AUGUST 1, 1913 



519 



Beekeeping in California 



p. C. Chadwick, Kedlands, Gal. 



My bees in town are securing sufficient 

 honey from the pepper trees to keep them 

 breeding nicely. I have divided most of my 

 home yard of 15 colonies. If the bees keep 

 up their present rate for a few weeks some 

 of them will be divided again. Conditions 

 are not so favorable out in the foot hills, 

 where it is very dry and little is doing. 

 * * * 



There were but two days between May 15 

 and June 15 when there was not fog for a 

 portion of the day. On some days it would 

 last but a few hours, while on others it 

 continued well into the day. This condi- 

 tion ended June 25, with a very unusual 

 rainfall for the time of year, amounting to 

 .40 of an inch in Redlands, which was about 

 an average for the storm. Now, however, 

 we are getting next to the warm side of the 

 sun, the temperature slipping almost daily 

 above the century mark in the interior foot- 

 hill region, and no trace of the little rain is 

 left. It is not so warm near the coast. A 

 press dispatch from Imperial Valley reports 

 the temperature as having reached 124 on 

 July 7. However, this excessive heat in 

 such a dry climate is not so hard to bear as 

 100 degrees would be in the more moist air 

 of the eastern States. 



ITALIANIZING. 



The question of requeening has agitated 

 my mind more during the past season than 

 at any other time during late years — not 

 that I have been in doubt as to the advis- 

 ability of requeening with good Italian 

 stock, since black brood is creeping this way 

 from the west, but rather how best to get 

 the pure stock the most quickly and most 

 surely. I have purchased many queens, a 

 few at a time, in my beekeeping life, and for 

 the most part I believe my money has been 

 spent for naught — not that I did not receive 

 what I paid for, blit the introducing of a 

 few queens now and then to an apiary of 

 mixed stock seems to me from past expe- 

 rience to be a waste of both time and mon- 

 ey. Eight years ago I purchased about 75 

 queens of different races, which were intro- 

 duced, but no further effort was made to 

 stock up from any one strain tried, for these 

 queens were purchased as much for an ex- 

 periment as any thing. But the experi- 

 ment proved a failure, for at the end of the 

 second season mj' stock was worse mixed 

 than ever. I have tried about every race 

 of bees known to this country, with the 

 exception of the Caucasians — not one or 

 two of a kind, but enough to make a fair 



test, and have come to the conclusion that 

 the Italians are the best all-around race. 

 I am a lover of the goldens, and to that end 

 I am requeening with the light-colored Ital- 

 ians. « » * 



SMALLER PACKAGE WANTED FOR EXTRACTED 

 HONEY. 



There is a constantly increasing demand 

 for a smaller package of extracted honey 

 put up by the beekeepers, and under a seal 

 or guarantee of the producers. This is not 

 at all strange in this day and age of the 

 world, when people are in such a rush to 

 keep up with the rest of the world in the 

 mad rush of life. Go into any gi-ocery 

 and observe how almost all goods are han- 

 dled now daj's. You call for oatmeal. It 

 is so much a package. Pf you want vine- 

 gar you do not send the little brown jug to 

 the store as of old, but are handed a bottle 

 from the shelf, neatly labeled, and ready 

 for the consumer. The same with nearly 

 every thing in the grocery line. If one goes 

 to a store to sell honey he is often asked 

 how it is put up. He informs the prospec- 

 tive customer that it is in five-gallon pails, 

 two to a case. He is told that it is too bulky 

 to handle in that way; that the trouble and 

 time necessary- to put it up in smaller quan- 

 tities for the consumer make it out of the 

 question, and that, any way, they are get- 

 ting their honey from J. Jones & Co., put 

 up in smaller amounts just to suit the trade. 

 Well, Jones & Co. get their honey, in all 

 probability, from some dealer who has pur- 

 chased it from the producer. The dealer 

 is paid a good profit over what he has paid 

 the producer ; and the packers, Jones & Co., 

 get a substantial reward for their trouble in 

 getting it ready for the retail trade. This 

 packing should be done by the beekeepers, 

 either individually or co-operatively, and 

 thus save two or three margins paid to mid- 

 dlemen. If fifty or one hundred of the lead- 

 ing producers of this State would agi-ee to 

 ship their honey to a central point, to be 

 graded and put up in packages to suit the 

 retail trade, this object would be accom- 

 plished, and a neat profit in addition could 

 be turned into the pockets of the producers. 

 But it is doubtful whether so many produc- 

 ers could be persuaded to p.nter into a mu- 

 tual agreement of this kind, for most of 

 them like to do a little business on their own 

 hook, and are jealous for fear the other 

 fellow will get a penny or two more out of 

 the deal than they. There will always be 

 a demand for the packer's product, but we 

 could increase our sales vei-y much by some; 

 effort on our own part. 



