JULY 15, 1916 



BEEKEEPING IN CALIFORNIA 



P. C. Chadwick, 



The pictures of the bees on the 

 bicycle, page 493, June 1, brought 

 to my mind a stoiy I once heard 

 of a cow-boy who was riding a 

 very wild pony. It chanced that 

 the pony in some of bis antics got 

 a rear foot in the stirrui^ of the 

 saddle, whereupon the boy said, " Say, if 

 you are going to get on I will get off." 



^ ¥ # 



Mr. Scholl says, page 471, June 15, that 

 by his method " it is possible to take off 

 more than a thousand pounds of honey in 

 half an hour." Then he adds, " The writer 

 holds an actual record of 1140 pounds of 

 honey removed in exactly 28 minutes." I 

 figure that to be just a fraction under 41 

 pounds per minute. No, thanks; I do not 

 care to have any one slamming around 

 among my pets like that. 



Dr. Miller says, page 469, June 1, " My 

 observation has shown that bees decidedly 

 prefer old black combs for either eggs or 

 honey." I am not as ready to proclaim my 

 observation as to honey-storing as I am to 

 egg-laying; but I do know that Dr. Miller 

 is entirely right about the egg-laying. I 

 have seen queens skip a new comb to get to 

 an old black one to deposit her eggs, not 

 merelj' once but a number of times. 



Dr. Miller says, page 469, June 1, " An 

 easier way is to let the bees clean the cap- 

 pings." Well, it may not seem good man- 

 ners for me to be scolding my elders; but, 

 doctor, you should be a bit explanatory when 

 making such assertions. One of the worst 

 things we have to contend with out in this 

 neck of the woods, where one range over- 

 laps the other, is that just such work is 

 practiced, even where disease is plentiful, 

 and the results may be imagined in many 

 instances where the bees from several api- 

 aries may be helping to clean up the caps. 

 The worst feature, however, is the tendency 

 to encourage robbing, so I am wondering 

 whether you set your capping-s out in a 

 kind of free-for-all way or have a perfectly 

 safe way. 



In a recent conversation with Chas. W. 

 Mixter, who is interested in bees in the 

 Coachella Valley, I was informed that cli- 

 matic conditions are a great factor with 

 them, and that this season their crop would 

 be short on that account. Mr. IMixter is in 



Redlands, Cal. 



the upper end of the Salton Basin, and Im- 

 perial in the lower end. Here almost the 

 entire hope is in the irrigated alfalfa, and 

 climatic conditions are all that could affect 

 the crop, as the soil is irrigated the .same 

 from year to year. Mr. Mixter said, also, 

 he thought much of their trouble this season 

 was due to cold nights and not to vei'y warm 

 days. This seems to be the foundation for 

 most of our climatic trouble.s^ — lack of heat 

 at the critical time. It is undoubtedly a 

 fact that we have more large honey yields 

 when the springs are late than we do with 

 extremely early seasons. Even when the 

 weather is so cold and the spring so back- 

 ward that we become impatient, hot weather 

 usually comes with a good flow of nectar 

 when the rains have been sufficient. 



CLIMATIC CONDITIONS. 



The older beekeepers are often sighting 

 things in relation to honey crops that they 

 believe are factors in the output. One of 

 these situations is " climatic conditions." I 

 liave given this question some consideration, 

 and have come to the conclusion that it is 

 not always a mere myth. It is my opinion 

 that we have been aflPected, to some extent, 

 by such conditions this season. Vegetation 

 on the foot-hills this season, until recently, 

 has shown no ill effects of the lack of late 

 rains, and all thru the blooming period of 

 the sage there was no apparent lack of 

 moisture in plant growth, yet the nectar was 

 not in the plants in quantities heavy enough 

 to cause a heavy honey-gathering. The 

 button sage bloomed profusely, as did the 

 white variety, yet no yield of consequence. 



But what are tlie climatic conditions that 

 so affect the honey yield? That is a hard 

 question to answer. The variation in my 

 scale-beam this season from day to day gave 

 me a little insight to some of the so-called 

 climatic conditions. During the white-sage 

 bloom we had many cool foggy morning-s, 

 followed by moderately warm clays. From 

 one-half to three-fourths of a pound was all 

 my scale colony could make in 24 hours ; yet 

 when we failed to have the fog, and the heat 

 climbed up around 100 degrees for a day or 

 two the scales would show from IV2 to 1% 

 lbs. gain in the same time. This condition 

 is typical of the white sage. 



In the sea!-oon of 1905 the white sage did 

 not bloom much until July, by which time 

 the temperature was going up around 110 

 degrees daily, it being an unusually warm 

 spell, and such a crop of white sage has not 

 been harvested since that time. 



