15S 



May, 1914. 



American Hee Journal 



does not kill colonies that are stro>iff 

 in bees and supplied with an abundance 

 of f^ood stores. 



Viwy is a busy month with bees in 

 all northern sections. No matter how 

 anxious you are to see into the brood- 

 nests, don't tear the hives to pieces 

 until the bees are gathering nectar as 

 well as pollen, and the temperature is 

 at least TO degrees in the shade. Hand- 

 ling bees before anything is coming in 

 from the fields causes them often to 

 ball tlieir queens, and a balled quee ', 

 even if not killed outright at the time, 

 never amounts to much aflerwaids. If 

 you clip the queens, a good time to do 

 it is in apple bloom. If you hav* more 

 than one yard this work can be done 

 in willow bloom if weather is war n 

 enough. Use any i ethod you find best 

 while clipping queens. Personally I 

 prefer to clip them without catching 

 them at all. 



As the queen walks up the side of a 

 comb slip a fine pair of curved surgi- 

 cal shears under her wing or wings, 

 and the job is done wit'iout her being 

 aware of it. The exceptions when I 

 do not clip that way are when some 

 wild black or bydrid colonies are being 

 m.inipulated. In that case, ,<'r«6 the 

 queen by the wings the first time you 

 get your eyes on her. 



Usually it is not advisable to try 

 to find a queen at this lime of the 

 year before II a.m., and at that hour she 

 will be usually found in the center of 

 the brood-nest. About noon, and until 



3 p.m., you are likely to find her on 

 either side nf the brood-nest wh 're she 

 has gone to lay eggs in outside frames. 



In clipping time make a note of every 

 hiv • examined, so that when all I hrough 

 the apiary you can tell the cundition 

 of every colony as to queen, number of 

 combs of i. rood, etc. Th ?n it is an 

 easy matter to do what adjusting is 

 necessary, and to keep the \ ery strong 

 colonies in check from swarming; give 

 these colonic ^ extra room rather than 

 tak - briod from ihcni at this season to 

 strengthen weak colonic;. Weak col- 

 onies at this time of year aie not short 

 of brood, but short of bees, and when 

 you give them m ire brood to take car ■ 

 of you are really weakening instead of 

 strengthening the colony. Above all 

 things, do not attempt to unite small 

 weak colonies at I his time of year, is it 

 usually results in failure. 



The Alexander plan of uniting early 

 in the spring, may be an exception, 

 but I cannot speak from experience. 

 The late J. B. Hall, who was a humor- 

 ist as well as a beekeeper, told me that 

 one spring he united eight Aeak colo- 

 nies into four. The ne-t visit to the 

 yard he |iu the four into two, and at 

 the next the two into one. This about 

 describes how it will turn cut in the 

 majority of cases in ordinary seasons. 

 Leave the weak colonies alone, pro- 

 vided, of course, they have sufficient 

 stores and are well protected, and 1-^ave 

 all equalizing till settled warm weather, 

 when the clover flow comes on. 



California ^ Bee-I^eping 



Conducted by J. E. Pleasants, Orange. Calif. 



Crop Conditions 



April has given us 1.7-'i inches of rain 

 in my locali y, which is in the moun- 

 tains at an elevation of from 1000 to 

 2000 feet, and some 15 miles from the 

 coast. The plants are advanced fot 

 the season, owing to an unusually 

 warm winter accompanied by a heavy 

 lainfall in January and February. 

 March was very dry and warm. 



The orange flow was light, came very 

 ':arly, and is almost over. Black sag; 

 is in bloom now, and the bees are 

 working on it, but lightly. Black sage, 

 however, has a long season of lloom, 

 and has a fair chance of growing bet- 

 ter if conditions are favorable during 

 the next month. Colonies are not as 

 a rule very strong yet, and swarms are 

 light. It b oks, from pr.;sent indica- 

 tions, as though the crop would be a 

 light one. Of course, with the amount 

 of rain we had in th • winter, if we can 

 have several more light spring rains, 

 the sa^ei and other mountain plants 

 ought to give us a fnir yield, but we 

 must have a little more r;iin. At pres- 

 ent the weather is warm and dry. 



There were some few losses reported 

 among beekeepers from the winter 

 flood, but the loss is nothing compared 

 with t'le good done by the rain. These 

 winters of heavy rain storms are a 



great bl ssing to soutliern California, 

 though they may entail some slight 

 damage locally, for by this means our 

 underground storage of water is main- 

 tained, without which we should lack 

 for sufficient irrigation water, which is 

 here a necessity. Our storms this sea- 

 son have been short, and immediately 

 followed by warm dry winds. This has 

 not been the best condition for the 



honey plants and the bees. It is, of 

 course, too soon to think about prices. 

 We must know what the crop is to be, 

 but the last «■ od s.ason we had, the 

 Beekeepeis' Clubs, which in almost 

 every county have now organized, did 

 much to mai Ltain a fair price accord- 

 ing lo grade. 



Honey Plants Suitable to Drouth Conditions 



Mr, Chadwick, in April numb/r of 

 Gleanings in Bee Culture, mentidns 

 some of the peculiar characteristics of 

 our semi-arid plants. This opens up a 

 wild field and an interesting . ne. The 

 plants of the semi-arid regions of th^: 

 Southwest show almost countless 

 adaptations to drouth conditions, which 

 enable them to tide over seasons of 

 partial or complete drouth, and con- 

 serve theii energies for a time of more 

 favorable growth. The " wild alfalfa" 

 mentioned by Mr. Chadwick frequently 

 does not "leaf out" during a season 

 of drout I. But when there comes a 

 season of copious r linfall, it will put 

 forth a vigorous growth, bloom pro- 

 fusely, and yield a good flow of nectar. 

 The plant rests, as it were, during un- 

 favorable conditions, as do many of the 

 semi-arid plants. The honey g ithered 

 from this nectar is wat r white. 



The whole family (f Eucalyptus 

 (introduced here from Australia), pre- 

 sents a vertical instead of horizon- 

 tal leaf to the intense rays of a semi- 

 tropical sun. Th- leaves of the Cali- 

 fornia live oak "cup" or incurve in 

 order to protect the stomata on the 

 under side fr m the direct rays of the 

 sun ; and a multitude of the floral in 

 habitants of the Southland have their 

 stems and l-aves covered with a plant 

 down, or woolly covering to protect 

 them from the rays of a too fervid sun. 

 This gives the peculiar grayish green 

 coloring to the landscape of our lower 

 mountains and foothill canons, when 

 se 'n at close range. 



There are two drouth weeds which 

 cover our stubble fields in many locali- 

 ties after the crop is harvested, and yield 

 a gdod supply of nectar for the bees 

 during the early autumn. These are 

 the white drouth weed, or dove weed 

 (so-calKd because the mournin ; dove 

 feeds on its seeds), ana the strong- . 

 scented blue-curls or turpentine weed. I 



Notes From ^ Ab r oad 



C, P, Dahant. 



At Geneva 



Geneva, Switzerland, is a pretty city, 

 and also one of the cleanest that I 

 have ever seen. In our western coun- 

 try, the inhabitant of medium-size 

 towns thinks nothing of throwing upon 

 the streets or in the alleys any refuse 

 which is in his way, orange and banana 

 peels, rotten fruit or vegetables, old tin 

 cans, paper, pasteboard, cigar stumps, 

 etc. Some cities take measures to stop 



this, and are also strenuously fighting 

 the disgusting public spitting of to- 

 bacco users. 



These things are not seen on the 

 streets of an average ICuropean city, 

 however dirty the manure-ridden vil- 

 lages be. But in Kurope, as well as in 

 America, the dog nuisance has never 

 been abated. Vagrant dogs, roaming 

 at large with or without their master, 

 soil the walks, the streets, the alleys of 

 almost every city, large or small, with 



