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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



EEIiEEPING IN CALIFORNIA 



At this writing we are able to say that 

 Pres. J. W. Ferree, of the State Association, 

 has greatly improved from the result of his 

 mortorcyele accident, and is able to be back 

 on his ranch. His ultimate recovery seems 

 assured, though he is still under the care of 

 a physician. 



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Destructive forest fires were reported 

 from four southern counties last week. 

 These fires are in reality not forest fires, 

 but brush fires. As a rule they cover only 

 the brush-covered hills. Occasionally they 

 get into the heavy timber of the mountains, 

 but not frequently. 



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Mr. Crane, page 883, Nov. 15, you are 

 right in your eighth paragraph, as a rule. 

 But the colony that produced the most 

 honey for me the past season was about as 

 near pure nothing as any in my yard, and 

 would be a poor one to breed from in a 

 land of disease. 



A kindly old gentleman from the remote 



districts of the South applied to me for a 



job with the bees. I asked him if he had 



had experience in their care. He said, "No, 



I ain't had no truck with them to brag 



about; but I reckon I can swarm them and 



keep things in kelter just about as good as 



anybody." 



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Reports from various localities indicate 



that both varieties of foul brood are much 



less prevalent than last year. We hope the 



beekeepei's have taken advantage of the 



opportunity to get pure stock in their yards, 



which is the best possible way to eradicate 



black or European foul brood, and no 



disadvantage in controlling the American 



variety. 



* * * 



"Shall I build my own hives?" asks a 

 headline. The average beekeeper should not 

 undertake the work. The results, as a rule, 

 are very far from perfect, and too often 

 botched, which puts me in mind of what a 

 brother-in-law once said. He was working 

 in his shop when some one brought in a 

 piece of work that looked pretty bad, with 

 a request for him to work it over. He 

 viewed the job critically, and then said : 

 " Well, that looks as if some one had done 

 it himself." I know of one small lot of bees 

 that belong to a carpenter's son, and are 



Cal. 



for sale. But the hives, though made by 

 hand and by a mechanic, are so far from 

 being the equal of machine-sawed hives that 

 his price is out of the question. This is 

 especially true of the frames. 



Skunks, skunks, skunks. The eastern 

 beekeeper has little idea of the depredations 

 committed on an apiary of the West by 

 these troublesome little animals. During 

 August, while away in the East, some of 

 my hives had depressions two and three 

 inches deep worn in the dry soil by their 

 feet, rolling bees to kill them, after which 

 they were eaten. Upon my return I pur- 

 chased a pound of cheap beef, which I cut 

 in loieces as large as the end of my thumb. 

 In these pieces I cut a small opening with 

 a sharp penknife into which I droj^ped a 

 small quantity of strychnine. About thirty 

 pieces were thus prepared for the feed, and 

 the result was that the next time I visited 

 my apiary it looked like a slaughter-pen — 

 dead skunks in every direction. This ended 

 my trouble for the season. I have previous- 

 ly recommended eggs for this work, but 

 find that raw beef is equally good, and 

 somewhat cheaper. 



Mr. Doolittle, in the Oct. 15th issue, raises 

 the question as to whether bees visit more 

 than one kind of flower on a trip. I cannot 

 say that I have ever seen them make the 

 change, yet I feel sure that they must do 

 so at times. To illustrate my point I will 

 refer to the rapid change of the field force 

 of the hive from the wild alfalfa to the 

 sage bloom. On a cool foggy morning the 

 wild alfalfa will be swarming with bees for 

 several hours, from which they go immedi- 

 ately to the sage as soon as the sun comes 

 out warm and bright, which causes the sage 

 to secrete more freely. I cannot persuade 

 myself to the belief that each bee with its 

 sac more or less filled with honey from the 

 alfalfa returns to the hive before going in 

 quest of the nectar of the sage. The bee, as 

 a rule, utilizes time as economically as does 

 man, and would hardly return to the hive 

 half loaded with stores because it wished 

 to go to a different flower. Some claim that 

 bees do not mix the different colors of 

 pollen in the combs. This, to my positive 

 knowledge, is an error, for I have observed 

 the different colors many times in the same 

 cell. 



