1907.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



167 



CALIFORNIA NOTES. 



BY C. W. DAYTON. 

 THE SEASON. 



WE ARE STILL having much 

 rain, and every prospect of a 

 good crop. I still have about 

 ten tons of old honey in tanks which 

 I have not sold. I am going to write 

 you an article soon in which I expect 

 to show that honey improves with age, 

 and that it is the most healthful after 

 it fs a year old, and that honey which 

 is taken from the hives before it is 

 entirely sealed over is an injury to 

 the system. 



GARDENING IN CALIFORNIA. 



One of my correspondents speaks 

 about coming to California on account 

 of being able to raise winter vegeta- 

 bles. Please tell him that I sowed 

 onions, radishes, lettuce, peas, etc., on 



weather is almost as preventive to the 

 propagation of the bee moth as the 

 cold in the northern states. Last win- 

 ter, being dry, they worked in any 

 unoccupied combs; this wet winter they 

 have not molested any combs where 

 there were the most favorable oppor- 

 tunities. 



ENTRANCE GUARD. 



But wet weather drove the mice in- 

 to the house and bee hives, and they 

 have eaten bees, pollen and combs, and 

 I guess they were glad to get the 

 ration. You see the entrance to my 

 hives are seven-eighths inch auger 

 holes. When I wish to contract the 

 entrance I put a wad of newspaper 

 in one or more holes. In moving 

 bees I use no nails or screens or 

 hammer to stir up the bees, but in- 

 sert a cork in each hole when I take 

 the hive up to place it on the wagon. 

 To exclude mice I use a small piece 

 of tin inserted in the entrance thusly: 



ONS HOLE vjl 



DAYTON'S ENTRANCE GUARD. 



December 12th, and there are none Well, the sketch is done. I was a little 



of them large enough to eat yet, and puzzled to know how to do that quirly 



^^'l '} i' J'll''^' T^u ^^ 'Va^u'' * if one. If you see any daubs on this 



packet that the radishes could be pull- ■' .... 



ed in twenty days from the planting. Paper you may know that it is either 



The onions are about the size of knit- honey or breakfast mush, as I began 



ting needles. We have had no frost to to push the quill before rising from the 



hold them back. If they do not hurry ^^ihlt 

 up I could go to northern Iowa or 



Michigan and beat them. Don't say 

 it was the gardener's fault. 



EFFECT OF DAMP WINTER. 



I see that a damp winter holds the 



I am aware that some of the know- 

 ing ones will kick at an auger hole 

 for an entrance, but you see there is 

 no patent on mere auger holes. The 

 ventilation comes from the rear of the 

 hive through two holes 2j4 inches in 



bees back from brood rearing, as the Jameter, covered with a screen in 



bees will not begin to swarr^ yet for the summer and a solid stopper for 



twenty or thirty days, when last year ^"^t^^" ^ou see the popular style of 



the winter was dry during the earlier entrance is too narrow m wet wea her. 



and too wide when it is dry weather, 

 then it requires a wheelbarrow load 

 of entrance closers, and the weather 

 also bothers with them. These tins 

 Another thing I notice is that damp I use are cut out of any old tomato 



part that gave the bees an early start 

 and they began to swarm by this time 

 (March 20). 



