320 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



April. 15. 



rg.D!Tp R IAC 



the bees are hopeful themselves. I have great faith 

 that we near the coast shall have a fair honey crop; 

 at any rate X will stay in Southern California and try 

 it. J. H. Martin. 



Shermanton, Cal., April 4. 



Continued warm weather is bringing a 

 smile to many a beekeeper. 



OUR 251 outdoor chaff-packed colonies are 

 all alive except 16 ; but a good many of the 

 survivors; I am sorry to say, are somewhat 

 weakened. 



A PECULIAR SPRING. 



I do not know how it has been with you, 

 friends, but with us the cold March winds 

 have continued on into April, and it was only 

 yesterday, the 10th, that we had it really 

 warm enough for the bees to fly ; but it is 

 encouraging to note that the weather is grad- 

 ually moderating. There seem to be no fits 

 and starts about it this year. Almost every 

 spring heretofore, so far as I can remember, 

 we had some very warm days followed by 

 some that were decidedly wintry, one extreme 

 following the other ; but this spring it has 

 been one cool or cold streak almost continu- 

 ously. We now expect better weather. So 

 much cold ought to bring warm. 



WING - CLIPPING ; CREDIT TO WHOM CREDIT 

 IS DUE. 



From our recent foreign exchanges it ap- 

 pears that I am the sole promulgator and 

 originator of the practice of clipping queens' 

 wings for the purpose of more easily control- 

 ling swarming. Not only this, but they have 

 been making out that I began the practice 

 forty years ago — three years before I was born. 

 Why, my dear friends across the big pond, it 

 is only very lately that I have become a con- 

 vert to the practice ; and it was then only 

 when it had been hammered into me by bee- 

 keepers more practical than I — yes, by bee- 

 keepers who practiced wing- clipping, I was 

 going to say, almost before I ever saw the 

 light of day. While the practice is not entire- 

 ly universal in this country, it seems to be 

 general with very many of our best bee-men. 



THE EFFECT OF THOSE RAINS IN CALIFOR- 

 NIA. 



In regard to this the following note just re- 

 ceived from Mr. Martin, who is keeping us 

 posted, will explain: 



I wish to make a litt'e further report upon the 

 honey prospects for this portion of the State. The 

 majority of the bee-men think that the rain came 

 too late to be of material benefit. However, it came 

 early enough to save thousands of colonies of bees. 

 There will be enough honey gathered to tide the bees 

 through, and perhaps a little surplus may be gained. 

 This may be particularly the case near the coast; and 

 from the appearance of honey-plants near my own 

 apiary I am in hopes of getting something of a honey 

 crop. The black sage is very plentiful, and it is mak- 

 ing a good growth. It will be a little later in bloom- 

 ing, but will surely yield some honey. At this date 

 the bees are getting honey from alfilaria and the 

 California walnut. My bees are quite strong, and 

 ready for any nectar that comes along. In and near 

 Pasadena, where the bees have access to orange 

 bloom, I learn that the bees are swarming; therefore 



WINTER LOSSES UP TO DATE. 



Reports are still coming in, showing win- 

 ter losses here and there over the country, and 

 it begins to look now as if the mortality would 

 be greater than in any other year unless it was 

 during the winter of 1880-'81, when the losses 

 were greater than ever known before or ever 

 will be ; but at that time the correct methods 

 of wintering were not as well known as now, 

 and it is not possible that the loss will be any 

 thing like as severe. But very fortunately the 

 severe losses are by no means general. In one 

 section of Michigan, where there have been 

 heavy snows, there is a general report that 

 the bees have wintered nicely, when a year 

 ago there were very heavy losses. In Indiana 

 the mortality has been great. In New York 

 the bees have wintered fairly well, because in 

 that State bees are generally wintered in the 

 cellar ; or if not in the cellar, those on summer 

 stands have been well protected by heavy 

 snows. 



The peculiarity of the past winter was that 

 zero weather was not confined entirely to the 

 North. Even as far south as Texas there was 

 considerable zero weather as well as in other 

 portions of the South. The general unprepar- 

 edness of the bee-keepers for such extremes 

 will make wintering losses in the South as 

 great, perhaps, as in the North. Here at Me- 

 dina, at this date (April 12), the weather is 

 growing daily more mild, and we hope the 

 worst is over. 



BLEACHING THE SURFACE OF TRAVEL-STAIN- 

 ED COMB HONEY. 



I have often wished that there was some 

 method or process by which we could take the 

 ordinary travel-stained comb honey and whit- 

 en its surface by bleaching or washing. Tons 

 of first-class honey — the very best in the 

 world — is travel-stained. It is well filled out, 

 even in surface, and in quality the very best ; 

 but it must sell for a cent or two less a pound, 

 simply because it is travel-stained. If by some 

 simple process these soiled surfaces could be 

 cleaned or bleached white, or nearly white, it 

 would make a difference of hundreds of dol- 

 lars in the bee-keeper's profits in a single sea- 

 son. It would be a great boon to the commis- 

 sion men, because a "good-looker" always 

 sells more readily than a " poor-looker." 



I received a note from Mr. Byron Walker, 

 who seems to be very confident that he has 

 found a process that will accomplish this re- 

 sult ; and as soon as he gets over his rush — - 

 for he is indeed a very busy man — he proposes 

 to tell the readers of this journal the modus 

 operandi. I wrote him that, if he had a suc- 

 cessful method, he had made a very important 

 discovery. In answer he expresses his confi- 

 dence in the method, stating that it is so sim- 

 ple he wonders nobody ever thought of it be- 

 fore. Indeed, he is rather of the opinion that 

 some one must have known of it. 



What good, you may say, is all this wi.hout 



