THE AMERICAJS BEE JUURNAL. 



263 



exempt from frost, or at least frosts 

 are of very rare occurrence in such 

 places. While fruits yield largely in 

 the valley, and are of good size, the 

 fruits of the foot-hills have more 

 flavor, and have better keeping- 

 qualities. 



There are really no bee-keepers in 

 this county who make a specialty of 

 bee-keeping or hoiiey-prodncing. 

 There are a very tew who keep inore 

 than a few colonies for home use. 

 The largest bee-keeper in the valley, 

 last spring, had about KiO colonies. I 

 learned through the papers, that he 

 produced 2 tuns of extracted, and half 

 a ton of comb honey. I saw some of 

 his comb honey, but it was not a No. 

 1 article. It was in rough, split, red- 

 wood frames, 6 inches deep, and about 

 15 inches long, of a dingy color, and 

 would sell nowliere except about 

 home, and very slowly there. lie 

 cannot produce a No. 1 article, and so 

 he sells his honey just as soon as it is 

 out of the hive, at any price that he 

 can command. Others have from 10 

 to 20 colonies in all sorts of hives, 

 kegs and boxes, but seldom get honey 

 enough for home use. 



Napa valley in fruit-blossom time, 

 from January, when the almond and 

 peach trees are in bloom, until May or 

 June 1, through blackberry bloom, 

 yields a good quality of honey. A 

 scientific bee-man can, in a good sea- 

 son, produce a fair crop of honey, but 

 it will require skill and everything in 

 good order to secure it. After Jan. 1, 

 the thistle and the tar-weed bloom, 

 and all lioney left uncapped in the 

 hive then, will get tainted with a 

 bitter and very disagreeable flavor. 



In the foot-hill region there is more 

 or less blue-sage, and the honey is 

 much finer in flavor ; in fact, I think 

 we have the finest flavored honey 

 that I have ever tasied in this State. 

 Honey in the northern part of the 

 State has a more decided flavor then 

 that produced in the southern part, 

 while at the extreme south, the honey 

 is more continuous, and of more 

 variety. I do not know of any white- 

 sage that grows in this section, while 

 in some parts of the southern coun- 

 ties, white-sage is their main depend- 

 ence, and it comes at the time when 

 it is most needed. 



I am situated on the foot-hills on 

 the east side of Napa valley, about 5 

 miles north from Napa city, and 1 

 mile soutlieast of the famous Napa 

 Soda Springs. There are thousands 

 of acres of blue- sage growing where 

 nothing else will grow, on a sort of 

 lava formation, apparently on the 

 bare rock in many places. It blooms 

 from January until June, unless 

 checked by frost, or what is as bad 

 here, a north wind which dries up 

 vegetation, and even animal creation. 

 It IS deadly in its effects, and every- 

 thing feels it, as it is blighting in its 

 nature. After the blue-sage comes 

 the yerba santa, or mouiitain balsam, 

 as it is called, which yields good 

 honey of a very thick body. There 

 is a strong balsam in the yerba santa. 

 Its effects are perceived iii the honey, 

 and it has medicinal qualities. This 

 brings the flow to about the middle of 

 June, when we have a drought of 



honey-flow until corn tassels, about- 

 the latter part of July or August; 

 then bees breed some, and sometimes 

 swarm ; but they will need all their 

 stores, or if the honey has been ex- 

 tracted close, they will have to be fed, 

 though some bee-keepers prefer to let 

 them take their chances. 



I have not mentioned the fruit- 

 bloom which begins in January and 

 lasts until the middle of May ; nor the 

 profusion of wild flowers which 

 bloom from the time of the first rain 

 until the " cU'y season." In Septem- 

 ber we have goldenrod to begin with, 

 and as the different varieties of grapes 

 ripen, quails, linnets, and yellow- 

 jackets cut the grape-skins, when the 

 bees make a living and store some 

 besides, producing a dark-colored but 

 very palatable quality of honey. The 

 early rains cause many of the compact 

 bunches of grapes to rot, which gives 

 the bees another chance to add to 

 their stores before winter fairly sets in. 



Uere bees stop breeding in October 

 or November. Generally in Novem- 

 ber I look through my hives, take 

 what surplus I think the bees can 

 spare, reduce them to about six combs 

 in the centre of the hive, and place 

 division-boards at the outside of the 

 combs. I then put on the cap with 3 

 or 4 empty grain-sacks on top of the 

 frames tucked in closely, and leave 

 them on the summer stands until 

 January, when I examine them to see 

 if any "need stores, when, if they do, 

 I give them some, or replace the wet 

 sacks with dry ones, in case some 

 should get wet. I had to place rocks 

 on all my hive-covers to keep them 

 from being blown away during gales. 

 I generally save enough combs of 

 sealed honey for feeding purposes ; 

 otherwise, I use a feeder. 



Although some Californian bee- 

 keepers have done very well during 

 the past season, those in all parts of 

 the State did not fare alike. I w^orked 

 my aniary mostly for rearing queens, 

 biitLlost by late, cold, spring rains, 

 over 200 of my earliest queens. The 

 rains were not only cold and late, but 

 long continued, so that it was risky to 

 open the hives. I got no first-class 

 comb honey, and but 2,000 pounds of 

 a good quality of extracted, which I 

 reserved for my home trade. I put it 

 in one and two-pound glass jars, and 

 two, five and ten-pound tin cans, Vtfith 

 neat labels on them. I sell all of my 

 honey in Napa City, at from 8 to 12}-2 

 cents per pound. 



The last three years were very 

 peculiar ones for honey and bees. The 

 season of 18.s2 was promising. Bees 

 did very well, and honey came in 

 lively until May VS or 18. About that 

 time Napa county had a cold wave, 

 which killed the bloom throughout 

 nearly the whole county, very few 

 places having escaped. My place had 

 always been considered exempt from 

 frost. I was suckering vines before 

 breakfast, and my hands became numb 

 from cold ; after breakfast I resumed 

 mywork. andl noticed a few vines 

 black and drooping, and presently a 

 few more. I was surprised at first, 

 but I soon saw, as the sun got higher, 

 more ^^nes drooping. In less time 

 than I could describe it, the whole 



vineyard was wilted. My hopes sunk 

 low— " killed by fiost." 'I found that 

 it was universal, and so I made the 

 best of it. A little later I found 

 young bees crawling out from the 

 hives, vi'ith wings not fully developed. 

 At this time I did not fully under- 

 stand it, but since, I conceived the 

 idea that as the hives were full of 

 young bees, in all stages, at the time 

 of the freeze, the old bees perished 

 while seeking for supplies, and being 

 cut off suddenly, the young bees were 

 sealed up with a scant supply, and 

 could not develop before hatching ; in 

 consequence, the yard was covered 

 with dead bees, aiid in many hiyes 

 they became so reduced that only a 

 very few bees were left with the 

 queen on the combs, and occasionally 

 I found the queen alone. 



From (iO colonies in the spring, I 

 increased my apiary to S.5, reduced 

 them to 24 in the fall, and begun with 

 20 weak colonies the following spring. 

 In 1883, 1 bought 15 colonies of blacks, 

 and increased them to 20 strong ones 

 in the spring. I increased my num- 

 ber of colonies to about 95 in June, 

 when a " norther " came and blighted 

 everything. Fruit that looked prom- 

 ising before the "norther" came, lost 

 allot its bloom. Grapes that prom- 

 ised several tons per acre, had less 

 than 1,000 pounds; of course bee-feed 

 was cut off. Flowers yielded but a 

 scanty supply. Bees barely secured a 

 living. I got 1,000 pounds of surplus 

 honey, and fed nearly 400 pouijds of 

 it back, which induced robbing, and I 

 had a fearful time until I got a barrel 

 of sugar and fed with that, which 

 stopped the robbing. Out of 85 colo- 

 nies, 84 were robbing. Queens from 

 the East came late, and it was hard 

 work to save them, but I succeeded 

 in saving enough to preserve my 

 breeding queens. I found one colony 

 very quiet during all the excitement. 

 After order was restored, and I felt 

 safe, I opened the hive late in the 

 afternoon, and I found the body of 

 the hive full of bees, brood and stores, 

 and the top tier of sections ready to 

 take oft'. 



I built up several colonies with the 

 combs and bees, and marked that col- 

 ony for breeding, as the bees were 

 quiet and well marked for pure Ital- 

 ians. I am sorry to state that I lost 

 the queen and all her queen-cells, 

 owing to the long wet spells. By 

 selling ami reducing my number of 

 colonies, 1 brought about 24 colonies 

 through the spring of 1884, and in- 

 creased them to 100. I had 2.000 

 pounds of No. 1 extracted honey, 

 mostly blue-sage, but no comb honey, 

 and the bees were all he.althy and in 

 good condition. I obtained 90 pounds 

 of beeswax from refuse combs. I use 

 foundation, and I think it profitable. 

 I save all combs in frames, sulphur 

 them occasionally to kill moths, melt 

 all imperfect ones into wax and re- 

 place them with foundation. I use no 

 wires in the foundation. 



To make bees profitable ip this 

 county, the business should be con- 

 nected with fruit- raising, or some 

 other light business. Poultry might 

 do for some, but I would prefer fruit 

 and using a drier. One cannot de- 



