258 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Bee-Pastures of Mount Shasta. 



The Century contains the following 

 interesting descriptions of the bee- 

 pastures of Mount Shasta, in the 

 Sierras of the far west : 



Shasta is a lire-mountain, created 

 by a succession of eruptions of ashes 

 and molten lava, which, flowing over 

 the lips of its several craters, grew 

 outward and upward like the trunk of 

 a knotty exogenous tree. Then fol- 

 lowed a strange contrast. The glacial 

 winter came on, loading the cooling 

 mountain with ice which flowed slowly 

 outward in every direction, radiating 

 from the summit in the form of one 

 vast conical glacier— a down-crawling: 

 mantle of ice upon a fountain of 

 smoldering fire, crushing and grind- 

 ing for centuries its brown, Hinty 

 lavas with incessant activity, ^and 

 thus degrading and remodeling 'the 

 entire mountain. When, at length, 

 the glacial period began to draw near 

 its close, the ice-mantle was gradually 

 melted off around the bottom, and, in 

 receding and breaking into its present 

 fragmentary condition, irregular rings 

 and heaps of moraine matter were 

 stored upon its flanks. The glacial 

 erosion of most of the Shasta lavas 

 produced a detritus, composed of 

 rough, sub-angular bowlders of mod- 

 erate size and porous gravel and sand, 

 which yields freely to the transport- 

 ing power of running water. Under 

 Nature's management, the next 

 marked geological event made to take 

 place in the history of Mount Shasta, 

 was a water-flood of extraordinary 

 magnitude, which acted with sublime 

 energy upon this prepared glacial de- 

 tritus, sorting it out and carrying 

 down immense quantities from the 

 higher slopes, and re-depositing it hi 

 smooth, delta-like beds around the 

 base ; and it is these flood-beds of 

 moraine soil, thus suddenly and sim- 

 ultaneously laid down and joined edge 

 to edge, that now form the main 

 honey-zone. 



Thus, by forces seemingly antago- 

 nistic and destructive, has Mother 

 Nature accomplished her beneficient 

 designs— now a flood of fire, now a 

 flood of ice, now a flood of water ; and 

 then an outburst of organic life, a 

 milky-way of snowy petals and wings, 

 gurdling the rugged mountain like a 

 cloud, as if the vivifying sunbeams 

 beating against its sides nad broken 

 into a foam of plant-bloom and bees. 



In this lovely wilderness the bees 

 rove and revel, rejoicing in the bounty 

 of th e sun, clam berin g eagerly through 

 bramble and hucklebloom, stirring 

 the clustered bells of the manzanita, 

 now humming aloft among polleny 

 willows and firs, now down on the 

 ashy ground among gilias and butter- 

 cups, and anon plunging deep into 

 snowy banks of cherry and buck- 

 thorn. * * * The Shasta bees are 

 perhaps better fed than any others in 

 the sierra. Their field-work is one 

 perfectual feast ; but, however exhil- 

 arating the sunshine, or bountiful the 

 supply of flowers, they are always 

 dainty feeders. Humming-moths and 

 humming-birds seldom set foot upon 



a flower, but poise on the wing in 

 front of it, and reach forward as if 

 tliey were sucking through straws. 

 But bees, though as dainty as they, 

 hug their favorite flowers with pro- 

 found cordiality, and push their blunt, 

 polleny faces against them, like babies 

 on their mother's bosom. 



Planting for Honey. 



The value of an apiary is determined 

 not by the number of the colonies it 

 contains, but by the strength of the 

 colonies, and their availability for 

 work. If there is no pasturage the 

 best bees in the world must be idle. 

 If but little honey bloom is provided 

 for the bees to gather from, then but 

 little honey will be the result. Hence 

 the necessity of providing pasturage 

 for the bees during the whole season, 

 "rianting for honey" is the key to the 

 situation. 



Speaking of the liouey dearth be- 

 tween fruit bloom and white clover, 

 when the bees hardly obtain enough 

 honey for daily use, the Indiana 

 Farmer says : " To our mind this is 

 the most important dearth which the 

 bee-keeper must strive to bridge over 

 by planting. The stimulus given the 

 bees by fruit bloom should, if possi- 

 ble, be kept up until the coming of 

 white clover, so as to have them in 

 the best possible condition when the 

 harvest comes." This is evidently 

 the truth in a nutshell. To obtain 

 something to fill this gap is the one 

 point that should engage the attention 

 of every apiarist. 



Continuous bloom means continu- 

 ous honey gathering, and a continuous 

 flow of money into the bee-keepers' 

 pockets. 



A "Good" Man Going South,- Mr. 

 F. L. Dougherty, of Indianapolis, 

 says : " While waiting at the depot a 

 few days since, we happened upon 

 friend I. R. Good, of N4ppanee. Ind. 

 Mr. Good is a queen rearer of some 

 note, but lost heavily of bees during 

 the past winter. Out of 22.5 colonies 

 put into winter quarters only 80 sur- 

 vived, many of them being in a weak 

 condition, those in the cellar suffering 

 as much or more than those wintered 

 on the summer stands. Mr. Good has 

 decided to move his bees south, and 

 after considerable search has picked 

 on a location near TuUahoma, Tenn. 

 He thinks he will not be able to do 

 anything in the way of queen rearing 

 this season, except for his own use. 

 His brother will have charge of the 

 Tullahoma apiary the present season. 



Queens will be reared here and shipped 

 to Tullahoma for the purpose of fully 

 stocking the apiaries there, while Mr, 

 Good again stocks the home apiary. 

 He is inclined to think the bee and 

 queen trade is turning to the south, as 

 they can there be got into better con- 

 dition so much earlier in the season." 



"The Doctor."— Another arrival at 

 our Museum is " The Doctor," which 

 is a large bellows bee smoker — the 

 largest we ever saw — consisting of a 

 fire box 3J| inches in diameter. Its 

 gust of wind is tremendous, and the 

 volume of smoke from it would in- 

 stantly subdue the most vicious bees 

 in existence. It is made by Bingham 

 & Hetheringtou, Abronia, Mich, 



Signs of Swarming.— Mr. F. L. 



Dougherty, in the Indiana Famur, 

 gives the following on this subject : 



There is no certain method of judg- 

 ing, from out-side appearances, as to 

 just when a colony is going to swarm. 

 The most general indications notice- 

 able from the out-side of the hive that 

 they are preparing to swarm are the 

 inactivity of the bees, hanging in 

 clusters about the entrances, and pol- 

 len gatherers hanging with the cluster 

 instead of entering the hive. How- 

 ever, they may be prepared to swarm 

 with queen-cells built ; then, because 

 of unfavorable weather, or a slight 

 cessation of the honev flow may sud- 

 denly destroy the cells and give up 

 aU attempts to swarm. Or they may 

 soon again commence preparations, 

 wasting a very great part of the honey 

 crop, for they seldom do but little 

 good gathering honey while the 

 swarming fever is on. Just here is 

 where the knowledge of the scientific 

 bee-keeper comes to his help. As the 

 bees are just in the right condition to 

 divide, he divides them at once with- 

 out farther waiting. Bees will at 

 times, if left to themselves, throw off 

 as many as five or six swar«is, each 

 one smaller than the preceding. The 

 old queen leaves with the first swarm. 

 All after swarms contain young 

 queens. Where honey is the object, 

 colonies should not be allowed to cast 

 but one swarm, as a very rapid in- 

 crease can seldom be accomplished 

 except at the expense of the honey 

 crop. ^Vith the movable frame it is 

 but little trouble to prevent this by 

 simply opening the hive 7 or 8 days 

 later and removing the extra queen- 

 cells. With box hives, the only plan 

 is to place the hive containing the 

 first swarm, on the old stand, moving 

 the old hive to a new location, thus 

 depleting its strength to such an ex- 

 tent that it will not want to swarm 

 any more. Before swarming, bees 

 usually gorge themselves with honey, 

 and while in this condition can be 

 handled almost with impunity, yet 

 care should always be used, that no 

 bees be mashed or they may take the 

 notion to make it very unpleasant for 

 the manipulator. 



