DIVISION OF ENTOMOLOGY 



871 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



•with shavings came out stronger than those in other cases. The case containing 

 shavings was, however, slightly better protected from wind. In April, each of the 

 twelve colonies had an average of about 10 pounds of stores. In the middle of April 

 breeding was in a more advanced stage than in the colonies wintered in the cellar, and 

 two of the colonies in the case packed with shavings were the strongest in the apiary. 

 The bees were left in the wintering cases until the beginning of June, and during 

 April and early May increased faster than the unprotected colonies that had been 

 taken from the cellar. One of the colonies in the case packed with shavings swarmed 

 on May 26. Several weak colonies that were found to be queenless or to contain 

 unsatisfactory queens were united to others, the total number being thus reduced from 

 43 to 39. 



The bees made a good start during April and the first six days of May, collecting 

 nectar from willows and maples. From May 7 till May 30 the weather was cool and 

 often cloudy and dry. Dandelion and fruit bloom yielded very little food, and breed- 

 ing received a check from the 13th to the 20th. 



Towards the end of May, widespread preparations for swarming, which could 

 ■only be attributed to the abundance of the melliferous shrubs and trees in bloom on 

 the farm, combined with uncertain weather for gathering, were made, and on May 27 

 about 80 per cent of the colonies were found to have queen-cells containing eggs and 

 larvae. The swarming fever was checked when, the weather improving, the bees dis- 

 covered that little nectar could be got. June was a warm and fine month. The first 

 flowers of alsike and white clover were seen on June 6. Unfortunately, a severe 

 drought dried up these plants which are the chief source of honey in this region, and 

 reduced their yield to a fraction of the usual quantity. A serious deficiency of rain 

 continued until August 22. However, the weather for gathering was, on the whole, 

 excellent, and for a period of seventy-six days, from the opening of the clover flow on 

 June 24 until frost cut off the supply from aster and golden rod on September 8, the 

 liives on scales gained steadily in weight. 



Summary of gain in weight of a moderately strong colony, compiled from daily 

 readings obtained from hives on scales: — 



The above figures are necessarily only approximate, for the records were influenced 

 by several varying factors which it was impossible to control. 



The total honey crop for 1913 was 1,965 pounds of extracted honey, of which 695 

 pounds were graded white honey and 1,270 pounds amber or dark honey, arrd 533 sec- 

 tions, of which 233 were white and 300 amber or dark honey. The average yield per 

 hive from 43 colonies spring count, wns therefore 70i pounds, reckoning, as is usually 

 done, a section as equivalent to two pounds of extracted honey. The largest amount 

 of honey taken from a single colony was 163 pounds of extracted honey". This colony 

 consisted of ovenly-marked threc-banded bees, too excitable to be regarded as pure 

 Italians in the strict sense. 



The numlier of colonies v;as increased during the year from thirty-nine to fifty- 

 three. The bees in the apiary, with the exception of four colonies of Pure Italians, 



Ottawa. 



