1897. 



THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 



265 



cality. This proposition seems to rest 

 firmly on experience and reason alike. 

 There are only so many Howers. and 

 each flower contains only so niucli 

 honey. It stands to reason, then, that 

 an excessive number of bees would, 

 per force, receive but a scant harvest. 

 In California, the proposition does 

 not find such ready acceptance. I 

 suppose everybody accedes to the log- 

 ic just offered, aad believes any re 

 gion could be overstocked, as a sound 

 mathematical conclusion. But when 

 hundreds of colonies of bees are mash- 

 ed in a single apiary, and a hundred 

 or more pounds of honey secured from 

 each colony, as is the common exper- 

 ience in this favored clime in all good 

 seasons, then many of our best apiar- 

 ists shake their heads whenever we 

 speak of overstocking in southern 

 California. 



One of our largest, most intelligent, 

 and most successful southern Califor- 

 nia bee keepers, who has 900 colonies 

 of bees, and has harvested over 53 

 tons of honey the present season, ex- 

 presses some scepticism as to over- 

 stocking in this region, and surely he 

 would seem to have some ground for 

 his doubts. Others have spoken to 

 me in like mood. 



Another very prominent bee keeper, 

 who two years ago with less than 600 

 colonies — I think about 500 — to com- 

 mence the season, which were in- 

 creased to 600, took over 30 tons of 

 extracted honey. This year with the 

 same number he secured only 16 tons, 

 explains his lessened crop on the very 

 ground of overcrowding. Two years 

 ago his occupancy was exclusive; this 

 year another bee keeper came to shara 

 the fruits. 



Why is it thus? It seems to me 



that there are two reasons for this pe- 

 culiarity in southern California. First, 

 there is a very long season of flowers 

 and nectar-secretion. The early bloom, 

 eucalyptus and citrus, while it does 

 not crowd the combs with honey, does 

 give enough to stimulate breeding and 

 secure splendid colonies by the time 

 the later more prolific bloom carpets 

 the plains and hillsides. 



Again, the sages, the great source 

 of the magnificent honey of southern 

 California, better than which none is 

 produced in any land or region, are 

 not only very bountiful in their se- 

 cretion of nectar but are also very long 

 in bloom, as are nearly all the plants 

 of California. Thus, they are like the 

 basswoods in producing immense quan- 

 tities of the best honey, and greatly 

 superior to the bass wood in nearly or 

 quite tripling the length of bloom of 

 the linden. 



I have heard some of the old bee 

 keepers of the linden regions of Wis- 

 consin question the possibility of over- 

 stocking. This came from their own 

 experience. The innumerable blos- 

 soms, and the generous nectar-drop in 

 each bloom resulted in a tremendous 

 harvest. The Californian, who is so 

 fortunate as to be encircled with rich 

 fields of sage and wild buckwheat, has 

 even more to give assurance in the- 

 phenomenally long season of bloom, 

 Los Angeles, Cal. 



(From the Canadian Bee Keeper.) 



NOTES FOR BEGINNERS. 



BY R. F. HOLTERMANN. 



September, to the provident, brings 

 thoughts of winter and in the train of 

 that the average bee keeper, especially 

 the beginner, wonders how he shall 



