796 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUIvE 



BEEICEEPMC IN CALEFOENIA 



P, Co diadwick, Redlamd§, Cal, 



So far as my l-.nowledgc of the matter 

 runs, we have had less destructive forest 

 fires during- the past summer than for sev- 

 eral years past. 



« » * 



Some advice that does not conform with 

 my ideas has recently crept into print as 

 to what to do with drone comb. The place 

 for drone comb is in the melting-tank as 

 quickly as possible. The only place I ever 

 care for drone comb is to mass a few combs 

 r>n colonies from which drones for mating 

 are desirable. Any colony will patch in 

 fjiough drone-cells for practical purposes. 

 Out of 4000 combs in my apiary I have less 

 than half a dozen that are not drawn on 

 full sheets of foundation. Beekeeping on 

 extensive lines leaves no place for drone 

 culture. « * « 



In those localities where bluecurl abounds 

 bees are working finely, and bid fair to go 

 into winter quarters with an abundance of 

 young' bees and combs well filled with both 

 honey and pollen. There is very little pol- 

 len, however, from this plant. A very pe- 

 culiar and interesting thing in this connec- 

 tion is the fact that bees working on it get 

 entirely covered with a light greenish-yel- 

 low pollen while gathering honey, but make 

 no attempt to collect it to store. Were it 

 not for the great stimulative effect of the 

 late flow I would prefer not to have this 

 honey in my combs, for it will candy in 

 sealed cells within a few weeks. If extract- 

 ed it becomes almost a solid mass of hard 

 candy like honey in a few days, yet it is 

 one of the whitest of all our honeys, not 

 taking into consideration soil, climatic con- 

 ditions, elevation, etc. 

 * * * 



During my reijueening operations this 

 season I tried the plan of mating a virgin 

 above an exclude^- with an entrance above 

 and one below. The test was made on about 

 75 colonies. Where there was nn old queen 

 below, the plan, in almost every case, was a 

 failure. Where the old queen was removed, 

 and a cell given both above and below, both 

 cells were accepted and the virgins could be 

 found for several days after hatching; but 

 as soon as one became mated, the other (in 

 the majority of cases) disappeared. I was 

 able, however, to get quite a number mated, 

 both above and below, but removed them, 

 as soon as mated, for safety. Eight or ten 

 colonies were left with mated queens both 

 above and below ; but after a month's time 

 but (wo colonies contained both queens. 



The two were laying nicely, with a large 

 amount of brood both above and below. I 

 also tried the project on three super hives, 

 using two excluders to separate the queens 

 further, but my success was little better. 

 One of the valuable features of this plan I 

 found to be the almost absolute certainty 

 of getting a mated queen in one of the 

 divisions and thus avoid the necessity of 

 making the second trial, to say nothing of 

 the advantage of getting the colony re-es- 

 tablished as quickly as possible. 



These exi^eriments were tried without 

 using brood above, so it is possible my 

 success would have been greater had I 

 used a frame or two of brood above. I 

 expect to give the latter plan a thorough 

 trial next season. 



* * » 



There is considerable agitation among 

 employers in general over the initiative or- 

 dinance proposed, by which the hours of 

 labor are restricted to eight hours per day. 

 This ordinance is to be voted on at our 

 November election, and is being fought 

 bitterly by fruit-men as well as generally 

 by ranchers, beekeepers, and all who em- 

 ploy labor. It makes all the difference in 

 the world as to whether you are the em- 

 ployee or the employer as to how you feel. 

 But for one feature of the law — that which 

 makes it a penalty to work or permit help 

 to labor more than eight hours per day, 

 regardless of the consideration of extra 

 compensation for additional time that could 

 be used to advantage in cases where both 

 the emi^loyee and the employer were will- 

 ing — I would be heartily in favor of the 

 law. This one feature, however, makes it 

 quite objectionable to both parties in many 

 cases. Morally I believe the world would 

 be much better if the laborer were given a 

 better chance to relax from a' duous labor 

 long enough each day to get better ac- 

 quainted with his family, and have more 

 of the responsibility of growing sons, who, 

 to a great extent, need the influence of the 

 father. This world is not made of dollars 

 alone, and our people are finding it out 

 more and more as time goes by. Our first 

 consideration should be for the moral uplift 

 and betterment of our people; and if an 

 eight-hour day will help, we should have it. 

 Should the blight of saloons be driven from 

 our State, the effect would be far greater; 

 for there is no use denying that the retreat 

 of a certain class of our laborers is more 

 apt to be the saloon than the home. 



