1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



201 



ball are scarcely larger in diameter than a hair. 

 To obtain the pollen the bee must go in through 

 the door and then run or crawl about the spike- 

 lets, and between them and the hood, which, as 

 a rule, gives hardly space enough between, so 

 that the bee comes out pretty well covered over 

 with the pollen, which is carried into the hive 

 more largely on the back than in the pollen-bas- 

 kets. The bees must get the pollen into their 

 pollen-baskets without taking wing, in very 

 much the same way that they manipulate pro- 

 polis gathered from an old hive standing in the 

 sun. I have seen as many as seven bees in one 

 ot these little houses, all kicking and rolling about 

 till they looked more like small caterp'llars in a 

 flour-barrel than they did like bees. 



The great value of the skunk cabbage is that 

 it comes so early, for the very first warm days 

 bring it above tfe ground, and the flowers in 

 blossom. Then the hoods being of such a dark 

 color, and right down in the moss on the ground, 

 with only just the one little "door," makes it so 

 comfortable for the bees inside that they are not 

 chilled on cool or partially cloudy days, as they 

 often are when working on the alders and willows 

 later on, so they can go and return in safety at 

 times when thousands are chilled and lost later 

 on in the season, with the same degree of tem- 

 perature. I have known bees to work on skunk 

 cabbage with the mercury standing at 42 degrees 

 in the shade, while a regular business would be 

 made of pollen-gathering from this source at 45°. 

 Immediately, as soon as this pollen comes in, the 

 queen begins to "spread herself" at egg-laying, 

 and the prosperity of all reasonably good colo- 

 nies is assured. For this reason I value the skunk 

 cabbage more highly than any other pollen-yield- 

 ing plant or tree. 



I never could find any trace of honey from 

 skunk cabbage. So good authority as our pio- 

 neer in bee-keeping, Moses Quinby, in his " Mys- 

 teries of Bee-keeping" (p. 78), says, speaking of 

 skunk cabbage with other pollen-producing flow- 

 ers, " These afford only pollen," and I have found 

 Mr. Quinby more nearly correct than the most 

 of our writers on apiculture. The time of blos- 



soming of this plant in this locality is from March 

 2(1 to April 15, according to the season, the 

 bloom lasting from tiiree days to a week, just in 

 accord with the weather, and there is nothing 

 with which I am acc]uainted that is so eagerly 

 sought by the bees, and nothing in the pollen line 

 which so greatly stimulates brood-production. 

 Borodino, N. Y. 



•-♦♦♦•••♦-♦-*-■ 



THE ORANGE COUNTY PARADE OF 

 PRODUCTS. 



Bee-keeping Represented in a California 

 CarnivaL 



BY ROY K. BISHOP. 



Instead of a fair. Orange Co., California, cele- 

 brates by a street carnival known as the "car- 

 nival of products," or parade of products. In 

 this parade, which takes place in the county-seat 

 (Santa Ana), each industry is represented by a 

 float — for instance, oranges, lemons, peanuts, cel- 

 ery, and many more. The engraving represents^ 

 the bee industry of our country, which is of con- 

 siderable importance. The object was to show as- 

 much of the work of the apiary as possible. 



John Oderlin, who has been engaged in bee- 

 keeping here for 30 years, is the driver — in fact, 

 was the master of ceremonies. The one with 

 the veil, Mr. Ellis, is taking off the honey, while- 

 R. K. Bishop is running the extractor. Frank 

 Maag is folding sections. 



In this county there are about 5000 colonies. 

 The chief sources of honey are the black and 

 white sage. We have some honey from the fol- 

 lowing, though not enough togivebigextractings, 

 except oranges: Phacelia, fillaree, alfalfa, mus- 

 tard, sunflower, sumac, eucalypts, and oranges. 

 In the mountains there are various shrubs that 

 yield some honey that is utilized to build up on. 

 In the valley where my bees are located we have 

 now a very good flow from Eucalyptus globulus, 

 and the bees are storing quite a bit more than 

 they need for brood-rearing. Oranges begin to 

 bloom the first of March. 



Orange, Cal. 



"float" representing bee-keeping in the orange county industrial parade, CALIFORNIA. 



