48 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



February 



frame Langstroths were so divided 

 that they made three or four com- 

 partments, in each of which a queen 

 was raised to egg-laying maturity. 

 Mr. M. had two men assisting him 

 and when we called he was filling an 

 order for a hundred or more Italian 

 queens. The main object in moving 

 the bees to this location is to take 

 advantage of the bean fields, Lima 

 beans being grown extensively in the 

 coast portion of Ventura county. 



Mr. Mendelson reports that the 

 season of 1916 had been a poor one 

 at the Piru apiary; that that good 

 sage range did not give him a half 

 carload of sage honey. A part of 

 this apiary was moved to the bean 

 fields. From this source he secures 

 a fair crop, unless the fall is con- 

 tinuously foggy. 



Some of the canyons in this por- 

 tion of Ventura county are among 

 the very best sage-honey yielding 

 locations in California. The pity is 

 that so many years prove failures. 

 Too often a full crop is secured only 

 once in five years, though at times 

 every third year is a satisfactory 



one. Mr. Mendelson's honey crops 

 have averaged better, I believe, than 

 have the crops of many other bee- 

 keepers in the county. This is be- 

 cause after the sage honey is in, lie 

 moves a portion of his big apiary to 

 the low lands where the bees can 

 collect the nectar from the bean 

 flowers. I did not secure data as to 

 Mr. Mendelson's harvests for the 

 years he has been engaged in api- 

 arian work in California, but I be- 

 lieve his best yield was from thirty- 

 five to forty tons. He has been in 

 the State thirty-seven years, coining 

 here from New York State, where he 

 was born about 64 years ago. He 

 had quite an extended knowledge of 

 bees before coming to the Land of 

 Sunshine, Flowers, Fruit and Honey; 

 his father had kept some colonies 

 and young Mendelson as a child ac- 

 quired an enthusiastic love of bees 

 and nature. 



The equipment of the bee ranches 

 run by this man is probably the most 

 extensive of its kind in California. 

 Some twelve thousand dollars would 

 hardly cover the cost of bees, fix- 



tures, etc. At the Ventura plant, the 

 big honey-extractor is driven by 

 electric power, current being ob- 

 tained from the local pow-er com- 

 pany. Here we saw the great big 

 "road-schooner" he uses to trans- 

 port his bees from one apiary to an- 

 other, as the honey flow warrants. 

 And in his stables we saw several 

 powerful specimens of horse flesh 

 that were beauties. They are the mo- 

 tive power for propelling the afore- 

 said "road-schooner." 



Mr. Mendelson complains that one 

 of the great obstacles he has to con- 

 tend with is getting suitable help in 

 the apiary. I presume, since this 

 country has entered the world war, 

 it will be harder the coming season 

 to secure assistance in the larger 

 apiaries. 



While I found our host such an en- 

 thusiastic apiarist, I found him also 

 interested in plant life. The soil 

 about his Ventura place is of a rich, 

 sandy loam and well watered. It is. 

 ideal garden soil. Here he was grow- 

 ing a large number of plants that 

 I have been interested in for years, 

 especially gladiolus. Many of his 

 trees and plants are rare, some al- 

 most tropical. To name them would 

 be like setting out to make a plant 

 catalog. 



Herewith I present some views I 

 obtained at the home camp; also 

 some I obtained of his Piru apiary 

 and one of his apiaries when the 

 bees were picnicking among the 

 beans. Some beeman truly is M. H. 

 Mendelson and may the flowers for 

 years to come be nectar-laden, that 

 the myriads of bees from his hun- 

 dreds of hives may sweeten his way 

 through the rest of his life's journev. 



Oakland, Calif. 



Boys' and Girls' Bee Club 



By J. H. Merrill, in Charge of Apiary 

 Work, Kansas State Agricul- 

 tural College 

 DURING the winter of 1916-17, 

 the Lyon County Boys' and 

 Girls' Bee Club was organized 

 by Charles A. Boyle, district club 

 leader, and Herbert Popence, county 

 agent for ibis Kansas county. 



Mr. Boyle's purpose in organizing 

 the club was not to increase the 

 number of beekeepers but to make 

 better beekeepers out of those al- 

 read} possessing bees. Instead of 

 having one or two neglected and 

 almost forgotten boxes '>f bees bid- 

 den away somewhere under a tree, 

 it was planned t<i give these bees a 

 new home, decent treatment, and 

 make them paj theii own way, thus 

 justifying their existi nee. 



When it came to purchasing equip- 

 ment it was found that this would be 

 divided into two classes — one to in- 

 clude large articles to lie used in 

 common, and the other individual 

 equipment which each club member 

 slnmld use. 



In the first class were included 

 text ami reference books on beekeep- 

 ing, as well as the leading magazines. 

 11m- tools which were necessary for 

 assembling hive parts were also in- 



