January, 1913 



G L K A N I N G S IN BEE C U Ij T U R E 



37 



NOTES FROM CANADA 



]. L. Byer, Markham, Ont. 



A good authority tluisiastic iiiiholder of 

 preparation for winter 

 his sons are still following 

 steps in that regard. The 



WHERE are 

 we, any- 

 way, on 

 this subject of 

 winter packing for bees? 



living as far north as Syracuse, N. Y., wants 

 abundance of packing on top of the hives, 

 and some protection as well on the back and 

 sides, but nothing in the front. Still another 

 authority of international repute — Mr. C. P. 

 Dadant — endorses this method for Illinois; 

 and the editor of this journal (page 909) 

 at least gives countenance to. the idea by 

 giving it prominent editorial mention. And 

 yet the bald, cold, scientific truth as demon- 

 strated by authorities at Washington and 

 other places says that such protection is an 

 illusion. As a chain is just as strong as its 

 weakest linli, so packing around a hive is 

 just as effective in proportion to the least 

 protected part of the hive. "While we are 

 loath to disagree with scientific findings, yet 

 there is no question that those who have 

 tried out these things for a number of years 

 in a large way will be inclined to agree with 

 the ideas of Mr. Dadant and others. Per- 

 sonally we want packing on all sides of the 

 hives, and an abundance on top. If forced 

 to dispense with any of this packing, as- 

 suredly we would choose to do with less on 

 the sides rather than to reduce the amount on 

 top of the hive. Experiments carried on in 

 our yards for a number of years have demon- 

 strated that for our climate, at least, the 

 primary factor toward good outside winter- 

 ing is an abundance of good stores, assum- 

 ing, of course, that the colony is normal in 

 every other way. Winter packing reduces 

 food consumption, and, incidentally, means 

 better wintering as a rule. With deep 

 frames, or with L. frames almost solid in the 

 late fall, bees will usually survive the win- 

 ter if provided with lots of packing on top 

 of the hives, even if the sides and ends are 

 unprotected. But with no packing over the 

 tops of the hives, altho the sides are well 

 protected, the heat continually escaping up- 

 ward will prove a great strain on the colony, 

 even if it does not succumb entirely. The 

 Demuth plan looks good to me if one chances 

 to be short of packing-cases, and I regret 

 that the plan did not come out in time for us 

 to try it out on a limited scale this winter. 

 If trying the plan, we would transfer the 

 seven combs as soon as the brood was hatch- 

 ed and then feed quite freely. A tall brood- 

 nest like that, with bees clustering near the 

 bottom of combs on end, with a great depth 

 of honey above the bees, constitutes simply 

 an ideal condition for good wintering, and 

 heavy side packing would not be necessary. 



. On page 910 it is stated that "it is in 

 line with the practice of our best beekeep- 

 ers " to have the summer brood-nest con- 

 tracted down to a space of two-thirds or 

 three-fourths of the full hive capacity, ' ' 

 when wintering outdoors. I wonder just 

 what proportion of our best beekeepers are 



really practicing 

 that plan. The 

 late Wm. Mc- 

 Evoy was an en- 

 this method of 

 and I suppose 

 in his foot- 

 plan is emi- 

 nently sound in theory and absolutely safe in 

 practice, but means a great lot of extra 

 work. While I feel quite sure that it would 

 pay, taking one year with another, yet we, 

 with many others of like convictions, must 

 plead guilty to wintering nearly all our bees 

 in the full-sized brood-nests that they have 

 in summer. Let us hear from some who con- 

 tract for wintering. For the last few years 

 I have been unable to find any extensive bee- 

 keeper putting the plan into general use. 



Brown sugar for wintering bees (see page 

 911) is decidedly risky unless climate is 

 taken into consideration. We tried the brown 

 sugar only once in a very limited way, and 

 the results were anything but satisfactory. 

 The late Mr. McEvoy told me that one year 

 it was hard to get granulated sugar, and he 

 fed some 20 colonies with brown sugar, do- 

 ing the work quite early in the fall, so that 

 all stores would be sealed nicely before cool 

 winter. But before spring all these colonies 

 had dysentery, many perishing outright while 

 all with the granulated sugar stores were in 

 perfect condition. 



Possibly the brown-sugar stores would do 

 in climates where bees have frequent flights; 

 but for cold localities where bees go for 

 many weeks without flight, brown sugar 

 would be a last resort and U5ed only when 

 nothing else was obtainable. 



* * * 



In a late issue of the American Bee Jour- 

 nal, in describing some of the things seen 

 while visiting Mr. France, of Wisconsin, 

 the staff correspondent mentions the fact 

 that their honey is always sold in the liquid 

 state. He further says that " the final 

 consumer nearly always requires his honey 

 in the liquid state." This must be a ques- 

 tion of " locality " again, as here in On- 

 tario, aside from the glass trade in extract- 

 ed honey, no effort is made to retard granu 

 lation, for about all customers expect to 

 find the honey in pails granulated. While 

 directions are on pails for liquefying, we 

 personally know that a great many consum- 

 ers prefer the honey granulated, especially 

 if it has a fine grain and texture. 



* * * 



A nice spell of warm weather in mid-No- 

 vember gave the bees a cleansing flight. At 

 present, Dec. 5, we are having nice ordinary 

 winter weather, and the bees are in seeming- 

 ly good condition. 



* * # 



Our buclcAvheat honey was sold at 13 cents 

 in barrels, and 13^ in tins — the sale being 

 made about five weeks ago. Now the same 

 grade of honey is s^^lling at 2 cents advance 

 over those prices. Where is the limit? 



