AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



531 



BEE-KEEPING IN CAI.IFOR1VIA. 



BY W. A. PRYAL. 



[Continued from page 502 of last week.] 



Many Californian bee-keepers live at their bee-ranches only during the spring 

 and summer months, when the bees require the most attention. During these 

 months the hives are prepared for the reception of the crop that is expected 

 to flow into them ; the harvesting done, and after the colonies are found to 

 be in a condition for the winter, they are then left to themselves while the owner 

 goes to town to spend the balance of the year, or perhaps, he goes to look after 

 some other property he owns. Some of these "bee-ranchers" have farms or 

 orchards elsewhere that they can devote the remainder of the year to with profit. 

 As a general rule, though, they live at their apiaries and cultivate a piece of ground 

 in connection with their bee and honey interests. The wise bee-keeper looks towards 

 being a landed proprietor; he secures a forty-acre lot or more. This he improves 

 at the leisure, and almost before he knows it he has a little "Garden of Eden" 

 about him. With a small stream of water he is enabled to work wonders in the 

 warm canyons that are to be found almost everywhere in California. 



I know a bee-keeper who came to this State some years ago for his health — he 

 had lung troubles. Knowing that open-air exercise was the most beneficial thing 

 for him, he sought and obtained work with a bee-keeper in Los Angeles county. He 

 had no previous knowledge of the business ; in a year or so he was so familiar with 

 all the work about the apiary that he concluded to embark in the occupation him- 

 self the next year. He did so. He purchased a suflBcieut number of colonies to 

 handle conveniently, and obtained a quarter section of land (at that time land was 

 not as high-priced as it has since become in that county — neither was the climate 

 sold as a regular commodity !) Our young friend cultivated a small portion of this 

 land, so as to have all the vegetables he and his mother and brother required. His 

 bees rolled in large quantities of beautiful honey, which he sold at a fair price. His 

 health was by this time fully restored ; he therefore branched out in business. More 

 land was cleared and cultivated. It was ascertained that his neighborhood was a 

 fine one for the successful cultivation of all kinds of fruits, except cherries. The 

 settling of his vicinity, and the planting of fruit trees, seemed to have had the 

 effect of causing the sumacs thereabouts to bloom at the same time the white sage 

 was in bloom. The consequence was that the beautiful honey he previously obtained 

 was no longer of that delightful transparent color that it used to be before the 

 sumac bloomed at the same time as the sages. His honey was no longer as mark- 

 etable as previously ; he determined to abandon apiculture for this reason. 



There are a few others who gave up their bees for the same reason. And yet 



