1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



179 



Last March I starteil with 40 colonies of mixed 

 bees, mostly hybrids, in ditfeient l.inds of hives 

 or boxes, cracker-boxes, health-food boxes, soap- 

 boxes, corn and tomato boxes, fruit-crates, and 

 coal-oil cases; I have increased to 104 colonies, 

 captured four or hve colonies of wild bees that 

 came along, and lost by absconding between 25 

 and 30 colonies. The bees commenced swarm- 

 ing about March 1, and kept it up until after 

 July 15. This country is full of wild bees. I 

 found 5 colonies in rocks in half a day without 

 lining or tracing, simply running on to them. I 

 will take their honey and wax in a few days, as 

 the best of the season is over with now (July 13). 

 There are wild bees all over, and the people 

 here say there is enough honey made each j ear 

 on this peninsula to float the United States navy. 

 A native said he knew of 100 swarms in one 

 mile, in t^e walls and rocks of a canyon. It is 

 usually safe to believe nothing we hear, and only 

 half what we see down here. I am sure there are 

 hundreds of thousands of colonies of wild bees 

 on this peninsula. 



Natives say this is a poor season for bees; nev- 

 ertheless, from my 40 colonies last spring and 

 their increase I have taken 1200 lbs. of comb 

 honey, which sells for 20 cents, Mexican money, 

 per lb., equal to 10 cts. in United States curren- 

 cy. Beeswax here at Ensenada is worth one dol- 

 lar, Mexican, per kilo. A kilo equals 2', lbs. 



Bees here usually make some honey all the 

 year round, as the temperature ("they say") 

 ranges from 50 to 75 degrees; anyhow, it was 

 somewhere between those two points from Feb. 1 

 to July 13, 1908. 



The main honey-plants are blue and white 

 sage, and two very abundant plants with yellow 

 flowers from which a fine-flavored thick amber- 

 colored honey is made (better than sage honey); 

 then here are ice-plant and cacti, eucalyptus and 

 orange blossoms, and a thousand other flowers. 



The Indians (my only competitors), bring in 

 considerable strained honey from the wild bees, 

 of dubious quality and cleanliness, which they 

 sell for one dollar, Mexican, per gallon in five- 

 gallon coal-oil cans, or 25 cents per bottle in 

 heer-bottles. I shall sulphur 40 colonies about 

 Aug. 1, and try to get the rest into Langstroth 

 hives. The only natural enemies of bees is the bee- 

 martin. I set small No. traps on the top of 

 posts ne.ir the hives, and have caught the most of 

 them. Bee moths are here also; they have not 

 bothered much yet, but I suppose they will later, 

 and I should like some of your contributors to 

 tell of the best way to control them. 

 Ensenada, Lower Cal., July 13. 

 IThis is indeed :i bee paradise. We should 

 be pleased to hear from others who reside in this 

 wonderful bee country. Possibly and probably 

 our correspondent has heard only of the rosy 

 side. Is there a dark side.' Let's hear from oth- 

 ers. — Ed.] 



. ■ m it x 



WINTERING IN A WARM ROOM. 



be of use to my brother bee-keepers to state what 

 I know about it. That the plan can be carried 

 out, there is no doubt. Set the hive in a good 

 comfortable living-room, with the temperature 

 65 to 70, and as long as the entrance communi- 

 cates outdoors they will be quiet, and winter 

 nicely. 



I made my first experiments about fifteen years 

 ago, and in our Northern New York climate I 

 was happily surprised in March to find three or 

 four frames of brood all nearly ready for the har- 

 vest in April. I soon learned something else. 

 The hives were soon crowded with willing work- 

 ers, but there was nothing for them to do but 

 eat. That was not all. The queens seemed to 

 have laid their rush of eggs, and were ready to 

 retrench somewhat, just as we wish them to do be- 

 fore the honey-flow. There are times when an 

 oversupply of bees is a detriment instead of a 

 benefit. One of those times is a few weeks be- 

 fore the honey-flow, and another after it has gone. 

 The colonies that store the most honey are the 

 ones that reach the strongest point just as the flow 

 begins. Under these conditions every thing is at 

 its best, and something is doing. 



I have no doubt that a small proportion of our 

 bees could advantageously be used to give a 

 frame of this hatching brood to the weaker colo- 

 nies; but here is another caution: The frames in 

 the warm room will be filled from end to end; 

 and to insert this frame in a weak colony would 

 mean that some of the brood would be beyond 

 the cluster; but it could be used in the strongest 

 colonies in place of combs not so well filled, 

 which could be used in weak colonies to good 

 advantage. 



Could we remove our bees from their winter 

 repositories to the warm room early in April we 

 could bring them up about right; but the colony 

 ^uintered in the luarm room tuill be too far in ad- 

 vance of the season to be profitable. 



Some ten years ago I placed two hives in an 

 outer case in such a way that a kerosene-lamp 

 kept the temperature from 70 to 80 nearly all 

 through April. The result was phenomenal, 

 while subsequent experiments proved failures. I 

 presume the smell of the oil had something to do 

 with the failures. 



To sum up, I will say that large opportunities 

 await the bee-keeper who can successfully use ar- 

 tificial heat during April. I think the house-api- 

 ary will give the proper opportunity by using a 

 stove in zero weather to take off t'e chill, and to 

 give a high temperature beginning about April 

 10. 



Oswego, N. Y., Feb. 22. 



The Plan a Success, but it Causes the Bees 

 to Breed up too Early for the Harvest. 



BY F. H. CYRENIUS. 



Having had a number of years' experience with 

 the warm-room plan of wintering I think it may 



TEN COLONIES KEPT IN A HOUSE PERMANENTLY. 



I have had one colony on my third floor for 

 three years, and it did so well that I put nine 

 more in the house last summer, all in observation 

 hives. They winter much better than those out- 

 doors, and, no matter how warm it is in the 

 house, the bees will not fly out more than those 

 outside. If I had room I would not hesitate one 

 minute to put fifty or sixty colonies in the house. 



Bees gathered pollen Feb. 16, 1909, and on ev- 

 erv day since then wheti warm enough. 



Reading, Penn.- John Ru k. 



