JULY 15, 1914 



538 



BEEKEEPING IN CALIEOMNIA 



P„ Co Chadwick, Medlaedg, Cal. 



Do not extract too close. Remember next 

 year may be a bad one, and much honey 

 may be required to tide them over. Leave a 

 full sujDer. It pays in the long run. 



* * * * 



Mr. B. G. Burdick, ex-president of the 

 State Association, in partnership with Mr. 

 M. J. Meeker, is embarking in the queen 

 business. The new firm will be known as 

 I^urdick & Meeker. 



* « * * 



I tried a source of power for an extractor 

 on the 13th of June, not the gasoline-engine 

 kind, but the kind that wears small trouseis 

 and eats three meals a day. It worked finely, 

 and not only kept the extractor going but 

 removed the combs after the honey was out. 

 Mr. Crawford, my helper, my eleven-year- 

 old son Ralph, and I took off and extracted 

 over a ton of honey in seven hours, a large 

 l^art of which was sealed solid. 





J. E. Crane quotes Wesley Foster, page 

 448, saying, " Bees that cluster outside of 

 the hive are wasting time." He says he does 

 not feel sure about that. I believe Mr. Fos- 

 ter is entirely right, and would suggest to 

 Bro. Crane that the bees clustered on the 

 outside of the hive are not evaporating 

 nectar but simply idling their time away, if 

 my idea is correct that all evaporation takes 

 place on the inside of the hive. 



* » * * 



The later in the season queens are intro- 

 duced, the better they will be for the follovv?- 

 ing season. This is especially true where 

 the queens come through the mails. If raised 

 and mated in the hives, the difference is not 

 so great. Out of fifty introduced in April 

 and May, 1913, a large per cent were super- 

 seded before the same months this year, or 

 died and left the colony with no hopes of 

 lequeening, due to the lack of drones. 





The 1st of July of the present year I 

 begin my record system with hives all fresh- 

 ly numbered. About this time the requeen- 

 ing of my yard will begin, and hereafter a 

 close record of each colony will be kept — a 

 kind of pedigree, if you please, noting 

 conditions from time to time, the amount of 

 honey stored from a certain strain, etc. In 

 this way I hope to increase the standard uf 

 my bees as well as the output of honey. One 

 of my objects is to see that no queen enters 



the third season at the head of a colony, and 

 only a few choice breeders will be kept over 

 under any circumstances. Too little atten- 

 tion is paid to requeening. 



* # * » 



Speaking of pollen as a stimulant to 

 breeding, Mr. R. E. Fairehilds, of this city, 

 recently told me of a time last summer when 

 his bees were gathering quantities of pollen 

 and a little nectar from the sunflowers, and 

 were breeding rapidly. When the bluecurl 

 came in bloom the bees went to it for honey 

 which it was giving freely, but no pollen. 

 The results, according to Mr. Fairehilds, 

 were that breeding almost ceased when the 

 pollen supply was checked for the honey- 

 flow. 



* * * * 



I have just finished painting my entire 

 apiary. It has taken 13 gallons of paint, 

 besides considerable time to apply it. The 

 entire cost, including the painter's time, will 

 be about $50. It is a great satisfaction to 

 me to sit up on the hill and look down the 

 I'ows of snow-white hives, and perhaps more 

 satisfaction to know that my hives will not 

 suffer from the effects of weather for a cou- 

 ple of years. An occasional good coat of 

 paint will keep them in good condition for 

 years to come, and save additional expense, 

 in that they will not have to be replaced. 

 Another satisfaction to me is to know that 

 my bees are all going in and out the en- 

 trance of the hive, and not here and there 

 through corners and cracks of a lot of wea- 

 ther-beaten, warped, and twisted boards. 



* # * * 



Intensive or extensive beekeeping, which 

 is better? Extensive is not as profitable in 

 proportion as intensive. This year I have 

 given intensive a thorough trial ; and while 

 I have been at much expense to keep a man 

 right on the job since the 28th of March in 

 caring for my 140-colony apiary, I feel that 

 I have been well paid for the expense, and 

 my output per colony for the season will be 

 above the average in the San Bernardino 

 Valley. I have visited my apiary and di- 

 rected the work at least once a week to keep 

 things moving in the proper way. One of 

 the reasons for my good crop was the intro- 

 duction of good queens last summer and 

 autumn, nearly all of which made me big 

 profits by gathering large quantities of hon- 

 ey. My ambition is to become an extensive 

 beekeeper on a little more intensive lines 

 that is usually followed nowdays, 



