Januaby, 1917 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



51 



COMB honey, 

 like other 

 frail oom- 

 modities, should 

 be looked at 

 with eyes and 

 not with the 

 fingers. 



c 



IN CALIFORNIA 



1 



P. C. Chadwick 



Extracting cold honey is not conducive to 



good morals. 



* * * 



Extracting too clusoly is worse than 

 disease. Both together are forerunners of 



disaster. 



* # * 



Inyo County, along Owens River, pro- 

 duces comb honey that is not surpassed for 

 color anvwhere in the United States. 



Doubling up weak colonies is like thin- 

 ning fruit — it looks like a waste at the 

 time, but gives more for the market. 



Rain vasited 

 almost the entire 

 .'^late on Decem- 

 ber 1 and 2, aid- 

 ing vegetation 

 greatly. The 

 amount ranged 

 from more than 

 two inches at 

 Santa Barbara to only a light fall in Red- 

 lands. The fall here reached only thirteen- 

 hundredths of an inch, which was too small 

 for any great value. It was the lightest 

 here of any place reported, however. 

 * * * 



There are some fine sage ranges along 

 the coast in Monterey County that are said 

 to be of little value on account of the heavy 

 fog during the blooming season, I have it on 

 good authority that two seasons ago bees 

 were actually starving during the heavy 

 blooming period of this plant on account 

 of fog and bad weather. 



Raising the average yield per colony 

 should begin by raising the average condi- 

 tion before the honey-flow begins. 



* * * 



A fixed rule of management is not as 

 applicable in this state as in the prairie 

 states of the East. Here elevation is often 

 of as much importance as any other con- 

 sideration. 



* * * 



The inland foothill districts have an ad- 

 \ antage over the coast district in that many 

 of the coast fogs do not reach inland. The 

 nights, however, get much colder from a 

 lack of the ocean influence. 



* « * 



There is, perhaps, as gi'eat a variety of 

 hives in California as anywhere in the Un- 

 ion. Standard hives will eventually be 

 adopted almost exclusively, however, as 

 the tendency is in that direction. 



* * * 



There is a crop of young beekeepers 

 springing up here that remind me of the 

 mushrooms in my father's old orchard 

 after a warm spring rain. Some of them, 

 I fear, are none too far advanced in the 

 ai't to make the highest success po.ssible. 



The wealth of tlie California wild flow- 

 ers cannot be imagined by one who has 

 not seen them in their fullest glory. On 

 a small space of soil may be found not only 

 countless numbers, but almost countless 

 varieties — not in a great entwined mass, 

 but small plants, some of which are less 

 than three inches high. 



* * * 



Perhaps the earliest springtime in Cali- 

 fornia comes in the Coaehella Valley. Bees 

 begin work there early in January, on the 

 Cottonwood, and continue thruout the sea- 

 son. This valley is mostly far below the 

 level of the sea. A paper published there 

 known as the Coaehella Valley Submarine, 

 boasts of being the " lowest-down paper on 

 earth." 



« * * 



Before the late John Muir died he was 

 deploring the fact that' automobiles were 

 the means for careless persons to reach the 

 great natural wild flower beds of the state. 

 Instead of going out to pick or cut the 

 bloom many were pulled up by the roots, 

 thus destroying the future flowers. No 

 greater lover of the wild flowers ever lived 

 than Mr. Muir. 



My youngest son went out to sell some 

 bulk comb honey. Later one of the neigh- 

 bors to whom he had sold called up and 

 wanted to know what that comb was in it 

 for. He was used to extracted honey, and 

 could see only useless bulk in the comb. 

 I guess he was right too. 



Eliminating old bees from queen-mating 

 colonies is more important than may be 

 suspected. The continual removing of 

 mated queens before they have a chance to 

 restock the colony allows the bees to reach 

 an age not conducive to successful queen 

 work. These old workers have cared for 



