Bees in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
Written for the American Bee Journal
BY S. L. WATKINS.
The honey season, the past year, was above the average, and bees have paid well. The last, two or three seasons I have not kept so many bees as I formerly did. I took up a piece of land here in the upper Sierras, and have been improving it. I have started in the nursery business, and I find that this goes splendidly with the bee-business. From now on, I shall increase my bees up, and go into the business extensively again. I shall place all my hives in a straight row, and build a car track behind them, and I can easily run all my honey into the extracting house. This will facilitate things greatly. The past summer I had my hives set on stumps, and I tell you it was a job to carry the combs to the house where I extracted.
Some will ask, why I kept my bees on stumps. Well, I had no other place to put them. This country is heavily timbered with yellow pine, sugar pine, incense cedar, cypress, spruce, fir, madrona, oaks, etc.; and it is extremely hard to clean, but after the land is once cleaned, it is very valuable.
Land that was one year ago covered with pine stumps, is now covered with strawberry plants, fruit trees, and ornamental plants, and they look splendidly, too. It took an immense amount of work, but it pays well.
The bee-hive that I use, and the one that I expect to use for a long time, takes frames about 7x14 inches; the hive is about 14 inches wide; two stories comprise a hive, which is about 16 inches high. I tier up several stories high in the honey season. I find that I can handle bees very rapidly; can shake the bees from the combs without even breaking the comb loose from the frame; with the Langstroth hive, or frame, rather, the combs will give way occasionally in hot weather, if not wired.
I think that I shall always run for extracted honey at this apiary. In Placerville, Calif., where I used to rear bees for sale, I had a decided preference for Carniolan bees. I think that I shall rear them largely. The so-called Golden Italian bees—if I can prove to my satisfaction that they will equal the Carniolans, I will insert a number of queens.
When I was extensively engaged in rearing queen-bees, the call was for the leather-colored Italians—and very few of the light-colored queens were called for; now it seems to be the reverse, all queen-breeders are advertising the Golden Italian bees and queens.
The Holy Land and Cyprian bees seem to have gone out of fashion; so also the Albino. I see that the Carniolan race is not much advertised in the bee-papers any more. Well, I shall pin my faith to them for awhile yet, until I find something better.
A cross between the Carniolan and Italian race of honey-bees, makes wonderfully energetic bees; they protect their hives well, and are marvelous honey-gatherers.
There has been a greater interest manifested in bees this season than for a long time, and I contemplate, from now on, that a great many will engage in this industry in the Sierra Nevada mountains.
I am pleased to see that the American Bee Journal is improving so steadily. Later on I shall give you some bee-notes for its columns.
Grizzly Flats, Calif.
