1911 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



61 



Bee-keeping in Southern 

 California 



BY Mrs. H. G. Acklin, Glendoka, Cal. 



The State Association convention has 

 been postponed till this month. Too many 

 other irons in the fire the latter part of last 

 December. 



According to tradition, black sage must 

 needs have an off year occasionally; and as 

 last season was an " off " with a vengeance, 

 may be this year will be a good one if Jupi- 

 ter Pluvius regards us favorably. 



It seems that my own town, too, is get- 

 ting its "fill " of apiaries. A friend in the 

 real-estate business told me recently that 

 two men had been looking through the 

 foot-hills for a bee location, and went home 

 without finding a suitable place. 



During the holiday vacation the four col- 

 onies of bees back of our friends' house at 

 the beach were as busy as Minnesota bees 

 are in summer time. They kept right on 

 attending strictly to business, paying no at- 

 tention to me whatever as I went prowling 

 around their hives. 



While at one of the beaches around holi- 

 day time a man came to our friends' house 

 saying he had caught a swarm of bees and 

 wanted a "gum" to put them in, as they 

 were then in a nail-keg. A runaway swarm 

 of bees just before Christmas! What do you 

 know about that? 



Does it pay to sow seeds of honey-produc- 

 ing plants in our canyons? I infer that it 

 does from meeting a bee-keeper who had a 

 snug little sack full of such seed for a bee- 

 keeping friend. I inquired the names of 

 the plants from which the seeds were gath- 

 ered, but he did not know, saying there 

 were two or three kinds in that one sack. 



I note, p. 718, that Mr. Gibson is in favor 

 of leaving the latch-string out for tidy bee- 

 keepers. But how shall we know till the 

 whole transaction is done whether the new 

 comer will flavor his honey with dead bees 

 or not? But to me a mature bee in honey 

 is not as repulsive as larvae. Of all the api- 

 aries I visited last season, only one was in 

 working order; consequently my knowledge 

 as to the neatness of our bee-keepers is lim- 

 ited. 



4^ 



One could never imagine the great num- 

 ber of bees kept in this country by taking a 

 trip on the steam-cars. They are clustered 

 behind hills and up canyons till I never ex- 

 pect to see an apiary from a railroad train 



any more. So it was on a recent trip to 

 Redlands. We saw only one little cluster 

 of hives, and I felt sorry for the poor bees 

 left there on those stones. 



Mr. B. G. Burdick, President of the State 

 Association, met us at the station, and took 

 us directly to his home, where we had a 

 cordial welcome and a warm supper. The 

 next day I changed my mind as to the 

 number of bees in the vicinity of Redlands, 

 as Mr. Burdick took us sailing around over 

 hills, through valleys, and up canyons. 

 That bee-keepers are gradually being driven 

 further and further back into the mountains 

 was evident everywhere. Eight - horse 

 teams pulling heavy disc plows were follow- 

 ing each other around steep hillsides, pre- 

 paring the same ground for a crop that for- 

 merly was covered with button or black 

 sage. Mr. Burdick's apiary of 250 colonies 

 is located in Live Oak Canyon, a pretty 

 spot; but the ground is cultivated on one 

 side nearly up to the hives. He is planning 

 to move the bees further up the canyon. 



One novel feature about the place is a 

 honey-house built from parts of old Harbi- 

 son hives, and it is a pretty fair honey- 

 house too. One thing I liked about it was 

 the way in which extracting-supers are 

 managed. Two doors in the back lift up, 

 and are just near enough the ground so su- 

 pers from a wheelbarrow can be shoved in 

 easily. Inside there are smooth strips nail- 

 ed to the floor for the supers to slide on. 

 Empties are pushed out the other door in 

 the same way, and loaded on the wheelbar- 

 row, without much lifting. One advantage 

 in this way of manipulating supers is that 

 the front door of the honey-house is shut 

 most of the time, keeping out the throng of 

 bees which sometimes follow the supers. 



If I remember correctly, this yard is six 

 or seven miles from Redlands, and not near 

 orange-groves, although the principal crop, 

 which was good for this year, was orange 

 honey. The principal forage around here is 

 orange and sage; but there are many minor 

 honey-producing plants and shrubs on the 

 foothills and mountains. 



Every town has its "bee-man," and Mr. 

 Burdick seems to enjoy that peculiar dis- 

 tinction in this little city of beautiful 

 homes. Frequently he is called upon to re- 

 move swarms of bees from some of those 

 handsome houses, and has to be very care- 

 ful to leave the buildings in as good condi- 

 tion as he found them, which must be a 

 difficult task, considering the almost im- 

 possible nooks and corners into which the 

 bees go. Whoever has the good fortune to 

 visit Redlands must, of necessity, see the 

 parks and other beauty spots. From Smiley 

 Heights the view is magnificent. Looking 

 across San Timoteo Canyon some large api- 

 aries can be seen. R. H. Burdick, son of B. 

 G. Burdick, has an apiary of 250 colonies in 

 this canyon. Mr. and Mrs. E. D. Bullock, 

 who have an apiary of 250 colonies in 

 Moreno Valley, twelve miles from Red- 

 lands, called at the Burdick home in the 

 evening. 



