April, 191 [. 



American Vae Journal 



hoJe 2 feet deep through the soil, and we 

 came to the ver>' finest of sand which sup- 

 plied us an abundance for the whole build- 

 in?. We plastered the walls on the inside, 

 and applied cement plaster, rough finish, 

 to the outside, covering the roof with cor- 

 rugated iron. As can be seen there is a 

 chimney and flue at each end so that — 

 should we wish it — a stove could be easily 

 placed almost anywhere, either upstairs 

 or down. We use the downstairs room, 

 which is 14 feet wide and i6 feet long, 

 for a scraping and casting and general 

 bee-™"ork room. This room is 8 feet high. 

 The upstairs is .^ feet at the eaves, and 

 about 10 feet at the center. This room 

 is used for storing supers filled with sec- 

 tions, and also hives of extra combs. It 

 is reached by mcians of a stairway from 

 the general work-room below. The up- 

 stairs store-room has two windows in each 

 end. so that if some of the windows are 

 darkened by having supers piled in front 

 of them there will still be at least one 

 window where light may enter for any 

 work — wedging up supers, or scraping sep- 

 arators. 



A large door on the opposite side of the 

 building from which the picture is taken, 

 opens to the alley, so that supers can be 

 loaded from the upstairs room directly to 



and from this room without carrying up 

 and d'own the stairs. We have had 2000 

 filled supers in the room at one time, and 

 there is nearly that many there now. This 

 room is the same size as the downstairs 

 room in floor space, but the walls, being 

 lower on the sides, there is not so much 

 storage space. As we did the work our- 

 selves, the cost for material did not ex- 

 ceed $50.00. It is the best honey-hoiase 

 we ever had, and I do mot think that I 

 have ever seen a better one that was rea- 

 sonable enough in price for the average 

 bee-keeper who depneds on the bees to 

 furnish him a living. 



The downistairs room has 3 windows, 

 and one window in the door. One door 

 opens toward the house on the south, and 

 lets in the sunshine, and the other door 

 opens on the alley, for unloading honey 

 and loading out the cased comb honey 

 for shipment. 



By having a good fire going in this 

 room, one can do the winter work with 

 supers comfortably. The building is hard- 

 ly large enough for all our supplies, as 

 you see more hive covers and bottoms 

 stored in a piano-box at the end of the 

 building. Some of our syrup-feeding 

 troughs, for feeding the bees in the open, 

 are also shown under the window. 



Conducted by J. L. Byer. Mt. Joy, Ontario. 



Size of Hive for Farm Bee-Keeping 



A farmer in Nova Scotia who is think- 

 ing of keeping bees to a limited extent, 

 writes me asking wihat size of hive I 

 woudd advise him to use. He says that 

 he w.ill not be able to give the bees very 

 close attention, as he is always busy on the 

 farm. While bees in any style or size of 

 hive require some attention, yet experi- 

 ence has taught me that a large hive will 

 give better satisfaction than a small one, 

 for the production of extracted honey, 

 for a given amount of labor and atten- 

 tion. Consequently I advised this farmer 

 to use the lo-frame Jumbo size of hive, 

 as for the conditions outlined in his 

 inquiry, I believe it is a far better hive 

 than the standard Langstroth. 



In this connection, I might say that I 

 always advise beginners who contemplate 

 specializing in bee-keeping, to use the 

 stajidard Langstroth frame, yet I frankly 

 confess that for my own personal use, I 

 wouild, if starting over again, be quite 

 likely to use the deeper frame I have rec- 

 ommended to my farmer friend. 



to ratify the Bill. Personally, I am with 

 the majority of bee-keepers here in On- 

 tario, who depend upon bee-keeping for 

 a living, and who are much opposed to the 

 free entry of honey into Canada. I be- 

 lieve if our American cousins were in the 

 position that fwe are, they too would feel 

 as we do. 



For some reason our markets for ex- 

 tracted honey are considerably higher than 

 those ruling in the States — if such were 

 not the case, reciprocity in honey would 

 not cut much of a figure one way or the 

 other. With the free entry of honey into 

 Canada, prices will be on a level for the 

 two countries — that is the only 'logical con- 

 clusion. "Selfish," sojme one says. Well, 

 perhaps so to a certaj.n extent, but when it 

 is a question of bread and butter, a cer- 

 tain amount of selfishness is justifiable. 

 However, I am not worrying about the 

 matter any more, as I have learned that 

 it is no use to trouble about things that 

 are beyond my controil. If honey must be 

 cheaper, I suppose I will have to follow 

 Hutchinson's advice and "keep more bees" 

 in order to make up the falling off in my 

 annual income. 



The Tariff on Honey 



At the Brantford convention, held in 

 February, a resolution was passed ask- 

 ing the Dominion Government not to 

 change the present tariff on honey. I note 

 in one of our dailies that the said reso- 

 lutrion was, with many others of a like 

 tenor, duly brought before the House, but 

 as the terms of the reciprocity measure 

 seem to call for "all or none," it looks 

 doubtful that any changes wilJ be made 

 by the Canadian Parliament, which body 

 of legislators will surely pass the bill, as it 

 has been made a party measure. 



All of us who are opposed to the meas- 

 ure, are now in the unique position of 

 looking to Washington for relief, and quite 

 possibly many Canadians are wishing that 

 the extra session of Congress will refuse 



Bees Long Confined in Winter 



A bee-keeper in Pennsylvania who, in 

 addition to being a honey-producer, is aiso 

 a comrmerciaJ queen-rearer, writes me ask- 

 ing why it is that our bees here in On- 

 tario will go 4 to 5 months without a 

 flight in the winter, and come through all 

 right. He says that in Pennsylvania where 

 he (lives, a confinement of from g to 10 

 weeks is sure to work havoc with the bees, 

 as many colonies will die from dysentery, 

 no miatter whether the stores be honey or 

 sugar syrup. 



I frankly admit that I can give no ex- 

 plantation, and the same thought has often 

 come to me as I have read of harm be- 

 ing done to colonies after a cold spell of 

 a few weeks in the more southern parts 

 of the continent. The Pennsylvania 



friend referred to packs his bees in prac- 

 tically the same way that we do here in 

 Ontario, and as the climate is colder here 

 than it is with him, it certaintly seems 

 strange that they should have trouble in 

 wintering their bees when they can have 

 a flight so much oftener than ours can. 



Last month, in commenting on the long 

 confinement our bees were having this 

 winter, I expressed the hope that in next 

 m-ontih's notes I might be able to say that 

 our bees had at last had a cleansing flight. 

 I am glad to say that the hope has been 

 realized. On February 25th, the sun shone 

 brightly, and some bees tliat were in a 

 sheltered place flew quite a bit, but the 

 flight was rather a detriment than other- 

 wise, as with a cold wind many bees per- 

 ished in the loose snow. Of course, only 

 a small percentage of the colonies were 

 stirred up at all at that date, and not till 

 March 13th and 14th, did they have a 

 chance to have a cleansing flight. As they 

 flew last on October 26t)h, they were con- 

 fined for 4 months and 18 days. 



Now, according to the way it seems to 

 work out in Pennsylvania, the bees should 

 certainly have been in pretty bad shape. 

 However, I am glad to say that no such 

 bad results have occurred. So far as I 

 can see by outward examination, the 

 bees in the Cashel, Altoma, and Mark- 

 ham yards have wintered perfectly, not 

 a colony showing any signs of having ex- 

 perienced distress. In the home apiary 

 about a dozen colonies suffered with dys- 

 entery. 2 or 3 of them to such an extent 

 that they will perisih. However, "there's 

 a reason." as these bees were all moved 

 in December, and the night after moving 

 the thermometer dropped to below zero, 

 and for 4 weeks following we had the 

 severest weather in the winter. Bees can 

 often be moved in the winter with no ill 

 results — but I am now convinced that the 

 opposite results are also possible. Of this 

 more in a future issue. 



Again the Long-Tongue Bee 



After having waved the flag of truce as 

 I did in the December issue, I was rather 

 surprised to see, on page 70, that Dr. Mil- 

 ler had again taken up nearly a page of 

 the Journal, for the purpose of castigat- 

 ing the writer for the offense of having 

 characterized the Jong-tongue mania of a 

 few years ago, as a "humbug." I had 

 thought the matter ended, and instead of 

 asking the questions Dr. Miller refers to 

 for his especial consideration, they were 

 rather given for the readers at large, as 

 he had placed me in such a position that 

 it became necessary to reply to his argu- 

 ments, or else by silence declare that I 

 was altogether wrong in the statements 

 I had made. 



Now as to the statement I made about 

 the idea of the bees' tongues being length- 

 ened in the "course of a few short 

 months," I must say regardless of all the 

 Doctor has said about sports in roses be- 

 ing perpetuated, that I still believe with 

 the minority that believe that anything in 

 the nature o;f "swearing" is entirely su- 

 perfluous, to say the least, so far as mak- 

 ing one tell the truth is concerned. But 

 as judge and jury are quite willing to ac- 

 cept my "yes" or "no" in a court of law, 

 I suppose you will not question my veraci- 

 ty when I say "yes,"' most emphatically, 

 to your question. 



No, I didn't count the bees on the clo- 

 ver, but I did look into the supers and 

 brood-nests, ridiculous as the idea may 

 seem. And when I found many cononies 

 of my own stock with 50 per cent more 

 honey from the clover than had those of 

 the long-tongued variety, is it any wonder 

 that I used that awful word "humbug," 

 when referring to them? After all, that 

 word .should not cause any resentment to 

 you. Doctor, because so well known a man 



