Bee Notes from California. 



The Semi-Tropic has the following 

 items of intelligence concerning bees 

 in California : 



We have placed onr estimation of the 

 loss of bees (up to willow bloom) this 

 season at three-fourths; leaving one- 

 fourth out of what there was last sea- 

 son to commence work this season. We 

 regard this estimate rather low, if out 

 of the way at all ; many have lost all, 

 while a large majority have lost from 

 50 to 75 per cent. 



Capt. Gordon, of the Arusa, informs 

 us that the mortality among his bees 

 has been fearful ; 200 colonies have 

 passed in their checks. 



Mr. H. D. McGeorge, who resides 

 about 40 miles west of Los Angeles, on 

 the coast, informs us that wild bees are 

 quite numerous in the woods and rocks 

 in his vicinity, and that he will capture 

 from 100 to 150 colonies this season. Mr. 

 B. Franklin, an apiarist in the Cahu- 

 enga mountains, will leave in a few 

 days to assist him. 



Albino Bees.— Mr. S. Valentine, of 

 Double Pipe Creek, Md., has sent us by 

 mail some of his albino bees. They 

 were received in good condition, and 

 were very bright and fine. The follow- 

 ing is his description of them : The dif- 

 ference between them and pure Italians 

 as to marking is very striking ; about 

 the eyes they approach nearer a pur- 

 ple than that of the Italian ; beginning 

 at the waist they have three distinct 

 yellow bands, then three distinct white 

 bands — the white is pure, not muddy 

 and dirty ; the wings are finer, and of 

 a bright, silver color. 



i^The price of tin has advanced so 

 much of late that the manufacturers of 

 many extractors have been obliged to 

 advance the prices of them. See re- 

 vised prices on page 255 of this issue. 



lgi°The immense number of inven- 

 tions and improvements patented in 

 this country has astonished our English 

 cousins. The following satire is copied 

 from London Punch: "A Yankee baby 

 will crawl out of his cradle, take a sur- 

 vey of it, invent an improvement, and 

 apply for a patent before he is 6 months 

 old." 



I 



A Honey King.— The Montreal Wit- 

 ness says : " The other day we had a call 

 from a Butter King, and Thursday Mr. 

 Valiquet, of St. Hilaire, who is deserv- 

 ing of the title of the Honey King of this 

 province paid us a visit. He has written 

 several articles on the subject of bees 

 and honey which deserve the attention 

 of our apiarists and those whose incli- 

 nations favor bee culture, which, al- 

 though by no means general in this 

 province, if conducted with skill, is very 

 profitable. Some samples of honey 

 rought in by Mr. Valiquet (one being 

 9 lbs. of granulated honey which he was 

 about to present to a prominent retail 

 grocery house) were the finest we have 

 ever seen. This sample was firm, and 

 could be cut like cheese ; he says only 

 few localities can produce honey so 

 good, as it requires cane sugar, such as 

 is extracted from basswood by the bees. 

 This sample, he said, was purely ripe. 

 Some honey, when extracted, contains 

 as much as" 20 per cent, of water, but 

 if purely ripe it contains only from 5 to 

 7 per cent. Mr. Valiquet also showed 

 a sample of comb honey of the same 

 kind, the product of a hive— 76 lbs. It 

 was put up by the bees in a box with 

 sections. He had some boxes of sections 

 that weighed as much as 130 lbs. put up 

 in marketable form. A third box of 

 honey shown was the result of a hive 

 of Italian bees which he had wintered. 

 The colony had been allowed to give off 

 one swarm, which, when put in a new 

 hive, produced 81 lbs. of first-class 

 white honey, and 18 lbs. of an inferior 

 quality, making altogether 99 lbs., all 

 put up in a box of sections. The parent 

 hive produced 80 lbs of extracted honey 

 of the first quality. This is considered a 

 large yield ; other hives averaged 65 lbs. 

 The advantage of the section boxes are 

 that the sections can be removed from 

 the hive at any time without interfer- 

 ing with the bees, and taken to market 

 in less bulk than under the old plan, 

 there being less weight of wood and 

 glass to carry. Last season the honey 

 crop in Europe and different parts of 

 the United States failed. In Canada, 

 however, the crop was considered very 

 good. While the clover, the chief pas- 

 turage of the bees, did not yield much, 

 however the basswood, which abounds 

 in Canada, supplied the want, and we 

 had a crop of good quality as a result." 



'^A convention in the interest of 

 bee keepers is to be held during this 

 month in Salt Lake City, Utah. Bee 

 keepers in Utah can find out more about 

 it by writing to the Utah Farmer, pub- 

 lished at Salt Lake City. 



