AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



465 



Bee-Cnlture in Sontlieni California, 



H. E. HILL. 



Southern California presents a condi- 

 tion of apiculture and a class of apiarists 

 generally, as well as a system of non- 

 systematic management, or rather un- 

 management, which the press, though 

 on the alert to report promptly all new 

 discoveries, freaks, etc., connected with 

 our business, have sadly neglected, and 

 I am sure there arc many of our Eastern 

 and Northern friends who have no idea 

 of how honey production is carried on in 

 this picturesque land of semi-tropical 

 beauty and apicultural negligence, 

 where the invigorating breeze from the 

 broad Pacific wafts the melodious hum 

 of the busy bee o'er the floral clad hills 

 as they course their way in countless 

 millions in search of nectar, and return 

 laden with their precious burden to the 

 delapidated home of the honey-bee and 

 wax moth, where both seem to revel in 

 the "glorious climate," and each strives 

 for supremacy. 



It would seem that all the require- 

 ments necessary for the establishment 

 of ideal apicultural enterprises and their 

 successful operation are combined in 

 Southern California, yet I am informed 

 that the deplorable state of affairs preva- 

 lent in this section exists throughout 

 the southern part of the State, but can 

 .speak personally only of those which I 

 have seen — some ten or twelve apiaries 

 embracing, perhaps, 2,000 colonies of 

 bees, with which I have been brought in 

 contact by the genial courtesy of fellow 

 bee-men, and the business duties of one 

 dependent upon the product of the bee 

 for a livelihood. 



If there is one feature which would 

 impress an apiarist from the Eastern 

 States, or Canada, more than another, 

 on visiting Southern California, it would 

 be the entire disregard for order, exact- 

 ness, or system which characterizes the 

 honey-producers. The study of the 

 honey-bee, its habits, requirements, and 

 improvements which so deeply interest 

 the apiarists of the East, as they strive 

 to fathom the unknown depths of 

 Nature's mysterious sea, and seek to lift 

 our profession to a higher plane among 

 the great industries of the world, is 

 unknown in this portion of California. 



The combined satisfaction, pride and 

 interest which a modern apiarist feels 

 as he scans the straight rows of neatly 

 painted hives, with their accurate bee- 

 spaces, perfect combs, and general uni- 

 formity of appearances, with a perfect 



knowledge of each colony's history, and 

 each queen's record from the very day 

 of her advent — all her traits, desirable 

 and otherwise — and all of the interesting 

 study and fascination of modern apicul- 

 ture, as known and practiced by ad- 

 vanced apiarists of to-day, which renders 

 our avocation fairly remunerative, yet 

 rivaling chemistry in point of interest, 

 is superseded in this section, at least, by 

 an avaricious tumult, much to their 

 detriment financially. 



The California bee-man, masked and 

 protected from the Cyprian venom by 

 veil and gloves, with sleeves attached, 

 and an extra shirt or two, generally, 

 and pants tied down to his shoes — not 

 forgetting to put a wisp of alfalfa in the 

 hole in his hat — armed with smoker and 

 "pry " (which is a sort of young crow- 

 bar), marches upon the weather beaten 

 and delapidated habitations of the un- 

 fortunate bees, warped out of shape by 

 the powerful rays of the sun, over which 

 is placed a coarse ragged sack, or sacks, 

 beneath a small lumber pile which 

 serves as a roof through which the water 

 pours in miniature cataracts in the rainy 

 season, and runs out of the entrance, if 

 by chance that end happens to be the 

 lower, if not, it usually finds ample room 

 for "exit at the rear," as it courses its 

 way down through the last year's un- 

 finished sections, and through the brood- 

 chamber, seeking its level. 



But the masked man, with the burg- 

 lar's "kit?" See! he advances slowly, 

 but with resolute step and contracted 

 brow, expressive of a strong determina- 

 tion to expose its most interior workings 

 to the light of heaven. Nearer, yet 

 nearer, and the awful scene is obscured 

 in a dense cloud of smoke, but he still 

 presists in his premeditated and merci- 

 less onslaught, smoking the bunch of 

 bees behind the hive(?), which arrest 

 the direct rays of the sun which would 

 strike the combs, then the little clusters 

 underneath, guarding the cracks and 

 holes from intrusion by robbers, lizards, 

 mice, etc., and the several other little 

 bunches and clusters which serve as a 

 "chink" in the wall, he unpiles the 

 lumber, thus temporarily destroying the 

 peaceful habitation of many moth 

 millers, and the numerous promising 

 and fat worms are rendered homeless 

 and destitute forever. 



As the propalo — sack cloth — is torn 

 from the frames of various widths and 

 sizes, and the alarmed inmates fly into 

 the air, he places the pry in position 

 and prys the end of the hive off a little 

 to relieve the friction of the end-bars of 

 the longer frames, and not infrequently 



