'28 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 1. 



kept for profit. Then in some sections there 

 was an entire absence of moisture, thereby 

 preventing any growth whatever of vegeta- 

 tion. In these places the bee-men were in 

 sore straits as to whether it was advisable to 

 let their bees starve or to feed them, or move 

 them to a place where they could find suffi- 

 cient pasturage to sustain them till the open- 

 ing of a more propitious year. The latter 

 places were to be found in the irrigated sec- 

 tions, along the rivers, and in the northern 

 and some of the central portions of the State. 



I heard of one bee-keeper in the southern 

 counties (and I suppose he is not the only 

 one) who believed that it was better and 

 cheaper to let all colonies that were not able 

 to sustain themselves through the term of 

 scarcity starve rather than feed them. With 

 him it was a case of " the survival of the fit- 

 test." This is not altogether good policy, 

 especially since, if all the colonies were weak, 

 the whole apiary would starve out and the 

 bee-keeper would have no bees to begin a year 

 of plenty with. 



From what I have been able to learn there 

 has been a medium crop of honey in the 

 northern coast and mountain counties. Sev- 

 eral months ago I saw in a commission house 

 in San Francisco a fine consignment of deli- 

 cious light-amber honey that came from an 

 apiary in Monterey Co. I should think it 

 was the first of this year's crop to reach Ihat 

 market. Even at that time, when it was well 

 known that there was to be an almost entire 

 failure of the honey crop in this State, I was 

 told that dealers were offering a little less 

 than five cents for this fine honey. Even then 

 it did not move off with that rapidity one 

 would expect such beautiful new honey to do. 

 I should not wonder if it was the first of this 

 year's crop that reached the San Francisco 

 market. There must be something wrong 

 with the honey-dealers in that city when they 

 do not do more to keep the price of honey at 

 a higher figure. Here was a good grade of 

 honey selling at least a cent a pound less than 

 it should, since there was to be no crop to 

 speak of produced in this State this year. 

 Even now I learn when, it may be said, as 

 just after an election, all the returns are in, 

 and it is clearly shown that there is a marked 

 falling-off in the honey crop of the entire 

 country, there is no upward tendency of the 

 honey market, as one has reason to expect un- 

 der the conditions mentioned. 



Bee-keepers should hold their crop ; they 

 should not be too ready to accept the offer of 

 the first dealer who presents himself. Wait 

 until the output of the season is pretty well 

 determined before negotiating for the disposal 

 of the year's crop. If bee-keepers would do 

 more to keep up the price of their product the 

 industry would not be in such a poor condi- 

 tion to-day. 



I did not work more than two-thirds of the 

 colonies in my apiary this year. The yield 

 per hive for those worked is 80 lbs. of extract- 

 ed honey. The honey is mostly darker than 

 usual, and of heavy body. I never saw honey 

 granulate so soon as the product of the hives 

 for this season. In about two weeks it would 



commence to show signs of candying, and in 

 a month it would be quite solid. I think one 

 reason it did this is owing to the large amount 

 of alfilaree nectar which the bees gathered. I 

 never knew this plant to remain so long in 

 bloom as it did the past season. I think it 

 began to bloom about the middle of Novem- 

 ber, and continued to do so sparingly until 

 February, when it came into full bloom and 

 continued to do so till the middle of May, aft- 

 er which it gradually ' ' slacked off. ' ' Some 

 plants in moist situations are still putting 

 forth their little flowers. From the way the 

 bees worked on the flowers of this plant I 

 should judge that it yielded nectar very freely 

 this year. And this, no doubt, accounts for 

 the rapid granulation of the honey I have 

 mentioned. I learned that, in previous years, 

 alfilaree honey soon candied, but never did I 

 experience such rapid transformation of liquid 

 honey into the granulated article. 



AN EASY METHOD TO CURE BEE-PARALYSIS. 

 Some four years ago I noticed what I took 

 to be the first case of this disease that ever 

 came under my observation. It was not a 

 very bad form. As I was afraid it might 

 spread and affect other colonies in the apiary 

 I called the attention of Prof. Woodward, of 

 our State University, to the matter. He took 

 some of the affected bees for diagnosis, but I 

 never heard from him concerning them. This 

 spring I saw that two colonies that had been 

 suffering quite severely for some months pre- 

 viously were getting worse. I had never seen 

 a case of what was known to be really " bee- 

 paralysis," so called. I wrote to a well-known 

 authority upon bees and their diseases, de- 

 scribing the malady that troubled said colo- 

 nies, and received reply that they were, in all 

 probability, afflicted with the well-known 

 " wig-wagging " disease that heads this para- 

 graph. He could not give any remedy that 

 was known to be a positive cure. I had read 

 somewhere that substituting new queens would 

 cause the malady to disappear. I tried this, 

 but it did not do any good. The bees of one 

 of the colonies were dwindling away quite 

 rapidly ; bees by the hundred would crawl 

 from the hive each morning, and go wig-wag- 

 ging away from the hive as fast as their " un- 

 sea worthy " legs would carry them. At times 

 there would be a quart of dead bees in front of 

 this colony. The other one, which was some 

 distance away, was nearly as bad. As a last 

 resort I thought I would try a remedy casual- 

 ly mentioned the fore part of this year, either 

 in Gleanings or in the Am. Bee Journal, I 

 forget whic'i. The writer of the article in 

 question asked if any one had tried exchang- 

 ing locations with colonies afilicted with bee- 

 paralysis. He had tried it, and found that it 

 worked like a charm in banishing the disease. 

 I waited, hoping to hear from some one else 

 before giving it a trial. As no one seemed to 

 give further experience in this direction I 

 thought I would try it anyway. The result 

 was magical. The change of places was made 

 at a time when honey was coming in freely, 

 and the bees did nothing to show that they 

 disliked the strange bees that were necessarily 

 mixed up in their respective hives. Where 



