rtmm SMERicapi bee jq^rnsi^. 



711 



all saccharine Juices, the necessity of 

 invoking the aitl of the honey-bee to 

 "make" lioney would quite disappear; 

 and in addition to being liglit, as facts 

 present tlieniselves, it would be a great 

 relief, ph3^siologicaIly, to the idustrious 

 but over-worked honey-bee. 



By carefully noticing the Professor's 

 article referred to, it will be seen that 

 he furnishes strong argument in sup- 

 port of the rational fact of hone}' 

 being concentrated nectar. Yes, the 

 Professor is right in saying, " Any 

 sugar in diluted solution, if kept 

 warm, is liable to ferment or sour" — 

 thin honej' the same ; therefore the 

 necessity of concentration as earlj' as 

 possible, if we wish to prevent thin 

 syrup, or honey, from spoiling by fer- 

 mentation. In fact, nectar must be 

 concentrated before it is entitled to tlie 

 name "Honey." 



Pure honey is " concentrated nec- 

 tar." "Digested nectar" will never, 

 never do. 



Camargo, Ills. 



BEE-PARADISE. 



Remarks on Bee-Keeping for 

 Northern California. 



Written Sor the American Bee Journal 



BY D. B. WIEK. 



This is undoubtedly the best bee- 

 State in the Union, as well as the Ijest 

 for nearly everything else. I came 

 here from Illinois, and looked over 

 every part of tlie State, both in sum- 

 mer and winter, before choosing a 

 location for a home. 



I had had a full sufficiency of bad 

 climate and poor health in Northern 

 Illinois, and wished to find, first of all, 

 a climate in which I could have comfort 

 and health, and where I could grow 

 pretty nearly in perfection about any- 

 thing tliat I wished to plant ; where 

 crops were sure without irrigation ; 

 and where there were nice people, 

 schools and cliurches. 



All of these things, and about every- 

 thing that a reasonable person could 

 wish for, I found right here in Sonoma 

 county, 20 to 80 miles north of San 

 Francisco. It is a most beautiful 

 county, with broad, level, and exceed- 

 inglj' rich valleys, and rounded ver\' 

 high hills and mountains, with plenty 

 of the pui'est water, of fuel, and of 

 lumber ; with lands and homes im- 

 proved and unimproved ; and all 

 things considered, they are as cheap 

 as elsewhere on the continent. 



I mean just what I saj' in this, that 

 land may be had, and is, just as cheap 

 here at .$100.00 or 1150.00 an acre, as 

 it is in Montana. Dakota or Oklahoma 

 at $1.25 per acre, or free to settlers, if 



one has the money to buy ; for one can 

 make a better living off of 10 acres 

 liere — make more net profit — than he 

 can there off of 160 acres, and, besides, 

 enjoy this perfect climate for health 

 and comfort, where there are no ex- 

 tremes, fierce storms, never hot, and 

 never cold. 



Besides, there is a large amount of 

 free mountain Government land in 

 this county. This mountain land is 

 eminently adapted to fruits and bees. 

 It is mountain laud, but very rich, and 

 where plowable, one can grow any 

 crop on it that he may desire to plant, 

 from the potato to the orange, and all 

 is the best for pasturing stock. 



The climate of the coast range, 10 

 to 30 miles from the Pacific Ocean, is 

 the pink of perfection for health and 

 comfort, crops and fruits of all kinds, 

 and for bees. Bees must have three 

 things to thrive, namely, warmth, a 

 long season, and plenty of nectar-pro- 

 ducing flowers, witli dowers so formed 

 that the bees can reach and gather the 

 honey. These three things are every- 

 where present in the mountains of 

 Sonoma county, at least ten months in 

 tlie year. One other requisite is feed- 

 ing-grounds sheltered from rough 

 winds. This may also be found in the 

 mouutfiins. 



Having the above requisites, and a 

 canyon opening to the east or south for 

 several miles, or even a mile in lengtli, 

 with a perennial mountain brook gurg- 

 ling down it, and we have a perfect 

 paradise for the bee-keeper — the brook 

 fringed with its thousands of flowering 

 shrubs, and the mountain sides car- 

 jieted with millions of flowers. 



I am not a practical bee-keeper, 

 though I have done something in that 

 line, but I am a practical wild-bee 

 hunter, an expert and specialist in that 

 line, for the sport, skill, exercise and 

 recreation found in it. As the girls 

 say, " I dearly love it ;" therefore, 

 when going into a new country, among 

 mj' first enquiries is the one whether 

 bees do well or not. 



I was surprised, on making the en- 

 quiry, to learn that scarcely any bees 

 were kept. I also learned that bees 

 did wonderfully well here for many 

 j'ears, and that the moth and bee-dis- 

 eases came in and destroyed them. Of 

 course they did, and did so everywhere 

 under the old-fashioned hives and 

 management, in the same way that 

 they are now doing in the southern 

 part of this State, and in the Sierras ; 

 in these last two regions, moth and 

 diseases have come in, but they can be 

 managed and controlled the same as 

 bee-keepei-s do it in the East. 



The foregoing facts leave Sonoma 

 county virgin soil without competition 

 for the skilled apiarist; any one who 

 can succeed with bees in the East, who 



understands the science of modern 

 bee-keejiing, can succeed ten times 

 better here. Bee-keeping and fruit- 

 culture combined, would be very profit- 

 able witli liglit labor here. To those 

 wanting further information of an}-- 

 thing in or about this State, I will be 

 pleased to furnish that which is re- 

 liable, if stamps are enclosed for reply. 

 Petaluma, Calif. 



FALL WORK. 



Uniting Colonies in tiic Fall 

 Wintering. 



Written for the American Rural Borne 

 BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



for 



As the season of 1889 has been 

 rather nnpropitious for bees in some 

 sections of the country where only 

 white honey is the source of supply, 

 some bee-keepers now find that their 

 colonies have not the necessary num- 

 ber of bees or the necessary amount 

 of stores to give promise of successful 

 wintering ; hence they ask what they 

 ai'e to do under such circumstances. 



If the colonies were strong in bees, 

 the question might arise whether it 

 would not pay to buy sugar, even at 

 the present high prices, and feed the 

 bees so as to have a greater number 

 next spring, but where colonies are 

 both light in bees and in stores, there 

 is only one correct solution of the 

 problem, which is, to unite the bees till 

 all are strong, and then if stores are 

 still lacking, they may be fed. 



There have been many plans given 

 for uniting bees, some of which are too 

 laborious to be tolerated, such as mov- 

 ing colonies little by little each day 

 until they are brought together, carry- 

 ing them to the cellar for a few days, 

 etc. ; the advocates of these plans 

 claiming that bj' their use none of the 

 bees will return to their former loca- 

 tion, yet I find that the more simple 

 plans do just as well where a little pre- 

 caution is taken by way of removing 

 all signs of the former home from the 

 old stand. 



The plan I use, and one which has 

 always worked well with me, so far, is 

 as follows : Having decided that cer- 

 tain colonies are to be united, the first 

 tiling to know is, which of the two or 

 three, as the case may be, has the 

 most valuable queen. Having ascer- 

 tained this, I hunt out the poorest and 

 kill her. then take the hive or hives 

 from which the t|ueen has been killed, 

 to the stand of the one they are to be 

 united with. 



I now select from each hive the 

 frames having the most honey in them, 

 to the number I wish to winter them 

 on, and set them in one of the hives. 



