264 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



April, 1917 



FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



.^s. 



as to be called wasied when sold or used as 

 stock food? But let us return to the bees. 



In many sections of this great valley, 

 alfalfa is king, and there are great herds 

 of dairy cattle; but the dairy herd is the 

 enemy of the beekeeper, for the alfalfa is 

 cut before the bloom, or at least before the 

 bees have much of a 

 chance to work. Large 

 dairy herds as a rule 

 do not go hand in hand 

 with fence corners or 

 waste places where 

 alfalfa is allowed to go 

 to seed, but it do«s 

 mean section after sec- 

 tion of alfalfa with an 

 occasional fence. In 

 these sections there is 

 little or no wild feed. 

 The one chance for 

 a beekeei^er is alfalfa 

 that is being riaised 

 for seed, and the un- 

 cultivated places 

 where wild feed such 

 as melilotus and alkali 

 weed are abundant. 



In the fruit sections 

 we have thousands of 

 trees of all varieties, 

 and many thousands 

 of grapevines, the 

 bloom of which yields 

 no surplus. It is true 

 that much honey could 

 be gathered from the 

 fruit-trees ; but the bloom lasts only a short 

 time, so it serves only to build up the colo- 

 ny, and then it is either feed or move; but 

 even with these drawbacks you will find 

 thousands of colonies of bees here and there 

 tliruout the valley in likely locations. No- 

 where in the valley have I heard a cry from 

 fruit-growers that there are too few bees for 

 proper iDollination ; in fact, not many years 

 ago the pear-gTowers of this district threat- 

 ened to legislate against them. 



This leaves us for the honey surplus; then 

 the oranges of the eastern foothill region, 

 the wild feed of the uncultivated sections, 

 combined with the alfalfa on the floor of 

 the valley, and the sage and wild buckwheat 

 of the Avestern foothills. We get some hon- 

 ey and pollen from the fruit bloom, and 

 then must feed until the alfalfa and wild 

 feed comes on or move to the oranges on the 

 east, or to the sage and buckwheat on the 

 west, or our bees will naturally suffer. 



MIGRATORY BEEKEEPING. 



What does this moving mean? I will 

 give a little of my experience. My home is 

 located about forty miles from the oranges 

 and about sixty to the nearest sage. You 

 will note that the floor of the valley is about 

 100 miles across at this point. The location 



p. H. Bales, Ha 

 friend from the East 

 tliousand colonies. 



uford, Cal., with his wife and daughter and an old 

 Mr. Bales is a beekeeper having more than a 



in the sage that I moved to last year was 

 76 miles, and in returning to the alfalfa 

 flow the move was 83 miles. It is not such 

 a task to move early in the season to the 

 sage; but just think of moving 83 miles 

 about the first of July, vour bees just from 

 a honey-flow, and the average daily temper- 

 ature somewhere between 90 and 100 de- 

 grees in the shade ! I have a motor truck 

 and move 56 colonies in two-story hives, at 

 one load. I had very good success in mov- 

 ing the 83 miles. One man and myself 

 would start with a load as early in the eve- 

 ning as we could possibly get away, and un- 

 load them on the new location before day- 

 light. We made one trip every night for 

 five nights in succession — a distance of 166 

 miles a day. Does this appeal to any one as 

 a woman's work? 



Beekeeping as a side line is a curse to the 

 industry. This gxeat state is one of special- 



Continved on page 304 



