Shinns and Bees
Notice that the Shinn Ranch orchards of 1893 ran from the Shinn barnyard all the way to the hills in Niles. Now this etching is probably inaccurate because how would they have gotten this bird's eye view? However, in 1893, the Shinn property extended on both sides of Alameda Creek. On the hill side, it went up to the Central Pacific tracks and was located to the east of the California Nursery Company. The Shinn family grew fruits of many kinds since 1856.
So the question is... did the Shinn family keep bees to pollinate the acres of fruit trees that they grew? The Shinn family came to California in 1856. Was the honey bee already here? Or did the native bees do some of the pollination in the early days?
1853 The Historical Landmark California State Parks says that in 1853 "Here, on the 1,939-acre Rancho Potrero de Santa Clara, Christopher A. Shelton in early March 1853 introduced the honeybee to California. In Aspinwall, Panama, Shelton purchased 12 beehives from a New Yorker and transported them by rail, 'bongo,' pack mule, and steamship to San Francisco. Only enough bees survived to fill one hive, but these quickly propagated, laying the foundation for California's modern bee-keeping industry. See also and across America and UCANR account He died on the Jenny Lind???
[Perhaps this was the ship?]
1854 Of course, there were bees imported into Southern California. This history includes some pictures of early bee-keeping outfits.
1858 report on the history of bees in California.
[Daily Alta California, Volume 10, Number 53, 23 February 1858]
SAN FRANCISCO, TUESDAY, FEB 23. 1858.
"Bees In California. We are indebted to F. G. Appleton, Esq., of San Jose, for the following interesting article on the bees in California, and the bee business generally : The amount of honey and beeswax produced in the United States, as returned by the Census Agents, for the year 1850, was 14,662,500 pounds, which, estimated at 15 cents per pound, gives the sum of $2,199,375, as the value of this production for that year.
IMPORTATION OF BEES INTO CALIFORNIA. Mr. Shelton (in connection with Commodore Stockton and G. W. Aspinwall) imported, in March, 1853, the first bees into California. He left New York with twelve stands or hives, and arrived with but one ; from this one there are now about one hundred and fifty swarms. Messrs. Buck, Appleton, Briggs and Gates, of San Jose, and Mr. Harkison, of Sacramento, have since imported bee .
PERSONS ENGAGED Messrs. Buck, Appleton, Early, Daniels, Lathrop and Gates, of San Jose ; T. G. Baxter, of Napa; Capt. Hoag and Mr. Harkison, of Sacramento, and Mr. Neyman, of Moquelumne Hill, who are each interested in the business to the extent of from 10 to 100 swarms ; many others have from 1 to 10.
AMOUNT OF HONEY PRODUCED. About 3000 pounds last year — it being much more profitable to increase swarms at present, but little attention has been given to induce bees to store surplus honey ; the object has been to force bees to throw off swarms. From some of my swarms I have taken from each 60 pounds of pure honey in top boxes.
KINDS OF BEES. In each colony there are in the swarming season three kinds of bees — a queen, considerable number of drones, and thousands of workers. The queen is the only fully developed female; the drones are males, and the workers are undeveloped females. The honey bee is not a native of California — those swarmed here do not differ from the original imported ; both thrive equally well. Some bees have been brought hither from Mexico, but they are the same in all respects as our bee. The Italian honey bee has not been imported into the United States. " Aristotle, who flourished 2200 years ago, speaks of three different kinds of honey bees, as well known in his time. Virgil, in his 4th book of Georgics, speaks of two kinds as flourishing in his time. The better variety he characterizes as spotted or Variegated, and of a beautiful golden color. Strange to say, within a few years, the attention of bee-keepers has been called to the very rariety described by Aristotle and Virgil, and after a lapse of 2200 years, it is still found to exist, distinct and pure from the common kind, and to be as superior to it as a Durham ox to one of the poorest breeds." — Langstroth on the Honey Bee.
QUALITY OF CALIFORNIAN HONEY. The Califomian honey, made from mustard blossom, the flower from which most of the honey is gathered in this valley, is equal to any I have ever tasted. It has sold in San Francisco at from $1 25 to $1 50 per lb. SWARMING AND HIVING. New swarms issue early as the 15th of April, and the swarming season continues to 15th of June. The swarms usually cluster upon a branch of a tree or bush. The operator should have his hive ready ; take a blanket, or sheet, and spread it upon the ground, under the cluster place, the hive upon it, raised an inch to permit the bees to enter freely; give the branch a smart shake, and they will fall in front of the hive, and as soon as they perceive it, will enter. If the branch be of no value it can be cut off, placed under the hive, and the bees will ascend in a few minutes. As soon as all are in, the hive should be placed in the position, or upon the stand it is to occupy, and protected from the heat of the sun. Second swarms issue in about ten days from the first, and the third in two or three days after the second. The hive should be left unplained on the inside, and before putting a swarm into it, washed out with salt and water.
BEE PASTURAGE. That California is admirably adapted to the honey bee, the experience of five years, fully demonstrates. Not only in San Jose Valley, but at Sacramento, Shasta, Bidwell's, Stockton, Columbia and Napa, they multiply rapidly and store abundance of honey. The willow affords the first material for pollen. The bees commence gathering it by 1st January ; about the 15th January it is in bloom and affords considerable honey, though slightly bitter, the bees gather pollen and honey from the willow till March. The wild mustard affords an inexhaustible supply of honey from last of April to middle of June. Later in the season honey is obtained from buckwheat and honey dew.
IMPORTATION OF BEES INTO OREGON. In the fall of 1855 an immigrant brought across the plains the first swarm of bees ever introduced into Oregon —he had two swarms from it in the summer of 1856. Mr. Wm. Buck exported from San Jose Valley, fall of 1856, twenty-eight swarms of bees to Oregon. They have done well during the past season ; last fall he exported more than one hundred swarms, most of them have been sold. He is satisfied that Oregon is admirably adapted to the bee. Meek and Eddy, James Ayers, and Dryer (editor of the Oregonian) have purchased. Last October Mr. B. shipped four swarms to the Sandwich Islands, three arrived safely, and I have learned by the newspapers that they are doing well.
IMPORTATION OF BEES FROM MEXICO. Several attempts to import bees from Mexico have failed. Capt. Macondray had one or more Mexican swarms, I have been informed, but they soon dwindled away. Last fall, Mrs. Suiter, daughter-in-law to Gen. Sutter, had forty-four hives packed on the backs of Indians to Acapulco and brought in the steamer to San Francisco ; two or three weeks after their arrival, there remained but two hives having any bees in them, they were bought and brought to San Jose, but in a short time they died out. Can a district be overstocked with bees ? Samuel Wagner, of Little York, Pa., in a letter to L. S. Langstroth, says : " The Russia and Hungary Apiaries, numbering from 2,000 to 5,000 colonies, are said not to be unfrequent ; and we know that as many as 4,000 hives are often times congregated at one point on the heaths of Germany. Hence, I think we need not fear that any district ol this country, so distinguished for abundant natural vegetation and diversified culture, will very speedily be overstocked. " According to the statistical tables of the kingdom of Hanover, the annual production of bees-wax in the province, is 300,000 lbs. ; assuming one pound of wax to each hive, we must suppose 300,000 hives, are annually " brimstoned;" and assuming one half of the whole colonies produce a swarm each year, it would require 600,000 colonies (141 to each square mile,) to secure the result given in the tables. "In the province of Attica, Greece, containing 45 square miles and 20,000 inhabitants, 20,000 hives of bees are kept yielding 30 lbs. of honey and two of wax. One hive to each man, woman and child."— Langstroth p. 398. "
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| June 10, 1859 |
1875 1/2/1875 Pacific Rural Press "Bee Hunting"
1891 In 1891 when the Dominican Sisters came to Mission San Jose, In the Global Sisters Report of April 20, 2020 "When the Dominican Sisters of the Queen of the Holy Rosary first arrived at the San Jose Mission in 1891, beekeeping was a normal part of their work. Congregations were self-sufficient agricultural enterprises, and the Dominican sisters were no different. They had more than 250 chickens and hundreds of fruit trees in their orchard, and three enormous wells to water their crops. Beekeeping in the late 1800s and early 1900s was a mostly hands-off activity, because bees required little oversight before pesticides and foreign insect infestations."
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