IK) 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



May, 



spoiled our hopes that time. To that 

 we are getting used; but misty nights, 

 cold sea-fogs, and raw breezes, and all 

 the time the hill slopes abloom with 

 sages, the undulating background car- 

 peted with yellow and blue and pur- 

 ple and white; every colony in prime 

 shape and strength for harvest work, 

 but unable to go out. When there is 

 no bloom the weather Ts as fine as one 

 could imagine, and when we have 

 bloom in superabundance the weather 

 is as bad as can be — wouldn't that jab 

 you? Well, it did me. 



The bees have come through our so- 

 called winter all right, and are in good 

 condition everywhere. There is con- 

 siderable brood-rearing going on, but 

 pollen is yet scarce, as is, also, new 

 honey. The willows, eucalyptus, 

 almonds and early peaches furnish 

 about all there is. In many places a 

 judicious feeding of rye-meal would 

 probably assist towards more exten- 

 sive brood production. In about three 

 or four weeks more the orange bloom 

 will set in and, as it lasts about four 

 weeks in good weather, strong col- 

 onies, well managed, and almost, if 

 not altogether, house an average 

 honey crop. Of course, that is tiiie 

 only of those running for extract. The 

 comb honey producers have too much 

 swarming to contend with and conse- 

 quent scattering of forces to get much 

 orange honey. But if one has a super 

 full of partly drawn comb from last 

 year, all nicely cleaned, and the comb- 

 faces pared off a quarter inch, one can 

 do pretty well, too, with comb honey. 

 But the faces must be pared or sliced 

 ofF, else tlie cappings will show dark, 

 no matter how clear the honey may 

 be. 



A Pasadena millionaire seems to 

 think that there is lots of money to 

 l)e made in apiculture yet. for he has 

 lately bought up all available apiaries 

 in this neighborhood— some thousand 

 colonies. And the repoi't is that xie 

 has bought up all he could get in other 

 places in South Calif ornTa as well. The 

 prices paid for average stock is said 

 to have been about three dollars. 

 Some bee men seem to think that 

 honey production cannot be brought 

 under the dominion of the modern 

 spii-it of capitalization, hence this mil- 

 lionaire's experiment will ve watched 

 with interest. 



An aggravating case of foul brood 



infection happened in East Rivex'side. 

 A well known apiarist sold his apiary, 

 and then started afresh with a few 

 colonies to raise up another — a model 

 apiary. For that purpose he bought 

 new dove-tailed hives, new frames, 

 new fixtures generally; then he put 

 bees into them, and then he imported 

 directly from their home the best pure 

 Itiilian queens. So far all went well. 

 But one day, some time later, he no- 

 ticed, in looking through a colony some 

 cells showing up wrong. He went to 

 the next hive, and to the next; and 

 everywhere he found the same wrong- 

 looking cells, the coffee-brown, sticky, 

 ropey stuff where a young bee ought 

 to be. Looking around among his 

 neighbors for possible causes, he came 

 upon one, also calling himself a bee- 

 man, who had cut foul-brooded combs 

 out of their frames and dumped the 

 cornipted mass behind a bush in the 

 open, where thousands of bees fed on 

 it. That also-beeman has no use for 

 bee papers, but he was persuaded in 

 short order to subscribe to constable 

 papers. 



Riverside, Cal., March 9, 1904. 



LATER. 



THE weather has been rather 

 favorable with us this past 

 month. We have had consider- 

 able rain, warm days between, and 

 no cold nights or frosty mornings. The 

 orange bloom is settmg in well, the 

 sage is growing fast, the hill slopes 

 are becoming fresh green, balmy air 

 is all around, a mild sun overhead. A 

 little longer and ours will again be a 

 land of rare beauty and of pure de- 

 light. Farther up the coast, especially 

 in Ventura County, Avhere live and 

 operate our apiarian captains, Men- 

 delson, Mclntire, et al. the precipita- 

 tion to date has been sufficieui to pro-^ 

 duce at least an average crop of this 

 world's best sweets, provided, of 

 course, that the weather clerk sends 

 along, some time later, a spring 

 shower or two. Farther up still, in 

 the central and northern counties, peo- 

 ple were praying for sunshine about ^ 

 the same time that Los Angeles 

 preachers i)etitioned heaven for rain — 

 and with about as much success. They 

 have been having old times again up 

 there; torrents of rain, rushing rivers, 

 flooded lawlands, and no end in sight, 

 But the climax has been reached in 



