GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



BEEKEEPING IN CALIFORNIA 



P. C. Chadwick, 



One of the most unfair resolu- 

 tions ever offered and passed by 

 any organization was passed by 

 the State Association. An exhibit 

 was ordered, after which a resolu- 

 tion was offered disclaiming any 

 responsibility by the association 

 for the expense entailed. In other words, 

 the association gave full sanction for an 

 exhibit to be placed, for which it was to 

 have the credit and somebody else pay the 



expense. 



* «- * 



While visiting a friend recently, my at- 

 tention was called to a colony of bees of 

 exceptionally high honey-gathering quali- 

 ties. My friend said he could tell that 

 queen's daughters from any others in the 

 yard of over two hundred colonies. I asked 

 him what particular characteristics they 

 possessed that they were so easily recog- 

 nized. He answered that it was principally 

 by the way their bees stung. They were 

 Syrians. 



* * * 



In the American Bee Journal for Decem- 

 ber, page 412, Mr. Byer takes issue with 

 Dr. Phillips on the matter of over-produc- 

 tion. To my way of thinking, Mr. Byer 

 has the best of the argiiment. The fact 

 that it is necessary to resort to all kinds of 

 ways to dispose of a season's output is eon- 

 elusive evidence of over-production. Un- 

 der-consumption, to be sure, may be ex- 

 plained as the reason for over-production; 

 but until consumption is increased to a 

 point where it absorbs the production, over- 

 production will remain a fact. 



In starting an experiment station for 

 bees on an island in San Francisco Bay, the 

 State University has taken the lead in dis- 

 ease control by scientific search. Why not 

 give the entire foul-brood work over to men 

 who are educated, and equipped to handle 

 the situation? When our last foul-brood 

 bill was up for sanction by the State Asso- 

 ciation I was told that the inspectorship 

 must be in the hands of the beekeepers. 

 What we need as an inspector at the head 

 of this department is an educated man, one 

 who can give a scientific analysis of any 

 disease which may be found. 



From the Wide World Magazine I have 

 clipped an article that tells something of 



Redlands, Cal. 



migratory beekeeping in the Holy Land. 

 After reciting the unique position of Pal- 

 estine geographically in that the flora of 

 three nations meet there, it tells how two 

 brothers followed the flora, camping first in 

 the low altitude, after which they trans- 

 poited their hives on camel back to a high- 

 er elevation, thus following the consecutive 

 blooming period of different flowers. By 

 using modern extracting machinery they 

 were able to secure six tons of honey from 

 one hundred colonies in a year. But the 

 most striking assertion in the entire article 

 was that this yield exceeded the yields on 

 the great honey-farms of America and 

 Australia threefold. The assertion that this 

 yield is three tim.es as great as on the big 

 honey farms of America and Australia 

 places some doubt as to the knowledge of 

 the writer on the entire article. 



Dr. A. F. Bonney, in the American Bee 

 Journal for October, page 243, says : " I 

 made several ventures into the domain of 

 advertising to sell honey by mail, and find 

 one serious handicap — the breaking of con- 

 tainers by careless mail-clerks and others 

 who handle the sacks. These men, or many 

 of them, seem to have an inherent hatred 

 for parcel-post jiackages that are at all 

 heavy, and a fragile tag is little or no 

 protection." Dr. Bonney may know the 

 honey business; but the assertions he is 

 making in regard to postal employes is not 

 placing them in the proper light, and leaves 

 me to conclude that Dr. Bonney knows 

 very little about true conditions in the pos- 

 tal service. Ten years of my life have been 

 spent in the railway and city delivery ser- 

 vice of Uncle Sam, and I wish to say that 

 in nine cases out of ten it is with the 

 packing rather than the men who handle 

 the packages. The fragile tags are re- 

 spected by postal employes, but they will 

 not cover the faults of the one doing the 

 packing. When a fragile parcel goes into 

 a sack a fragile tag is attached to the sack 

 outside. These sacks are handled as care- 

 fully as is ]iossible with the volume of oth- 

 er parcels that are daily going thru the 

 mails. If honey is packed properly it will 

 be delivered in good condition ; but do not 

 expect to send comb honey thru the mails 

 without proper shock-absorbers, corrugat- 

 ed paperboard, or something of that na- 

 ture. Comb honey requires more careful 

 packing than eggs. 



