A visit to Franklin Carrier

When I took my one day beekeeping class, several books were recommended. One is pictured here. Franklin Carrier started keeping bees while in college in South Dakota. After duty in the navy, he moved to the San Jose, California area to work in the aerospace industry. Throughout all that time he continued keeping learning about bees. In 1973, he quit his other work and opened a bee keeping store in San Jose.
This book looked good because it is written for beginners, is written mainly for this area and has a check list format for each operation. Unfortunately, it is out of print. I did find some used copies for sale, and the one I got is in excellent condition. It not only gives step-by-step instructions, it also has a lot of information about bee biology and behavior.
Two days ago I went by his shop on my way to work. It's in a house in the middle of San Jose. I had a pleasant visit with Mr. Carrier. He answered my plethora of questions and showed me his apiary. I must admit it was a little scary. He has 6-7 hives, each stacked up at least 6 feet in a small side yard. There were thousands of bees flying around, a veritable cloud. The ground was covered with a carpet of dead bees.
I bought a bee brush and a copy of his second book, "Keeping Bees". The brush I had been using was made of animal hair and the bees would latch onto it. The new one is made of plastic bristles.
Following his advice, today I removed the entrance reducer and made a new water source. I had made a small basin near the hive, but Mr. Carrier said it needs to be out of sight of the hive. His is over the house from the side yard. I had to find a spot not too far from the hive and out of sight of both the hive and the yard. The water source is now a bucket with a towel hanging over the edge behind a plant about 20 feet from the hive.
I'll be going into the hive again in 2 days.