GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



December, 1919 



FROM NORTH, EAST, WEST AND SOUTH 



In Northern California. 



.In regard 

 to the clos- 

 ing of the season little can be added to our 

 November correspondence. In the northern 

 part of the State star thistle and curl yield- 

 ed slightly more honey than was reported 

 last montiij and bees are going into winter 

 far better than a year ago. During the year 

 disease spread quite a little and will he a 

 serious factor next spring. The central part 

 got a light aphid flow thruout October, and 

 here bees have gone into winter in excellent 

 shape. South of Merced County, however, 

 and extending to the Tehachapi, a vast ex- 

 panse, that was once our banner honey sec- 

 tion, always producing from .SO to 60 cars 

 of honey, fell down this year to a mere pro- 

 duction of about 6 cars. At the beginning 

 of the year single-story colonies were selling 

 at $15.00 to $12.00 per colony. Now hun- 

 dreds of colonies — two-story ones — are be- 

 ing sold at $4.00 to $.5.00 per colony. 



The three vaTley local exchanges have 

 been solving their first year 's work in ex- 

 cellent fashion. The matter of assembling 

 and grading the honey has been a new task 

 and for the first year has been handled very 

 creditably by the local boards and secre- 

 taries, in conjunction with the State Ex- 

 change. The problems of assembling, es- 

 pecially, are different in each local and must 

 be solved by the directors in charge. In the 

 Central Valley local it is becoming more 

 and more evident that there is economy in 

 establishing but two or three assembling 

 points; and, furthermore, that honey should 

 be graded (this holds true for all locals) 

 immediately upon its delivery by the pro- 

 ducer to the warehouse. There is a two- 

 fold purpose in this: first, the grader can 

 do his work faster and more accurately for 

 the reason that the honey is in the liquid 

 state; and second, when the honey once re- 

 ceives the official grade the State Exchange 

 can then definitely base its 60 per cent ad- 

 vance on the honey. Heretofore when the 

 producer has delivered his honey in the 

 northern locals he has informed the local 

 secretaries the grade which he believes his 

 honey to be, and the State Exchange has 

 advanced on this basis. This practice might 

 be abused by the producer since the ad- 

 vance basis for the different grades varies 

 several cents per pound. If the honey is 

 graded upon delivery, it will, of course, 

 mean one or two days ' delay on an advance 

 to the member; but, on the other hand, it 

 is much better business in that the State 

 Exchange becomes more secure. It also en- 

 ables the Exchange to get a better line on 

 the crop as it is being produced. This can 

 be facilitated further if the producer will 

 always be prompt in delivering his honey 

 as it is taken off. 



The State Exchange has sold but half the 

 crop of its members and it appears that this 

 has been a wise policy in view of the fact 



that during the past few weeks honey has 

 stiffened appreciably. It will continue to 

 stiffen as indicated by the condition of the 

 sugar market. Sugar stocks are in excellent 

 shape and new high records are being re- 

 corded. The prediction today is that raw 

 sugar will sell next year at 12 cents even 

 if the equalization board be continued in 

 office. It seems to be impossible to curtail 

 the consumption of sugar owing to our 

 ' ' <lry ' ' nation where sweets are being so 

 generally used as a substitute for alcohol. 

 During the first nine months of the year the 

 domestic consumption of sugar increased 18 

 per cent owing chiefly to wartime jirohibi- 

 tion since July, as against a normal pre-war 

 increase in American consumption of about 

 4 per cent per year. Again scarcity has 

 been further increased by sending one-third 

 of the Cuban sugar crop to England — a mat- 

 ter sanctioned by the equalization board. 

 If we watch the sugar market we know 

 pretty well the trend of the honey market. 

 And now let us watch our bees closely next 

 spring, for all the extra surplus we produce 

 in 1920 will be worth while. 



Modesto, Calif. M. C. Eichter. 



* 4f * 



In Southern California ^^ *^'f ^^^' 



son advanc- 

 es, more and more concern is felt among 

 many beekeepers about the feeding of their 

 bees. At present it is impossible to get 

 sugar in any quantity. Some few apiarists 

 have honey that they can feed. But even 

 with a low grade of honey on hand, most 

 of us hesitate about feeding it, unless it is 

 an absolute necessity, as so much has been 

 written about the danger of feeding honey 

 where there is the slightest probability of 

 there having been any foul brood in the 

 apiary. There are some who are always 

 ready to take a chance, but most of us pre- 

 fer to be very cautious. Fifty clean colo- 

 nies might do as well next spring as 100 dis- 

 eased ones. I believe the bees over south- 

 ern California in general are as light in 

 stores as I ever knew them to be at any 

 time during the past 25 years. One of our 

 best beekeepers says that it will take 20 

 tons of sugar to winter properly the bees 

 in his locality. And I am not sure that his 

 locality is so much worse than some others. 

 Now, about feeders and the feeding of 

 weak colonies. I have used many methods 

 and now begin by cutting all of the colonies 

 down to one story. I remove the two outside 

 combs. Then I put, in their place, four 

 common milk cans, which hold about one 

 pound of syrup each. These cans contain 

 straw or pieces of wooden sticks for the 

 bees to alight on. I used excelsior at one 

 time but found that many bees would be 

 under and in the excelsior. "When the cans 

 were refilled, these bees would drown. The 

 feeding-cans may be left in the hive until 

 the colony needs more room in the spring. 



