VOL. LXI— NO. 3 



HAMILTON, ILL., MARCH, 1921 



MONTHLY, $1.50 A YFAR 



GLIMPSES OF CALIFORNIA BEEKEEPING 



BY BEVAN L. HUGH 



BEEKEEPING as an industry has 

 taken great strides during re- 

 cent years in California as in 

 other places. Comb-honey produc- 

 tion is carried on by so few beekeep- 

 ers and on such a small scale in 

 California that it requires no mention 

 here. Extracted honey is produced 

 by the carload. In spring, when or- 

 anges bloom in the southern San 

 Joaquin Valley and the prunes and 

 apricots bloom in the Santa Clara 

 Valley, beekeepers rent their bees to 

 fertilize the blossoms at from $1 to 

 $3 per colony. One beekeeper of 

 whom I have recollection had over a 

 thousand colonies in prune, pear and 

 apricot orchards, averaging better 

 than $2 per colony. Until after blos- 

 som time the bees are hauled by truck 

 to sage, and later to alfalfa locations. 

 In many localities bees are moved 

 to honeydew pastures later in the 

 season. When sage is in bloom no 

 number of colonies can overstock a 

 location. 



The most interesting, most scientific 

 of all the vocations under the name 

 of beekeeping, is the rearing of queen 

 bees in the modern way and turning 

 them out by the thousands. After 

 July 1 until the season closes about 

 October, J. E. Wing, of San Jose, 

 Calif., ships over a hundred queens 

 per day. From March until July 

 1 this well-known queen rearer 

 devotes his time to shipping queens 

 and pound packages of bees, nuclei 

 and colonies. (With the production of 

 honey he has nothing to do). He de- 

 votes his time exclusively to the pro- 

 duction of bees and queens. Hun- 

 dreds of pounds are shipped every 

 day in the spring, and it is stated that 

 San Jose ships more bees and queens 

 than any other center in the world. 

 Several other beemen ship from the 

 San Jose express office besides Mr. 

 Wing. In his work Mr. Wing has 

 departed from almost all the set rules 

 as advocated by Doolittle, Root, Pratt 



and other experts, and "according to 

 Hoyle" has no place in his vocabu- 

 lary. He has worked out a system 

 of his own. 



During 1919 his staff consisted of 

 ten, including himself. Of these, six 

 were queen producers, the others de- 

 voting their time to the package busi- 

 ness. The motive power used to haul 

 bees and appliances consists of a 

 truck and trailer. Ford delivery and 

 trailer, and Cadillac touring car. On 

 the premises is an electrically driven 

 saw that is used to cut all frames, 

 stock hives, frames for cell-builders 

 and nursery cages, boxes for shipping 

 and many other necessities. For this 

 work one man devotes part of his 

 time. The bees in the home yard and 

 in lone of the outyards, are placed on 

 swinging stands on account of Ar- 

 gentine ants. The stands are sus- 

 pended by wires that are kept wet 

 with crude oil. Ants will never cross 

 this oil unless it dries or there comes 

 a dearth of nectar, when they will 

 rush over the wet wires in such num- 

 bers that they dry the oil and create a 

 "bridge" for those following. Once 

 on the stands it is all up with the 

 bees, for they stand no chance what- 



The baby nucleus for mating young queens. 



ever, the ants gaining complete mas- 

 tery. They attack the bees and 

 queen and carry off the honey. In a 

 short space of time powerful colo- 

 nies are reduced to lugubrious ceme- 

 taries. The ants are always victors 

 when they once are able to get on the 

 stands. It is necessary to see that the 

 wires are kept constantly wet with 

 the thick molasses-like oil. 



When grafting, one has to be very 

 careful not to lay a stick of cells 

 where ants may reach it, for the 

 pests at once attack the chyle and 

 larvae and get into the frame of brood 

 held by the operator and thus spoil 

 some cells. 



The season for rearing (Queens and 

 shipping packages usually commences 

 around San Jose (pronounce it Sano- 

 zay) during March. In early seasons 

 February is the month when opera- 

 tions begin, but owing to cool rains 

 and heavy frosts, nothing much of im- 

 portance in actual bee work was done 

 last year until the middle of April. 

 During the winter a thousand twin 

 mating baby nuclei were made up 

 in addition to a great variety of other 

 supplies, such as putting frames in 

 shape for use, nailing and painting 

 hives, etc. The baby nuclei with their 

 thousands of midget frames and 

 newly-invented covers were what in- 

 terested me most. Mr. Wing and his 

 assistant breeders, prior to this year, 

 used the Root cover on their mating 

 nuclei, but they wanted a system 

 whereby they could tell at a glance 

 just what was going on within each 

 hive without having to open it or 

 refer to a note book. Last season 

 a block of wood that could be put in 

 several positions was used as a sig- 

 nal. There were two drawbacks to 

 this system, however, and these fail- 

 ings led to the present system. These 

 drawbacks were that when a cover 

 was lifted for the purpose of inspec- 

 tion the block might fall off or 

 change its location, which would re- 



