March. 1918 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



oxtractoil; sold at 15e, $31.50. His boos 

 wintered in an iinderiiround cellar, removed 

 in April in good shape; were fed a little to 

 stimulate brood rearing np to Juno 15; large 

 space was given queen for brood rearing; 

 on Jul. 8 this colony swarmed, and returned 

 to the eight-frame hive of full-sheet comb 

 foundation and queen-excluder on top with 

 another hive like this above; lower hive- 

 body raised one inch for better ventilation; 

 as fast as needed more hive bodies with 

 foundation were added, each time giving 

 new sujier next to brood chamber; Aug. 25 

 the supers of honey weighing 300 lbs. were 

 extracted, getting 210 lbs. of white honey, 

 which was disjilayed at the State Fair, sold 

 to Wisconsin University at 15 cts., and dis- 

 I>layed at the State Beekeepers convention 

 at Madison. There were enough winter 

 stores left in the colony, which was examin- 

 ed Oct. 11, and found well supplied. Mr. 

 Alger says he would have received still more 



from this colony had he removed all queen 

 cells in tlie old hive at swarming time and 

 placed it above the hive with queen and 

 full sheets of comb foundation, using queen 

 excluder between. Combs are attached to 

 bottom-bar better from full sheets of comb 

 foundation placed above a queen excluder 

 than from those below. 



Many Wisconsin beekeepers are now ask- 

 ing where and how to get feed for spring 

 feeding. I am glad February Gleanings print- 

 ed an article on that subject. 



Snow in southern Wisconsin is now 18 

 inches on the level, which means clover is 

 well covered. Northern Wisconsin has less 

 snow. 



Wisconsin bees are wintering well except 

 those in single-walled hives outside. 



Next week I will be in Madison, planning 

 the season 's work of the State against bee 

 diseases. N. E. France. 



I 



N 



'-,ro?es,"'u NOTES FROM CANADA 



J. L. Byer, Markham, Ont. 



was stated 

 that the month 

 of December was bitterly cold and now the 

 same must be said of the January just past. 

 Colder even than the former month with 

 almost continuous below-zero weather with- 

 out even the slightest thaw. Oflficially we 

 are told that it is 50 years since we have 

 had a January with as low a mean tempera- 

 ture for the month, and unofficially many of 

 us will say it was the meanest too for that 



matter. 



* * * 



On page 89, Dr. Miller asks why nothing 

 is said about packing on the bottoms of hives. 

 While I still have quite a lot of old hives 

 with bottom packing, and said bottoms are 

 rapidly rotting out — one of their failings by 

 the way — needless to tell you. Doctor, that 

 all new-packed hives or packing cases have 

 none of this packing in the bottom. I do 

 not wish to get into a scrap with any scien- 

 tific man on this subject because of the 

 surety of being- worsted, yet the simple fact 

 is that, in common with other beekeepers, I 

 find no difference in results whether bottoms 

 are i>aeked or unpacked. 



* » * 



Going thru the grocery department of a 

 large dejiartmental store last week, I fo\;r, 1 

 that they had not a pound of extracted 

 honey altho they usually handle be- 

 tween two and three hundred thousand 

 pounds each year. Moreover, they did not 

 know where to get more. Ali the honey they 

 had for sale was a small suj)ply of comb 

 from Nevada. Doubtless a car-load had been 

 brought thru by some wliolesaler in the city. 

 It was retailing for 28 cts. and 30 ets. per 

 section according to grade. Some of the 

 honey was "weeping" Tsadly but there was 



little breakage 

 in what I ex- 

 amined altho the 

 honey was very 

 poorly fastened to the sections. In many 

 cases the sides of the sections were only 

 touching the wood in two or three spots, the 

 bottoms not touching at all, and I judged 

 that only starters had been used. How this 

 honey came thru the long haul without being 

 all smashed up is a wonder, but of course 

 some may have been smashed for all that I 

 know as I am just speaking of the few cases 

 I had the privilege of inspecting. 



Not long ago a certain doctor in Illinois, 

 famous as a dispenser of bee lore, made 

 some comparisons in the matter of climate 

 of said State and that of Ontario, inferring 

 that they had much more wind to contend 

 with than we have over here. An editor 

 also backed him up in these contentions. 

 Most earnestly did we wish for the privi- 

 lege of having both of these gentlemen with 

 us on Jan. 12 and letting them stand 

 exposed for an hour or two to the gentle 

 breezes that were blowing on that date and 

 for a few days in succession for that mat- 

 ter. Methinks that they would be ready to 

 admit that we have some wind here in On- 

 tario and that it was cold enough too. On 

 the night of Jan. 11 we had a light 

 snow-fall from the east with moderate tem- 

 perature, and then about 8 o 'clock A. M. of 

 Jan. 12 the wind changed to the southwest, 

 the temperature dropped to 15 below and the 

 wind had a velocity of 60 miles on hour. 

 This continued for over 48 hours giving us 

 the coldest and most severe storm on record. 

 Many hives of bees were fortunately covered 

 up with snow but others facing south and 

 having no protection from that direction, 



