I>EVOTEr> TO BEJESS AIM> IIOIVEY. A^Siy IIO]>J[X£: HVTERGESTS. 



A. I. ROOT, ~) Published Monthly. rTERMS: Sl.OO Per Annum in Ad- 



Piiblishci- and Proprietor, \ - vance; 3 Copies /or »2.50; 3/or »3.T5: 



Medina, O. ) JEstaTjllshed in 1873. ClO or more, 60c. each. Single Number 10c. 



Vol. IV. 



MARCH 1, 1876. 



No. 3. 



CAlilFORNIA. 



BEAR NOVICE: If I wait mitil 1 receive the 

 January number of Gleanings before I write 

 you, my (■omniunication \vill not rcaeli you in 

 time for Feb. No. Does not this remind you tliat wc 

 need a Bee-Journal on this coast ? How would it suit 

 yovi to come to Los Augelos, or somewhere else on 

 the coast, and publish Gleanings here? You can 

 lind plenty of nice places to put up your windmill, 

 and will have nice breezes to run it. 



There is no doubt in my mind that Southern Califor- 

 nia is the best place in the T'nion to make the bee- 

 business pay. Our resources are only very imijer- 

 fectly developed as yet, in that direction. Wc want 

 more thorouqh bee-Ueepers; men who understand the 

 l>usines8 and n-ill irork. We want a lirst-class Journal 

 too, to help us in dev^'loinng- this pleasant and profit- 

 able pursuit. We want a better market. How would 

 it do for us to open a trade with Europe ? I think we 

 could ship honey to Great Britain at a very moderate 

 cost. V'essels are sailing almost continually from San 

 Francisco and Aspinwall, and even if we could not 

 get them to touch liere, we could send our honey to 

 San Francisco and from there to Eiverpo il or Edin- 

 burgh, at a cost probably not exceeding '2 cents per 

 lb.— that is by a sailing vessel. Now if we had a re- 

 liable house to send our honey to we certainly would 

 realize a better price than at present, or even better 

 than we could anywhere in the United States. The 

 great trouble in America is that retailers always 

 charge too much for their services ; while in England 

 or Scotl.and a retailer works for much less profit. ,It 

 seems to me that wo could realize much more for our 

 honey. In Scotbmd I understand that strained or ex- 

 tracted honey retails at SOcts. ]ier lb.; of this the re- 

 tailer will not want more than 5cts., while in America 

 he would want I'ii or l.octs. 



Please give us your idea on this subject, and also the 

 name of some rcliaMc house in Liveriiool, Edinburgh 

 and other imijortant cities of the old world. It would 

 be a source of great satisfaction to us if we could have 

 a sm-e and reliable market for our honej'. 



There are many men coming to this and adjoining 

 counties to go into the "bee business." There is one 

 great fault with them all. They expect to find a 

 l)leasant place in some beautilul canyon, well provid- 

 ed with plenty of i)ure watef and a small field of nice 

 cultivating land— a good place for a few cows, a num- 

 ber of chickens, etc., etc. Now these places have all 

 been taken up long ago ; but still there are i)laces 

 equally as good for bees, yet troublesome to get to, 

 .and probably no water except by digging some '20 or 

 :'.0 feet. There is an immense amount of honey wasted 

 every year for want of gathering, and there "is room 

 for many more bee-keepers here, if they will consent 

 to work hard for a week or two to make a road to 

 their location, as well as go a little farther from the 

 railroad. Iledwooil lumi)er which makes excellent 

 hives is $i,5 per M, dressed on one side. 



The season is fast coming on for transferring bees, 

 with us at least. I will therelore give a tew hints ou 



TKANSFIUIRING. 



My assistant drums the bees out of the old hives in- 

 to an empty box (I suppose it is unnecessary to de- 

 scribe minutely this and other sim])le operations so 

 often described in books and journals,) and brings the 

 hive into the honey-house. I then cut the combs 

 loose from the sides of hive with a long piece of iron 

 sharnenetl like a chisel : then nry open the box and 

 cut the combs out carefull)'. More skill is needed in ' 



cutting out combs than in i^nv other operation ol 

 transferring. In cutting out combs separate them, 

 laying all straight nice worker comb not filled with 

 honey on a board by itself. Reject all drone comb 

 and put honey into strainer. For f istening comb into 

 frames I have provided an extra number of side bars 

 of frames, and remove the triangular guide from top 

 bar of frame. I then i)lace the frame over a comb and 

 trim the comb to fit, using all the economy with combs 

 that I can. It does not make a particle of dilVerence 

 whether the comb goes into the frame with the same 

 edge up as it was in the old hive, the books to the con- 

 trary notwithstanding. Of course if a comb will fit 

 into a frame with its top edge daivn, it will also fit witli 

 the to]) edge up, ami we alwavs put such combs into 

 the frame in their natural position. But should a 

 comb fit better by putting its top edge to the side of 

 frame, we never hesitate one second. I have trans- 

 ferred thonsands this way and never saw anv dilfer- 

 ference. It is seldom that we find a conib large 

 enough to fill the whole frame, hence we fit it into one 

 side of the frame and place an extra side bar in the 

 frame, pressing it up closely against the c inb, ami 

 nailing both at toj) and bottom. This holds the com!» 

 steady. If you prefer to remove this extra side bar 

 you can do so, but it will be but little in the wav. If 

 a comb is not large enough to roach from top to bot- 

 tom of frame, I trim the edge against which 1 press 

 the extra side bar, a little beveled, making the bottom 

 edge narrower, thus : 



This will hold the comb firmly to the side and top of 

 frame, and bees will soon fill the empty spic ; beloiv. 

 I sometimes i)ut in two extra bars to "hold as many 

 pieces of comb in the same frame. 



I have done a arcat deal of transferring, tn-obablv 

 as much or more than any other man in the U. S., and 

 I find this the easiest, quickest and most secure way of 

 fastening combs in frames. If a trame is only i artly 

 filled it is well to put a guide on under side of" top bar, 

 iu the eni|)ty space. After combs arc all fastened in 

 frames, if the weather is warm and bees are doing 

 well and will build comb immediately, it is well to al- 

 ternate frames filled thus, with empty frames in the 

 new hive. After all are arranged, hive the bees in 

 the new hive and ])lace on the old stand. The whole 

 operation does not take me over 20 minutes. 



A M ATE UU. 



You have had far more experieuce frieud A., 

 yet we can but think that our readers prener- 

 ally would succeed much better by omitting 

 the drumming out part entirely. 



We heartily sympathize with you iu regard 

 to exporting honey, and hope our readers in 

 the countries named will lend you their co- 

 operation. 



"We think our Journal will be of more value 

 to the mass of our readers, if we stay in a lo- 

 cality where we hnce constant dillicultics to 

 contend with. 



