Amekican Bee Journal have been in- 

 formed by its correspondents of the general 

 condition of the bee business here. Some 

 have painted the picture as dark and 

 gloomy as they formerly have in bright and 

 glowing colors. Perhaps a medium be- 

 tween tlie two would present a fair state of 

 the business at the present time. The 

 want of sufficient rain last winter to bring 

 out the bee feed, and the extreme cold and 

 bacliward spring, of the whole of Southern 

 California, tells the whole story why so 

 little has been done in the bee business ; or 

 rather, why so much has been done to so 

 little purpose. Forming an opinion now 

 from the best information I can command, 

 I would say at the present time, there is not 

 more than one-half the bees in Los An- 

 geles, San Diego and San Bernardino coun- 

 ties that there was last March ; and judging 

 the future by the past, I would say that not 

 more than three-fourths of these will get 

 through to see next March. So that wliile 

 Eastern bee men have no fears of California 

 honey being crowded on their market this 

 year, they need have but little for the year 

 to come. While this is the dark side of the 

 picture for California bee men, the bright 

 side is the same with the bee business as 

 with most all other kinds of business. The 

 exceedingly rapid increase of bees in this 

 country, and the wonderful growth of the 

 farmers' and fruit-growers' products is the 

 bright side, and enables California to 

 recover from the effects of a drouth in a 

 short space of time. The difference be- 

 tween a drouth in California and a drouth in 

 a cold climate is this, the one comes out of a 

 drouth and goes into a cold, cheerless win- 

 ter, and the other comes out to go, as it 

 were, into a growing summer. 



There seems to be a wide difference in 

 the opinions of bee men, as to the existence 

 of honey dew. It is my opinion that there 

 is something that settles or collects on the 

 trees, at night, which the bees are fond of, 

 and go for it as soon as it is light enough 

 for them to see ; and, as soon as the sun has 

 shone on it a short time, they quit their 

 work. With us, it is mostly on the syca- 

 more they work. 1 would like to ask some 

 of your experienced bee men if bees will 

 work on flowers that will make poisoned 

 honey, or that will poison themselves. 



Two men here have lost nearly all their 

 bees, some 200 colonies, and we can come to 

 no other conclusion than that they are 

 poisoned with their own honey. In June, 

 the bees were moved with ours from the 

 mountains to the valley, near the coast.— 

 About August 1st., we moved ours back ; 

 the 200 colonies remained, and after a few 

 days they seemed to be doing well and 

 storing honey, but 2 weeks later they com- 

 menced dwindling away, and none but 

 young bees could be found about the hives. 

 A part of them were moved back to the 

 mountains before this was noticed very 

 much; but the effect on them was just the 

 same as those that were left. They had 

 plenty of honey and their queen and brood 

 coming out ; and still they would dwindle 

 all away and leave a hive full of honey.— 

 Ours that were brought away 2 or 3 weeks 

 sooner did well, and showed no such signs, 

 whatever. 



If any other bee men have had like expe- 

 rience, and can account for it and will do so 

 through the American Bee Journal, 

 thejr will render a favor to bee men in this 

 section. 



For the past mouth we have been feeding 

 our bees on grapes. We crush them, and 

 feed 100 lbs. to 150 colonies. It makes 

 plenty of business for them, and they don't 

 think of robbing. The strong colonies, of 

 course, store more than the weak ones, but 

 it is easily transferred from the full hives 

 to the empty ones. The grapes cost but 

 2.5c. per 100 lbs., besides the picking. This, 

 we think, is much cheaper than sugar or 

 honey to feed, and no trouble with their 

 robbing. 



Some of your correspondents question the 

 statement that hens will catch live bees. — 

 Some of our hens made such a business of 

 it that we had to move the troughs that we 

 kept water in for our bees where the hens 

 could not get to them. The skunks are 

 very fond of bees. We have watched them, 

 by moonlight, scratch on the hive until the 

 bees came out, and then rake them off with 

 one paw into their mouths. The little 

 swifts, too, that are so plenty in California, 

 are fond of bees. We have seen them 

 catch them as they came out of the fly hole. 

 We shot one while he was in the very act, 

 cut him open and found a dozen bees. The 

 bluejays have been taking so many of our 

 bees that we have had to shoot them to get 

 rid of them. M. S. Baker. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



My Hive and Plan of Keeping Record. 



I have been using movable frame liives 

 for the past 10 years, and have read all the 

 bee papers and books. We all differ some- 

 what in opinion about managing the bee. — 

 Perhaps a little of my experience might 

 help some beginner. 1 always winter on 

 summer stands, as I have had no other 

 place, and for that reason I use a very large 

 hive. I first used a Metcalf hive, size 12x12 

 inches, and 17 inches high, 8 frames, with 

 honey board and top boxes, movable front, 

 frames stand on the bottom ; hives made 

 single, double and quadruple. I used this 

 size for 10 years, and then made up my 

 mind that it was too small, I lost too many 

 bees during the winter. I then made the 

 hive that I use now, my No. 2, and I have 

 another. No. 3, that I designed to winter in 

 the bee house or cellar'. 



DESCRIPTION OF NO. 2 FOR OUT DOOR 

 WINTERING. 



Bottom, 28x28 inches, a partition nailed 

 across the centre, 28 in. long by 21 in. high ; 

 sides 28 in. wide and 22 in. high, nailed to 

 the bottom board, with movable ends, 

 making 2 divisions of the hive 28 in. long 

 by 133^ and 21 in. high, inside measure. A 

 3 in. stri]) nailed across each end, for a tie, 

 to keep the 2 outsides and the partition the 

 proper distance apart. In this hive I have 

 room for a tier of side boxes, 6 in. wide at 

 both ends, and room for 10 frames. I use a 

 honey board on top, 15x15 in., and 2 other 

 boards, one each side of the honey board, 

 4)4 in. wide ; they lay over the side boxes. 



