921 



G L K A N T N G S IN BEE CULTURE 



December, 1917 



GLEANINGS FROM THE NORTH, SOUTH, EAST, AND WEST 



REGARDING 

 the iiewsr- 

 paper meth- 

 od of uniting, I 

 find it will work well even when one colony 

 has laying workei-s. Out of seven laying- 

 worker colonies united with as many small 

 colonies in early October, I lost only one 

 queen. 



EXTRA I,ARGE LOCAL MEETING. 



The joint meeting of the Riverside and 

 San Bernardino Co. Clubs, Nov. 1, was one 

 of the best-attended and most profitable 

 meetings tbat has ever been held in the 

 southern part of the state. The attendance 

 rivaled that of the annual state meet. Not 

 onl}'^ the members of those two clubs were 

 present, but many from Orange, Los An- 

 geles, and San Diego Counties, the special 

 attraction being the presence of Dr. E. F. 

 Phillips, with the addition of our S3Cretary 

 of the state beekeepers' association, Mr. M. 

 C. Ritcher, as well as Prof. Geo. A. Cole- 

 man, of the University of California. Dr. 

 Phillips was well received and appreciated. 

 His quiet manner of speech, and his un- 

 doubted knowledge of disease, were both 

 pleasing and couA-iincing. His detailed 

 descnption of both American and European 

 foul brood, tog'ether with methods of treat- 

 ment, m.et with m.arked attention by his 

 auditors. 



The announcement of Dr. E. F. Phillips, 

 that there is to be a beekeeping advisor ap- 

 pointed for California, was received with 

 hearty approval. All seem to think the 

 recogTiition of California as a beekeeping 

 country by the Department of Agriculture, 

 as well as the assistance given by such an 

 appointee, will be of great benefit. 



Mr. J. D. Bixby, of the Western Honey- 

 bee, came out strongly for inspection of 

 honey and conditions in the apiary, Mr. 

 Bixby does some inspecting, and has a very 

 good chance to observe some of the unsani- 

 tary conditions (T feel like saying rotten) 

 that exist in some of our apiaries. I am 

 with him heart and soul in this matter. 



Prof. Coleman advocated selecting our 

 best bees and breeding our own strain. In 

 this I cannot altogether concur. There are 

 well-known breeders that have spent a life- 

 time improving a strain, and have the add- 

 ed knowledge of successful bre?ding. Many 

 of these are comparatively isolated, and are 

 much more certain of success. In Cali- 

 fornia, apiaries are remarkably close, with 

 wild bees in many houses, holes, and trees, 

 making the problem exceedingly difficult to 

 handle. It is my opinion gained from ex- 



IN CALIFORNIA 



P. C. Chadwick, Redlands, Cal. 



peri en ee that ten 

 dollars spent for 

 a breeding-queen 

 is money well 

 spent, and the results are apparent within 

 so short a time that the time spent in trying 

 to breed up a strain of your own is, to a 

 great extent, time thrown away, especially 

 where you have to contend with your neigh- 

 bors as well as " no man's bees." 



PRESENT DEMAND FOR SWEETS BEST MET BY 

 A GOOD SUPPLY OP HONEY. 



The crying need of the world today is 

 sweets, sweets, not alone for ourselves, but 

 for the world we are trying to feed while 

 our enemies are being crushed. The best 

 method of securing more sweets is the 

 method we want. In my opinion there is 

 no one thing that would add so much to the 

 pi-oduction as to sweep away all local 

 and state ordinances, and substitute a feder- 

 al inspection law. A government permit 

 to move bees from one locality to another 

 should be prima facie evidence of freedom 

 from disease. This would allow bees to be 

 transported to the orange-groves for the 

 early flow, then to the alfalfa, bean, or buck- 

 wheat fields for an additional flow. As it 

 is now, practically every county containing 

 bees has its local ordinance, many of which 

 exclude bees of any other county from be- 

 ing imported. Some discriminate against 

 any county where there is disease within a 

 given radius of the bees to be moved, the 

 radius sometimes being placed at many 

 miles. And, strange to say, some of the 

 very counties that have such ordinances are 

 saicl to have diseased colonies themselves 

 that are closer to the coveted lo'cation than 

 the given radius. California has disease. 

 There is not a county in the state, unless it 

 be very remote, that has not disease. 



The object of various ordinances is a sub- 

 terfuge to exclude migratoiy be3keepers 

 rather than the great fear of disease. A 

 federal inspector could soon acquire infor- 

 mation that would give him all the knowl- 

 edge needed to regulate the shipping of bacs 

 from one point to another. In the orange 

 belt I may safely say that not one-tenth of 

 the nectar secreted is gathered by the bees, 

 for the reason that the flow is so great that 

 many blossoms are never visited at all. In 

 some localities it would doubtless be advis- 

 able to have the location of migratory bees 

 supervised, to prevent an overcrowding in 

 certain sections. But this could be arrang- 

 ed in some manner suitable to all. If the 

 world's cry is for sweets, take down the 

 fences and save all it is possible to secure. 



