o42 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 15. 



"BEE-KINGS" IN CALIFORNIA. 



EXAGGERATED STATEMENTS REGARDING CAL- 

 IFORNIA HONEY crops; THE FOLLY OF 

 THOSE GREAT HUNDRED-TON HONEY- 

 TANKS AND MAMMOTH REVERSI- 

 BLE HONEY -EXTRACTORS. 



We bee-keepers of Southern California have 

 another bad season to report, owing to the very 

 slight rainfall the past winter and spring. 

 The loss of bees, from honey being extracted 

 too closely last season, and neglected afterward, 

 has been very great. I think a third of all the 

 bees in this district have died, principally from 

 starvation. One apiarist who last season had 

 1200 hives with bees in them has now some 300 

 with bees and iK)0 filled with moth-eaten combs 

 and — experience. Another who had 400, has 

 now 80. His loss was caused from being too 

 good to his bees — left them full of honey, and 

 the combs melted down on one of our pleasant 

 summer days, when the mercury I'egistered 120° 

 F. in the shade. Still another, the proud pos- 

 sessor of 25 stocks, has now only his experience 

 and the empty hives. Two more, with some 50 

 each a year ago, have less than 20. Four-fifths 

 of all this loss has been caused by neglect. I 

 mention none ot the " bee-masters' " names, as 

 somehow they are not at all proud of the record 

 they have made. 



Most of the California bee-keepers aspire to 

 be " bee-kings," but which they will not be un- 

 til more attention is given to the management 

 and care of the bees, and less to the acquisition 

 of monstrous honey-tanks and jumbo extractors. 

 There are many apiaries here where the 

 honey-tanks have a capacity of from twenty to 

 forty tons — more than the apiary can fill in 

 three seasons on an average. These jumbo ex- 

 tractors, which most of the bee-men think a 

 necessity, a little reasoning will show to be a 

 useless expense. I have alone taken in one day, 

 with T. G. Newman's Excelsior non-reversible 

 extractor, 100(3 lbs. of honey. Four persons can 

 take 3000 lbs. A good season here lasts eight 

 weeks. Working six days a week, and taking 

 out 3000 lbs. a day, we have H4,(X)0 lbs. of honey. 

 Is there any bee-keeper in the world who ever 

 took that much honey from one apiary? The 

 largest amount I have ever known taken from 

 one apiary in one season was 80.000 lbs. That 

 was in 1884. when the honey-flow continued for 

 four months. In that time that amount could 

 be taken on the small machine. But it is use- 

 less to go on: for anybody can see that $50 ma- 

 chines are money out of pocket, not to speak of 

 thirty-basket 



STEAM-POWER AFFAIRS, 



such as one of the fraternity in Cuba uses. 

 The climate of Cuba must be very enervating. 

 In none of the reports from brother Osborn 

 which I have seen does he claim a crop of 80,000 

 lbs. His season lasts, according to his state- 

 ments, four months. Why! fie upon you I lean 

 take single handed, with the meanest little 

 machine ever constructed, that amount of hon- 

 ey in that length of time. If this last statement 

 of mine smacks of braggadocio, remember that 

 the habit of lying is said to be superinduced by 

 our glorious California climate. 



Reversible extractors are a good thing, as I he 

 combs do not break down so badly as in the 

 non -reversible ones. When my extractor is 

 worn out, I shall get a 



COWAN EXTRACTOR. 



I believe that the biggest crop in the biggest 

 season that ever has been or will be taken fi'om 

 one apiary, can be handled easily with a 810 

 Cowan. 



In Gle.\nl\gs I have sometimes seen a state- 



ment by the editor, which reads something like 

 this. " In California, where crops of from fifty 

 to one hundred tons are taken in a single sea- 

 son," etc. Mr. Root, will you please name an 

 individual who ever made a crop of one hun- 

 dred tons of honey? Have you not been im- 

 posed upon by the formidable array of tanks? 

 Seeing the tanks, you naturally thought they 

 were sometimes filled. I have lived in and 

 kept bees in Ventura and Los Angeles Counties 

 now for nine years: and the biggtst crop I ever 

 heard of was that of Mr. Easley, who, in 1884. 

 from two (and I am not sure but that there 

 were three) apiaries took 



EIGHTY-SEVEN TONS OF HONEY. 



Two years later, from the same apiaries, 

 Mr. W. T. Richardson, then and now the pro- 

 prietor, canned up some sixty tons. Your 

 fiiend Mr. WMlkin scattered bees all over Ven- 

 tura County in 1884, and satisfied his ambition 

 with a crop of fifty tons. Mr. Moftitt is reported 

 to have made two crops of fifty tons. Mr. 

 Mitchell, of Soledad Canyon. Los Angeles Co., 

 has had the jilcasui-e (if some forty tons of hon- 

 ey as the pioduct from his bees for a single sea- 

 son, and a few more I can name who have made 

 from twenty to thirty tons. But a large ma- 

 jority of the would-be "bee-kings,'' among 

 whom is your humble servant, have never top- 

 ped ten tons. 



The largest yield to the spring stock of which 

 I know any thing definite is that of Mr. Wm. 

 Whittaker, Piru Canyon. Ventura Co. In 1884, 

 from some 1.50 hives, he made over thirty tons. 

 Four hundred and nineteen pounds per colony 

 is, I believe, the exact average. Mr. Nathan 

 Shaw, also of Ventura Co., somewhere back in 

 the seventies, averaged more, I believe, than 

 Mr. Whittaker, but I have not the exact figures. 



THE DISPOSITION OF THOSE CALIFORNIA BEES. 



In the last Gleanings Rambler speaks of the 

 propensity of bees in California to fight. I 

 know of apiaries where the bees are nearly 

 pure blacks, where a bee-veil, except on rare 

 occasions, is unnecessary. The fighting apiaries 

 are where the bee-man has made an abortive 

 attempt to Italianize. The apiary (mentioned 

 in same article), which Mi'. Mendelson had to 

 move, had much Cyprian blood in it. As I re- 

 member it. that apiary wa.s located some 500 

 feet from the road. Those bees were so mean 

 they would fight the stovepipe all day. and 

 Mendelson would sit and listen for it to "syueai 

 as they would sometimes make him do. 



I believe it was at Mr. Richardson's Si mi 

 apiary that two horses, tethered out a quarter 

 of a mile distant from the bees, were so badly 

 stung that one died, and the other went crazy, 

 and used to chase people. Wm. G. Hewes. 



Newhall, Cal., June 24. 



CALIFORNIA APIARIES. 



THE DIS0IU)ERKD CONDITION OF SO.ME OF TIIE.M 

 interesting NOTES FROM A LEADING 

 CALIFORNI.V BEE-KEEPER. 



Friend JRoot;— When visiting W. D. Wright, 

 of Albany County, N. Y.. in 1886, he gave me a 

 sample wooden separator, identical with the 

 improved kind you advertise of late. I supi)Ose 

 it was his own invention. He also gave me a 

 wire spring to wedge up sections, which is a 

 great advantage over the wooden wedge. The 

 spring is good for narrow or broad sections, and 

 will follow up the least shrinkage of sections 

 and separators. Mr. W. is orderly and neat 

 about his business, and deserves success. 



No doubt you have noticed the disorder in 

 many of our ('aliloiiiia apiaries and surround- 



