224 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



BEEKEEPING IN CALIFORNIA 



The condition of bees in this 

 locality is several per cent better 

 than at the same time last season. 



P. C. Chadwick, Redlands, Cal. 



extremely cross ones the next. [See edito- 

 rial. — Ed.] 



What is "spring dwindling" but 

 the dying'-off of old bees faster 

 than young ones are being hatch- 

 ed? The better the weather and the harder 

 they work very early in the season before 

 brood begins hatching, the faster they 



dwindle. 



* * * 



The amount of stores a colony contains 

 may be seriously misjudged by lifting the 

 hive as a test. When breeding up rapidly 

 in the spring the brood in itself makes con- 

 siderable weight, which may be mistaken 

 for stores, causing serious results. 



The sudden warm weather coming after 

 the heavy rains has advanced the season a 

 little too fast for the best interests of the 

 beekeepers. Orange buds are developing 

 rapidly, as well as sage growth — a little too 

 rapidly for the increase in bee force. 



About an inch of rain for February. I 

 suspected just such a condition when the 

 heavy flood rains stopped so suddenly. I 

 should not be surprised, however, to see 

 considerably more rain in March, and some 

 cold, disagreeable days when we need it 

 warm. 



The best and safest way that I know for 

 introducing very valuable queens is as fol- 

 lows : Place tAvo or three frames of hatching 

 brood (no bees) in a super over a very 

 strong colony, with a screen wire between 

 the colony and the hatching brood. Turn 

 the queen loose on the hatching brood. After 

 a few days the brood will be mostly hatched, 

 when the super may be set off on a bottom- 

 board, and the young bees allowed to go to 



work, 



* * * 



Nothing could show the prejudice against 

 the golden Italians more clearly than the 

 article of Arthur C. Miller, page 147, Feb. 

 15. It is said of John Randolph, that, while 

 making a speech in Congress against a 

 tariff on wool, he made the remark that he 

 would go a hundred yards out of his way 

 any time to get to kick a sheep. Mr. Miller 

 says a queen from golden stock will pro- 

 duce perfectly gentle bees one season and 



There is a mistaken idea which is by far 

 too prevalent in the East, and I notice at 

 least one bee journal is gniilty of the of- 

 fense ; and that is, calling sage honey white 

 sage honey. As a matter of fact, a very 

 small percentage of sage honey is produced 

 from the white sage. Honey from the but- 

 ton (or black) sage is white — when pure, 

 extremely white ; but it should not be called 

 a product of the white sage. 



* * * 



The sumac growing in the coast district 

 is entirely different from that of the inland 

 foothill district. I have been told that the 

 sumac of the coast region blooms in July, 

 while I know it blooms in this section in 

 May. I have now found that the coast- 

 region sumac differs gi'eatly from the in- 

 land variety, the coast variety being more 

 of the nature of the sumac of the East. I 

 am led to believe the coast-region variety is 

 a much better honey-plant than that of the 



inland. 



* « * 



Mr. Editor, in your comments on my 

 article, page 150, Feb. 15, you say : " If 

 bees can gather a liberal supply of honey 

 within %^ of a mile from the home yard, 

 and that supply keeps up, they will go no 

 further than that." In this you are entire- 

 ly correct. In 1905, when the honey-flow 

 was at its height, I could not find a bee fur- 

 ther than half a mile from an apiary in a 

 fine sage range belonging to my uncle, for 

 the simple reason that they had plenty to 

 get nearer home. You are also correct as 

 to the aroma from the orange. There are 

 very few blooming plants that produce 

 aroma equal to that of the orange, and it is 

 an easy matter to scent it a distance of five 

 miles at night when the breeze is sufficient 

 to carry it on the night air. But that bees 

 will starve to death within one and a half 

 miles of a good honey-flow I can hardly be- 

 lieve. 



« • • 



Hive government is rarely spoken of in 

 our bee-journals, and seems to be as little 

 understood by all as any one thing in con- 

 nection with bee culture. We know certain 

 laws of nature followed by bees relative to 

 their conduct in certain cases, such as su- 

 persedure, brood-rearing, and the like ; but 

 to understand what force rules their actions 

 seems never to have been solved. That 



