REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 223 



" Soon after my bees were removed from winter quarters I noticed that although 

 seemingly working hard every fine day, they were getting little if any honey, and were 

 very rapidly using up the balance of their winter supply. I think I am safe in saying 

 they got nothing from either maple, willow or fruit bloom, that is to say, early fruit 

 bloom such as apple, plum, cherry, currant, &c. After my bees had been out about a 

 week I began feeding systematically every evening, giving perhaps half a cupful to 

 every hive, and by the beginning of May, even with this amount of feeding, they were 

 still drawing heavily on the not very large amount left over from wintering, so much 

 so that by the second week in May scarcely a colony in all my apiary had more than a 

 very little unsealed honey and the hives were absolutely filled with brood, more so than 

 I have ever seen them before, many of the frames having brood in the first row of cells 

 from the top bar of the frame. 



" I could not detect any honey being brought in until after the 24th of May, and 

 then only in small quantities from the raspberry bloom. I fed steadily until the 23rd of 

 May, and am quite satisfied that I realized handsomely by doing so. It is perhaps worth 

 mentioning here that in the spring of 1896 all my strong colonies filled the two outside 

 frames so full of honey that I removed them and put empty frames in the hives 

 between the middle frames. The flow was from the willow. Swarming began on the 

 4th of June, and I have never had finer swarms than during the past season, the 

 great trouble was there appeared to be no end to the swarming season, as I had 

 several swarms in September, as late as the first week, when buckwheat honey was 

 coming in freely. 



" I took 45 hives out of winter quarters, having put away 46 ; the one lost was from 

 dampness, it was touching the outside wall of the cellar. I sold two colonies just before 

 swarming, and by the end of September I had 90 good colonies, most of them very heavy 

 with honey, even the late swarms in September filled up well with buckwheat and 

 goldenrod (Solidago) and required very little feeding to bring them up to the 55 pound 

 limit. I sold 25 colonies this fall and have 65 in the cellar now. My total yield of 

 comb honey was a little over 1,100 pounds, of which two-thirds was white clover, bass- 

 wood and possibly some raspberry mixed, the balance was goldenrod and buckwheat 

 mixed, making a quite agreeable honey. 



" I have an idea that the reason of the excessive swarming was partly on account 

 of the honey flow being very intermittent, perhaps two or three days of a heavy flow 

 and then several days with little or none. During the idle days the working force 

 would hang about the hives and amuse themselves building queen cells. Then in a few 

 days out they would come. The total return for the past season by the sale of bees and 

 honey was $325, less about $15 for honey fed in the spring." — [Percy H. Selwyn.] 



"Almonte, Jan. 12, 1898. — This year I got no white honey. Last year I had 

 between 2,500 and 3,000 pounds. This year's dark honey was about 20 per cent of 

 last year's, and similarly, new swarms were about 20 per cent of last year's. As for 

 feeding, I do not do much of that. Most of my colonies go into winter quarters, heavy 

 with natural stores ; but some of the old colonies had none too much, and two or three of 

 the new ones this year did not actually gather enough to winter on." — [J. K. Darling.] 



"Chard, Ont., Dec. 27. — I set out 105 colonies on April 23. I had a few colonies 

 set out some days before that. The first pollen was seen coming in on April 22. By 

 July 1, through robbing and starving my colonies were reduced to 70. At the end of 

 the season these were increasod to 82. I got 500 lbs. comb honey and 1,500 lbs. 

 extracted, all dark honey. Another bee-keeper here says he began the season with 40 

 colonies. He had no increase in swarms. He got 50 lbs. comb honey and 860 lbs. ex- 

 tracted, all dark honey." — [W. J. Brown.] 



"Bearbrook, Jan. 8, 1898. — I never experienced such a hard spring and summer 

 since I have kept bees. I carried out 22 hives. Four or five were weak, so I united 

 four colonies into two. I ran 4 of my strongest hives for comb-honey and 16 for 

 extracting. The spring was cold and dark, and the summer hot and dry. There was 

 no clover until September, perhaps a little in August ; but I never saw such a fall 

 harvest. My bees never did better, even in June and July, than they did for me this 

 year in September off the wild flowers, which grow on the low swampy land along 

 streams. The honey was dark, but of a delicious flavour. — [A. R. McRae.] 



