1S9-: 



CJLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



371 



cr of the placo; and from tlio aiipcaiaiioc of liis 

 jilcasaiit homo ami siirrouiuliiiRS. bcc-Ucciiiiig 

 lias iu)t ht'cn an iin|)rotitalil<' business for liim. 

 His a|iiary was onl in tiir monntains. as were 

 nearly all of the rest. Mr. Dawson and son, 

 the sion'keepers. wei"e also lar>xely interested in 

 bees, having apiaries of several hundred colo- 

 nies. Mr. Haz/.ard and Mr. Henderson' also 

 numbered tlieir stocks by the lumdred. Others, 

 as far away as Riverside — 'JO miles — had bees in 

 this canyon. Mr. t;eorg(> F. I'feiffer owned a 

 small apiary of 40 colonies on a spur of the 

 mountain overlooking the valley, and the lo- 

 cation was the most charmintr and cosy, for an 

 apiary, we had ever seen. \Ve climbed the hill 

 to make the acquaintance of the owner. The 

 little one-room lO.xl;.' cabin, with adobe Moor, a 

 bed in one corner, a stove in another, and doors 

 in the others, was vacant. Mr. P. kept bach- 

 elor's hall, and the feminine portion of his 

 hou.seliold is probably being considered by 

 matchmakers above (I speak only from hear- 

 say, for thafs where they say matches are 

 made). 



We strolled along the apiary, which followed 

 the contour of the mountain in about the form 

 of a letter S; and as Mr. I'."s 40 acres of land 

 nearly all hung up edgewise on the side of the 

 mountain, the land for the apiary had to be 

 terraced. 



We were about to leave the place when the 

 Rambler thought that the terrace further 

 around would reveal something; and as we 

 turned a sharp corner, tiiere we found our 

 friend fast asleep on a lounge fashioned into the 

 side of the mountain, directly under a large 

 oak-tree. There was a rude table in front of 

 him. with books and newspapers on it, and a 





•'MY gracious! is that TIIK RAMI5LE1!?" 



bottle and glass on the top. The camera was 

 adjusted. Mr. Bonfoey aroused the sleeper; 

 and as soon as he had rubbed his eyes open 

 enough to take in the situation, he shouted, in 

 evident teiror, " My gracious: is that the Ram- 

 bler?*' Then it was the Rambler's turn to be 

 surprised at the idea that be(>-keepers in the 

 remote places of the earth were expecting to 

 see that camera pointing toward them; and the 

 question arose. '• Isn't it about time the.se ram- 

 bles came to a close?" 



After our various surprises had subsided, Mr. 

 P. exclaimed, " Well, I declare! I am so glad 

 you called; and you are really one of us:" and 

 we fell on each other's necks for joy. Mr. P. 

 then offered us some milk out of the aforesaid 

 bottle — the veritable milk of human kindness — 

 but Mr. Bonfoey and I had been drinking sul- 

 phur water, and had to refuse on account of 

 the shock that milk and sulphur would give to 

 our organs of gastronomy. When we got around 



to th(^ cabin my new friend was glad again that 

 I was one of us. And we fell on each other's 

 necks again. (Joing down the mountain he 

 was overjoyed again. i>ut we omitted the neck 

 oix'ration. Our footing was so insecure that we 

 might have fallen and in'oken our necks. 



We will now Ic^t Mr. Bonfoey return to his 

 mountain home, and for a day I am in the hands 

 of Mr. PfeitTer. We journeyed up through the 

 canyon to Elsinore Lake and the coal-mines, 

 which have recently be(Mi d(!veloi)ed here. 

 Many apiaries were .scattered along up the can- 

 yon. As I was one of us, I spent a night in the 

 little cabin. Mr. P. is an excellent cook, and 

 served a breakfast fit for a sovereign American. 

 T\u\ walls of his cabin were decorated with 

 pictures of all sorts and sizes, from the illus- 

 trated papers; and if thens was any thing he 

 didn't want around in the way, be it boots, tin 

 cans, newspapers, and such, it was thrown un- 

 d(!r the bed. It was a rather cool night, and 

 Mr. P. wasn't a very salubrious bed-fellow. He 

 had a way, while lying on his back, of drawing 

 his feet "toward his head, and thus making 

 Gothic rafters in the bed. I forgave him, how- 

 ever, for I learned he was a member of the 

 Sunday-school, sang in the choir, and was a 

 member of the Temescal band. He is the lifer. 

 I bade my good friends adieu, and it was a late 

 hour that evening before the railroad was 

 touched. On our way, as the horse was plung- 

 ing through a wash in the darkness a peculiar 

 shouting like the rolicking voices of schoolboys 

 and of babies crying saluted us from a point 

 not far away. I asked my traveling companion 

 in surprise what those childn^n were celebrat- 

 ing in that lonely place at that hour of night. 

 He laughed aloud, and said, "Those are not 

 children; they are coyotes'' (pronounced feiotes). 

 Says I, "Tenderfoot again." That was my first 

 experience with them. Since then they have 

 many times saluted the Rambler. 



THE T"WO-MILE THEORY. 



DO QUEENS MEET DRONES IN THE SAME APIARY? 

 DRONES CONGREGATING. 



In a recent paper I see that my name is men- 

 tioned in connection with that of A. I. Root and 

 others as having seen queens mated in the 

 apiary by drones from the same apiary, the 

 writer trying to make out the theory true, that 

 is put forth by some, that diiTerent races of bees 

 can be kept as near together as two miles and 

 not intermingle. What A. I. Root has seen, I 

 do not know; but when I witnessed the mating 

 of a queen and drone I was at least two miles 

 from any apiary, and gave the fact in connec- 

 tion with the idea that drones had certain 

 places where they congregated, which I then, 

 as now, believe to be the truth in the matter. 

 If drones congregate in certain places, it would 

 be but natural that the queens should be drawn 

 to these places; and the fact that one queen was 

 known to mate at such a congregation of drones 

 went quite a way with me in leading me to 

 believe that queens in general were so mated. 

 As many are now trying to improve their 

 stock by reai'ing queens from one strain of bees 

 and tluiir drones from another strain, some 

 writing me that they have two queens which 

 they wish to breed from, raising drones from 

 one and qui^ens from the other, this matter of 

 drones congregating should be of interest to 

 such, and also to all who have any ideas of the 

 improvement of stock along certain lines. If 

 drones do thus congregate, and the queens go 

 to this congregation, it must be apparent to all, 

 that, where there are any bees in the woods, or 

 bees kept by the fanners within the flying dis- 



