842 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 1 



A TYPICAL CALIFORNIA APIARY AT TROPICO. 



This location is six miles north of the 

 center of Los Ang'eles, being, we think, an 

 ideal place for wintering- bees and making 

 our home, but not a favorable place for 

 honey production. We usually move most 

 of our bees to other locations during- a hon- 

 ey-flow. Our seasons for honej^ production 

 are variable, the highest yield we have had 

 being- an averag-e of 200 lbs. per colony ex- 

 tracted honey. Producing- honey in Cali- 

 fornia since 1890, we have at our home api- 

 ary an increase this season of 100 colonies. 

 We ha%'e sold during the 13 years several 

 hundred colonies of bees. At present we 

 use Lang-stroth hives only. 



W. J. McCarroll. 



Tropico, Cal., Aug-. 22. 



[This beautiful picture of a California 

 apiary was shown to me while we were in 

 Los Angeles, and I requested the writer of 

 the above to forward us the photo and de- 

 scription, which he has kindly done. 



Perhaps I might explain that the foot of 

 the mountain, shown in the back part of the 

 picture, covered with brush, is such as used 

 to be seen along all unreclaimed ground. 

 The crop on the ground between the moun- 

 tain and the hives is alfalfa. The trees in 

 the corner at the left are probably orange- 

 groves. The hives in the apiary are dis- 

 posed in hexagonal form. Each one is the 

 center of six standing all around it, and 

 they are far enough apart so one can walk 

 around each hive. The extracting-room is 

 a cloth-made tent; but when robbers get to 

 be bad he will have to patch up that hole in 

 the roof. An iron pipe leads from the ex- 

 tracting-room into the galvanized- iron stor- 

 age-tank. I presume there were not any 

 robbers around when the picture was tak- 

 en, or mosquito-netting would have been 

 seen over this tank in the attemot to keep 

 out bees. There are between 200 and 300 

 hives shown in the picture; but I judge 

 from the letter that some of them are moved 

 to other localities at some seasons of the 

 year. — A. I. R.] 



IS IT A NEW DIS?;ASE? 



I am sending you a specimen of a dis- 

 eased honey-comb which is troubling us 

 bee-keepers of this county in half a dozen 

 apiaries, to my knowledge. It has appear- 

 ed in 50 to 250 hives. In my opinion the 

 disease is neither foul brood, black brood, 

 nor pickled brood. A great many of the 

 bees have no wings. You can see they are not 

 capped over, but slightly raised above the 

 comb. It is worse in some hives than in 



others. I have lost 80 colonies. The bees 

 did not swarm except a few; and what did 

 swarm with me went into other hives. 



If you want any more information I will 

 gladly give the same. The disease is in 

 the mountains more than in the valleys. 

 The honey crop up in this county will be poor 

 on account of disease; also weather has 

 been cold up to the present time. We had 

 frost in the mountain districts up to the 20th 

 of May. Pat Keating. 



New Almaden, Cal., May 29. 



[This was sent to Prof. Frank Benton, of 

 Washington, D. C, with the suggestion 

 that it might be a case of poisoning. He 

 replies as follows:] 



Mr. Root: — Enclosed is the report of the Chemist re- 

 garding the bees sent by Mr. Keating, of New Alma- 

 den, Cal. I can think of no other suggestions to 

 make, since, in the event of willful poisoning, I sup- 

 pose very many poisons might be employed for the 

 purpose; but accidental poisoning by spraying would 

 probably be only with arsenic or copper. 



Washington, D. C. Frank Benton. 



[The report referred to is as follows:] 



Mr. Frank Benton, IVashington, D. C: — We have 

 examined the sample of bees forwarded by you in be- 

 half of Mr. P. Keating, for arsenic and copper, but find 

 that neither of these substances is present. If 3'ou can 

 suggest any other poison that maj^ be ustd to kill 

 bees, we shall be glad to make a test for it. 



H. W. Wiley, C/itef. 



A WOODEN PILL-BOX QUEEN-CELL PROTECT- 

 OR. 



I send you a little contrivance that I have 

 been using with much success this season. 

 The largest stopper I use by putting a 

 dipped cell in. The small one is a reg- 



ular Swarthmore compressed cell-cup. I 

 prepare them by simplj' transferring larvas 

 without royal jelly, then insert 11 or 12 in 

 a false top-bar when ripe; then put on the 



