470 



one bee-keeper. He forced no one to ob- 

 serve the law. One other inspector, how- 

 ever, was drastic enough to suit the most 

 fastidious. He even ordered second-hand 

 hives to be burned, where there was no evi- 

 dence of disease on the premises, even when 

 he had no way of learning why the bees had 

 died. Of course, he was not under bonds. 



One of our inspectors wanted an ordinance 

 passed condemning all box hives in the 

 county, saying that he did not consider it 

 fair to make a man transfer on one side of 

 the road and leave other bees in boxes across 

 the way because they were beyond the 

 three-mile limit; that it would be more eco- 

 nomical to the county to put all box hives 

 under sentence; that, if the frame hives in 

 the neighborhood were all in good condition, 

 there was no certainty that the colonies in 

 box hives were all right. At that meeting of 

 the supervisors, several bee-keepers were pres- 

 ent, only two speaking in opposition to the 

 inspector, and none for his plan. One speak- 

 er told how the present law was framed, and 

 M'hat kind of men Mr. Hambaugh and Prof. 

 Cook, the leaders in the work, were; what 

 care they used in consulting inspectors and 

 others, and considered the law all right. 

 During an attack of scarlet fever in his 

 neighborhood, only such persons as experts 

 in that line considered endangered were 

 quarantined; others were not. He referred 

 to an interest in the management of several 

 apiaries near Crow's Landing, which the 

 inspector then had, and mentioned that the 

 in&pector had said that he got a better crop 

 from an apiary whose brood-chamber was 

 only boxes, although the range was no bet- 

 ter than one other. The inspector did not 

 deny this. Mr. .Jensen, a farmer bee-keep- 

 er, opposed the ordinance. He had bees in 

 frame hives and box hives. Of course, the 

 boxes were much cheaper, and there was 

 little difference in the returns to him. 



The ordinance failed. The next month 

 the inspector changed it a trifle, and got it 

 through on the sly, then went to Mr. .I^nsen 

 and forced him to pay over $50 for hives or 

 have a lot of his bees burned, probably 15 

 miles from the nearest foul brood. So much 

 complaint came in that the supervisors dis- 

 charged the inspector. He presented a pe- 

 tition for reai)pointment, and it was "'plac- 

 ed on file." A prominent bee-keeper then 

 presented a petition for his OM'n appoint- 

 ment, and that was "placed on file." The 

 supervisors seemed disgusted, and unwilling 

 to act. 



Lately a move, naostly by inspectors and 

 the State University, I think, has been on 

 foot to have inspection under control of the 

 University; but the bill could not get 

 through the Senate, as it met strong oppo- 

 sition from bee-keepers. It might be rash 

 for me to discuss a proposed law without 

 seeing it; but it would probably be better 

 suiced to a State the size of Delaware than 

 California. Of course, the man who had a 

 " pull " with the State University would get 

 the job. 



An inspector should be able to cure his 



Gleanings in Bee Culture 



own bees with reasonable dispatch and econ- 

 omy, varying his treatment with the hon- 

 ey-flow, season, strength of colonies, etc. 

 He should be honorable, reasonable, prompt, 

 and firm with others — neither a do-nothing 

 nor a despot, not charging the public for 

 critical examination of whole apiaries that 

 are in good hands and healthy. With such 

 men our law is certainly good, and, in my 

 opinion, the honey-producers of California 

 should be very careful about changing. 

 Especially beware of a law that does not 

 dare to come out in the open for examina- 

 tion. 

 Ceres, Cal. 



THE PREVENTION OF SPRING DWINDLING IN 

 CALIFORNIA. 



Bees Left Full Stores. 



BY J. F. CROWDER. 



The complaint comes from every side that 

 bees have left full hives of honey, and have 

 absconded. This, I think may be explain- 

 ed, first, by the fact that they perished from 

 old age; for, as the queen stopped laying in 

 June, the last bees were at least six months 

 old when the first spring honey came. Those 

 gray-haired veterans survived only one or 

 two trips to the field, consequently the col- 

 ony lost its first field force, with a resulting 

 shortage of new honey and pollen. Thus 

 the bees perished one by one with hives full 

 of honey. 



I have seen hives with at least 25 lbs. of 

 honey in them this spring, with one teacup- 

 ful of little old black scrawny hairless bees, 

 between four and six months old. When 

 my i)artner and myself first visited our api- 

 ary this spring we were thoroughly disgust- 

 ed at the sight of our bees. They all appear- 

 ed to be of the blackest of the black variety; 

 but upon investigation we discovered that 

 they were the old bees from last season. 

 Now the younger generation is coming on, 

 what a difference! It looks as though we 

 had been requeening; but they are all of the 

 same family. 



SEASONS DIFFER ONLY TEN OR TWENTY 

 MILES AWAY. 



Lateness of pollen-producing plants in the 

 mountain districts is, I think, another cause 

 of l)ees absconding. Southern California is 

 a land of varied climates, with frigid weath- 

 er in the mountains, and perpetual summer 

 in the valleys. When the oranges began to 

 bloom in early April, the sea-breezes taking 

 the aroma mountainward, I saw bees come 

 to the orange-groves in bunches from ten to 

 fifty swarms per day, many where some 

 hoi)eful keeper had been trying their qual- 

 ity. I have seen many swarms of black 

 bees this season with as pretty an Italian 

 queen as one would wish to see, all coming 

 down to the land of Eden, for the orange- 

 groves of Southern California are the bees' 

 paradise. 



