Fkbruarv, 1922 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



93 



FROM NORTH, EAST, WEST AND SOUTH 



outline of plans for 1922, but had already 

 provided in advance for exactly what you 

 are asking. See M. C. Eichter 's article in 

 this issue and others to follow. Gleanings 

 has some other surprises for you, and expects 

 to do much better than promised editorially 

 in the December issue. — Editor.] 



Wonder if Gleanings will move to Califor- 

 nia next. With so many of their good peo- 

 ple coming, it may not be expecting too 

 much to look for the whole Gleanings family 

 to follow to the best place on earth. 



With February comes considerable apiary 

 work in southern California. One of the 

 most important duties is to see that all of 

 the colonies are supplied with sufficient 

 stores to carrj' them thru unfavorable 

 weather. Especially be on the lookout 

 when they begin to have a large number of 

 young bees and much brood to care for. The 

 weather being favorable, some may start 

 queen-cells by the last of the month. These 

 should be carefully looked after, as the col- 

 onies with these young queens are the very 

 best for 1922 honey-gathering. Get plenty of 

 supplies ready, such as supers, frames and 

 hives for increase. All extractors, autos 

 and anything used during the busy season 

 should be put into good condition while 

 there is plenty of time. "A stitch in time" 

 applies to our industry as much as to any 

 other, or more. L. L. Andrews. 



Corona, Calif. 



Jjj Texas "^'^^ weather conditions dur- 

 ing December have been al- 

 most ideal, so far as man is concerned, but 

 they have caused the bees to utilize a great 

 amount of stores. We had our first killing 

 frost the 9th of December and a cold snap 

 about the 20th. With the exception of these 

 few cold mornings we have had almost sum- 

 mer conditions. The bees have flown freely 

 almost every day and during the latter part 

 of the mouth on some days were bringing 

 in large amounts of pollen from mistletoe. 

 During the last week of December numbers 

 of bees were seen apparently collecting nec- 

 tar from several species of hardy composites 

 and from white brush. These conditions ex- 

 ist thruout the state, with the exception 

 that the weather is slightly colder in the 

 northern part of the state, and the consump- 

 tion of stores correspondingly less. An ex- 

 amination of about 400 colonies in the past 

 two weeks shows that the prediction made 

 some three months ago has worked out re- 

 markably well. The only colonies which 

 have died out were those with honey and 

 pollen-clogged brood-nests. A careful su- 

 vey of this section of the state leads to the 

 statement that the loss of colonies during 

 the winter will largely occur within the 

 month of December. This statement is 



agreed to by the large majority of our bee- 

 keepers, and taking this statement as true, 

 it is figured that the winter loss in this sec- 

 tion for 1921-]922 will not be over 3 per 

 cent. This is very small but is accounted 

 for by the fact that large amounts of honey 

 were left upon the hives. In all of the colo- 

 nies that have died out, so far as examined 

 we find that the cause was the lack of young 

 bees rather than the lack of stores, and 

 this was due in a number of cases to old 

 queens. The honey-plant condition remains 

 unchanged, and the prospects appear very 

 good for a spring honey flow. 



The beekeepers of this section were very 

 much interested in the article by E. F. At- 

 water, in the December Gleanings. If Mr. 

 Atwater were a beekeeper in the chaparral 

 section of southwest Texas, he would not 

 make some of the statements that he makes. 

 In former years we ran our outyards up to 

 150 or 200 colonies, but after comparing the 

 returns from the larger and the smaller out- 

 yards, the beekeepers have come to the com- 

 mon practice of placing not over 50 colonies 

 in an outyard and placing the outyards 

 closer together. We even believe that in a 

 few years we shall be reducing the size of 

 our outyards to perhaps 2-5 and again short- 

 ening the distance between them. The Tex- 

 as beekeepers look upon the problem from 

 the standpoint that they can get a greater 

 amount of honey by so placing the outyards 

 that the bees will not have to travel more 

 than a mile in the collection of honey. Of 

 course, we understand that these small yards 

 are necessitated by our scanty flora in some 

 places; but in other places we know that we 

 have as great a number of nectar plants per 

 square mile as anywhere on earth, and the 

 short distance between apiaries is simply a 

 method to increase our yield. 



Dr. Chas. T. Vorhies reports Desert Bloom 

 (lincchnrifi sar(ttliroidps) as a fall nectar 

 and pollen plant in Arizona. In Texas we 

 have several species of BaccJiaris, and while 

 we have never heard of a honey flow re- 

 corded from this plant we positively know 

 that it is the source of a large amount of the 

 amber mild-flavored honey produced along 

 tlfe Gulf Coast. This plant so resembles wil- 

 low that very few people know it as a sep- 

 arate plant. Along the Gulf Coast, Bac- 

 cJiaris grows by the acre. In fact, there are 

 some places where there are thousands of 

 acres in a locality completely covered by 

 this plant. The Mexicans ' name for it is 

 Yerba Dulce. This is very appropriate as 

 the plant has the odor of recently extracted 

 honey. A number of the beekeepers along 

 the Gulf undoubtedly owe their large aver- 

 age yields to this plant. 



We note that several beekeepers have re- 

 recently reported wild carrot as a nectar 

 plant, and in writing about it have confused 



