March, 1908. 



American Vae Journal 



mornings the thermometer registered 

 2$ degrees below zero, which is excep- 

 tional for our locality. 



With the exception of a few colonies 

 in the home-yard, bees seem to he 

 standing the weather all right. These 

 few colonies were heavy in natural 

 stores last fall, and were fed no sugar 

 syrup. For some cause, possibly a little 

 honey-dew, and excess of pollen, these 

 colonies are showing signs of dysentery 

 quite badly. 



It begins to look as if in poor sea- 

 sons, when stores gathered are none 

 too good and so much pollen is brought 

 in, that it will be absolutely necessary 

 to feed sugar syrup to winter the bees 

 successfully. While there are only about 

 half a dozen colonics affected, yet the 

 difference between them and sugar-fed 

 colonies is very apparent. The latter 

 are very quiet, and to all appearance 

 as healthy as at the beginning of the 

 long winter. 



The Divisible Brood-Chamber Hive. 



Regarding the divisible brood-cham- 

 ber style of hive, Mr. Smith, of Paler- 

 mo, Ont., says, on page 12, that as far 

 as he knows "there is only one man in 

 Canada who uses the divisible brood- 

 chamber." For Mr. Smith's benefit, I 

 would say that at last two of our "tjig" 

 bee-keepers — Messrs. Hoshal and Mil- 

 ler — use the divisible brood - chamber 

 exclusively. Both of these gentlemen 

 use the Heddon hive, and as they are 

 both enthusiasts regarding the merits 

 of said style of hive, naturally they have 

 almost persuaded quite a number of 

 bee-keepers to fall in line with their 

 views. 



Quite a number of beginners are try- 

 ing these hives, and while I have had 

 no experience with the divisible brood- 

 chamber, yet judging by the "signs of 

 the times," I feel to agree with Mr. 

 Scholl, that "they are bound to become 

 more popular in the future than they 

 have in the past." 



Mr. Scholl gives good counsel when 

 he advises bee-keepers, no matter how 

 well-informed, against making a radi- 

 cal change from the deep to the shallow 

 hive ; and, as he says, the better way 

 is first to try a feiv and see how they 

 are liked. As a rule, stampeding is apt 

 to end in disgust, and possibly in disas- 

 ter. Wholesale changing of styles of 

 hives in use without any experimenting, 

 is no exception to the rule. 



When to Supersede Queens. 



C. P. Dadant's contribution on page 

 46, on the much-debated subject, at 

 what age to supersede queens, forms in- 

 teresting reading. No doubt J. E. 

 Hand and a few others will think Mr. 

 Dadant's summing up, a trifle too se- 

 vere when he says that "the idea of 

 replacing queens every year is prepos- 

 terous." My limited experience would 

 go to uphold the truth of Mr. Dadant's 

 deductions, as I use a very large brood- 

 nest, hence if there is anything in the 

 theory of xuorking queens to death, a 

 large number of my queens should fail 

 in the second year. However, such is 

 not the case, as I find nearly all of my 



queens are as good the second year as 

 in the first. 



To be sure, some of the queens fail 

 \n their first year to come up to what 

 they should be, and in that case I ^WJuld 

 not expect them to be any good the 

 second year. But generally speaking, a 

 queen that gives good results the first 

 year, other conditions being equal, will 

 give equally good service the next sea- 

 son. 



In looking over the opinions of differ- 

 ent authorities quoted from by Mr. Da- 

 dant, I was surprised to find the age 

 limit of queens given at 4 to 5 years. 

 Last spring we had a Carniolan queen 

 that died in her 7th year. There is no 

 question about the reliability of this 

 statement as suflScient data can be fur- 

 nished to prove its accuracy. The queen 

 was clipped, in fact all her wings were 

 shorn close to lier back — good evidence, 

 by the way, that clipping does not cause 

 superseding. For S years her colony 

 was one of the best in the apiary, the 

 6th season they were in fair condition, 

 and in the early part of the 7th year 

 the queen was superseded. During the 

 last 2 years the queen looked more like 

 a large ant than a bee, and she was kept 

 only as a curiosity. While as stated, 

 the colony headed by this queen was 

 always an extra one, strange to say the 

 daughter reared in supersedure is no 

 good. Which goes to show that "like 

 does not always produce like." 



Honey-'Vinegar. 



The same writer says in January Re- 

 view that honey-vinegar will keep only 

 a short space of time, and that this is 

 the reason that store-keepers will not 

 sell it. With us honey-vinegar has al- 

 ways kept as long as it got a chance 

 to keep, and storekeepers will handle it; 

 in fact, I knew of one merchant who 

 sold hardly anything else in the vinegar 

 line. We hesitate to overburden "lo- 

 cality," so, I will not even hazard a 

 guess as to why honey-vinegar behaves 

 so differentlv in California and Onta- 



Bee-Keepers a Clean People. 



Miss Trevarrow, in the January Ca- 

 nadian Bee Journal, says: 



"The Ontario bee-keepers take the 

 palm for giving the least trouble and 

 disturbing the uniform neatness of the 

 rooms, less than any body of people that 

 convenes at the York County Council 

 Chambers. If you want to be sure of 

 this, ask the caretaker ; he knows.'" 



Miss Trevarrow is right, at least the 

 caretaker, prefacing his remarks with 

 some very expressive qualifying ad- 

 jectives told mc without any asking that 

 ■'you bee-keepers are the cleanest lot of 

 people I have ever had in this hall to 

 look after." .\t least three different 

 caretakers of other public halls have 

 made similar remarks to the writer, at 

 former conventions of the Ontario As- 

 sociation. 



No, it is not my purpose to resolve 

 ourselves into a "mutual admiration so- 

 ciety," yet such opinions are something 

 to be proud of and should serve as an 

 incentive to individual efforts towards 



making I'ulurc meetings just a little bet- 

 ter llian those of the past. 



Editor Hurley, of the Canadian Bee 

 Journal, speaking in egotistic terms of 

 the progress made by the A. I. Root 

 Co. — particularly of Gleanings — says re- 

 garding the senior editor's department 

 of "Our Homes" in that journal; 



"It is a tower of strength to Glean- 

 inf;s, notwithstanding the fact that much 

 tlierein written all may not agree with. 

 We are at one with him, however, on 

 the temperance question." 



Our personal acquaintance with Mr. 

 Hurley has been only for a short time, 

 and his views on the temperance ques- 

 tion were not known to the writer, 

 but say, as an editor of a bee-paper, 

 we might have known that he was sure 

 to be a temperance advocate ! 



Right along this line of thought, Dr. 

 Miller says in Gleanings: "I wonder, 

 now, whether a greater proportion of 

 prohibitionists may not be found among 

 bee-keepers than among any other class, 

 not even excepting ministers." Whether 

 the doctor's surmise is correct or not, 

 it has always been a source of pleasure 

 to number among my bee-keeping 

 friends, so many, some not prohibtion- 

 ists in the strictest sense of the word, 

 yet the majority of whom are strict 

 temperance men. 



While the foregoing may not be strict- 

 ly apicultural literature, I feel sure read- 

 ers of Canadian Beedom will overlook 

 my temerity on this occasion, particu- 

 larly as we do not often transgress in 

 this respect. 



Poison Mixture for Rats and Mice. 



Some time ago, Mr. Crane, in one of 

 the bee-papers, recommended a mixture 

 of equal parts of arsenic, flour and su- 

 gar for poisoning mice; I tried it, and 

 at first thought it a failure as the mice 

 did not seem to disappear very fast. 

 However, I now believe it be a good 

 thing, as there is not the sign of a rat 

 or mouse in my three yards and build- 

 ings. . . 



The mixture seems to be slow in its 

 action, or, in other words, the vermin 

 are not particularly fond of it, but ulti- 

 mately they all nibble enough to "fix" 

 them. 



While I have never had much trou- 

 ble with mice, the lack has more than 

 been made up by destructive red squir- 

 rels, .''in account was given in these 

 columns some time ago as to how these 

 little rodents peeled all the paper from 

 the inside of a honey-house and wrought 

 other destruction as well. This year 

 again, a lot of trouble was done at the 

 same apiary before all the squirrels, 

 about 20 in all, were destroyed. .A large 

 number of walnut trees near the yard 

 is the drawing card, and after the nuts 

 are all gone, the honey-house and hiv»— 

 offer convenient harboring places, r-^ 

 sheer destructiveness I know 01 noth- 

 ing to equal these little rascals, and if a 

 pile of supers was clear on all sides, 

 Mr. Squirrel would disdain to walk 

 around, and proceed to chisel a hole 

 right through the center. I have not 

 so far been able to poison them, so I 

 have had to resort to the gun and 

 traps. 



