Hi all

You often hear that migratory beekeeping is the source of so many problems we see today, as if migratory beekeeping were a recent phenomenon. This excerpt is from 



Zierer, C. M. (1932). Migratory beekeepers of southern California. Geographical Review, 260-269.



Migratory apiculture has been practiced in southern California for at least forty and possibly fifty years. Before 1895 a few beemen moved their apiaries from sage and wild buckwheat ranges to limabean fields in dry years in order to avoid the expense of feeding. Soon after 1895 the practice became rather common in Ventura and Los Angeles counties. Hundreds of colonies were hauled from 20 to 40 miles on specially constructed wagons drawn by four or six horses. The moves were made at night in order to avoid the midday heat and consequent softening of the combs and smothering of the bees. 



After 1900 rail shipments to alfalfa fields in the San Joaquin-Sacramento Valley and Nevada were included among the migrations of southern California beemen. The introduction of the automobile and the improvement of roads greatly increased the number of migrators and extended the range of their activities. Apiaries are now moved 200-400 miles by automobile, and they have been moved 1500-1700 miles by railroad without serious difficulty.



California, it should be pointed out, is the leading commercial beekeeping state. It has about 10,000 beekeepers and 400,000 colonies, representing a capital investment of $10,000,000. Threefourths of the colonies are in commercial apiaries. The state produces about one-tenth of the nation's annual crop of honey, and several of its numerous commercial varieties are considered to be among the choicest. The normal annual production of honey in California is about 16,000,000 pounds, which with 300,000 pounds of wax has a value of about $2,000,000.



The highest development is reached in the southern part Coastal Region, and they usually produce more than half the state’s honey crop. Most of the large apiaries in southern California are migratory. There are perhaps 2000 migratory beekeepers in the state.



Until recently a few beemen from the alfalfa and clover districts of Idaho, Utah, and Nevada shipped carloads of bees to southern California each winter, allowed them to multiply in the orange groves, and then returned them to northern states prepared to make surplus honey as soon as clover and alfalfa began blooming. Although that practice was carried on for about twenty years it is now prohibited by quarantine regulations. 



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