August, 1908. 



American Hee Jonrnal j| 



plaining. While not in a buckwheat sec- 

 tion, yet this year quite a large acreage 

 of this plant has been sown, and with the 

 nice rain now falling (July 17), pros- 

 pects are good for at least enough buck- 

 wheat honey for winter stores. 



liuckwheat as a Honey-Plant. 



Speaking of buckwheat, I am at a 

 loss to know if the plant yields no 

 honey early in the season, or whether 

 the bees will not work on it when 

 clover is in bloom. A large amount of 

 buckwheat came up among the oats and 

 other grain, one field of 10 acres being 

 literally white with the blossoms during 

 the time clover was in bloom, yet, al- 

 though we had a few mornings that one 

 would think were ideal for the buck- 

 wheat to secrete nectar, scarcely a bee 

 could be found upon the blossoms, and 

 our honey from the clover was never 

 whiter in color. As the bees do not 

 work on clover in the early forenoon, 

 at a time when buckwheat yields best, 

 I was agreebly surprised to find it was 

 not touched, as we fully expected to 

 have our clover hon&y with a buckwheat 

 flavor. 



Few Swarms — Forming Nuclei. 



In our apiaries we had only 8 swarms 

 this year. At the one yard with no one 

 in charge, only 2 examinations of the 

 brood-chamber were made, and as no. 

 inclination towards swarming was no- 

 ticed, I decided that unless conditions 

 changed not to bother them any more. 

 Today (July 17), with the clover flow 

 over, I find that no swarms have left, 

 so the apiary is in grand condition for 

 a buckwheat flow, should it come. 



When making the second examination 

 of the bees two combs of brood were 

 taken from nearly every colony, and the 

 extra breeding-room given to the queens 

 jitst at this stage may have somewhat 

 discouraged swarming. All this brood 

 taken away was tiered up on 5 weaker 

 colonies, and one week later was used 

 in forming nuclei. By the way, some 

 SO nuclei thus formed this season had 

 queens introduced so successfully that 

 I would not care if I never had a sin- 

 gle swarm as far as getting increase 

 is concerned. In the whole lot 3 queens 

 were lost, one by accident, and I strong- 

 ly suspect the other 2 were virgins, so, 

 all things considered, I was very well 

 satisfied with results. 



The one loss characterized as an "ac- 

 cident" was caused by the queen in one 

 colony over which the brood was tiered 

 up, getting through the excluder. When 

 forming the nuclei she was not noticed, 

 and when a week later looking into one 

 nucleus I was surprised to see a clipped 

 queen. On looking in front of the hive, 

 as might be expected, the young queen 

 was lying there dead. I have formed 

 many nuclei on the plan outlined, and 

 this is the first "accident" of this na- 

 ture that I have had, so I shall keep 

 on using this method until I hear of 

 something better. 



Milkweed and Its Sticky Pollen. 



If I am correct, milkweed is quite a 

 yielder of surplus in localities where it 

 grows in abundance. Judging by the 

 eagerness with which the bees work on 



the*blossoms, one can well believe that 

 the plant yields nectar abundalitly. Milk- 

 weed does not yield its nectar to the 

 bees, however, without exacting a heavy 

 toll from the bu.sy little workers. On 

 the few scattered patches around here, 

 during the period of bloom, quite a few 

 dead bees were noticed fastened to the 

 stringy attachments of the flowers. Just 

 what does the damage, I am not quite 

 sure, but the pollen seems to be weblike 

 and sticky, entangling the poor bee like 

 a spider's web. A few days ago, while- 

 standing watching the bees coming in. 

 a bee was noticed twirling around in the 

 air, and then it fell to the ground just a 

 short distance from me. On examina- 

 tion I found these milkweed webs en- 

 tangling the bee, which had managed 

 to tear away from the plant, but after 

 all fell a victim to the fatal web. 



I would be inclined to think that this 

 bad feature of the milkweed would seri- 

 ously decimate the population of the 

 hive, when the bees worked upon these 

 plants for any great length of time. 



Since writing the foregoing I have 

 referred to "A B C of Bee-Culture" and 

 find my crude explanation of the webs 

 to be very nearly correct. 



Ontario Bee-Inspection Work. 



Secretary Hodgetts has sent the Cana- 

 dian Bee Journal the following informa- 

 tion in regard to inspection work for 

 1908: 



Foul-Beood Inspectors Appointed. 



Five of the bee inspectors have been 

 appointed, as follows : 



J. L. Byer, Mount Joy — Victoria, Dur- 

 ham, Ontario and York. 



Wm. McKvoy, Woodburn — Halton, 

 Wentworth, Brant, Haldimand, Lincoln 

 and Welland. 



Jas. Armstrong, Cheapside — Norfolk, 

 Oxford, Waterloo and Wellington. 



W. A. Chrysler, Chatham — Essex. 

 Kent and Lambton. 



H. G. Sibbald, Claude— Peel, Dufferin, 

 Simcoe, Grey and Bruce. 



You will note that there is a redis- 



tribution of the counties, and we have 

 not as yet chosen a man for Middlesex, 

 Elgin, Perth and Huron. This appoint- 

 ment, I expect, will be made at the next 

 meeting of the Council, when I will 

 send you the additional name, at once. 



In reference to the eastern district, it 

 has been decided this year to send a 

 man down to these counties who is 

 thoroughly conversant with foul brood 

 in all its stages to make an expert ex- 

 amination of the apiaries in the most im- 

 portant centers. At the present time we 

 have no definite knowdedge that there is 

 any foul brood in these counties outside 

 of the attack of European foul brood 

 in the vicinity of Trenton. None of the 

 local bee-keepers there have had any 

 experience with the disease, and arc 

 therefore not competent to examine 

 apiaries to find out whether the disease 

 is at all prevalent. It is likely that the 

 man who is sent down will be in a posi- 

 tion to point out to the bee-keepers in 

 any place that he may visit the diarac-- 

 teristics of the disease, should he find 

 it existing there, so that in future we 

 will have men in the east familiar with 

 the disease. P. W. Hodgetts. 



Before going to press we have re- 

 ceived further information from Mr. 

 P. W. Hodgetts in reference to the 

 appointment of foul brood inspectors. 

 He says : 



"The Minister of Agriculture has de- 

 cided to send Mr. Homer Burk, of 

 Highland Creek, fo look over the apiar- 

 ies in the eastern counties. He has in- 

 structions to spend considerable time 

 there during the buckwheat flow, and to 

 visit as many places as possible where 

 apiaries are to be found. Two more 

 inspectors have been appointed for the ■ 

 west. Middlesex and Elgin have been 

 placed under the charge of Mr. John 

 Newton, of Thamesford, while Huron 

 and Perth have been given to D. Chal- 

 mers, Poole. It was felt that as the 

 season was already well advanced, that 

 one man could not properly cover the 

 four counties, and it was therefore de- 

 cided to divide it in this manner." 



WS?iS? 



outhern 



Conducted by LOUIS H. SCHOLL, New Braunfels. Tex. 



Some Uusy Times in Texas. 



The fellow that's looking at you above 

 has been busier than his bees for several 

 months, harvesting over 40,000 pounds 

 of comb honey, almost all by his wee 

 little 6-fect-3 self, and, in consequence 

 of this, has been unable to keep up with 

 his pen-work, etc. That's the reason 

 some of the questions asked recently to 

 be answered through "Southern Bec- 

 dom" do' not appear this month. Hut 

 some of us believe in "making liay while 



the sun shines," and that's what we are 

 doing with our honey — the bettor half 

 and I! 



Moving Bees witli Open Hive- 

 Entrances. 



We see advised once in a while by 

 practical bee-keepers, the moving of bees 

 in daytime with the entrance of the 

 hives open. That this can be done, I 

 am not going to dispute. I have been 

 forced to do this more llian once myself, 



