in 



(iLEANlNGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 1. 



>^ inch from sides and bottom. The miniature 

 hive is of i4-inch lumber, and made just lil\e a 

 box without any bottom. Therq are 1(X) of 

 these in use at present, and, with the Doolittle 

 method of securing queen-cells, have proved 

 quite a success. 



It is necessary to keep these nuclei well sup- 

 plied with honey to prevent swarming out; 

 and as soon as the queen is laying, a single 

 strip of queen-excluding zinc over the entrance 

 prevents her loss. 



At the left of picture is the honey-house. The 

 uncappiug-can, which was of so rtiuch interest, 

 has been described in a previous number. Ad- 

 joining the extractor is a Pelton water-motor, 

 which is intended to supply the place of hand 

 labor. The water to run the motor is juped 

 from a reservoir located at the right of the 

 apiary on the side hill about 50 feet higher than 

 the honey-house. Mr. M. has a perpetual 

 water-right, and, by connecting the reservoir 

 with the water-ditch, if necessary he has a con- 

 tinuous flow of water to run the motor. He at 

 present contemplates attaching a dynamo to 

 his power, using electricity for ligliting his res- 

 idence. 



At the left of the honey-house are three large 

 tanks, holding 4 tons each; and with a 12-ton 

 tank near his residence, this gives storage for 

 34 tons of honey. As we tO(j often read only the 

 bright side of bee-keeping, I herewith append a 

 record of this apiary for the following years: 



You will notice a small honey yield some 

 years, when there was plenty of rain. This 

 was due to the greater portion of rain falling 

 early in the season and but little after. The 

 rains here often begin in November; and as the 

 honey-flow months are May, June, and July, 

 unless the rain is pretty evenly distributed, and 

 continued late in the season, the honey crop is 

 in proportion. 



The range for bee-pasturage adjacent to this 

 apiary is truly wonderful. On both sides the 

 mountains is one dense growth of the various 

 sages; and a mile up the Sespe you find your- 

 self in a region so wild and weird that it seems 

 as though it were never destined to be inhabit- 

 ed. The mountains tower above you so as to 

 almost exclude the sunlight on all sides, clear 

 to the mountain-top; and as far as the eye can 

 see is one vast rank growth of California bee- 

 forage, making it a veritable paradise for the 

 honey-bee. 



1 do not wish to infringe too much on your 

 valuable space, yet it seems I have not told the 

 half. To close, I wish to say that such bee- 

 keepers as Mr. Mclntyre are a credit to this in- 

 dustry. His good wife, no doubt, has been a 

 great incentive and helper toward his present 

 standard; and I doubt not but that the .Sespe 

 apiary is destined to prove some wonderful 

 things as to the honey production of California. 



Los Angeles, Aug. 21. (Jko. W. Bkodbkck. 



In addition to the above we .solicited .some- 

 thing from the pen of Mr. Mclntyre, and here 

 it is: 



One of the greatest drawbacks in trying to 



keep about .500 colonies in one apiary is that the 

 bees are bound to get more or less confused, and 

 to enter the wrong hive. I think this is the 

 chief reason why young queens are so often 

 balled at mating time; and in laying off an api- 

 ary I always try to avoid this as much as possi- 

 ble, and still have the apiary convenient to 

 work. When Mr. Wilkin had .5(X) colonies on 

 the space occupied by the six double rows in 

 the middle, directly above the honey-house, 

 this confusion was sometimes quite serious. 

 When a swarm would come out in the middle 

 of the day, the lost bees would go with the 

 swarm until it was large enough to All four 

 hives, when they would ball and kill the queen, 

 and in a few days scatter with other swarms 

 and thus keep the owner in trouble all the time. 



That part of the apiary in the orchard pleases 

 me better than any other arrangement of hives 

 I ever tried. It is much better than the grape- 

 vines. The trees were originally IS feet apart 

 each way; but I cut out every other row run- 

 ning up and down the hill, to giv<' the bees a 

 better chance to fly in and out. This gives 36 

 feet to each doul^le row. The two hives take 

 four feet, and there is a five-foot space between 

 the backs, to run up and down with the honey - 

 carts, and 27 feet between the fronts, hives six 

 feet from center to center in the rows. The 

 bees keep their own hives, and do not woi'k out 

 to the ends of the rows in this orchard part. 

 Queens are not balled, and it is a treat to get 

 into the shade occasionally when taking out 

 honey. That patch in the corner by the board 

 fence shows how a California vineyard looks. 

 They do not trellis the vines here, but cut them 

 back to mere stumps every winter, so the plow 

 and cultivator can run between them. 



The high board fence is not designed to keep 

 out thieves, but to protect teams and people 

 from the bees. • The water over the honey- 

 house is the Sespe creek, from which the apiary 

 took its name. It is all pure spring water from 

 the mountains in the background. The rain 

 falling on the mountains in the winter passes 

 down through them and runs out at the base all 

 through the long dry summer, and thus the 

 mountains act as reservoirs on a gigantic scale. 

 I wanted to take friend Root up into the moun- 

 tains when he was here ; but his time was so 

 limited I knew it would be only a disappoint- 

 ment to start. But when he comes again, with 

 Mrs. Root, if he will give himself at least 3(i 

 hours here I will engage to travel with him all 

 over the mountains if he wishes. These moun- 

 tains ])roducc petroleum, brownstone, honey, 

 and' some pasture. The bushes shown in the 

 picture are mostly live-oak and sumac. 



Fillmore, Cal., Aug. 17. J. F. McIntyke. 



[The pictures above possess a special interest 

 to all bee-keepers; for with the descriptions 

 following we have some facts regarding a place 

 where bees are kept with as many as from 300 

 to .500 colonies in a single apiary. The table 

 we are favored with seems to indicate a larger 

 yield per colony where 200 or less are kept in 

 one place at one time. In 1881, with 400 colo- 

 nies, the yield was only 20 lbs. per colony. This, 

 of course, may have been owing largely to the 

 season. In 1888, with 4(H) colonies, he had .50 

 lbs. per colony; and in 1890, with 4.50, OO lb.s. 

 per colony. It seems to me that it would be 

 Ijetter to scatter the bees around in different 

 apiaries; yet when we consider the advantage 

 of having all the bees in one place, right under 

 the proprietor's eye the y(!ar round, it may be 

 that friend M. is not so much out of the way 

 after all. I think the best description I can 

 give to our readers, of this beautiful place when 

 I visited it in December, 1888, will be by quot- 

 ing what I wrote at that time: 



