Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-03-04
BEE FARMING.
How It is Done in South
California.
MR.. FRED. L. ALLIES VIEWS
A Great and Paying Industry,
Little Capital and La
Dor Required.

wa ~. u esAA SWs
Throughout Southern California,
for distance of 300 miles, the Coast
range of mountains is spotted with
little cations, upon whose sides may
be found hundred varieties of wild
flowers. Here and there rises an oc-
casional live-oak, or a clump OF low
growing pines. The body Of this liv-
ing carpet, covering the activity on
the Temescal range, the San Jacinto
mountains and the lower edges of the
Sierra Madres, is composed of all the
colors of the rainbow and varies with
the month and the seasons, while
heaps of gray old boulders, juttine
clumps of sandstone and granite,
and masses of chapparal, grease-woo
and mesquite, with their neutral
tints, give the eye relief from the toe
brilliant color surrounding them.
These cafions are the sources OF the
water supply for the valley vineyards
and orchards. and are the homes ol
the bee-masters of land literally
flowing with honey. The irrepressible
conflict between fruit-grower and
apiarist has ended in the latter fleeing
to the mountains, taking the little
busy bees to gather the nectar from
the delicious mountain flowers. The
orchardist charged that the bees
punctured the ripening fruit with theil
lancet tongues, and while the bee
master knew this 10 be an error he
had no choice but to go among the
hills, where fruit growing is not yet q
leading industry.
Bee farming in California bears
little resemblance to the same in.
dustry elsewhere, on account oi
the novel difference in the sea.
sons. Instead of making provision
for long and cold winters the bees
are able here to gather nectar from
New Years Day to Christmas, and
the bee-master takes out honey dur
ing eight months of the year. Dur.
ing January, February and March the
orange and lemon trees OF the valley
orchards and the wild acacia and
eucalyptus (Australian blue-gum) ave
all in bloom, and furnish fair GUAM
tity of nectar, but the larger part of
this is consumed by the bees, and it
is not the custom to take this from
the hives. The so-called forange-
blossom honey" sometimes seen on
the market, is not made from orange
blossom nectar at all, and is so Ia.
beled with intent to deceive.
Early in February the native sheep
grass, altilerilla, furnishes an abund-
apce of bloom, which makes a good
honey of amber color, but not so good
ais that made from the black sage,
which blossoms later in the same
month. This sage grows in the low
est valleys and on the sides of the
mountain ranges in all parts of Cali.
fornia, and is the best plant for bees
because its nectar gives them heart
and vitality at a season when they
most need it. The honey made from
it is of a fine color and strong body.
Early in June appears the best ol
all honey-producing plants-the white
and silver sages. No flower in the
world produces a clearer, white, pure
nectar than California silver sage
Eastern white clover and Eastwood
(American linden) are splendid
honey producers, but both are inferior
to the silver sage in making an article
of delicious flavor, good body, and
clear as pure water. These sages
bloom usually during the entire
month of June, and then comes the
wild buckwheat, which has blossom
resembling the cultivated plant, and
furnishes honey of good quality and
rich amber color.
Early in July the wild alfalfa ap.
pears and soon after the wild sumaC
opens it's large clusters of creamy flow.
ers, and both are exceedingly rich in
a delicious nectar. The wild migno-
nette is in bloom during the same
period, and the bees never seem to
tire of lowering over its perfumed
flowers, during their short period OF
bloom.
The golden-rod throws up its bril-
liant yellow flower spikes in July and
August and continues in blossom un-
til Christmas. 1t is similar to the
plant of the same name growing in
the Eastern States, and is one OF the
most valuable of California's long list
of honey producing plants.
The list includes nearly two hun
dred plants, but many Of them bloom
for only a short period; every fort
night showing new combination Of
coIors on the hillsides. The nectar
gathered from all the different flowers
is not separated by the bee-master.
The aim is only to keep the lignt. sill.
yer sage honey apart from that Of
darker color made earlier in the sea-
son from the alfilerilla and black sage,
and afterwards again from the amber
honey of the wild buckwheat, sumac
and golden rod.
The process of preventing the mix
of the honey by the bees is very SIM
pie, the bee-master watching the sea-
son Of the different aavors and taking
the honey from the combs as the sea-
son progresses.
AL HCuiuhAt, oWoi ming DCs'A III
this warm climate. and continues TN
til August. This is simply the old
queen leaving the hive with her bees
to the younger brood and queen hatch
ed during the few months previous.
When the young bees are old enough
10 take care Of themselves, and the
old queen finds she has a rival, she
leaves the hive followed by all
Of her colony and alights on any
low-growing bush or other object that
may be near. The bees cluster
around her in mass, and the bee
master, on the alert for "swarms,
removes the hive just vacated to a
new stand, takes another hive, pre-
viously filed by him with empty
comb-frames, but having a partly
filed comb of unsealed honey in the
center, and places this on the OLD
stand. The simplest method then O
removing the :'swarm" to the new
hive. is to sprinkle their wings light