52 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



January, 1917 



brood once, and have become rather averse 

 to any condition that will force them into 

 the business again. And a young step- 

 mother does not seem to ajjpeal to them 

 veiy strongly either. 



A correspondent says : " High noon on 

 a hot day is the best time to examine a 

 cross colony of bees." The best time for 

 me to examine them is when I get good and 

 ready. With a smoke, gloves, and veil I 

 defy any colony to put me off until high 

 noon. If a man does not protect himself 

 from unnecessary stings he ought to be 



stung. 



« * * 



Wesley Foster, it is safe to spread brood 

 here when the circle of bees extends out be- 

 yond the combs containing brood. This 

 condition is not likely to happen unless the 

 brood-chamber is inclined to be honey- 

 bound. Spreading brood is a fine help at 

 times ; but I believe more harm is done 

 by injudicious spreading than there is 

 done thru knowledge of the art. 



We shall have to take off our hats to 

 Texas. They produce a big crop of bulk 

 comb honey and sell most of it at home. 

 That is more than California does; yet 

 buyers often tell me that Texas is going 

 to have an enormous crop. It does not 

 wori-y me, however, any more, for T know 

 that Texas is an empire within itself, large- 

 ly consuming its own honey. The buyers 

 cannot " get by " that. 



Recently I noticed that the filaree by 

 the roadside was dried up, except in one 

 Dl^-^e where the initials of a person re- 

 mained in green. A child had stopped to 

 mark its initials in the dust, and the seed 

 of the filaree had been covered a little 

 deeper by this means. It had sprouted 

 quickly, and was able to get rooted to a 

 depth that gave it a little better chance to 

 grow, and reach a little deeper for moisture. 



Within our state we have both the garret 

 and the cellar of our country. One may 

 stand on the top of snow-capped Mt. Whit- 

 ney, 14,500 ft. high, in July, and look down 

 on the burning sands of Death Valley, near- 

 ly 300 ft. below the level of the sea. The 

 contrast in temperature is great, as 140 

 degrees F. is not uncommon in Death Val- 

 ley. All the variations of temperature are 

 to be found between these two extremes. 



Every once in a while I find a colony that 

 is crosser than others, and some way they 

 seem to get the honey in greater quantities 

 than many of their more even-tempered 

 neighbors. The reason is simple enough. 

 They are active, alert, always looking out 

 for something, even if it be nothing more 

 than tiouble. So this activity stands 

 them " in good " when there is something 

 doing among the flowers. Not all of the 

 hustlers have bad tempers, however. 



* * * 



Mr. Harry Crawford, of Bloomfield, 

 Colo., and Long Beach, Cal., called on me 

 for a few hours recently. Harry has a 

 nice home in Long Beach as well as a 

 California bungalow at Bloomfield. He 

 comes each winter to his Long Beach home 

 to escape the cold. He is a successful 

 comb-honey i3roducer, having made an av- 

 erage of 110 pounds per colony on his 

 Bloomfield locations this season. Real 

 comb-honey producers are not very com- 

 mon in these parts, and it did me good to 

 talk over that jiart of the business with him. 



Mr. M. H. Mendleson, of Ventura, al- 

 lows no handling of comb honey after sun- 

 down. Everything pertaining to it must be 

 put away from any possibility of a moth 

 reacMng it after that time. He never 

 fumigates, and never has any trouble with 

 moth. There is not a man in the state 

 who can command the price for good comb 

 honey that he can. His reputation is 

 established on merit of this kind. A few 

 fancy grocers of Los Angeles are always 

 ready to take his crop at top-notch prices, 

 or a little more if he asks it. 



The following con'ection slip accompan- 

 ied the last Government crop report. 



HONEY PRODUCTION 1916 AND 1915.' 



" The number of colonies at the spring 

 count this year was estimated to be 2.8 jier 

 cent greater than shown by the spring- 

 count in 1915 ; which with the yields above 

 shown indicate a total crop of honey 28.3 

 per cent greater than the crop of 1915. 



" The reports indicate that the i:)roportion 

 of the present crop that is comb honey is 

 40.3 per cent, against 40 per cent last year. 

 Extracted this year, 39.5 jier cent, against 

 41.3, and bulk honey 20.2 per cent against 



18.1 per cent last year. Of the total crop, 

 67.7 per cent is being held for home use 

 and local sale, and 32.3 per cent as being 

 sold to outside markets; the percentage last 

 year was 60.8 per cent used locally, and 



39.2 jier cent sold to outside market." 



