302 



American Hee Journal 



September, 1915. 



side issues to our line of business; 

 while at the same time beekeeping can 

 be carried on there as a sole business 

 successfully if properly managed and 

 enough property invested in it. 



Something About Sections 



For a number of years we have been 

 using all the regular sized sections as 

 sent out by our manufacturers, namely, 

 ■l,'4xl>^, S'fiXbxl'/i, 4x5xl-;s plain, and 

 iXxlyi — 2 beeway in the comb-honey 

 part of our business, and we have kept 

 close watch of results in point of pro- 

 duction and marketing, and it has been 

 our experience that we can get more 

 plain sections filled than beeway, and 

 just a little more honey stored, ali told, 

 net weight, but the bad feature (espe- 

 cially since the net weight law came 

 about) is that they are not so well filled ; 

 the comb is not nearly so well attached 

 to the sides of the sections, and it is 

 " pulled " away from the wood and they 

 do not make good shippers. They 

 look " scant " to the consumer, and 

 they do not sell as well; in fact, there 

 is no sale for them on certain markets. 



The leading object in putting out a 

 "tall" section was to "stretch" the 

 contents out and make it appear larger 

 and more attractive to the buyer, but 

 in this it has been a failure. Besides 

 here, where comb honey is subject to 

 the ravages of the lesser moth from 

 the time it is removed until it is con- 

 sumed, it is almost impossible to keep 

 it for any length of time, and it must 

 be consumed in a short time after 

 removal. The comb surfaces come so 

 close together after it is packed that it 

 makes a good harboring place for the 

 lesser moths, which make many pas- 

 sages between the sections of honey 

 and plow up the cappings until they 

 are soiled, and in most cases the honey 

 will ooze out. Such is not the case 

 with the beeway section. Then, too, 

 the surface is not so well protected 

 from handling and wrapping as in the 

 beeway. So there is no style or size 

 so good as the regular standard bee- 

 way 4k open top and bottom section. 



Requeening 



It is surprising to know how fast 

 beekeepers for the last few years have 

 learned the importance of requeening 

 their bees. Queen breeders, as a rule, 

 are overrun with orders most of the 

 time, so much so that they cannot be 

 prompt in filling orders, and dissatis- 

 faction arises from time to time among 

 those who have to buy queens. 



Notwithstanding there are many 

 more queen breeders in the field than 

 formerly, and those all the time greatly 

 equipping and increasing the output of 

 their business. The beekeeper who has 

 never tried requeening may entertain 

 a doubt as to whether it pays, and may 

 refrain from doing so. There is no 

 doubt about its paying, and the oppor- 

 tune time to do it is before winter. \ 

 colony with an old queen in the fall is 

 drifting towards a weakling or worth- 

 less colony for next spiing, simply be- 

 cause the queen has passed the best 

 period of her usefulness and fails to 



LOADING THE TRUCK 



lay eggs sufficiently to keep up the 

 colony. Take her out and introduce 

 a young one and note in a short while 

 the change in the activity and strength 

 of the colony; the brood-nest has been 

 greatly widened out and the field force 

 greatly strengthened. Pollen and nec- 

 tar from fall flowers are coming in, 

 and the colony gets into good winter- 

 ing condition, and will gather a honey 

 crop next spring. So returns from in- 

 vestments in good queens begin at 



once and continue for two years, as a 

 rule. This is a good investment. Try it 

 on the weak colonies in your apiary or 

 those which seem to be drifting down- 

 ward, and in this way make of them 

 your very best colonies. Change your 

 stock if you are not pleased with what 

 you have and are not reaping good re- 

 sults. The good queen-breeder will 

 stand back of the stock he sends out 

 and will make good your losses so far 

 as stock is concerned. 



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



Confusion in Names 



We often hear that be :keeping and 

 poultry keeping combine nicely as a 

 business, but it has remained for Mr. 

 Pettit, our provincial apiarist, to bring 

 this combination to a fine art. 



A Mr. Inglis, from Rainy River, asks 

 in the August number of the Canadian 

 Beekeeper, how to control swarming, 

 and also states that in the north coun- 

 try comb-honey production is not 

 profitable. After giving Mr. Inglis 

 some pointers on swarm control, Mr. 

 Pettit has this to say about comb honey 

 production in northern localities : " The 

 trouble with comb-honey production 

 where there are cool nights, is that the 

 supers cool off so that the /lens have 

 difficulty in working the wax." Ihe 

 first thing Mr. Pettit knows he will be 

 deluged with letters from poultrymen, 

 offering stock guaranteed to work in 

 any country no matter whether nights 

 are cool or hot. 



A Short Cut 



As one grows older in apiary work, 

 short cuts will be taken advantage of 



that, in earlier days, would not have 

 been thought of. For instance, yester- 

 day while at one of the outyards I 

 thought it better to examine a number 

 of colonies to see whether young 

 queens that had been hatched were 

 laying. .'Vs I was about to lift off the 

 super of the first of these colonies, I 

 happened to think that for about ten 

 days not a bit of nectar had been gath- 

 ered, and for this reason probably the 

 drones might be having a hard time of 

 it in colonies where a young fertile 

 queen was established. Sure enough 

 on looking at the entrance a bunch of 

 drones probably 20 in number, were 

 hugged up at one corner of the hive. 



No use to examine that hive, for that 

 was /'/■/ma /'cu if evidence that there was i 

 a fertilized queen inside. The same 

 examination showed like conditions at 

 other hives, and I was thus saved a lot 

 of work at a time when bees were none 

 too nice to work with. This test is a 

 good one for fall, if one has not the 

 time to examine all colonies now, as 

 after the honey flow is all over and 

 cool weather comes along, it is a pretty 

 sure sign that something is wrong if 

 any great number of drones are still 



