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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 1 



country, and also what part is best, that I 

 am sure a word on this subject will be ap- 

 preciated by the readers of Gleanings. 



Bees can do well only where there are 

 many and vigorous honey-plants. Plants 

 thrive at their best only where there is gen- 

 erous heat and abundant sunshine. Califor- 

 nia challenges the world to show more gen- 

 ial warmth and more delightful sunshiny 

 days than does she. This is the reason that 

 she pushes the white plague to the wall, and 

 is also the reason that she stands unparallel- 

 ed in all our country in the beauty, vigor, 

 and perfection of her vegetable growth. 

 Given water, and there is scarcely any limit 

 to the luxuriant vegetation which is one of 

 the glories of this great State. It goes with- 

 out saying, then, that California is a (if not 

 the) banner bee State. Were there not two 

 unfortunate drawbacks, the honey-produc- 

 tion here would be enormous. We some- 

 times have too scant rainfall, and rarely it 

 is too damp and cold in the late spring and 

 early summer for the bees to do well. We 

 can in a measure overcome the former; the 

 latter is too rare to awaken serious alarm. 

 The best regions are Southern Californisf, and 

 such great valleys as the San Joaquin and 

 Coachella and Imperial, where the irrigation 

 and great fields of alfalfa make abundant 

 forage almost certain. Here, too, the cold 

 and damp are not much in evidence. These 

 regions, like Nevada, Arizona, and Colora- 

 do, are ever to be famous for their honey- 

 product. Northern California and further 

 north have the rains, but not the genial 

 warmth and sunshine in such marked abun- 

 dance 



GREAT VARIATION IN YIELD OF HONEY. 



" Say, Doolittle, I am in a quandary." 



" What perplexes you now, Mr. Smith?" 



" What do you guess my average yield of 

 honey was this year from each old colony in 

 the spring? " 



" Possibly 50 pounds of section honey." 



" More than that. It was 81." 



" Whew! That was better than I did, and 

 a very great yield, considering the poorness 

 of the season. You ought not to be in a 

 quandary over such a yield as that. My 

 average yield was about 73 pounds." 



' ' It was not the aggregate amount which 

 perplexes me, but the great variation in the 

 yields the different colonies gave me. I 

 kept a record of each colony. Some colo- 

 nies gave me as much as 150 pounds, while 

 others gave a yield of only 25, 27, and 30 

 pounds each. This is where the quandary 



part comes in, and I came over to see if you 

 could not tell me how, in some way, I could 

 bring all colonies up to those which gave 

 me the highest yields." 



" Did you allow the bees to care for them- 

 selves? " 



"No. I tried to equalize them to a cer- 

 tain extent, even changing some hives, set- 

 ting the weaker colonies in place of strong 

 ones when the young bees were out for a 

 playspell about two o clock in the afternoon, 

 but it seemed to do very little good." 



" Where did you get the idea of equalizing 

 in that way? " 



"An old bee-keeper told me that was the 

 best way. Don't you use that plan? " 



"I tried it some years ago, but it did not 

 work to my satisfaction any more than it 

 seems to have worked with you." 



"I tried another way, which I thought did 

 a little better; but even that did not bring 

 the colonies on which I tried it up to what 

 the average for the whole apiary was." 



" What was this other way? " 



"I tried giving brood from the strongest 

 to the weakest." 



"At what time of the year did you do 

 this? " 



"About the middle of May." 



" Did the weak colonies care for all of the 

 brood, or did some of it fail to emerge from 

 the cells? '' 



"That which I gave first developed per- 

 fectly, for we had a few hot days just after 

 it was given; but with some I gave a little 

 later on, much of it was lost; for it became 

 cold the day after I gave it, and the little 

 colonies could not cover it all; and what 

 they could not cover perished for want of 

 heat and care. Did you ever lose any in 

 that way? " 



" Yes, till I learned better than to give a 

 very weak colony a lot of brood from a 

 strong colony." 



" How would you do it? " 



"I am not saying that this is the best way 

 to treat colonies; but where brood is given 

 for the purpose of equalization it should be 

 taken from the stronger and given to those 

 of medium strength." 



"But that would not help the very weak 

 ones at all." 



"Not at this time, but it has a bearing 

 later on. Suppose we have only three colo- 

 nies, one of them having brood in two 

 combs, one having brood in five combs, and 

 the other with brood in eight combs, all the 

 colonies being in ten-frame Langstroth hives, 

 and that the time of year is May 15th. The 

 first would be called a very weak colony; 

 the second a medium colony, and the thii'd 

 a very strong colony. Now, if we give brood 

 from the strong to the very weak thus early 

 in the season there are so few bees in the 

 weak colony, and the average weather so 

 cool, that, in all probability, much of the 

 brood would be lost; but if we take two 

 frames of brood from the strong colony and 

 give it to the medium colony, taking only 

 such frames as we see many young bees 

 emerging from, we shall have benefited both 



