THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



395 



support. It has been the experience 

 of many, however, that it was useless 

 to expect a " good season " oftener 

 than every other year, and in conse- 

 quence, fruit growing and small 

 farming have largely been added to 

 the keeping of bees. This has been 

 rendered all tlie more necessary, too, 

 by the extremely low prices at which 

 honey has been held of late years. A 

 fine quality of the extracted article 

 sells for no more than S14 to -i^ cents 

 a pound in San Francisco, while comb 

 honey brings 8 to 10 cents. With the 

 high freights prevalent here, it may 

 readily be seen that the margin is 

 narrow for proBt. The yield, how- 

 ever, is so far in advance of what is 

 known at the East, that low prices do 

 not mean here what they would there. 



It may be set down as an invariable 

 rule that in California, it is not ad- 

 visable to place one's entire depend- 

 ence upon the work of the bees, no 

 matter how apparently favorable the 

 outlook may be. 



The hives now generally in use in 

 this State are, tirst, a modification of 

 the Langstroth, with an upper story 

 adapted either for section boxes or 

 extracting frames. In San Diego the 

 Harbison hive has many admirers. 

 This is made all in one piece, with a 

 movable back hung on hinges, the 

 brood-chamber being protected by 

 glass. It is a hard hive to handle, 

 however, being subject to warping in 

 the hot sun, and many bee-men would 

 not take them as a gift. 



In extracting, the honey is mostly 

 drawn off into barrels, or into tin 

 cans holding five gallons each, which 

 are then sent to San Francisco. The 

 cans are packed two in a case, like 

 coal-oil cans, and afford an easy 

 means of handling. 



Mucli of the extracted honey here 

 produced is so colorless, and un- 

 marked by strong flavor, that it may 

 be used for every purpose for which 

 sugar is usually utilized, without its 

 presence being suspected. In the 

 writer's family, for many months, not 

 a pound of sugar was consumed, but 

 extracted honey was used in tea and 

 coffee, in making preserves, and in 

 all culinary operations, and it gave 

 the utmost satisfaction. 



A great deal of the extracted honey 

 has been shipped in barrels on board 

 ship directly to Europe, and good 

 prices have been realized. The length 

 of time, however, before returns can 

 be received from such shipments, is a 

 drawback to many engaging therein. 



While the California bee-keeper 

 does not receive such high prices for 

 his honey as does his Eastern brother, 

 there is one advantage which he pos- 

 sesses which is simply superlative. 

 This is the fact that at all seasons of 

 the year the hives remain in one 

 place, requiring no protection what- 

 ever from the weather. The winter- 

 ing of the bees has no terrors for the 

 California apiarist. His hives stand 

 in the shelter of a row of trees, or 

 possibly with a brush shed over them 

 for 365 days in the year, and there is 

 not a day, winter or summer, when 

 the sun is shining, that the inmates 

 are not out and at work on the flowers 

 which may be found at all seasons. 



So far no effort seems yet to have 

 been made by any one to provide the 

 bees with a suMiciency of pasturage 

 when the natural bloom for any rea- 

 son is not abuudiuit. The white sage 

 is the principal mainstay of the api- 

 arist here, but it frequently happens 

 from peculiar climatic causes, that 

 the flowers of this plant do not pos- 

 sess their normal sweetness, and in 

 this case the yield of honey is light. 

 There seems no good reason why 

 (lowers could not be planted in suffi- 

 cient quantity to obviate the placing 

 of entire dependence upon the nat- 

 ural bloom, and so make the bee- 

 keeper independent of the baneful 

 effect of poor seasons. 



San Francisco,»o Calif. 



Local Convention Directory. 



1887. Time and puice of Meeting. 



Nov. IH-IS.— North American, at Chicago. UIs. 



W. Z. Hutchinson, Sec, Rogersville, Mich. 



Dec. 7-9.— Michiean State, at East Sasinaw, Mich. 

 H. D. Cutting, Sec, Clinton, Mich. 



tST" In order to have this table complete. Secre- 

 taries are requested to forward full particulars of 

 time and place of future meetings.— Ed. 





Good Crop Expected.— W. H. H. 



Shreckengaust, l'attonsburg,x) Mo., 

 on June 10, 1887, writes : 



On page 363, Mr. D. D. Herrick 

 says, " My first swarm issued on May 

 14. Who is ahead of that i"' I am. 

 My first issued May 9. and another on 

 May 20, from the same colony. Our 

 prospects for a honey crop in this 

 locality are good. 



Honey Crop in the South.— J. M. 



Jenkins, Wetumpka,© Ala., on June 

 10, 1887, says : 



My honey crop is almost a failure, 

 and I have received similar reports 

 from many others in the South. With 

 me, the honey flows in April and 

 May, and the most of that time was 

 covered by a drouth. My location is 

 nothing extra for honey, at best. 



Rearing Queens.— H. Griffin, Kil- 

 gore,(i Ky., writes : 



First make a queen-nursery with a 

 board just the size of a frame, bore 3 

 rows of 2-inch holes jn it, tack wire- 

 cloth on one side, and put little tin 

 doors over the holes on the other side. 

 Whenever a colony swarms, cut out 

 all the queen-cells, and put them in 

 the nursery, having first put some 

 "Good" candy made of powdered 

 sugar and honey ; put the nursery in 

 the hive from which the queen-cells 

 were taken out, and when the cells 

 hatch out they will live 10 days. This 

 is a good plan for beginners who have 

 a few Italian bees, and want a few 

 queens for their own use. 



Dry Weather— Motherwort. — S. 



Burton, Eureka,© Ills., on June 14, 

 1887, writes : 



White clover is a failure on account 

 of dry weather. It is exceedingly 

 dry in this part of the State, although 

 bees are doing very well ; they are 

 working on red clover. The Italians 

 are doing better than the blacks ; 

 they are storing some surplus, while 

 the blacks have no surplus yet. The 

 linden promises a good crop at this 

 time. I have had no swarms yet. 



I send a sample of a plant that 

 grows on my place, and I do not know 

 what it is. The bees work on it from 

 early morn until late in the evening, 

 almost swarm on it. Please give its 

 name. There must be lots of honey 

 in it, as the bees do not gather any 

 pollen from it, for I have watched 

 them closely. It began to bloom on 

 June 1, and grows about 2 feet high. 

 The first that I noticed of it, was 

 some two years ago. I have quite a 

 patch of it now. 



[It is motherwort, and is an excel- 

 lent honey-producer. It is usually 

 covered with bees from the time it 

 blooms until the last flower withers. 

 It is an excellent plant to sow in waste 

 places. — Ed.] 



Gathering Dark Honey, etc.— B. 



T. Davenport, Aurorahville,© Wis., 

 on June 13, 1887, says : 



Bees wintered rather poorly, I think 

 owing to the unusual amount of 

 honey-dew gathered last season. We 

 have had a terribly dry spring, so we 

 do not expect much clover honey. 

 Bees are beginning to get honey now, 

 but it is quite dark; I never knew of 

 bees getting dark honey before in 

 June, when white clover (what there 

 is) is in bloom. They are working on 

 the first crop of red clover more than 

 common, as the blossoms appear to 

 be stunted. Is this where the dark, 

 thick, and quite pleasant honey comes 

 from V Linden is going to blossom 

 full. 



Poorest Prospects for 15 Years.— S. 

 W. Morrison, Oxford,©, Pa., on June 

 11, 1887, writes: 



There has not been for 15 years so 

 poor a prospect for a crop of honey 

 as at present. Usually one-half of 

 the crop is stored at this date, but 

 many good colonies to-day will starve 

 if not fed. Rains, winds, and cold 

 weather are too great obstacles for 

 Carniolans even, to overcome. 



Roaring Bees. — Samuel Wilson, 

 Cosby ,o Tenn., says : 



In reply to Mr. Demaree's request, 

 I will say that I have wintered bees 

 on the summer stands for nine years, 

 and when it is 20^^ below zero, I find 

 that my bees roar. The colder it is, 

 the more they roar, from a certain 

 degree that keeps them the most 

 quiet. 



