January, 1913. 



American Hee Journal 



my mind. A certain section was badly 

 infected with foul brood, nearly every 

 apiary visited being diseased within a 

 radius of seven or eight miles from 

 where we believed it had spread. A 

 bee-keeptr of the neighborhood was 

 taking me around. He was a splendid 

 fellow in every respect, much afraid of 

 offending any one, and in great fear of 

 taking me to some place where there 

 might be danger of not being well re- 

 ceived. After we had about covered 

 the district, I asked him if he knew of 

 any more bees in the community that 

 might be infected. He replied rather 

 hesitatingly that about live miles away 

 a hotel-keeper lived who had about 40 

 colonies in box-hives, and that he had 

 threatened what he would do to any- 

 body "that would come around and 

 fool with his bees." 



While my friend naturally wished to 

 know if disease was in the apiary, he 

 questioned whether we had better 

 bother with him, as the man had the 

 reputation of being a fighter. To make 

 a long story short, he was afraid that 

 the inspector, being a little fellow, 

 might get hurt. I jokingly told my 

 friend that the dog that barked the 

 loudest was generally the slowest to 

 bite, and assured him that we would 

 go to the place at once. As we drove 

 up to the hotel, about a dozen men 

 were standing around. Before my 

 friend had introduced the proprietor to 

 me, I had picked him out. He was a 

 typical saloon man, very portly, and 

 with a cigarin the corner of his mouth. 

 After my being introduced as "the in- 

 spector sent out by the Government to 

 inspect bees," hewas cordiality personi- 

 fied in his manner towards me, and I 

 was assured that it gave him the great- 

 est pleasure to have me call, and he 

 would at once show me his apiary. I 

 suspected a joke, as I noticed a rather 

 peculiar smile on his face, when he 

 spoke of his "apiary." He took me 

 behind the hotel. What a sight met 

 my eyes ! Forty or more boxes, not 

 hives, were standing on scantling, with 

 a few auger holes in the tops of most of 

 them, over the strongest of which were 

 placed a few sections as an invitation 

 to go above and work. I looked at the 

 outfit, and he looked at me, a huge grin 

 covering his face as he remarked, 

 "Now go ahead and inspect the bees, 

 will you ?" 



About one-third of the colonies had 

 died during the winter, and as this was 

 in May, the moths had not yet de- 

 stroyed the combs. I asked him what 

 he was going to do with these boxes 

 of combs in which the bees had died. 

 And he said, " Nothing, do as you like 

 with them." The bottom-boards were 

 loose; in fact, the bo.xes were sitting 

 on old planks, so I at once upturned 

 them and thoroughly e.xamined all of 

 the combs, breaking them out to do so. 

 As dead bees were all through the 

 yard, not one of the hives e.xamined 

 showing a foul brood scale, I did not 

 care to look into the hives that had 

 living bees in them, and told him so. 

 With a still more expansive smile, he 

 told me that he wanted his bei-s exam- 

 ined — the combs of the dead colonies 



would be melted up anyway.'and it'was 

 the bees he was particular about. Of 

 course, the joke on his part was in the 

 thought that the said bees, located as 

 they were, could not be examined. 



I replied that it would give me great 

 pleasure to abide by his wish ; in fact, 

 I would be more satisfied myself to ex- 

 amine eTeiy colony for him. Imagine 

 his surprise when I blew smoke in at 

 the entrance of the first hive in the 

 row, gave the hive a rap or two, and 

 then upturned it. The combs were 

 spread apart, and one with brood was 

 taken out of the center of the brood- 

 nest. The bees were pure blacks, and 

 as all know who have handled them, 

 they will, especially early in the season, 

 stampede when thoroughly frightened. 

 As I wore no veil, and received no 

 stings, I kept turning one hive over 

 after another as if in love with the job, 

 and the look on my hotel friend's face 

 can better be imagined than described. 

 Before I was through, he shouted from 

 the far corner of the yard, " You'll do 

 old man," and there was something 

 said about "come in and have a drink." 

 Neither my friend nor myself accepted 

 the invitation, as both were on the 

 " water wagon." 



Coal Cinders 



Coal cinders in front of hives (page 

 361). It is a good idea, and a cheap 

 way of solving a difficulty encountered 

 by any one who has out-yards situated 

 on very rich soil, where the grass 

 grows provokingly fast when the bee- 

 keeper is so rushed with work that he 

 hates to stop and swing the scythe or 

 run the lawn mower. Then, unless the 

 work is done early in the morning, the 

 operator gets a hot reception, for 

 nothing angers bees more than to go 

 among them in the daytime swinging a 

 scythe, and once in a while giving a 

 hive a whack with the end of the same. 



In many localities coal cinders can 

 be had in any quantity, and I hope to 

 try this plan myself next season, in at 

 least one yard. I have tried salt, and 

 while it kills the grass, it takes a large 

 quantity to properly fix a large apiary, 

 at some cost, while the coal cinders 

 can be had for nothing. 



he may pass the heavy hive and be a 

 a bit doubtful about the lighter, only to 

 find in the spring that his "heavy" 

 colony is either dead or suffering with 

 dysentery, while the "light" colony 

 will be in fine shape and have stores 

 left. Even old timers are sometimes 

 fooled on this question, and in this 

 northern section I doubt if anything 

 causes so much winter losses as allow- 

 ing colonies to go into winter quar- 

 ters with heavy combs of pollen in the 

 brood-nest. 



The Short Course in Bee-Keeping 



The Provincial Short Course in Bee- 

 Keeping, to be held in Guelph at the 

 Ontario Agricultural College on Jan. 

 7 to 18, 1913, bids fair to out-distance 

 all previous efforts in this uirection. 

 In a draft of the program sent me re- 

 cently, I notice the names of several 

 friends from over the line who are to 

 take part in the lectures and demon- 

 strations. Among them are Tyrrell, 

 House, Clark and others. From Onta- 

 rio a number of our well-known men 

 are billed also. For the last two days 

 of the gathering enough might be pres- 

 ent to have an old-time convention. I 

 think Mr. Pettit has something of that 

 nature in view by the way he has ar- 

 ranged the program. Information can 

 be obtained by writing Mr. Pettit at 

 the Agricultural College, Guelph, Ont. 



Pollen and Weight of Hives for Winter 



Miss Wilson speaks of combs being 

 filled with pollen, and says that when 

 this is the case hives weighing 50 

 pounds are none to heavy (page 362). 

 That weight is none too heavy, even if 

 there was no unusual amount of pollen 

 present, but the purpose of this com- 

 ment is not so much to criticise her 

 estimate as to emphasize the fact that 

 often colonies starve by reason of the 

 owners failing to remember that heavy 

 combs of pollen are not "winter 

 stores." A colony that has all new 

 combs, and consequently little pollen 

 in them, may often weigh much less 

 than another colony with old combs 

 and a great amount of pollen. 



The beginner often does not under- 

 stand this, and when he lifts the hives 



Feeding Sugar Dry 



A controversy is taking place be- 

 tween Editor Root and A. C. Miller as 

 to the qualities of a certain sugar, 

 known variously to the trade as "A," 

 "Coffee A," "Coffee," and "Empire 

 A." Mr. Miller has proven that the 

 bees can use this sugar even when not 

 a bit of water is mixed with it. Can 

 this sugar be obtained in Ontario? 

 While we do not anticipate using 

 much of it, what a boon it would be 

 for early spring if a colony was found 

 short of stores. Place the sugar so 

 the bees could get at it, and the work 

 would be done— no danger of chilling 

 the brood, to say nothing of the dan- 

 ger of feeding liquid food early in the 

 spring, during times of inclement 

 weather. I want to know more about 

 this sugar as soon as possible. 



The Weather in Ontario 



On Nov. 21, our bees in York county 

 had a good flight, and a little pollen 

 was brought in by some colonies from 

 scattered dandelion that were still in 

 bloom in sheltered locations. Pollen 

 at so late a date is a record for "our 

 locality," and such a condition is not 

 likely to be duplicated for years. Since 

 then the bees have had no flight, but 

 the weather has been milder than usual 

 for this season of the year, until today 

 (Dec. 12) we are having wintery weath- 

 er, the thermometer getting down near 

 zero. We have had almost no snow 

 in this section, but north and east of 

 us quite a lot of the beautiful has fallen. 



LEWIS BEEWARE MEANS 



GOOD QUALITY, SCIEN- 

 TIFIC VWOHKIWAHSHIP 

 CAREFUL PACKING 

 EFFICIENT SERVICE 



Send for Annual Catalog ivhlcli Trill <cll 

 you M-ho Is your nearest Distributer. 

 G. B. I.e«Is Company, ^Vaterto^vn, >\'is. 



