340 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



BEEKEEPING IN (CALIEOENIA 



P. C. Chadwick, Medlaeds, Cal. 



The fiist rain of the season fell on the 

 night of Oct. 2, and was welcomed by Cali- 

 fornians. The amount was not heavy, only 

 half an inch; but the way it freshened up 

 green foliage was pleasing indeed. 

 * * * 



During July and August I had the gi'eal 

 pleasure of visiting the old homestpad 

 where I sjoent my boyhood days and ac- 

 quired my first knowledge of the bee busi- 

 ness. Things have changed greatly, and 

 conditions were much different than when 

 I left, nearly twelve years ago. My father 

 and mother, both in their eightieth year, 

 have retii'ed from the farm, being too old 

 to have the cares connected with it. The 

 old woods were still there, and I had the 

 pleasure of finding two bee-trees, thus re- 

 newing an old-time sport. The vast acre- 

 age of potatoes that was being grown in 

 the Kansas River bottoms in my time has 

 given way largely to alfalfa, the flood in 

 1903 having almost ruined the land for 

 potato culture. There were few bees in 

 the surrounding country — only a few colo- 

 nies here and there. 



My sister has taken up the bee business 

 in a small way, and I was surprised to find 

 her 25 colonies had nearly 1000 pounds of 

 nice white section honey, for which they 

 had a ready local market at 15 cts. per 

 section. One of the oddest things to me 

 was to find the brood-combs full of very 

 dark inferior honey-dew, yet the section 

 honey which had been gathered later from 

 sweet clover and alfalfa was very pretty 

 and white. In my time, these two sources 

 were not considered, there being so little of 

 either. Considering the very dry season 

 in those parts I feel that she is to be con- 

 gratulated on her success 



It is wonderful how the pioduction of 

 alfalfa has increased all over the eastern 

 portion of Kansas, and also in the west, 

 where irrigation is being taken up. In 

 many sections of the State there are large 

 quantities of seed raised, which is said to 

 be as desirable as that produced in any 

 part of the world. In Douglas County, 

 adjoining the farm on which I lived from 

 1876 to 1883, there was in 1911 a very large 

 crop of seed produced, which was sold for 

 $1700; yet, so far as I could learn, there 

 were few bees to gather the nectar from 



the bloom. 



* * * 



J. E. Crane, page 709, Sept. 15, takes 

 issue with Wesley Foster and myself over 



our contention that bees when clustered 

 outside of the hive are wasting time. In 

 my comment I had taken Mr. Foster's view 

 of the matter. Now friend Crane says, 

 " Because we see a woman sitting under the 

 shade of a tree by her kitchen door when 

 the mercury is 90 degrees in the shade, it is 

 no sign that she is loafing or wasting time." 

 Not in the least ; she is simply adjusting 

 herself to more comfortable conditions — 

 exactly what the bees do when they leave 

 the hive to cluster. If conditions were I'ight 

 in the kitchen the woman would no doubt 

 have remained within to complete her kitch- 

 en work; and even if she had to return to 

 the kitchen every time she had shelled a pod 

 of peas, for another, she would, in all 

 probability, have concluded that the addi- 

 tional exercise she was getting would not 

 be conducive to keeping down the heat to a 

 point enjoyed by quietly remaining by the 

 kitchen sink. Langstroth, edition of 1870, 

 page 90, says : " Bees in such weather often 

 leave, ^Imost in a body, the interior of the 

 hive, and cluster on the outside, not merely 

 to escape the close heat within, but to guard 

 their combs against the danger of being dis- 

 solved." This is v^ery much in accord with 

 my ideas. The clustering-out of bees is due 

 to a condition not normal, and must disor- 

 ganize the forces of the hive to an extent 

 that causes a wasting of time. In 1889 I 

 had a colony in a ten-frame single-story 

 Langstroth hive that became crowded, and 

 naturally the bees began to make prepara- 

 tions to relieve the situation by swarming. 

 Quite a large cluster had left the hive and 

 were hanging under the hive-stand, which 

 was about eight inches in height. They had 

 been in this position for a number of days 

 when a swarm issued ; but the cluster under 

 the hive-stand was so ignorant of conditions 

 in the hive that they did not get excited at 

 the emerging of the swarm, but quietly held 

 to their cluster, not only until the swarm 

 issued, but for more than 48 hours after, 

 before they returned to the hive. This gave 

 me the impression that they were not in 

 communication with the interior of the hive 

 to an extent that apprised them of the 

 fact that swarming preparations had been 

 completed. They had left the hive as a 

 matter of self-protection, and were only 

 fulfilling that one object, with no other 

 work to perform. I cannot agree that every 

 bee in the cluster outside of the hive is full 

 of nectar, even if nectar is coming in freely, 

 as Mr. Crane says. 



