GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Skptkmbkr, 1920 



FROM NORTH, EAST, WEST AND SOUTH 



In Southern Gilifomia. 



The weather 

 for the past 

 month has been exceptionally hot — in fact, 

 records shov/ that it was the hottest July in 

 the past twenty years. Consequently prac- 

 tically all unirrigated vegetation has dried 

 up, and the flow of honey for this season is 

 jiretty well over. 



Most of the honey crop of southern Cali- 

 fornia is in the warehouse. All in all, it has 

 been one of our most satisfactory seasons. 

 Ihe yield has varied greatly in different 

 localities. Some have had light yields, but 

 the majority of the black-sage and wild- 

 buckwheat ranges have given a big crop. 

 Thirty-seven tons from two hundred and 

 eighty colonies, spring count, is about the 

 best your correspondent has heard of. The 

 bean honey is now being stored, and pros- 

 pects are good for a normal yield from that 

 source. The wild buckwheat still yields a 

 little in the higher altitudes and more fa- 

 vored localities. The blue curl is just be- 

 ginning to bloom. It is very uncertain in 

 its growth, as some places will show a heavy 

 growth one year and little or none the next. 

 This drought plant, as we call it, often pro- 

 duces considerable honey and sometimes 

 gives a flow of nectar until the fall rains 

 come. 



Disastrous fires have already this year 

 destroyed several thousands of acres of bee 

 pasturage in southern California. Several 

 apiaries in this district were entirely de- 

 stroyed. A remark by one of the neighbors 

 of a fellow-beekeeper, ' ' No number of fire- 

 fighters could have saved the bees, as the 

 grass and weeds were as high as the hives," 

 gives an idea of the carelessness of some 

 apiarists. To look at some of our bee 

 ranges, one would scarcely realize the ra- 

 pidity with wliich a fire will lay waste the 

 entire section. A clean apiary is a safe 

 apiary if a fire is in the neighborhood. 



County inspectors report the bee diseases 

 as well under control. In many yards where 

 both the American and the European foul 

 brood have been prevalent for years, inspec- 

 tors find that both kinds have been com- 

 pletely eradicated. Queenless colonies and 

 drone-laying queens seem to be more preva- 

 lent this year than usual. With the advent 

 of warm weather and the n earing of the end 

 of the flow of nectar, this is often the case, 

 and it is always well to keep a careful watch 

 of each colony for a few weeks after the 

 close of the honey season. 



We have been putting on queen-excluders, 

 as we consider our crop ma<le and the ten- 

 dency to swarm j)ractically past. By put- 

 ting on excluders now, we fee] that tlie col- 

 ony will store a greater amount of honey in 

 the lower story. This will put the colony 

 in better condition for winter. In talking 

 with a prominent beekeeper a few days ago, 

 he said: "I have been taking off my exclud- 



ers while you have been putting yours on. 

 You must have some reason for this." A 

 third man who was present works with ex- 

 cluders on all of the time. And so it goes — • 

 each one does according to his own ideas, 

 and as he feels results will be best for him. 

 Our reason for putting on the excluders now 

 is that, during the fall and winter, we grad- 

 ually take off the empty combs. By early 

 spring we have all of them safely packed 

 away from the moths. If a colony should 

 develop disease later, these combs do not 

 need to be destroyed. The combs which con- 

 tain honey are put in supers and placed on 

 the strongest colonies. 



Corona, Calif. L. L. Andrews. 



In Minnesota. 



This has been a good 

 year for Minnesota 

 beekeepers, especially for those who had 

 their bees in proper condition to take ad- 

 vantage of the abundant flow of nectar. The 

 frequent rains during, May, June, and the 

 forepart of July brought about a heavy 

 growth of the white and the alsike clovers. 

 The bees wintered very poorly in Minnesota 

 last winter, and the month of April was cold 

 and windy. As a consequence, bees were not 

 in the best of condition when t'le flow be- 

 gan; but those colonies that had plenty of 

 honey in the early spring built up very rap- 

 idly and were able to gather considerable 

 before the clover flow was over. The bass- 

 wood flow was very good, and by that time 

 the colonies were in fine condition, and ac- 

 cording to all reports received the yield 

 from basswood has been heavy. The lack of 

 rain for the past three or four weeks would 

 seem to indicate that the fall flow would be 

 light, especially in sections where the soil 

 is not heavy. But in spite of the large loss 

 of colonies last winter and the discouraging 

 conditions in the spring, I am inclined to 

 think that the Minnesota croj) will be larger 

 than last year. 



No doubt, tons of honey were lost this 

 year in this State for no other reason than 

 that beekeepers failed to get their colonies 

 into proi:)er shape for the winter. The writer 

 received appeals last fall from all parts of 

 the State for assistance in securing sugar 

 when it was already too late to do anything 

 m the matter. Many extracted too closely 

 and then failed to get the sugar they had 

 depended on. Let us not forget the ex{)eii- 

 ence of last winter. If you haven 't saved 

 combs of the proper kind of honey for the 

 bees to winter on, then you had better buy 

 the necessary amount of sugar immediately, 

 for it is better to be safe than sorry. Better 

 feed some sugar anyway. I have carefully 

 listened to the experiences of beekeepers in 

 different- parts of the State and have found 

 that where colonies had young queens last 

 fall and had been fed from 10 to 15 pounds 

 of granulated sugar syrup in addition to the 



