GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jas 



CAI-JFOKNIA. 



YfjIJlRIEXI) XOVICE ■.~:Sly friends iirsod nie' to desist 

 M ' from shipijin.j; beos fi'om Iowa to California ; even you 

 4=4 suECjested th;it 1 hail best Iniy of H:irl)ison, here. 1 

 do not ol)jo('t to his stock. jn(l'j;in,tc from what I have seen, 

 but I haveastroiik of coiiti'ariness in my make up tliat 

 .seems to relish ruMnini;: eouiUer to tlie most positive con- 

 vietions of othei's, when I feel sure they will conclude in 

 the end, "he tuiderstood what he was about better than 

 we liad thou'.'ht." 



So far 1 have accomplished about all I anticipated in 

 shipping. The whole cost of brimrin^ my bees the 2100 

 mileis, -was only about $2,25 jier colony, and it woidd have 

 cost me nearly that to have fed thcni to a condition for 

 winterin!? in Iowa, and then no one would there have 

 risked more than SiiftO per colony m the fall, on colonie.s I 

 .suppose »uS good as Harbison's .■Sl.'i.Oi) ones. I h:id ifoiie to 

 mx'ieh pains to get me upaa'ood stock of Itnliin l)ecs in 

 the kind of hives 1 jjreferred to use, having some imjjorted 

 queens among them. 



many hai e spent more money in shipjiing a few hun- 

 dred miles alonir the coast here. It i.s true that owing to 

 Jiot weather after .starting, ray bees worried themselves 

 until there wei-e only a few left in each colony. 



I had ]3ut a division board in many of my hives so as to 

 take two queens to the hive, only three or four of these 

 .apartments had failed on arrival, but scarcity of honey (I 

 left only honey enough in the hives to last the journey) 

 and the confusion on first setting out here caused the loss 

 of many queens. However, [ had enough left to keep u]) 

 my number of colonies. Oidy three or four had any brood 

 in their hives, and 1 liml that strong- stocks hero have 

 generally ceased brcediug ; tint thanks to California weath- 

 er and my out-door general feedin.g of :'M) pounds five cent 

 honey, dduted with four parts water, my stocks have in 

 the last IS da.vs ])roduced me from 1.5 to 80 square inches 

 of brood i)er hive, and are getting plenty of i)ollen ; but 

 you may be sure the bees have to s])read themselves to 

 cover their brood. 



The first rain that had fallen here for several months 

 came on the 2nd, and now the whole country, mountains 

 and valleys, is a mat of verdiu-e of Altilaree, which we 

 hope M'iil commence to yield bloom for bees in the fore 

 part of Jiuiuary. And now, with feelings of l)Oj)e and sus- 

 jienso, I shall aim to adapt myself to the peculiarities and 

 possibilities of California. K. Wilkix. 



San Buena Ventura, C.il., Xov. 28th, '75. 



OrR 0\¥I\ APIARY. 





'^J into our house apiaiy and we were so 

 foolish as to wonder liow they c-o-u-l-d get in, 

 before we thought of tlie 18 two inch auger 

 holes close to the ground. Of course we at 

 once proceeded to make some "mouse guards." 

 As an entrance large enough for a single bee 

 to pass comfortably is all that is needed in 

 Avinter — at least for bees in a house apiary — 

 we simply cut pieces of galvanized sheet iron — 

 this never rusts by exposure — 2i-^ inches square, 

 and then punched two o-lG holes so that they 

 cut each other enough to make a iiice passage 

 for one bee. A single galvanized tack will 

 hold these in place when the lower edge is 

 driven slightly between the door step and the 

 building. No mouse will ever attempt to gnaw 

 metal, and they can be quickly removed when 

 the bees need a larger entrance in the working 

 season. Our reason for disliking any kind of 

 a permanent slide or fixture to contract the 

 entrance, is that we wish the entrance free 

 from any kind of trap to be covered with 

 propolis or spider webs, for the latter are a 

 great trouble to us. As we have them now, 

 we can take our broom and sweep the entran- 

 ces clean and tidy clear around the buildinijin 

 a very few minutes. We should state that'be- 

 fore putting on these metal mouse guards a 

 thin slip of i)lue 4xl3v,' inches was slipped into 

 each entrance ; when the space ai)ovc this was 

 filled with wool, we had an entrance Ixmeath 

 it just light to allow a bee to drag out a dead 



one, or any other rubbish ; and of course the 

 hole in the metal was so made as to come op- 

 posite this o])ening. 



Now for the working of the house apiary 

 during a severe freeze ; the entrances were 

 tilled with the woo! yesterdtiy, and last night 

 we had a heavy frost. Large bunches of frost 

 were found collected before each entrance, the 

 most in front of the heaviest colonies, showing 

 plainly that their breath passed out from these 

 holes ; but no frost was to be be seen collected 

 on the interior of the entrances. The inside of 

 the liouse was just about at the freezing point, 

 and everything is dry and healthy, not a dead 

 bee to be seen any where, yet in our old l)ee- 

 house the dead bees cover the floor so that one 

 cannot !iud a spot to step about even on tip- 

 toe, and it is scarcely two weeks since they 

 vfere put in. This is not unusual, for when 

 there comes a warm day many ^ill crawl out 

 and get lost in the darkness, whereas in the 

 house apiary as they are in their usual home, 

 they can look out-doors and go back satisfied 

 as often during the winter as tliey feel inclined ; 

 and yet we hope to keep the temperature as 

 warm as, say some of the Southern States — 

 certainly much warmer than any form of out- 

 door wintering. 



J^ec. od — It has been a fine day and the bees 

 have flown nicely ; those in the open air first, 

 and the occupants of the house apiary after- 

 ward. Those on the south side flew but little 

 before those on the north, as it takes some time 

 for the temperature to change inside of such 

 thick walls. There Avere a few dead bees bro't 

 out of the house apiary after all — perhaps a 

 dozen per colony on an average, the most from 

 the heavy colonies of course ; these undoubt- 

 edly would die of old age, but in our old bee 

 house we swept from the floor a two-quart pan 

 heaped full of dead bees, and yet they have 

 been housed scarcely two weeks. This would 

 amount to more than half a tea-cupful of bees 

 per stock. We don't know why it is, but our 

 bees always have been in the habit of getting 

 out of tlieir hives in the bee house when we 

 have a verj- warm day, yet those in the open 

 air seem perfectly contented so far as we can 

 see, and the very strong colonies lose no more 

 than those in the house apiary ; the weaker 

 ones lose by bees freezing that are left between 

 combs that are outside the main cluster. The 

 colony with nothing over them is as bright as 

 one could wish, and they have lost very few 

 bees indeed from the freeze. Tiie only one that 

 had the burnt candy has nearly perished, the 

 few bees that arc alive looking tlamp, and hav- 

 ing the same appearance as with the spring mal- 

 ady ; it may not be the candy after all, for we 

 had a strong colony die in a similar manner in 

 the fall and winter of '73. To test the matter 

 we have taken the candy away and given them 

 good combs and stores. 



Dec. GlJi — We are still having such warm 

 weather that we can but feel imeasy about the 

 bees in the bee Itouse, tho' those in the house 

 apiary are all the better for it and seem as hap- 

 py as can be, cleaning out their hives, bringing 

 stores nearer the cluster and getting all ready 

 for the next freeze. While the latter presents 

 an orderly and pleasing appearance with all 

 the implements in their places ready for use, 

 the bee-house looks anything but inviting with 



