730 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



November, 1919 



FROM NORTH, EAST, WEST AND SOUTH 



The ordinary honey-pumps on the market 

 will not take care of the honey satisfactori- 

 ly, and Oliver Parkes of Davis has had to 

 alter his pump in order to take care of this 

 "sticky stuff," as he calls it. "Flies right 

 out of the extractor and even a bee-veil 

 won't keep it out of your hair," says Oliver 

 Parkes. 



For the season we might sum up the aver- 

 age production per colony as follows: South 

 of Stanislaus County about 10 pounds per 

 colony, and north of Stanislaus County 

 about 60 to 80 pounds per colony, with per- 

 haps a few favored localities as high as 80 

 to 120 per colony. The crop, as a whole, 

 this year was darker in color than during 

 normal years. In Inyo and Tuolumne coun- 

 ties beekeepers experienced fair crops. In 

 the latter county it should be mentioned 

 that H. H. Sherrard of Sonora is now bee 

 ■inspector. 



The Alameda County Beekeepers' Asso- 

 ciation is a live one. Cary W. Hartman is 

 president and Ealph B. Calkins secre- 

 tary-treasurer. The Association holds month- 

 ly meetings and has an excellent and wide- 

 awake secretary in Mr. Calkins. His address 

 is 5800 Hearn St., Oakland. The shorthand 

 report of Government lecturers on beekeep- 

 ing, as held in this State last winter, is the 

 work of Mr. Calkins. These Short Courses 

 conducted by Dr. E. P. Phillips contain in a 

 condensed form a great deal of excellent 

 and useful material. 



Modesto, Calif. M. C. Eichter. 



In Southern California ^'^^ f *^« 



mostde- 



structive, as well as extensive, forest fires 

 that ever visited southern California oc- 

 curred since our last report was sent in. To 

 speak more explicitly, three large fires were 

 burning at the same time, one of them being 

 in what is known as the San Gabriel water- 

 shed, lying north and east of Los Angeles. 

 One was in the San Bernardino Moimtains, 

 near the headwaters of the Little Mojave 

 Eiver, and the third was farther north in 

 the Little Tiajunga Canyoii and reached 

 nearly to Acton. In all about 150,000 acres 

 were burned over. Altho not nearly all of 

 this territory was occupied by apiaries, yet 

 part of it was, and much more of it would 

 have been if better roads had been built. 



The wild sunflowers are blooming over 

 thousands of acres of the grain lands of 

 southern California, but apparently little 

 honey is being stored from them. They 

 come up after the cultivated crop has been 

 harvested, and they bloom until winter. 



The Southern California Beekeepers' As- 

 sociation held a two-days 'picnic, Sept. 19-20, 

 at North Kingsley Drive and Santa Monica 

 Boulevard, Los Angeles. About 200 were 

 present. Beekeepers were in attendance 

 from as far north as Sacramento. Among 



the speakers were Mr. Buchanan of Glen- 

 dale, Inspector DeSellem of Los Angeles 

 County, T. O. Andrews, inspector of Eiver- 

 side County; and Editor Knabenshue of the 

 Western Honey Bee. 



California apiarists are again to be fa- 

 vored with a series of short course lectures 

 to be given at Davis, Fresno, Eiverside, and 

 San Diego. 



How long the beekeepers will endure the 

 crowding and heavy shipping in of bees to 

 our orange territory is a question yet to be 

 answered. A man from one of the Middle- 

 west States says, ' ' We are going to ship 500 

 colonies to California in November and ex- 

 pect to unload at — (naming an orange 



district already well stocked with bees). 

 We who live here and have apiaries located 

 on the dry sage and buckwheat ranges, feel 

 that we should have first chance on the 

 orange locations. A while ago I hinted that 

 it might sometime be necessary for our own 

 protection, to pass laws against the shipping 

 in of bees from other States. Nevada allows 

 no bees to be shipped into the State on 

 combs, and so makes it necessary to ship 

 there in pound packages. Imperial County 

 has for several years allowed no bees to be 

 shipped in from the outside territory. There 

 is much feeling among the beekeepers here 

 that it is not a square deal to have thou- 

 sands of colonies of bees set all around 

 them every winter, ready to take the cream 

 of the orange-honey flow and then to pull 

 out in the spring for other places. It is all 

 very well to talk of that brotherly feeling, 

 but anybody who does not live and keep 

 bees in or near the orange groves, has little 

 conception of how this business has grown. 

 From the general condition of the bees, I 

 believe that southern California beekeepers 

 will need all of the orange flow they can 

 get in the spring of 1920 in order to get 

 their honey-gatherers in condition for the 

 summer flow. I do not want to be selfish 

 in this matter, but I will have to agree with 

 some of our oldest living writers that it 

 would be well if we had some way of estab- 

 lishing the distance between apiaries and 

 dividing the ranges equitably among the 

 apiarists. 



A number of beekeepers have been feed- 

 ing considerable sugar for winter stores. 

 Others say that they are going to feed later 

 — about the last of November — feeling that 

 it is too much of a stimulus to brood-rearing 

 to feed early. We have .iust had quite a 

 rain over southern California, and, with a 

 warm fall, the bees should still be able to 

 gather some nectar on many of our ranges. 



Corona, Calif. L. L. Andrews. 



In Michigan Beekeepers who ai 



o able to secure sus 



are un- 

 igar in 



time to do the fall feeding for winter stores 

 should not let the matter rest there and just 



