Daily Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1876-1884, 1878-02-16
BEE KEEPERS COLUMN.
EDITED BY N. LEvERING.
BuckWheat as Bee Feed.

Los NIETos, Feb. 18th, 1878.
EDITOR BEE COLUMN: l am in
deed glad to see the bee column
make its appearance again in such
an earnest and wide awake style;
may it continue to flourish and do
good in the future as 1t has in the
past. A column of any of our local
papers devoted to the interest Of
agriculture can be made both in.
teresting and instructive and l
claim it to be absolutely necessary
to have something of the kind, as
there are no bee journals published
in this State and those East of the
Rocky Mountains do not apply to
this section. Handling bees in the
Eastern States is quite different
from what it is here. L have been
reading two or three Of the bee
journals for the last twoeyears and
| find half their contents devoted
to the different modes of wintering
bees, the number of quilts, the
amount of chaff, &C., to protect
them from the cold, all of which
does not interest the apiarian of the
Pacific Coast.
An industry that assumes the
Importance that bee culture does
in this county ought certainly to be
entitled to representation in one
of our local papers. The past seas
on has been trying one especially
on stock and bee men in these
Southern counties; the loss of the
latter has been one half; yes, L will
venture to say that now there are
not more than one-thlrd as many
bees in this county as there were
one year ago 1t has been lesson
TO bee men, tits true hard one,
but profitable one, I think. There
was no necessity for such II great
loss of bees if they had been taken
to the valleys or to irrigable farm
ing lands in March or April, as
there were plenty of willows, malva
and mustard in bloom until the
middle of May, all affording an
abundance of bee forage; then
buckwheat should have been
sown for them. The bees l
kept in Los Nietos have in
creased, while those 1 let re.
main in the mountains have de-
creased about one-half. l did not
move all my bees to the valley as I
thought they would go. through all
right, never before having expert.
enced a dry year in the bee bust.
ness.
L sowed buckwheat In June, July,
August, September aud October,
al ntrf -
which did we'll from all the SOW
ings, blossoming in % days from
the time OF sowing, and the bees
worked and did we'll on it. The last
sowing continued in bloom until it
was bit down by the frost, about
the 30th of December. The seed that
got scattered on the ground came
up by the first rains and blOomed
when not more than ten inches
high and the bees worked on it
until that hard freeze killed it.
Bees ale doing we'll now. l have
never seen them make as brisk a
start before as they are doing this
Spring. They appear to realize the
impoverished condition of their
keepers, and are resolved to drive
away that grim monster who has
been staring them in the face for
the last year.
This is the year for bee keepers
to do something. Those that wish to
increase their stocks fast and have
combs would do well to procure
comb foundation. 1t can be pur-
chased at such low price that all
would be justified in its use. 1 tried
it last year and it worked like a
charm. There is no question ia my
mind but that comb foundation is
a great saving of labor and honey
to the bees, and a sure way of Sc
curing worker-comb, which is
quite an item.
1 think the danger this year
among bee-keepers will be to divide
their stock to excess. 1t has been
by the most experienced
bee-keepers that the surer way to
success is to keep your colonies
strong, as one strong swarm
handled properly will produce more
honey in season than two or
three weak ones. In truth, weak
colonies will usually produce no
surplus; while from one hundred to
one hundred and fifty pounds from
a strong hive is nothing eXtraor-
binary. After wishing all success,
l shall say no more then hasta
despues amigo.
L d. A