236 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



FROM NORTH, EAST, WEST AND SOUTH 



Al'RIL, 191' 



In Northern California. 



The rainfall 

 "during Feb- 

 ruary brought the average for the season up 

 to March 1 to nearly normal. During the 

 first two weeks the almond bloom was 

 scarcely visited by bees owing to cold, 

 rainy, and windy weather. Other deciduous 

 fruit bloom is now (March 5) opening up, 

 and it is hoped by both beemen and fruit- 

 men alike that a week or more of warm wea- 

 ther will prevail. Up to the beginning of 

 March the consumption of stores was above 

 normal and numerous beekeepers have been 

 compelled to feed. The writer believes that 

 if beekeepers would pay more attention to 

 windbreaks about their yards they would 

 be very agreeably surprised in the matter of 

 honey consumption during the winter and 

 spring periods. Aside from the increased 

 consumption of stores the condition of colo- 

 nies is normal. Breeding is active and some 

 American foul brood h&s been detected, but 

 as yet no cases of European have been re- 

 ported. 



The question as to whether or not the 

 California beekeeper should purchase part 

 or all of his queens or raise part or all of 

 his queens, is an important one. Your cor- 

 respondent believes that no beekeeper 

 should attempt to rear queens and expect to 

 profit thereby, unless he has become thoroly 

 familiar with bee behavior. It is a com- 

 paratively easy matter to raise queens, and 

 in large quantities too, but to raise the 

 right kind of queens requires an expert 

 knowledge of the habits of bees and a great 

 deal of painstaking work. It is a notable 

 exception to find a man with only two or 

 three years ' experience in handling bees 

 able to raise good queens, but the large hon- 

 ey-producer that wishes to make the most 

 out of his business should understand how 

 to raise his own stock. We cannot do with- 

 out professional queen-breeders and must 

 always have them, for all beekeepers must 

 get their pure stock from some source. Nor 

 must it be taken for granted that when once 

 pure stock is obtained that it is unnecessary 

 to renew such stock from time to time. The 

 large producer with hundreds of colonies has 

 an excellent opportunity, provided he keeps 

 proper records, to select his breeding stock. 

 His selection must be a pure selection — we 

 will say a leather-colored queen — and daugh- 

 ters raised from such a queen need not neces- 

 sarily be purely mated. As a matter of fact, 

 some unpublished experiments by the writer 

 have shown conclusively that the first gen- 

 eration of hybrids are better honey-produc- 

 ers than either pure yellow or pure black 

 stock. This fact only holds true for the 

 first cross as the second and third crosses 

 result in very inferior honey-gatherers. 



During the first session of our legislature 

 no less than four bee bills were introduced. 

 These bills were variously commented upon 



by beekeepers thruout the State. Altho 

 they all possessed some good points they 

 had nevertheless undesirable features as 

 well, and at a recent meeting of the Board 

 of Directors of the California Honey Pro- 

 ducers ' Co-operative Exchange a resolution 

 was adopted to the effect that the Board 

 could not recommend the passage of any of 

 the proposed bills. M. C. Eichter. 



Modesto, Calif. 



« * » 



In Southern California f\f''^ 'f'"}- 



fall to this 

 date, March 4, has not been as much as we 

 .had hoped for, yet plants are looking well. 

 The eucalyptus has not bloomed nearly so 

 profusely nor furnished nectar so abundant- 

 ly as last year, probably on account of the 

 cold weather. This winter has been much 

 colder than last winter — in fact, much cold- 

 er than for several years. 



Our neighboring county, San Bernardino, 

 has again changed inspectors and the affairs 

 of the office are now looked after by B. H. 

 Stanley of Rialto, a beekeeper of much ex- 

 perience. 



Unfortunately it has once more been nec- 

 essary to impress upon a migratory beekeep- 

 er the importance of notifying the inspector 

 when moving bees into California. A large 

 apiary was moved into Riverside County 

 and no notice given. The result was that the 

 owner was arrested and fined. This is a 

 good law. 



One of the matters of vital importance to 

 the beekeepers of the West in general, and 

 to southern California in particular, is the 

 selling of the 1919 crop. We shall be afford- 

 ed the opportunity of marketing thru vari- 

 ous agencies. The State Beekeepers' Co- 

 operative Exchange will likely handle by 

 far the largest percentage of the products. 

 The Southern California Beekeepers' Asso- 

 ciation will take care of the crop of its 

 members. The beekeepers who are not mem- 

 bers of any association will sell their honey 

 on the market or will sell to commission 

 men or brokers. All work hard for what 

 they get and want to get all possible. While 

 at present beekeepers ' organizations may 

 not get any more for a crop than the man 

 outside gets for his, prices will be made 

 stable. Such conditions as have existed in 

 the past when one man has contracted early 

 in the season for 51^ cents, while his neigh- 

 bor who held his crop until midsummer got 

 13 cents per pound, will be done away with. 



April in our locality calls for a close 

 watch on the bees and also for much manip- 

 ulation in order to get the best results. Any 

 colonies short of stores should be very care- 

 fully looked after and fed enough so that 

 the old bees will not find it necessary to go 

 out of the hive in the cold weather to find 

 food. A colony at all weak or one short of 

 stores will need all of the bees it has to 



