May, 1919 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



2dd 



fornia, wlioro tlie bees are built up during 

 ■winter on tlio eucalyptus, after which they 

 may or may not make a 60-pound can of 

 orange-blossom hone,y to the colony. This 

 so-called "orange-blossom," bj^ the way, will 

 very often be mixed with mountain sage, 

 wild alfalfa, and buckwheat. After catch- 

 ing the California crop the bees' are loaded 

 into cars and moved into Idaho, Montana, 

 and Wyoming when they are just about in 

 time to catch the alfalfa. In this way the 

 cycle continues year in and year out. 



During the high prices of honey that have 

 prevailed during the last two years the prac- 

 tice has been highly remunerative to those 

 who have sufficient cajjital and skill to con- 

 duct the business. For example, the Su- 

 perior Honey Co. of Ogden took last year 

 $50,000 worth of honey. The company own- 

 ed and operated three thousand colonies, fif- 

 teen hundred of which were moved into 

 California and then moved back again. 



The Editor has run across something like 

 a dozen extensive migratory beekeepers in 

 California that have gotten the business of 

 moving bees in carload lots down to an ex- 

 act science, and they have made money. This 

 does not mean that they do not sometimes 

 have some losses, particularly if it turns hot 

 suddenly after the bees are en route. There 

 is absolutely no difficulty in moving during 

 the cool weather. When the bees are moved 

 from the North to California, the problem 

 is comparatively simple, but when they are 

 moved from California during hot weather 

 to the North, trouble begins if one does not 

 understand the business. 



Some beekeepers use refrigerator cars dur- 

 ing hot weather, packing them with ice. 

 Others use open cattle-cars, carrying along 

 barrels of water to sprinkle the bees when 

 the weather is insufferably hot or the car 

 stops for transfer. As many as 700 colonies 

 have been moved in a car. 



We hope to be able to give some concrete 

 cases later on, with particulars. 



BEES DON 'T WORK for nothing and board 

 themselves anywhere in the United States; 

 but in some sea- 

 Decoy Hives sons and in some 

 in California. localities they 

 come very near do- 

 ing that in California, as we have pointed 

 out before. This does not imply that bees 

 do not require expert attention here. As a 

 matter of fact they need more of it than in 

 the East; but the very fact that bees can 

 many times shift for themselves has made 

 it possible for runaway swarms to occupy 

 caves, crevices in the rocks, cavities in 

 trees, and places in and outside of buildings. 

 These wild bees, together with those in con- 

 trol of man, anywhere from 10 to 25,000 

 colonies to the county, make it possible for 

 r.unaway swarms to be more or less common 

 — so common, indeed, that the business of 

 trapping swarms in decoy hives is fairly 



common and profitable. It would be less 

 common if beekeepers would watch their 

 bees closely. They either have too many or 

 else neglect what they have — result, swarm- 

 ing and lots of it. 



The high price of honey during the last 

 two years has made it next to impossible to 

 buy bees for either love or money. Accord- 

 ingly, many people have resorted to the 

 practice of catching stray swarms in boxes 

 or hives conveniently located 10 or 12 feet 

 above the ground, in trees. These hives 

 contain preferably a piece of comb and two 

 or more frames of foundation. Those who 

 make a business of putting out these decoy 

 hives place 10 or 20 of them among 

 the trees, and some have captured as many 

 as 10 or 20 swarms a day. Ernest Allen, 

 secretary of the local exchange of La Mesa, 

 near San Diego, has caught as high as six 

 swarms a day for seven days. In fact, Mr. 

 Allen made his start in beekeeping from his 

 trap swarms. 



Sometimes the trap-swarming business is 

 in disrepute, especially when the trapper lo- 

 cates numerous decoy hives around a large 

 apiary belonging to another man. Such 

 poachers usually "get in so bad" that the 

 beekeepers finally run them out of the coun- 

 try. They do not object, they say, to legiti- 

 mate decoy-hive trapping, for there are hun- 

 dreds of stray swarms that would go to the 

 rocks, or trees, and thereafter be a constant 

 menace on account of bee disease. 



There is another form of bee-catching 

 that is totally distinct from the decoy-hive 

 scheme; and that is where certain disrep- 

 utable persons fix up robber-trap hives with 

 bee-escajies to trap their neighbors ' bees. 

 During the dearth of honey a person of this 

 kind can bring on a genuine case of spring 

 and summer dwindling among his neighbor 

 beekeepers, and at' the same time enrich him- 

 self. The beekeeper 's colonies begin to 

 dwindle, and he wonders why. Soon he finds 

 out, and then, biff -bang-wow! 



This kind of trapping has all but gone out 

 of practice for the reason that it would go 

 pretty hard with the trapper if he should 

 be caught at it. One or two parties engag- 

 ed in the practice are being watched very 

 narrowly, I am told. In some parts of the 

 State where the law can not be used, the 

 shotgun stands ready. We, of course, can 

 not recommend or condone one wrong to 

 right another, much less the use of a gun, 

 even to correct an abuse. 



We have learned of another form of pil- 

 fering, where certain persons will go into 

 isolated apiaries in broad daylight and take 

 a frame of brood and bees out of every colo- 

 ny, replacing them with comb taken from 

 the honey-house. There are many beeyards 

 in California that are located up in the 

 mountains where one can go and help him- 

 self to bees and brood with but little fear 

 of detection for the time being; but murder 

 will out. The honest beekeeper, when he 

 discovers a case of unusual dwindling, is on 

 the watch. 



