1911 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Ffg. 3.— Mr. Piercy's "armor" resists the onslaught ol even very cross bees. 



over the mountains to Cuerna ^"aca. The 

 idea at that time was to build up colonies 

 over there at just the right time, and to ship 

 them over into the great valley at the city 

 for the chayotillo flow — a venture which al- 

 so proved to be impractical, and the com- 

 pany fell through. This apiary is still at 

 Cuerna Vaca, and will be mentioned more 

 at length in my next article. 

 ^Nlesilla Park, New Mexico. 



BEE-KEEPING ON AN ISLAND NAVAL STA- 

 TION, 



BY W. A. PRYAIi. 



At Mare Island, about a mile from South 

 Vallejo, Solano Co., is located the Govern- 

 ment Naval Station. An electrician at the 

 navy yard, Mr. Chas. Piercy, has always 

 been interested in bees, and about four years 

 ago he began the nucleus of his present api- 

 ary by securing a miserable poor colony over 

 in Vallejo. I believe it soon died. His next 

 prize came in the way of a swarm that flew 

 across the channel from Vallejo and took 

 up quarters in one of the naval buildings. 

 From this capture the apiary grew until, at 

 the time of my visit, last April, there were 

 fourteen colonies. He finds ready sale for 

 all his honey among the families of Island 

 Station. It is well that he does, for I be- 

 lieve it is a hard matter to get any thing off 

 the island without unraveling a lot of red 

 tape. 



Mr. Piercy is quite a mechanical genius. 

 Having access to the mechanical shops of 

 the Station he has built a gasoline-engine 

 which he uses for power, and he makes his 

 own hives, including the Hoffman frames. 

 He also has a giant bee-smoker of his own 

 construction, the metal parts of which are 

 of galvanized sheetiiron, and, instead of us- 

 ing sheepskin^for_the^bellows,.he uses some 



105 



kind of colored canvas 

 obtained from the na- 

 val stores. He had 

 just finished a small 

 reversible honey - ex- 

 tractor, the gearing of 

 which was made from 

 a machinist's breast- 

 drill that had been 

 condemned in one of 

 the workshops. The 

 reel was of the stand- 

 ard pattern obtained 

 from some supply 

 house. 



The bees on the is- 

 land are extremely 

 cross, but our friend 

 has an armor or pro- 

 tect ion of unusual 

 form. This is shown 

 in one of the engrav- 

 ings. 



The best and most 

 novel tool or imple- 

 ment house I ever saw 

 at a bee-yard was the one on this island, as 

 shown in Fig. 3. It was a great safe-like 

 box made water-tight, and provided with a 

 hinged door. It had been discarded from 

 some warship, and was lying on the dumps 

 near by when it was appropriated for use 

 in this apiary. This impels me to remark 

 that the waste by the Naval Department 

 is something terrific. To see what cost 

 millions piled in the junk-heap is startling. 

 Mr. Piercy is raising the ground about 

 the apiary by hauling on various kinds of 

 rubbish so as to bring the surface above tide 

 level. He considers a government naval 

 station an undesirable place for bees, espe- 

 cially Mare Island, as he finds the forage 

 scanty, and the wind and water bad factors 

 to contend with. He hopes to retire some 

 day to a ten-acre tract of land that he owns 

 in the north, where he will be able to carry 

 out more of his ideas of real living. 

 Oakland, Cal. 



FlG. 4. — A tool-house made from an old sale-like 

 box discarded at the Naval Station. 



