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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



June 1. 



restaurants. I did not see it on the bulletin- 

 boards. There were all sorts of syrups, and 

 stuff called maple molasses, but not <honey ; 

 and yet in my opinion — that is, it is my opin- 

 ion just now, and I may change — the water- 

 white mountain-sage honey of California is the 

 finest in the world ; and it agrees with me the 

 best of any sweet I ever got hold of. I have 

 been eating it considerably this spring, and it 

 agrees with me better than any other sweet, 

 especially if I do not eat more than, say, one 

 teaspoonful at a meal. We have just had a 

 carload from R. Wilkin. Even in hot weath- 

 er, if you dip your spoon into the dish all 

 over you can get quite a good lot of honey at 

 what is called a spoonful. It is so well ripen- 

 ed that it is thick when put on the table even 

 in June, and it does not candy. I think it is 

 a little more digestible after it has been steril- 

 ized by heating it almost to the boiling-point. 

 Why the California hotels, restaurants, and 

 boarding-houses should not consume a larger 

 part of their own product is a conundrum. 

 Perhaps if the honey-producers of California 

 would "sweeten the men" they deal with 

 right around home {as von do) it might come 

 into more general use. Bat then, you know 

 they have tons and tons of it. Friend Wilkin 

 has had to build a cistern to hold it all — at 

 least the papers say so ; but he says it is not 

 so.— A. I. R.] 



AN INGENIOUS HIVER. 

 Bee-keeping in California Not a Bonanza. 



BY CYRUS C. ALDRICH. 



Editor Gleanings: — Owing to the dry )'ear 

 here in California I shall not have an oppor- 

 tunity to test a self-hiver that I have devised; 

 for that reason I send the inclosed sketch of 

 the self-hiver, so that, if you think best, you 

 can give it to the readers of Gleanings to 

 test this season. 



The following is a description, and the man- 

 ner of operation. Like letters refer to like 

 parts. 



A A are the hives, spaced a certain distance 

 apart by the board B. In the center of the 

 board B is an upright standard, C. D is a 

 wooden tube 3 inches square, having one side 

 closed by perforated zinc or wire cloth. E E 



are made to fit to the fronts of the hives. A 

 being made of wood, with queen-excluding 

 zinc in front, and a slide (not shown) in the 

 rear. The slides are connected by a wire, so 

 that, when one is open, the other is closed. 



The manner of operating is as follows : No. 

 1 A is a hive expecting to swarm. As a swarm 

 issues, the queen is prevented going with the 

 swarm by the excluder E; and as it is her dis- 

 position to go up when confined, she follows 

 up the tube to the other excluder. Upon the 

 swarm returning, the queen will be found; 

 and it will cluster on excluder E; and as the 

 tube D is balanced, the weight of the swarm 

 brings the excluder E to the empty hive A, 

 No. 2, the slide being opened by the action of 

 the tube D. 



As an argument in favor of specialty in bee- 

 keeping, I wish to give the following illus- 

 tration. 



At Elsinore, Riverside Co., Cal., are thirty 

 bee-keepers who get their mail at that office. 

 Of that thirty, not more than ten take any 

 pains to keep posted in bee literature, the 

 markets, or the management of their bees. 



The twenty who do not advance the inter- 

 ests of bee-keeping fix the market price of 

 those who produce the best ard the most of 

 the honey, to the detriment of themselves and 

 the business of bee-keeping. 



While I am opposed to giving the reports of 

 large yields of honey that are often given, be- 

 cause of the influence it has in making the 

 latter class more numerous, I wish to give 

 some facts to prove that it pays to do any 

 thing well if done at all. 



Mr. John Holman and Chas. Hough, who 

 make a specialty of bee-keeping, have taken 

 over 100 pounds of first- class comb honey to 

 the colony (spring count), and that in apia- 

 ries of neirly200 colonies in one location. 

 Others with equally good locations, who mix 

 up bee-keeping with other pursuits, have not 

 taken half that amount of comb, and, where 

 extracted, not to exceed 100 pounds to the 

 colony; and, owing to the same influences, 

 they have sold their extracted honey for 2 and 

 3 cents a pound, and their comb for 5 and 6 

 cents, which does not leave much after paying 

 for packages. With such prices, and the 

 prospect of a dry year here in California, but 

 little if any thing will be left after the bees 

 are fed. 



Taking every thing into consideration, bee- 

 keeping in California is not a bonanza unless 

 every advantage is taken in the industry. 



[Twenty years ago and more, perhaps, A. I. 

 R. had rigged up in our old yard a device 

 embodying somewhat the same principle. It 

 was a long pole pivoted after the manner of 

 the well-sweeps that were once used for haul- 

 ing up the "old oaken buckets" from wells. 

 One end of the pole stood up high in the air, 

 and the other end, weighted, came in contact 

 with the ground. To the upper end was 

 attached a twig or limb on which a swarm had 

 previously clustered. It was calculated that, 

 when a swarm came out, it would would seek 

 this limb on the aforesaid pole, having the 

 scent of the previous swarm and that of the 



