4 20 



GLEANINGS T N B E E CULTURE 



.Tl-lv, 1919 



EXTRACTING IN CALIFORNIA 



IF there is any 

 place in the 

 United States 

 where migratory 

 beekeeping is 

 practical in some 

 form or another, 

 it is in Cali- 

 fornia. The sea- 

 sonsareso 



changeable, and the honey flora so varied, 

 that the beekeepers must adapt themselves 

 to conditions. Everything in the way of 

 equipment must be light and portable. While 

 the main highways are equal to any in the 

 world, some of "^the roads are very poor. 

 Many of the mountain roads leading to bee 

 pasturage are narrow, rough, and decidedly 

 uphill; and even in the orange districts the 

 apiaries often have to be moved over soft 

 cultivated ground. The hives must be sim- 

 ple and substantial. The frames used are 

 mainly self-spacing Hoffman that are always 

 ready' for moving. The extracting-houses 

 are small, light, and usually made in sec- 

 tions held together by means of bolts or 



Permanent and 'Portable Extracting 

 Houses. T)anger of Overstocking. 

 Spreading Disease, Extracting Time 



By E. R. Root 



Pig. 1. — -C. W. .Johnson's one-ton Ford truck with 

 screened extracting-house on the platform. Notice 

 that the phitform, while in use for extracting, is 

 braced with two-by-fours. The wheelbarrow in the 

 foreground carries the supers back and forth. 



clasps. Very 

 o f t e n c o m m o n 

 tent.3 with a mos- 

 quito - netting 

 window in one 

 end are used. 

 Whatever struc- 

 ture is employed 

 it must be of 

 such a design 

 that it 11 .TV be taken down foi' easy moving. 

 Use of Auto Trucks. 

 The use of light automobile trucks — usu- 

 ally the Ford type, on account of the moun- 

 tain roads — is almost universal for moving 



Fig. 2. — Tlie other side of the one-ton Ford extract- 

 ing-house, showing the mosquito-netting windows 

 for ventilation and light. Chas. P. M. Stone is 

 talking to the operators. With this extracting-house 

 on wheels Mr. Johnson takes his honey from his 

 thousand colonies. 



and for carrying the extracting crews. 

 Where the yards contain from 200 to 500 

 colonies (and there are a few of the latter 

 size in the orange districts), heavy two-ton 

 and three-ton trucks with large platforms 

 are hired at so much per day or mile. In 

 these cases the whole yard is often moved 

 in one load. The equipment may or may not 

 be moved with the same heavv truck. More 



Aliiary ami 

 icw lia villi!: 



il' A. !■■ 



jood .\ ield of orange huiiey tliis jear. 



in-- the uiaiigu ,L;ru\r>. Tliis \ ai'il w a- • 

 It was operated by his son, \. W. Ti> e. 



