16 THE BEE-KEEPERS- REVIEW 



A Few Notes on Bee-Keeping. 



By C. L. GRIGGSBY, 



' "Jl HAD an apiar}^ of sixteen colonies for three years, 1875-76-77, 

 Jl at the termination of which I moved from Tennessee to Cal- 

 ifornia, but had no more bees till 1906, when my real bee-keep- 

 ing experience began. I purchased an apiary of one hundred and 

 eight colonies and again engaged in my favorite of all occupations. 

 I thought at the time that my past experience was fully sufficient to 

 enable me to manipulate an apiary of that size with ease, 



I got along fairly well, but soon discovered that there was much 

 ahead yet to learn, and after these few years I am still learning. Have 

 fully regained my health, and am frank to say that my free outdoor 

 life, made up of fruit-culture and apiculture, has been the sole cause 

 of physical reconstruction. I am happy in my choice of occupations, 

 and expect to keep more bees, keep better bees, and keep bees better, 

 as long as I am able to superintend them. 



In 1910 the honey crop was a practical failure in this section, and 

 my output was about twelve hundred pounds from something more 

 than a hundred colonies, spring count. This I sold on the local mar- 

 ket from eight to ten cents per pound. With the exception of that 

 year I have done from fairly well to real well all the way through, 

 always getting a real good price for my honey, also for my wax. 



I always make it a point to keep my apiary in first-class condition, 

 and advocate the free use of the paint brush. I am never ashamed, 

 but rather delighted, to go out with friends and visiting apiarists and 

 show them my apiary. 



I never allow any natural swarming in my apiary. While I feel 

 that it adds a delightful feature to the poetry of rural economy, on 

 the other hand I consider it a nuisance to progressive and up-to-date 

 apiculture. I do my dividing as soon as the main honey flow is over, 

 so as to give them ample time to build themselves up to good strong 

 colonies before winter begins (of which we have very little in this 

 section), and often get quite a little surplus honey from the new col- 

 onies between the dividing time and the beginning of winter. I now 

 have them built up to two hundred colonies, and expect to double 

 them again. When the present location becomes overstocked I will 

 establish an outyard within the borders of the Rcdiands orange groves, 

 so as to get the advantage of the orange nectar. 



I advocate breeding for the best strain with two main objects in 

 view, docility and the honey-gathering disposition. 1 occasionally 

 buy a queen, but am now testing a plan that 1 believe is a good one. 

 By the use of the cabinet-card system, during extracting time, each 

 colony that gives me an unusual yield is written up as such on the 

 card that corresponds in number with the number on that particular 



