414 



American Hee Jonrnall 



December, 1909. 



be given to the world in the next issue 

 of the American Bee Journal. Be on 

 the lookout for it; tell all your friends 

 to send for a copy of that number in 

 advance, that the publisher may know 

 at once how much larger an edition he 

 should print than usual. Do it to-day; 

 yes, right now write, and don't forget. 



California Holly or Christmas Berry 



A tree that is seldom thought of as 

 a bee-forage plant in California is the 

 tree that furnishes the beautiful red 

 berries that are so universally used in 

 this State for Christmas decorating; in 

 fact, it is called " California Holly." It 

 is not to be confounded with the Eng- 

 lish holly, or even the gallberry of the 

 South, which is botanically //fx ffala- 

 bra; our Western plant is Ih-to-omeles 

 urbutijlora. and it belongs to the rose 

 family, though it is not to be imagined 

 that it is like the queen of garden 

 flowers, as the Rosacea is a big family 

 or order, and takes in nearly all the 

 cultivated fruits of the temperate zone. 



It is quite common in the coast 

 mountains, sometimes attains to the 

 proportions of a fair-sized tree, but is 



California Hoi.lv. or Christmas Berry- 

 Tree. 



generally found in shrub form, as 

 shown the accompanying half-tone. It 

 is an evergreen with dark green leaves 

 above, but of lighter color underneath. 

 The flowers, which appear during July 

 and August, are white, and are borne 

 in close panicles at the end of the 

 branchlets. The flowers are richly 

 fragrant and are ravishly sought by the 

 bees for the nectar they contain. The 

 beautiful scarlet fruit is about the size 

 of ordinary sweet-pea seed, is mealy 

 and slightly astringent, but edible. 



Mr. Vernon Townsend, president of 

 the California Central Coast Counties 

 Bee-Keepers' Society, stated at a meet- 

 ing of the organization, that it was one 

 of the best honey-producers he knew 

 of that came after the sages, and he said 

 the honey produced from it was of fine 

 flavor and body. He had extracted 

 much of this honey, and was well satis- 

 fied with it, and other members who 



were acquainted with the product sub- 

 stantiated his statement.o:!rr^ 



This evergreen tree does not grow 

 in sufficient quantities in my neighbor- 

 hood for me to form an opinion as to 

 its capabilities as a nectar-secreter, but 

 I know that the bees give it large at- 

 tention when it is in bloom; back 



further in the hills there are large 

 acreages of holly, so I suppose it forms 

 one of the best fall nectar-secreting 

 plants all through the western portion 

 of Contra Costa county. 



It is trees like this that help to carry 

 our bees over the dry spell ; the pity is 

 that we have not more of them. 



' v-> ' i i.:y ' 



Dnr 



Conducted by EM.MA M. WILSON. Maren^u. 111. 



Bee-Conventions and the Sisters 



Interest in bee-keeping among our 

 British sisters is shown by the facl; that 

 in the report of the regular "conver- 

 sazione" of the British Bee-Keepers' 

 Association (British Bee Journal), 

 there appear Itl ladies among the 85 

 present. Who can report a bee-keep- 

 ers' meeting in this country where the 

 brothers did not outnumber the sisters 

 more than 4 to 1? 



Women as Bee-Keepers 



In a bulletin on bee-culture issued 

 by the government of New Zealand, 

 the author, Isaac Hopkins, says the 

 ladies who take to bee-keeping make 

 excellent aptarists, " much better than 

 the average man." The question is 

 whether the same thing is true on this 

 side the globe, and, if not, is it that the 

 "average man" here is smarter than 

 his antipodal brother, or that the sis- 

 ters of the United States brand do not 

 come up to their New Zealand sisters? 

 Mr. Hopkins further says: 



In .America they rank among the most suc- 

 cessful bee-keepers, and peasants' wives on 

 the Continent of Europe usually look after 

 the household bees, from which they derive 

 a considerable pi-oportion of the family in- 

 come. There is nothing to prevent a fairly 

 healthy young woman from managing and 

 doing the work, with a little assistance dur- 

 ing the height of the season, of an apiarv of 

 100 colonies. The work carried out bv the 

 lady apiarists at the Ruakura and Weraroa 

 State Apiaries, where, in addition to their 

 actual bee-work, they put together and paint 

 the hives, make the frames, and do every- 

 thing necessary on a bee-farm, affords prac- 

 tical proof that there is nothing connected 

 with bee-farming but what a young woman 

 can accomplish. 



width of 6 inches is considered about 

 the right thing. You say you have a 

 rV-inch entrance, which no doubt 

 means an entrance ^^'-inch deep. If 

 left that depth, 3 inches ought to be 

 sufiicient width. But it is better to 

 have the full 6 inches in width and re- 

 duce the depth to '/% of an inch, be- 

 cause 34 inch will allow too free en- 

 trance for mice. If there is no more 

 convenient way, you may reduce the 

 depth by tacking on a little strip, 

 either at the upper part of the entrance 

 on the front of the hive, or on the 

 floor at the bottom of the entrance. 



For a weaker colony, with bees to 

 cover only 4 or 5 combs, an entrance 4 

 or .5 inches will be enough. You say 

 nothing about a covering on top. Very 

 likely you have that all right, but there 

 is no harm in mentioning that it is im- 

 portant that the warmest covering be 

 on top, even if you have to pile on 

 something above the outside covering. 

 If the coldest part of the hive be on 

 top, then the moisture from the bees 

 will condense there and drip down on 

 the bees. As advocated by Jay Smith, 

 the sides of the hive should be colder 

 than the top, so that any moisture from 

 the bees will condense on the sides of 

 the hive, where it can run down with- 

 out harming the bees. 



Wintering Bees Outdoors 



I have an apiary consisting of 80 colonies 

 of beas. My cellar being too small to ac- 

 commodate that number. I have arranged 

 for wintering part of them outdoors. I have 

 built double-walled hives with ?i-inch air- 

 space, building-paper between, and with a 

 ^t-inch entrance. What width of entrance 

 would you consider suitable in wintering 

 bees outdoors with this style of hive? Any 

 other suggestions you might offer would be 

 greatly appreciated. Mrs. C. J. Dresen. 



Midway, Wis. 



For an entrance to a hive occupied 

 by a strong colony, for outdoor win- 

 tering, a depth of y% of an inch and a 



Bees as Nature Study in the Public 

 Schools 



Mention was made some time ago in 

 this department of Miss Emma V. Hag- 

 gerty. She was trained as a school 

 teacher in New York City. After teach 

 ing for some time there, she engaged 

 in teaching in Colorado, and while 

 there became interested in bees. Then 

 she returned to New York State, and 

 spent some time working with the bees 

 of one of the large honey-producers of 

 that State. Intensely interested, she 

 became proficient in both the theory 

 and practice of bee-keeping. 



An apiarist was wanted to take 

 charge of the bees in the Bron.x Zoo 

 of New York City. Among those tak- 

 ing the examination for the place was 

 Miss Haggerty, all the others being 

 men. She came off with flying colors, 

 rating 100 percent — 10 percent higher 

 than the highest of the others. But 



