California Beekeeping Past to Present
By Ettamarie Peterson
History of Beekeeping in California
“And it’s blow, ye winds, heigh-ho.
For Cal-I-for-ni-o
For there’s plenty of gold so I’ve been told,
On the banks of the Sacramento!”
Commodore Richard Stockton played a part in bringing bees to California in 1853, but it wasn’t his plan.
Christopher Shelton, Botanist
Black and Italian Bees
Four Years After the First Bees Arrived
San Francisco Evening Bulletin, Sept. 21, 1857 article:
Trading Honey Bees
A few days ago a person from Santa Clara County passed through San Andreas with a number of hives of honey bees, which he was peddling out to those wishing to invest in those ‘patrons of industry’ and ‘emblems of civilization.’ The Independent says, the price asked was $110 per hive. It is said that a good healthy hive will send out from eight to twelve strong and vigorous swarms in the course of a season.
Ad in Sacramento Daily Union November 20, 1860
Harbison Hive pat.1859
Harbison’s San Diego Apiary
Example of Hype to Encourage Beekeeping
Sacramento Daily Union Dec.15, 1860
Results of Three Years’ Labor.-Hiram Hamilton, of Stockton, writes to the Farmer thus:
Three years ago I began with five swarms of bees, for which I paid $500, and that was my entire capital, except a team worth $400. I used the common chamber hive the first season, and my increase of stocks was less than three to one. At the beginning of the second season I introduced and practiced, in an imperfect manner, the Langstroth system, and at the close of that season I sold 103 stocks for $10,300, having fifty stocks left. During the third, which is the present season, I have practiced the same system in a more perfect manner, and the result of the fifty stocks has been about six hundred, which contain full forty pounds of honey each, or 24,000 pounds in the aggregate. I am selling them now at $50 a stock, and I believe that they will be worth twice that money to those who buy them. For the last two seasons I have employed one assistant, who has made most of the hives. My hives cost me less than two dollars each. From these facts and figures, it will be seen that the five swarms, with three years’ labor, have paid me a considerable over $30,000.
California Apiary, Santa Rosa
A List of Honey Plants written by a southern California Beekeeper in 1875
Black Locust
Lavender
Apple Blossom
Sitting Down on the Job
Clover
Pomegranate
Crimson Clover
Buddleia
California Poppy
Pennyroyal
Pincushion Flower
Nigella
Borage
Michaelmas Daisy (aster)
Bluebells
Calendula
Dandelion
?
?
Plum blossoms
Oriental Poppy
Pumpkin (male) blossom
Redbud
Weeping Cherry
White bottle brush
California buckeye-poisonous to bees
Button Bush
Strk’s Beak�
Burr Clover