GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



June, 1919 



FROM NORTH, EAST, WEST AND SOUTH 



When moving to the orange locations tliis 

 year, I selected those colonies that were not 

 considered strong enough to store honey 

 satisfactorily and placed them in pairs about 

 six inches apart. After they were well lo- 

 cated and just as the flow was starting, I 

 removed the weaker of the two, together 

 with the queen, a frame containing eggs 

 and larvae, one of honey and pollen, and 

 enough bees to start a nucleus. We put it 

 on a new location. The remainder of the 

 brood and bees were placed in the hive on 

 the old stand. This gave us a colony that 

 has given good results so far in storing- 

 surplus honey. If either queen is an old 

 or poor one, I kill her, unite the two colo- 

 nies, and after the flow divide again. This 

 way one still has the same number of colo- 

 nies. Your correspondent spent May 1, the 

 opening day of the trout season, high up in 

 the San Bernardino mountains. Up there, 

 at an elevation of about 5,000 feet, about 

 ten years ago there were kept 200 colonies 

 of bees. The man who had owned them 

 said that he always made a crop of honey 

 and the bees never had to be fed. The honey 

 was of a very inferior quality, however, and 

 there was no market for it. With the pres- 

 ent demand for any grade of honey, I be- 

 lieve small apiaries — say from 50 to 100 

 colonies — would pay well scattered over our 

 higher altitudes. Considerable bloom is 

 seen all summer scattered over the hills and 

 valleys and the honeydew on the live-oak 

 trees is very heavy at times. 



Now we are told that we have been using 

 a can manufactured and intended to carry 

 oil weighing eight pounds per gallon. Are 

 beekeepers more trusting than other people? 

 Can it be true that the five-gallon can used 

 almost universally to pack the honey crop 

 of the Western States was originally made 

 to carry 40 pounds of contents'? If so, is it 

 any wonder that we have trouble in success- 

 fully shipping 60 pounds of honey in them? 

 The California Honey Producers ' Exchange 

 has adopted a can made of much heavier 

 material and stronger in every way. 



Disease, especially European foul brood, 

 is very prevalent in some places in southern 

 California. This seems to be the case in api- 

 aries that were clean last year, they having 

 been treated successfully two years ago. 

 At least so the owners thought. Some api- 

 aries have shown no recurrence of the dis- 

 ease; while, in others it seems to run ram- 

 pant thru the great majority of colonies. 

 In some cases it will run down a row of 

 hives taking every colony until it strikes a 

 queenless one; or, perhaps, two or three very 

 active Italian colonies. These sometimes 

 check the disease. In talking with different 

 beekeepers, I am reminded of the boy who 

 had the headache. He said that he would 

 much rather have the toothache; while the 

 boy with the toothache said that he would 



prefer the headache. The apiarist with the 

 American foul brood would prefer the Euro- 

 pean foul brood, while the one with the 

 European can much more readily get rid of 

 the American variety. 



_ The date now set for the first shipment 

 of bees from southern California to the 

 Idaho locations is May 12. One month from 

 that date will perhaps cover the shipping 

 jjeriod for all northern bees wintered in 

 California. L. L. Andrews. 



Corona, Calif. 



* X * 



In Minnesota.— P'l^P-'^g'^ ^^^ of the Oc- 



tober issue of Glean- 

 ings I stated that one of our problems in 

 this State is to arouse a greater interest in 

 the annual honey exhibit at the State Fair, 

 where the daily average attendance last 

 year was over 71,000. At the last meeting 

 of our state association the superintendent 

 of the exhibit made an earnest appeal to 

 the beekeepers of the State to recognize this 

 as a splendid opportunity to advertise our 

 honey, and thus help to build up the bee and 

 honey industry in the State. A few years 

 ago it was generally acknowledged that our 

 annual State Fair honey exhibit equaled, if 

 it did not surpass that of any other State 

 in the Union. Two years age certain 

 changes were made so as to give all bee- 

 keepers in the State the greatest possible 

 opportunity' to participate, but the beekeep- 

 ers have not responded in sufficient numbers 

 to make the plan a success. This year a few 

 more changes are being made in a final ef- 

 fort to encourage the co-operation of the 

 beekeepers of the State. If this fails we 

 will probably be compelled to go back en- 

 tirely to the old method of professional mass 

 exhibits, or have no exhibit at all. Let 

 every beekeeper begin now to make plans 

 to have an exhibit at the State Fair next 

 fall. The new premium list will soon be 

 off the press and a copy can be secured by 

 writing Carl B. Stravs, 4649 York Ave. 

 South, Minneapolis. 



The commercial beekeepers' course of lec- 

 tures given by Dr. E. F. Phillips at the Uni- 

 versity Farm, St. Paul, the last week in 

 April proved to be all that Mr. Holtermann 

 reported concerning the Cornell University 

 course, page 228. Mr. Demuth was unable 

 to be with us on account of sickness, but 

 Dr. Phillips did double duty so we were able 

 to hear the complete course. 



Minneapolis, Minn. Chas. D. Blaker. 



InTe 



gyg^g Perhaps every State has its 



shure of local manufactur- 

 ers of bee supplies, but it seems as tho 

 Texas has more than its share. Following 

 the move to get all the bees out of box hives 

 into movable-frame hives, there has appear- 

 ed an extra crop of hive manufacturers. 

 Of course, some put out a good and satis- 



