1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



131 



Should the coining season prove a dry one 

 there will be many more long moves. Some 

 bee-keepers are looking over into Inyo Co., 

 and others into Arizona. We have an abiding 

 faith, however, that it will rain to the required 

 amount. 



SWEETWATER APIARY. 



Honey Flora in the Region of National City, Cal. ; 

 an Ideal Extracting-house ; Staple-spaced 

 Frames a Success ; the Root Ship- 

 ping-cases ; a Suggestion. 



BY ARTHUR HANSEN. 



Mr. E. R. Root: — Pursuant to your request 

 I hereby give a brief sketch of my Sweetwater 

 Apiary. The site is just over the hill east 

 fiom " Palm Terrace," the bon ton of National 

 City, inside its corporate lines, between the 

 Sweetwater River bottom and famous Paradise 

 Valley, about three miles from the Bay of 



know much about its yield. In 1897 we had 

 our first material aid from the sugar-gum, of 

 which so many line the streets of National 

 City. Bloom is from June on. 



One of the photographs shows the two-story 

 honey-house. It is 10x10, matched lumber, 

 two sections to each side, bolted together, high 

 enough to stand up in, good floor, 10-oz. duck 

 tent over a frame on top, frame in sections, 

 building painted with oil and ocher. The two 

 spring doors have double-acting spring hinges, 

 so the cart pushes open either way. Upper 

 story contains four-frame Stanley reversible 

 extractor, and R. Wilkin's uncapping-box, 

 with a Wilkin strainer between the two, and 

 a workbench. The strainer empties automat- 

 ically through a tin tube into the tank below, 

 which stands high enough to admit a 5-gallon 

 can under the faucet, capacity 1200 lbs. The 

 cart takes combs crosswise; space on bottom 

 for loose pieces of comb, two sliding covers 

 on top; sides can be removed so that the plat- 

 form can be used to convey hives to the wagon 







"3-r 





San Diego. Its resources are: First, pollen 

 from the willows about Christmas; a warm 

 January gives plenty of nectar from this 

 source; and from the blue-gum (eucalyptus) 

 I have had considerable brood by Feb. 1. 

 Orange-bloom is best here in February, M?arch, 

 and April. The bloom of 1897 was the most 

 profuse, with largest yield of nectar. My 

 bees worked so strong on the old orchards of 

 Paradise Valley that people from there called 

 my attention to the wide path they maintained. 

 Wild alfalfa blooms at the same time, and is 

 very good when it does yield. I noticed best 

 yield on the coast in 1893. It springs up 

 where a fire has run over land, and loves south 

 and west exposure ; wild buckwheat is the 

 same in this respect, which fact Rambler and 

 I noticed in 1892. White sage and wild buck- 

 wheat bloom in May, June, and July, followed 

 up by goldenrod and tarweed. The latter is 

 hard on comb-honey producers. Some sweet 

 clover grows along the river, but I do not 



during moving. The sun extractor is Califor- 

 nia style, with burlap frame for catching the 

 wax, and compartment below for the honey. I 

 think it leaves more dross than a Doolittle. " -( 



I started in with eight-frame hives, running 

 for comb honey, in 1889. In changing over 

 to extracting I got nine-frame hives ; then I 

 had some 11-frame made at the mill. These I 

 run mostly three-story, the queen ranging over 

 all. These give me the best results. After 

 getting a Barnes saw I settled on 10-frame 

 hives, parts interchangeable; handhold cleats 

 form the rabbets and help to tie the sides, 

 which fit into rabbeted ends. A l><-inch 

 hole in each end, protected by a galvanized 

 flume gate, with slide, affords ventilation at 

 pleasure. 



When starting in the bee business there were 

 no Root goods to be had on this coast, and for 

 comb honey a frame was put on the market 

 enough shorter than the Langstroth to do 

 without the section-holders. I use this frame 



