194 



June, 1915. 



{~^^^^-^ 



pounds per colony, and that means lots 

 of young bees for winter. Then, again, 

 no requeening was done at the home 

 yards, owing to poor season, while at 

 the north yard nearly all colonies have 

 young queens. 



Another factor is that, while our 

 bees at home had sufficient stores for 

 wintering, yet they have not had quite 

 enough in many cases to allow the bees 

 to go ahead rearing brood fast, even if 

 the weather was too cool to allow 

 much gathering of stores, honey or 

 pollen. Up north every hive was filled 

 solid in the fall, owing to the late flow 

 from asters, and the bees have an un- 

 limited source to draw on. In fact, in 

 many cases it is necessary to extract 

 some of the combs so as to give the 

 queens room to lay eggs, as the hives 

 were actually " honey-bound," as we 

 sometimes say. Between the two ex- 

 tremes of having too much honey in 

 the hives, as compared with the pros- 

 pect of having to feed many here soon, 

 unless fruit bloom yields better than 

 usual, needless to say which I prefer, 

 especially when sugar is as dear as at 

 present. 



While it is a little trouble to lighten 

 the brood-nests of honey, yet the work 

 is well paid for, as the honey is fair and 

 sells readily, more than paying for all 

 the work, to say nothing of having the 

 satisfaction of knowing that the colo- 

 nies are in first-class condition. While 

 fall feeding is a necessity very often in 

 our locality, spring feeding is always a 

 calamity in my judgment, and only 

 practiced when absolutely necessary to 

 avoid starvation and keep brood from 

 suffering. 



*-•-♦ 



How to Handle Combs Filled With 

 Candied or Granulated Honey 



Quite a number are inquiring as to 

 what to do with combs filled with can- 

 died or granulated honey. Some are 

 melting them, thinking that the only 

 way to get rid of the honey in the 

 combs. I have a few of these combs 

 filled with honey from the hard maple 

 a year ago, and I shall not melt them 

 up unless it is absolutely necessary. If 

 these combs are given to strong colo- 

 nies later on in the season, I feel sure 

 they will be all right, for even if some 

 of this honey is thrown out by the 

 bees, that is better than melting up 

 good combs. 



In looking at a few such combs to- 

 day I could see quite a difference 

 already, as the honey was much softer 

 than a few weeks ago. With real warm 

 weather later on, I feel sure that every- 

 thing will be all right, so go slowly in 

 melting up good brood-combs that are 

 worth as much as real cash to the bee- 

 keeper. 



*-•-» 



Old Combs 



"The older the combs of the brood- 

 chamber the more cocoons they con- 

 tain," page l.")2, May American Bee 

 Journal. I wonder if that is strictly a 

 fact, or is there a limit to the amount 

 of cocoons the bees allow to gather in 

 the cells. Today I have been handling 

 some combs that must be at least 'Mj 

 years old ; perhaps they are 10. They 

 were used by my grandfather, and he 

 has been dead about 25 years. In so 

 far as I could see, these combs had 



A GROUP OF BEE ENTHUSIASTS AT A ?TELD MEET IN HARRISON, ONTARIO 



cells just as large as combs only two 

 or three years old, and the bees hatched 

 in them were just as normal in one 

 comb as in another. It hardly seems 

 reasonable to believe that these cells 

 have cocoons of 40 years' accumula- 

 tion, and i am of the opinion that the 

 bees in some way remove the cocoons 

 when they begin to interfere too much 

 with the normal size of the cells. 



Beekeeping in North Carolina 



Inquiries are coming in to me as to 

 the possibilities of beekeeping in North 

 Carolina. This is because my father 

 "winters " in that State, and thinks so 

 highly of it as a bee country. I have 

 little first hand information of the 

 country aside from what father tells 

 me, and even if I knew a// about the 

 place, perhaps our North Carolina bee- 

 keeping friends might not thank me 

 for telling it publicly. 



My father stays near Democrat, a 



small village about 20 miles from Ash- 

 ville. I understand that around the 

 latter place it is not very good for bee- 

 keeping, as there is a lot of scrub oak 

 and other things that do not produce 

 honey. Where father visits they pro- 

 duce beautiful honey. I have prima 

 I'licic evidence in a pail of splendid 

 basswood honey, for which my thanks 

 are due Mr. Samms, of Mars' Hill. 



Two years ago some other friends 

 sent me samples of locust, and from 

 another source of which I am not sure 

 as to name, and in both cases the honey 

 was delicious and as good as we pro- 

 duce here in Ontario, and that is " going 

 some." No doubt there are difficulties, 

 as elsewhere, and the beekeepers' path 

 is not all a bed of roses, but I think 

 that North Carolina is a pretty good 

 place to keep bees. Poor roads are 

 very much in evidence, I believe, and 

 the transportation question in the mat- 

 ter of establishing apiaries, etc., is one 

 of the ma-n drawbacks of the country. 



Notes From ^ Ab r oad 



By C. p. Dadant. 



Nice, a well-named city, was our next 

 stopping point. Those of our readers 

 who have followed these " Notes," since 

 the beginning, will perhaps remember 

 that, in the number for February, 11)14, 

 I made mention of a college mate who 

 had become a general in the French 

 army. His headquarters were at Nice. 

 We had not met each other for ")0 

 years, not since our boyhood, when we 

 had sat side by side on the college 

 benches. It was a treat to meet him. 

 However, our pleasure was marred by 

 two incidents. A trolley accident had 

 killed 17 soldiers of the garrison two 

 days previously, and an immense mili- 

 tary funeral was under way when we 



arrived. In addition, my wife was 

 made sick by some accidental cause. I 

 had to hunt up a doctor. This was not 

 a very pleasant thing to do when you 

 are 4000 miles away from home. The 

 physician attributed her complaint to 

 ptomaine poisoning, and advised a 

 couple days of rest. We were thus tied 

 down for a short time. This was the 

 only unpleasant incident in the entire 

 voyage. 



I called at the home of Mr. Balden- 

 sperger, who is one of the oldest and 

 most e.xperienced apiarists of the Old 

 World, and whose home is at Nice, 

 but he was at his country place, some 

 30 miles away. The neighbor lady who 



