412 



December, 1915. 



American l^ee Journal 



down swarming. Besides we would 

 hate to see the time when our business 

 would be on a standstill, for we want 

 to move it up at least some each season. 

 We did not produce as much honey 

 this season as we usually do, yet our 

 business was never in as good shape 

 as it is at present; more honey on the 

 hives for stores, and colonies stronger. 

 Besides, this being one year for gen- 

 eral requeening, we have headed over 

 2500 colonies with young queens from 

 our good Caucasian stock. This means 

 a great season for next year. 



Supers Too Shallow 



Comb-honey supers as sent out by 

 our bee-supply manufacturers are not 

 deep enough for the sections and the 

 proper space above them. The covers 

 rest too closely, and as a result, in re- 

 moving them, the tops of a number of 

 sections are at the same time removed, 

 sticking fast to the cover, spoiling the 

 supers of honey or sections. This is 

 disgusting to the comb-honey pro- 

 ducers, and of late they are making a 

 great " kick." If they can't get deeper 

 supers they will abandon comb-honey 

 production or make their own super- 

 bodies, as many are now doing. 



I do not know that this is true in the 

 North, but it is generally true in the 

 South. The white pine sent to this 

 southern climate gradually shrinks, es- 

 pecially with hundreds of these in use, 

 and all of them are too shallow. For 

 a number of years I have had my comb- 

 honey supers made Js-inch deeper 

 than the factories make them, and even 

 then in a season or so they have re- 

 duced in depth until they are too shal- 

 low, even painting does not overcome 

 this shrinkage, and the only solution 

 to this is a material that will stand 

 this climate and will not shrink. For 

 this purpose we have not found any- 

 thing that is quite so good as well sea- 

 soned cypress lumber which can be 

 obtained from any of the great cypress 

 mills in the South. 



[From our experience with lumber, 

 we have found cypress to swell and 

 shrink fully as much as white pine. We 

 believe the heat of the southern skies 

 must be responsible for some of this 

 trouble. It is also probable that your 

 bees use propolis more freely than 

 ours during harvest. We would sug- 

 gest trying a thin muslin over the sec- 

 tions, when a cover is to be used over 

 the super. Of course it would not do 

 if tiers of supers are used one above 

 the other. — Editor.) 



When Starters are Best in Sections 



It is commonly recommended to use 

 full sheets of foundation in sections, 

 and this is good advice as a rule, but it 

 is not always best, especially in the 

 great cotton belt and in most sections 

 along our coast country, where the 

 honey in its best finished state is rarely 

 thick enough in the extracted form be- 

 cause the bees store faster than they 

 can evaporate in ready-built combs ; 

 while if they built the combs from a 

 narrow starter the course of evapora- 

 Id be slower and more thor- 



ough, and the same source of nectar 

 would give us a honey with a good 

 thick body and milder flavor and no 

 signs of fermenting or "weeping." 

 Under this condition it is best to use 

 only starters. 



I visited an extensive beekeeper dur- 

 ing the flow from cotton, who was pro- 

 ducing comb honey in the regular 

 shallow extracting supers, and I was 

 a little surprised to find that he 

 was only using very narrow starters in 

 the frames, and he remarked, "I would 

 not use full sheets of foundation dur- 

 ing this flow if the foundation came 

 free." For the sake of having some 

 extracted honey he was using some 

 old ready-built combs and a few supers 

 at the home-yard, and had full sheets 

 of foundation in the frames. The bees 

 were drawing out the foundation and 

 building comb at a very rapid rate. He 



remarked, as we examined them, that 

 this was too much progress for a good 

 article of honey from this source; 

 while in the supers where starters 

 were used, comb building was not near 

 so rapid, and the honey was finished 

 up in the frames " blunt." 



After sampling the finished articles 

 from the supers containing ready-built 

 combs, full sheets of foundation and 

 starters, the quality was found to be 

 far superior in the latter. If the same 

 honey stored in the ready-built combs 

 is left on the hives until late in the sea- 

 son it may have a little heavier body 

 than if extracted at the close of the 

 flow, but there is not much improve- 

 ment in the flavor. It will be some 

 darker and taste a little sour ; bubbles 

 will be seen in the cells all through the 

 honey as well as a great amount of 

 bulged cappings, etc. 



Conducted by J. L. Bter, Mt. Joy. Ontario. 



The Season 



The old-time saying that one extreme 

 generally follows another, seems to be 

 verified again in the matter of weather 

 conditions in Ontario. After a very 

 cool summer, much of the time very 

 wet, we have for the past month been 

 treated to beautiful weather with al- 

 most no frost to date — Nov. 10. Very 

 little rain during this period of sun- 

 shine, but no harm is done as the pre- 

 cipitation was abnormally heavy ear- 

 lier, and the land is still full of mois- 

 ture ; indeed, nothing will suffer if we 

 get little rain this fall. 



This fine weather has been ideal for 

 late feeding or other postponed bee- 

 work, and there can be no excuse for 

 neglect in these lines. We certainly 

 have had lots of time to do the work. 

 Bees are going into winter quarters in 

 fine condition, so with normal weather 

 for the winter, good wintering should 

 be assured. 



Dr. Phillip's 



Book Overproduction 

 Honey 



of 



According to an editorial on page 

 367, Dr. Phillips in his recently issued 

 book on beekeeping, says that there 

 is no present likelihood of overproduc- 

 tion of honey. While he no doubt re- 

 fers to the United States, as conditions 

 are in many ways identical in the 

 United States as they are with us, no 

 doubt I will be excused for taking 

 liberties. Frankly, I believe that there 

 are scores of beekeepers in the United 

 States who will take issue with Dr. 

 Phillips on this question, and I am 

 positive that there are lots of beekeep- 

 ers in Ontario who will do the same. 

 Yes, I know the old time arguments of 

 educating the people to eat more 

 honey, to create more demand, etc., 

 will be used again in answering such 

 claims, but the older I get the more 

 absurd it seems to me to boost the pro- 



duction of honey in advance of a prof- 

 itable demand for the same. 



When Mr. Achord, of Alabama, was 

 at Toronto last September, we had the 

 pleasure of a few moments' conversa- 

 tion with him (all too short by the 

 way), and one of the few things I re- 

 member of the interview was the state- 

 ment that he could not get more than 

 3)4 cents per pound for good amber 

 honey. From California comes the 

 same lament, and judging by letters 

 from other parts of the States, which I 

 have received lately, many, many bee- 

 keepers think that there is quite 

 enough honey being produced in the 

 United States for present needs. Things 

 are a little better in Canada at present 

 (thanks to the unnatural law of pro- 

 tection), and yet we have certain boos- 

 ters who would seemingly be glad to 

 increase production so thatthe demand 

 would certainly be below the available 

 supply. Increase the cicjnand for honey, 

 the supply will take care of itself. 

 Too long we have worked at the wrong 

 end of the problem, and surely it re- 

 requires but little logic to see the fal- 

 lacy of such a procedure. 



[While we do not think it profitable 

 to continually bring the subject before 

 our readers, we feel that Mr. Byers' 

 conclusions need some comment on 

 how to increase the demand. 



It is very apparent to everybody that 

 honey is not growing in use with the 

 increase of population. As mentioned 

 in our article on "Food Value of 

 Honey", the use of honey was once 

 almost universal. Now but a small 

 portion of the people use it, and the 

 proportion instead of growing larger 

 is constanly growing smaller. 



Butter has been kept before the pub- 

 lic by the representatives of the dairy 

 industry in agricultural colleges and 



