322 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 1.5. 



honey, this colony stored between thirty and 

 forty. When one-half or less of the entrances 

 in the apiary are visible we do not record these 

 exceptional colonies, because of the liability of 

 the other half containing several even more in- 

 dustrious ones. 



By observing the progress of the colonies all 

 the time, from early spring up to the honey- 

 harvest, the surplus-receptacles may be placed 

 on the right colonies at tlie right time instead 

 of watching the progress in the receptacles and 

 making numerous changes and surprising mis- 

 takes after the harvest begins. The peculiar 

 traits of the different colonies from which to 

 rear queens will also be known. 



[Mr. Dayton mnkes an excellent point liere; viz., 

 entrance diagnosis from day to day will determine 

 better than any other means wliat colonies will be 

 likely to require supers before otliers.— Ed ] 



In no country is this study of the bees more 

 neglected than in California. If the bees are 

 not managed entirely by hired help, the owner 

 seldom spends more than four or six weeks in 

 the apiary, during the harvesting of the annual 

 crop — a season of fatiguing labor, stings, and 

 perspiration. The apiarists, or bee-owners, are 

 mostly nurserymen, fruit-growers, shoe, har- 

 ness, and dry-goods merchants, grocers, hotel- 

 keepers, tradesmen, dairymen, stock - buyers, 

 small capitalists, etc. The bees, fixtures, and 

 land occupied is called a "bee-ranch." The 

 prominent distinction between a ranch and a 

 farm is, that a ranch is a place where laboring 

 people and animals stay, while a farm includes 

 a home. An apiary may be a place where bees 

 are fecpt for love, study, and improvement. A 

 ranch is a place where bees sUiy so long as they 

 are a profitable speculation. If they are black 

 bees it is all the same— stings belong to the hir- 

 ed help, and starving colonies to dry years, not 

 always. 



The bee-keeper who spends no more than six 

 weeks in a year with the bees can not learn 

 enough about them to create a desire for the 

 improvement of stock or fixtures, any more 

 than the i)oy can get an education by attending 

 school but six weeks in the year. 



In my last article I said considerable about 

 chapparal, thinking chapparal and greasewood 

 to be one and the same plant, as I had several 

 times been told. I have since learned that they 

 are somewhat dift'erent. Wherever I used 

 chapparal it should be changed to greasewood. 

 Chapparal grows there, but not so much as 

 greasewood (or chemice). 



Downey, Cal., Feb. 18. 



[The main reason why we have the entrances 

 face dift'erent directions at our apiary is, that 

 the bees may lie better able to mark their en- 

 trances. The similarity of the grapevines, the 

 absence of other foliage or stumi)s, and other 

 distinguishing objects, render this necessary; 

 but in many localities a stump here, a shrub 

 here,][a mound there, trees of various sizes 



throughout the apiary, serve to mark each lo- 

 cality, and hence there would be a big advan- 

 tage in having the entrances all one way. We 

 have diagnosed colonies at the entrances in 

 much the same way as Mr. Dayton speaks of; 

 and was and is quite a hooby of ours.— Ed.] 



CALIFORNIA ECHOES. 



By Rambler. 



When that dairyman gets the honey-and-but- 

 ter scheme to going, I wonder if he will also 

 persist in mixing glucose with it. "No rose 

 without its thorn." 



Mr. Heddon thinks we ought to keep very 

 quiet about this adulteration business. Mr. F. 

 H. Hunt also thinks there is a great deal too 

 much said about it. 



If California has produced 5,000.000 lbs. of 

 honey, it has been made into 10,000.000 by the 

 addition of glucose, and the addition has been 

 put on by the dealers. 



The use of barrels or 60-lb. cans for market- 

 ing honey holds out an inducement for the mix- 

 ing process. This in(iucement to manipulate 

 would certainly be le?s if the honey were put 

 in .5 and 10 lb. packages. Can we make a break, 

 and put up our honey for the consumers instead 

 of the dealer? 



That is a practical question advanced by Mr. 

 Heddon, wherein he writes of the maximum 

 and minimum cost of production. Where does 

 it cost the most, and where the least, to produce 

 honey? From the number that are coming to 

 California to produce honey, this must be the 

 minimum country. 



In your answer to F. L. S., of Minnesota, in 

 relation to net profit per hive, is perhaps as 

 good a guess as any one can give. One hun- 

 dred pounds per colony of extracted honey is 

 considered a light yield here; but taking it one 

 year with another I think 150 lbs. would be the 

 average yield, which would make the net profit 

 a little more than you put it. 



Cigar-stumps in a gill of boiling water will 

 route like enchantment an army of robbers; so 

 says a Straw. Robbers carried ofT for us l.'S 

 colonies of bees, 11 cans of honey, 20 lbs. of 

 beeswax, and an old coat. Wish we had known 

 about that cigar-stump plan. No tise crying 

 over it now, though; will know how to proceed 

 next time. Many thanks. Dr. M. 



What a cold time that was over in Texas, as 

 recorded in the ^i. B. J., by Mrs. Atchley! Ice 

 an inch thick! That's away ahead of semi -trop- 

 ic California. We thought it very cold here, 

 with ice half an inch thick. Some of our or- 

 anges were spoiled; but with an inch of ice, 

 and a blizzard, we should have all perished. 

 Come to California, Mrs. A., where we have a 

 salubrious climate. 



