1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



115 



Encouraging to California Bee-Keepers. 



BY DR. E. GALLUP. 



It is said that Southern California lost one-half their bees 

 the past season. Now if the bee-keepers have preserved their 

 combs, it is not such a great loss as it might be in some other 

 localities, for, with ready-made combs it is a very simple 

 matter to increase up to the original number of colonies, and 

 have all in tip-top order for the honey harvest when it com- 

 mences. 



We are now having abundance of warm rain, and a rapid 

 growth of vegetation. Bees here gather sufficient to make 

 them breed very rapidly during February, March, and April, 

 but do not store any surplus until into May. If I had the 

 ready-made combs, and 150 colonies of bees left out of 300, 

 it would be just fun in this climate to increase back to the 

 300. Of course there is work about it, but, understand, it is 

 absolutely necessary to exercise in order to keep healthy. So 

 you can readily see that there is a bright side to this question. 



How many of our Eastern bee-keepers lose heavily in 

 wintering, while California bee-keepers have nothing of that 

 kind to contend with ! As it now looks, we have every reason 

 to expect a bountiful honey harvest the coming season. 



PERPETUAL KANGES OF BEE-FOBAGE. 



I was a pioneer in Wisconsin, also in Iowa. In both States 

 while the country was new bees did remarkably well, but as 

 soon as the country became settled up, and all the land put 

 into wheat, corn and grazing, the bee-pasturage was almost 

 an entire failure, except in favored localities. But in this 

 State, a good bee-range is perpetual, as they get their stores 

 from the mountains, where the plow and stock cannot, and 

 never will, interfere. Mountain fires frequently kill the white 

 sage, but the root is left, and it springs up and makes, if pos- 

 sible, a more luxuriant growth, but does not bloom until the 

 second season. It grows on the mountain sides, among the 

 rocks, where it is inaccessible to stock of all kinds. 



California produces worlds of wild flowers besides the 

 sages — acres and acres of wild mustard ; but one does not 

 want to select a range where tar-weed abounds, as the honey 

 is worthless except for feeding. There are large quantities in 

 Santa Barbara county, but none to speak of farther south. 



The bee-ranges are not all occupied yet, but it takes a 

 great sight of hard labor to build roads and keep them in 

 repair, in many places. Many of our bee-keepers commenced 

 a few years ago without capital and without health, but now 

 they enjoy good health and are above want. 



Santa Ana, Calif., Jan. 21. 



Proper Size of Hives — Comb Foundation. 



BY DK. ,J. P. H. BROWN. 



Apiculture is like some other professions in the way of 

 progress, which seem to proceed, as it were, by a sort of ebb 

 and flow. At one time it is 10-frame hives, then " new idea " 

 hives of a single story of 20, 30 or 40 frames : these to rele- 

 gate to the rear to give place to hives of 8 frames, and now 

 these latter will most likely pass with the ebb for the flood 

 tide to bring forward the 10-frame hive again. 



When I discarded the old box-hive in 1870, I took hold of 

 the 10-frame Langstroth hive. This gave me good returns, 

 but I wanted to do better, so when Gen. Adair brought out 

 his small pamphlet on his " New Idea Hive" I applied the 

 " idea" to the Langstroth frame. Adair's frame was close- 

 fitting all around, something like a section. I made a dozen 

 of these hives holding from 20 to 40 frames. These hives I 

 worked exclusively for extracted honey, but when the season 

 was over and the results summed up, I found I got no better 

 returns from them than I did from my 10-frame hives. 



For several years past I have been experimenting with the 

 8-frame hive, and these experiments have taught me that 

 there is a limit to hive-space (modified somewhat by locality,) 

 which must be observed in order to obtain the more favorable 

 results. In my locality the honey-flow proper commences 

 about the first of April and lasts till the middle of June, after 

 which there is a dearth of nectar till the first of September, 

 when the fall flowers appear. The bees in the 8-frame hives 

 would put the surplus in the sections, in the second story, and 

 not leave enough in the brood-chamber to keep up the working 

 force of the colony for the fall pasture. The result was, a 

 deficiency of stores, and a necessity to feed to enable them to 

 pull through the winter. When spring came they were weak, 

 and by the time they built up, the best of the honey season 

 was over, but they did not so consider it, and would proceed to 

 cast off an abundance of unseasonable swarms. 



Summing up my experience on the hive question, I am 

 satisfied that, for most locations, a hive of nine or ten frames 

 is as small as can be profitably used for either comb or ex- 

 tracted honey. 



By the way, I use a two-story hive. The second story is 

 devoted to either comb or extracted honey; and for my manip- 

 ulation of hives, I want a frame with a closed-end top-bar so 

 as to be self-spacing. For this reason I have long since dis- 

 carded the old, straight %-inch top-bar. 



THOSE COMB FOUNDATION EXPERIMENTS. 



On looking over the report of Mr. R. L. Laylor, the intel- 

 ligent apiarist of the Michigan experiment station, as pub- 

 lished in the Bee-Keepers' Review for November, 1894, I find 

 from his experiments he has arrived at the conclusion that the 

 septum of the samples of foundation be used in making his 

 tests was much thinner than former makes of the same manu- 

 facturers, and from this he argues improvement in the pro- 

 cesses of manufacture. This may be so, and it may not. My 

 observations have convinced me that bees will, when the 

 honey-flow is light, draw out the foundation thinner — thinner 

 septa and thinner walls — than when the honey comes in 

 rapidly. In this matter they seem to have an eye to that same 

 law of economy that characterizes them in other ways. When 

 there is a great flow of honey, they work with a rush, and do 

 not seem to take time to pare down the septum, hence in such 

 seasons it is left more like it was when it came from the foun- 

 dation mill. Therefore, the season may have had something 

 to do in determining the thinness of the septa of the samples 

 of comb at the experiment station. Augusta, Ga. 



How to Distinguish Robber Bees. 



BY S. A. WILSON. 



On page 783, (1894) in the proceedings of the North 

 American convention, Question No. 11 — "In what way can 

 we distinguish robber-bees," Pres. Abbott answers by saying, 

 "Watch them and see if they bring any honey out." Now I 

 have handled bees more or less for over 20 years, and if I 

 should put on two pairs of glasses I don't believe I could tell 

 a loaded bee from an empty one, when coming out of a hive. 

 For this reason, I think the answer is very indefinite. And 

 this is a very important question to a novice. 



One of my neighbors lost one-half of his apiary last 

 spring, by being robbed by the other half. About the first of 

 April I asked him how his bees were doing. " Oh " he replied, 

 "they are doing finely ; I think some of them will soon swarm — 

 they are working awfully strong." 



I said: "Are you sure they are not robbing?" He 

 thought not ; but not long afterward he told me that he had 

 lost one-half of his colonies by robbers. 



I don't know that my experience with bees has been as 

 extensive as Pres. Abbott's or Dr. Miller's, but if I were asked 

 the same question, I would say : Watch how they alight, or 

 enter the hive ; if a bee drops down and walks right in, you 

 may conclude she belongs there; but if she flies back and 

 forth along or in front of the entrance for some time, without 

 alighting, comparatively, to decide whether or not it is safe to 

 alight, or to see where the guard line is the weakest, you may 

 conclude she is a robber. 



But a still more positive way is, if the bees are more 

 numerous coming out than going into a certain hive, and 

 especially more coming out late in the evening, you can brand 

 them as robbers. They will work possibly half an hour later 

 in the evening than other colonies. If your miad is yet not 

 settled, and you wish to know where the robbers come from, 

 as the bees come out of the hive (that you suspect is being 

 robbed) dust them well with flour, then go in front of the other 

 hives and watch for floured bees. When you find bees covered 

 with flour going into three or four other hives, you may know 

 robbing is going on, and something must be done to stop it. 

 Don't wait until you see a bee coming out loaded with honey — 

 you may not see her until the last honey-cell is empty, and 

 your colony dead. Adin, Calif. 



Essays and Questions at Conventions. 



BY F. H. RICHARDSON. 



I saw awhile ago that in Gleanings ex-Pres. Abbott sets up 

 as a defense of the convention essay reading, that it is essen- 

 tial to have these essays in order to give the newspapers some- 

 thing to publish. That is good as far as it goes, but I believe 

 that two or three good essays would answer that purpose, and 

 if more are wanted, they should be asked for with the under- 



