net result of these warm 

 days and cool nights is an enormous con- 

 sumption of stores, a reduction in bee force 

 that means unpreparedness for the orange 

 flow in the spring. 



Geo. S. Demuth of the Bureau of Ento- 

 mology, Washington, D. C, in one of his 

 short-course talks, referred to the need of 

 stronger colonies and greater preparedness 

 for the orange flow in the spring. It was 

 his opinion that much greater yields of 

 orange honey, that is always in demand at 

 the highest prices, could be secured if the 

 colonies could be made strong enough at the 

 opening of the flow. Some of the good bee- 

 keepers in the State see this, and are getting 

 crops of orange honey. When the winter or 

 spring weather is not too cold, accompanied 

 with light flows of early honey and pollen, 

 the bees will build up so that they are ready 

 for the orange bloom; but when the weather 

 conditions are not right, then is the time 

 that the beekeeper should give his bees a 

 lift. That means windbreaks ample enough 

 to shut off the cold breezes. It also means 

 warmer hives. It is a question whether, 

 with this constantly changing temperature 

 between day and night during winter and 

 spring in California, packing would not pay 

 and pay well. This can be given in various 

 ways — namely, by using outside packing 

 cases that can be removed in the spring, or 

 using a 13- or 20-frame hive. By leaving 

 out four or more frames of the last-mention- 

 ed hive, packing could be put into the space 

 made vacant, thus providing side protection. 

 A telescope cover with an inside cover is 

 always much warmer than the cheap single- 

 board covers so commonly used in the State. 



M. H. Mendleson of Ventura, one of the 

 j)ioneer beekeepers of California, and one 

 of the most extensive as well, said he had 

 proved to his own satisfaction that packing, 

 even in California, pays. 



May we suggest that some of our Califor- 

 nia readers try out a few colonies packed 

 alongside of other colonies, of like strength, 

 not packed? See that both the packed and 

 the unpacked are equally well supplied with 

 stores and good queens. If you do not see 

 a marked difference in favor of the packed 

 colonies in point of strength and honey ac- 

 tually taken from the orange bloom, we 

 shall be surprised. 



It is our humble opinion — an opinion that 

 is supported by the experts in the Govern- 

 ment service, that packing in moderaite 

 amounts would be a splendid investment, 

 not only in California but in other tropical 

 and semi-tropical climates. 



