308 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



May, 1919 



FROM NORTH, EAST, WEST AND SOUTH 



around holiday time; while still others say 

 that later would be better. Some shippers 

 report that they have not as many bees as 

 they had a month ago. All who have had 

 experience know that disturbing, moving, or 

 shipping a colony will almost always cause 

 the queen to start laying, and brood-rearing 

 will begin. Now it would seem that if they 

 could so time the shipment that the rearing 

 of the young bees would be such that the 

 orange 'flow would begin just when they 

 were old enough to get busy, the conditions 

 would be ideal. 



While we have had considerable rain dur- 

 ing the winter and crops generally are look- 

 ing well, southern California is still below 

 normal in rainfall for this season of the 

 year. The sages have not made the growth 

 we would like to see, and the ground is not 

 wet deep enough to give much reserve mois- 

 ture. We cannot reasonably expect any 

 very extensive rainfall after this time. The 

 alfilaria, which is one of our early sources 

 of honey, has started to blossom several 

 times this winter; but, on account of the 

 lack of rain, has dried up to a great extent. 

 Since our last rain, it is again showing con- 

 siderable bloom. With moisture and warm 

 weather during the winter months, this 

 plant often yields enough honey for the bees 

 to build up on and to store a little as well. 

 It is a quick-growing plant, but its roots 

 are shallow. 



The oranges are at least a month late in 

 blooming. A prominent orange-grower told 

 me today (March 4) that he has seen years 

 when the dropping bloom would scatter thru 

 the orange picking sacks as early as March 

 1. Today little or no bloom is out, and, un- 

 less we iiave very warm days, it will be a 

 week or ten days before bloom to any ex- 

 tent will be seen. Usually it is several days 

 after the buds burst open before nectar of 

 any consequence is secreted. In those lo- 

 calities where there were early rains and 

 the bees had plenty of stores, the colonies 

 have built up well and are ready for the 

 honey flow. The black sage has been blos- 

 soming for some time where the soil is fair- 

 ly warm and moist. However, a large api- 

 arist says that little or no nectar is being 

 secreted^ — probably on account of the- ex- 

 ceptionally cool spring. 



Considerable discussion has arisen at dif- 

 ferent times concerning the promiscuous 

 placing of decoy hives or boxes to catch 

 swarms of bees near another man's apiary. 

 At a recent meeting of the Board of Super- 

 visors of Eiverside County, it was decided 

 that all boxes or hives placed in trees along 

 the county highways must come down. It 

 is certainly no ornament to the landscape 

 to see the beautiful shade trees along our 

 public roads decorated with all manner of 

 old boxes. Quotations were read from ABC 

 of Beekeeping showing that swarms often 



go, without clustering, directly from the 

 parent hive to a place previously selected 

 by scouts, thereby giving the rightful owner 

 no chance at all. 



During the week of March 17-22, southern 

 California was fortunate in having some ex- 

 cellent instruction in queen-rearing from 

 Government Field Agent Jay Smith. Mon- 

 day, Marcli 17, the meeting was held in 

 Riverside, and Mr. Smith gave a talk, with 

 instruction in the use of the various queen- 

 rearing appliances he had with him. Tues- 

 day forenoon was spent in visiting apiaries, 

 with a general discussion at the hall in the 

 afternoon. On Wednesday the meeting was 

 held at Eedlands. The weather being rainy 

 and cold, no attempt was made to visit the 

 apiaries. On Thursday the meeting was held 

 at San Bernardino. Here we were fortunate 

 in having added to our list of instructors 

 A. P. Sturtevant, Specialist in Bacteriology 

 in Bee Diseases, from the department at 

 Washington, D. C. Mr. Sturtevant has been 

 sent to this coast especially to study the 

 various bee diseases and is entirely at the 

 service of the beekeepers. On Friday the 

 meeting was held at Lamanda Park at the 

 apiary of Mr. Stone, and on Saturday at the 

 apiary of Mr. Mendelson of Ventura. 



E. R. Root was present at all of the meet- 

 ings, always ready to give any information 

 that he could, gleaned as he said from his 

 forty-two years of beekeeping as well as 

 editor of Gleanings. These meetings have 

 been a great help to the beekeepers. Oc- 

 casionally an apiarist says he is too busy to 

 attend meetings, but the inspiration and 

 knowledge gained from others is worth much 

 more than any day 's work. 



J. C. MeCubbin, now living in Fresno but 

 formerly of Reedley, was a recent visitor at 

 the home of the writer. It will be remem- 

 bered that our old friend "Rambler" (J. 

 H. Martin) made his home with Mr. MeCub- 

 bin before going to Cuba, where he died. 

 Mr. MeCubbin has a large collection of the 

 pictures taken by Martin on these travels, 

 also the plates and films. I wish somebody 

 would take it upon himself to publish these 

 writings, together with the pictures. It 

 would surely be an interesting book to 

 many western beekeepers in particular. A 

 picture of the famous young big tree (the 

 largest in this country for its age of 29 

 years) under which Martin made his home 

 was printed on the cover of March Gleanings. 



The writer recently visited the apiaries of 

 Samuel Nealy, located on the great wheat 

 fields of eastern Riverside County. Mr. 

 Nealy is a strong advocate of migratory 

 beekeeping. First he moved to the oranges. 

 As soon as this excellent flow was over, he 

 moved to the buckwheat of the desert, 

 above Cajon Pass, getting very satisfactory 

 returns from that source. Here he had to 

 haul water for the bees as none was avail- 



