1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



281 



Notes from Canada 



By It. F. HOLTERMANX 



So l>r. Miller has twice had "the last 

 \vord"ui)on the rights of bee-keepers to a 

 location. Seeing that he has a good many 

 sound arguments to reply to. his opjwrtuni- 

 ties have not exceeded his needs. 



PREVENT ROBBING. 



To .lacob Alpaugh, inspector of apiaries, 

 credit is due for the idea of warning, by let- 

 ter, the bee-keepers in foul-brood districts 

 against allowing bees to rob out hives in 

 which colonies perished during the winter 

 or earlv spring. [This is very important. — 

 Ed.] 



the weather. 

 It is scarcely necessary to say that the 

 weather has been very remarkable. During 

 the week beginning April 4 the bees had a 

 royal time on soft maple, willow, etc.; they 

 flew heavily loaded; and whatever the out- 

 come may be, so far they have had a better 

 chance to secure stimulative food than they 

 have had for years. 



CHUNK HONEY. 



Wesley Foster, page 209, April 1, condemns 

 the idea of producing chunk honey in Colo- 

 rado. In Ontario, to encourage the produc- 

 tion of comb honey in large frames, cutting 

 this out and putting pieces of comb in ves- 

 sels, and pouring extracted honey on it, 

 would be a great mistake because of our 

 rapidly granulating northern honey. Think 

 of a customer buying this on faith as partly 

 conib, or think of the dealer trying to show 

 the customer the comb honey submerged in 

 the granulated extracted. I doubt if people 

 have faith enough in one another in Ontario 

 to deal in this way very extensively. 

 <fe. 



THICK SYRUP. 



On page 206, April 1, the editor refers to 

 thick syrup fed late, stating that '"good re- 

 sults" were obtained, etc. Where there are 

 .some natural stores, especially if they are of 

 doubtful (piality, the later the bees are fed 

 the better, if the syrup is thick. Let the 

 bees consume the inferior stores while they 

 can fly. Then by late feeding are the bees 

 not less likely to start brood-rearing? and 

 will there not be less excitement and waste? 

 I would consider the recapitulation by the 

 editor excellent, only I would dwell a little 

 more strongly on the danger of honey-dew 

 in winter stores. [Your point is a good one. 

 By feeding late we gi\ e the bees an oppor- 

 tunity to use up as far as possible their old 

 and undesirable stores, such stores as would 

 not be suitable for a winter food. This may 

 account in part for the good results follow- 

 ing our late feeding. 



It is also true that early feeding has a ten- 

 dency to stimulate brood-rearing, especially 



if that syrup is thin. The wear and tear on 

 the bees in reducing this syrup to the proper 

 consistency so pulls down their vitality that 

 some of them die even before winter actual- 

 ly comes on. Feeding always has a ten- 

 dency to force the bees out in flight, and if 

 the weather should be a little chilly many 

 will be lost. Very late feeding with thick 

 syrup in weather too cold for bees to fly can 

 not force them out, and, what is more, the 

 syrup is immediately stored. As a result 

 there is little or no wear and tear on the 

 bees that must necessarily undergo the rig- 

 ors of winter.— Ed.] 



CONDITION OF BEES. 



It is probably a good many years since 

 bees in Ontario have come through the win- 

 ter as M'ell as they have this season. Colo- 

 nies wintered in the cellar or packed outside 

 (I have both) are alike in good shape. Dur- 

 ing the past week, beginning April 4, 1 went 

 through nearly all the colonies, examining 

 them sufficiently to determine that they 

 had ijueens and did not lack stores. I found 

 plenty of capped drone brood, but, so far as 

 I can now remember, there did not appear 

 to be much hatching worker brood. Is this 

 because the winter was so very steady, and 

 the bees remained in their packing quietly 

 clustered? [There were plenty of young 

 bees in this locality at this time. — Ed.] 

 -^ 



SEALED COVERS VS. ABSORBENTS. 



On page 207, April 1, the editor, in part. 

 states: "We have a suspicion that those 

 who so loudly champion the absorbing-cush- 

 ion plan of wintering may not have test- 

 ed side by side the sealed-cover and absorb- 

 ing-cushion plan."" May not conditions 

 have much to do with this'question? I have 

 known of cases where prolonged cold, at a 

 time when the hives were not covered by 

 snow, resulted in the entrance being frozen 

 up or practically so by the condensing mois- 

 ture. When the moisture passes up through 

 the packing there is no danger of this. 



Then /"have a suspicion" that these 

 covers are not sealed if sealing means that 

 no moisture passes up and is absorbed by 

 the packing. In painted hives I have been 

 surprised to find moisture pass through the 

 ^-inch wall and then form a blister between 

 the board and paint. I ha^e. however, a 

 case this sirring where a colony wintered 

 well, although, through an oversight, hav- 

 ing a hive-cover that was covered on to]) 

 and the sides with galvanized iron; yet I 

 have not sufhcient faith in the method to 

 try the plan. Locality surely has something 

 to do with results; in "the extreme northerly 

 apicultural sections, in my estimation seal- 

 ed covers are risky. fWe quite agree with 

 you that conditions ha\e much to do with 

 this question. In localities where the en- 

 trance is liable to be sealed with ice, the ab- 

 sorbent plan doubtless would be better. 



When we refer to "sealed covers" we 

 mean those that are secured by the ordinary 

 propolis sealing. They may or may not be 

 hermetically tight. — FiD.] 



