Ffbruarv, 1912. 



American Hee Journal 



doni-. And tlie saving on comb foun- 

 dation is a valuable argument in their 

 favor in addition to no wiring, in that 

 thin super foundation, of which there 

 are a good many more sheets to the 

 pound, will fill more frames than the 

 lirood-fcumdation that must be used, 

 and that with wires in the deep frames. 

 This is a great advantage in produc- 

 ing comb honey that is cut from the 

 frames, as the septum is hardly sus- 

 ceptible in the finished product. For 

 this purpose the deep combs with heavy 

 foundation would be entirely out of the 

 question. 



In giving the colonies super-room, 

 especially early in the season, when it 

 is best to give them less room at a time, 

 these shallow supers offer advantages 

 that are worth more than the average 

 person supposes. And especially val- 

 uable are tliey for giving room to weak 

 colonies tliat can not care for more 

 room, or when the honey season is not 

 a good one; besides, we have found, 

 time and again, that liees do more and 

 better work if less room is given them 

 at a time, and given oftener, even dur- 

 ing the best honey-flows. Indeed, the 

 use of them, we claim, are largely re- 

 sponsible for our success in obtain- 

 ing just a little more honey from year 

 to year than we might have gotten with 

 deep hives. 



That is not all, but the giving of the 

 proper amoiuit of room is in such shape 

 that the best work in it can be done — 

 shallow and spread out wide — as near 

 to the brood-nest as it is possible to 

 get it for best results. 



And after tlie work in them is com- 

 pleted, the finished shallow supers are 

 removed "in a jiffy," since the bees 

 can be easily driven from them with a 

 small amount of smoke after the cover 

 is raised. This fact alone has enabled 

 us to remove more honey from the 

 Iiives in half an hour than can possibly 

 lie taken off in any other way, and it is 

 possible to remove all finished and 

 sealed honey much earlier than with 

 deep combs, as it takes longer to seal 

 the deep ones entirely. At certain 

 times the latter are not finished en- 

 tirely at all, and the consequence is 

 that they are removed with part of the 

 comb unsealed. With the shallow su- 

 pers the upper one is entirely com- 

 plete, while the lower ones are only 

 partially so, and taken nfT without dis- 

 turbing the lower ones, and a better 

 grade of honey is obtained. 



With deep frames it often occurs 

 that brood is in the lower half of the 

 combs, while the upper part is perfectly 

 sealed. Some bee-keepers, yea many, 

 remove these and extract them entirely, 

 resulting in a product that is not very 

 palatable to those who know some- 

 thing about such things. With the 

 shallow supers the upper one is re- 

 moved without any of the brood of 

 thiise below. And the sami- applies re- 

 markably to the instances when honey- 

 llows slacken up suddenly and the 

 greater portion of the upper part of 

 deep comb-honey combs is sealed over 

 but can not be removed without great 

 loss on account of the lower portion 

 l>einR unlit for the market, or can Hot 

 Ik- removed at all until after later Hows. 

 Witli the shallow supers the upper part 

 is removed, the lower left to be finished 

 during the next How, and so on. 



The honey once in the honey-house, 

 the delicate combs make the finest 

 comb honey. For extracting, the honey- 

 knife uncaps them so much more rap- 

 idly with one stroke of the knife that it 

 does not take much longer to uncap 

 them than deep frames. .•\nd if this 

 oft-repeated argument — that too many 

 frames must be handled and uncapped- 

 were true, the time saved in removing 

 the honey from the hives, handling the 

 frames by whole cases or stories in- 

 stead of singly, the ease of uncapping, 

 the saving of comb foundation, to- 

 gether witli the numerous advantages 



in the bee-yard and elsewhere — all of 

 which enable us to accomplish just so 

 much more — overbalances so largely 

 this objection that it is not worth men- 

 tioning. 



But if we mentioned n// the good 

 points — how well they are adapted for 

 (|ueen-rearing ; for finding the queen- 

 cells along the bottom-bars of the up- 

 per story by simply tilting it up and 

 looking underneath ; how easily rapid 

 increase can be made with them ; 

 swarming prevented, and a dozen 

 others — it would be necessary to write 

 a book on the subject, so we refrain. 



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



An Old-Fashioned Winter 



Following a month of warm weather 

 during December, the first two weeks 

 of the New Year we were treated to a 

 very cold nMr'as/iidiud winter variety. 

 At this date (Dec. 17) there are signs 

 of a change to warmer temperatures, 

 which will be welcomed by the bee- 

 keepers, as the bees will have a chance 

 to move about the hive a bit. Of 

 course it is too early for colonies to 

 suffer very mu;h as yet. unless short of 

 stores — in that case it is a common 

 thing to find the bees starved in the 

 hive even if there are stores in some 

 other places except where the bees had 

 been clustered. 



Italians vs. Blacks as Foul Brood 

 Resisters 



Answering Mr. Foster's question 

 (page 11) about Italians being more 

 immune to foul brood than blacks, I 

 would say that here in Ontario the 

 claim is made only when the term foul 

 brood is applied to the Furopean va- 

 rietv, commonly called " black brood." 

 So far as I know, very few. if an\ . claim 

 that they are more resistant to the well- 

 known variety commonly now called 

 American foul brood. 



As to robbing, the Italians are cer- 

 tainly worse than the blacks, but, of 

 course, it is a fact as well that they de- 

 fend their own Iiives better than the 

 blacks. Carrying out this reasoning, 

 it seems quite clear that the Italians 

 stand to contract the disease oftener 

 bv robbing than is the case with the 

 blacks; and, indeed, this has been my 

 experience with the disease. But as to 

 resisting the disease after it is con- 

 tracted, any claims made along that line 

 are, in my opinion, pure " moonshine." 



Bee-Keeping at the College at Guelph 



These notes are being written at the 

 .-Kgricultural College, Guelph, Ont., 

 where 1 am spending a few weeks. The 

 different Short Courses are in progress, 

 and among these classes the bee-keep- 

 ers are quite conspicuous. .-Xboiil 40 

 are in attendance regularly, while many 

 others from different points drop in 



from day to day. Well-known bee 

 keepers have been giving lectures 

 among the most prominent being Mr 

 Clark, of Borodino, N. Y.. E. R. Root 

 of Ohio ; and H. G. Sibbald of our own 

 Province. Mr. Root will give an illus- 

 trated lecture one evening during his 

 sta)'. and, judging by the interest dis- 

 played in the various classes, it looks 

 as if the hall will be well filled. These 

 Short Courses in connection with the 

 dift'erent agricultural industries can 

 not help but be a great help to the at- 

 tendants, as the courses of lectures and 

 demonstrations given are of an in- 

 tensely practical nature. 



So-Called Sting-Prool People 



On page 7 something is said about 

 " people whom bees will not sting," 

 and while there may be rare instances 

 of this kind, as Mr. Doolittle claims, I 

 have yet to meet the first one. True, 1 

 have more than once met men who 

 made that claim, and when they were 

 inclined to boast about it too much, it 

 has always given me great pleasure to 

 shatter their illusion when the oppor- 

 tunity presented itself. Notwithstand- 

 ing what Mr. Doolittle says, I have an 

 idea that under some circumstance.- 

 bees would sting tniy/io,/\\ and I would 

 like very much to test the matter out 

 on some of these " sting-prooJ' " fel- 

 lows. 



Blending Honeys 



Telling tales out ol school is against 

 the rules, but sometimes a subtle hint 

 of some of the facts adds to the gaiety 

 of life. 



Not so very Inng ago I was a guest 

 of the Ontario Hee-Keepers' Associa- 

 tion, at a convention held in Toronto, 

 and in speaking of the magnilicent 

 honey displayed in all the markets, and 

 at the show of farm products then be- 

 ing held. I commented on the extract- 

 ed liiuiey all being nearly water-white, 

 and suggested th.it if the bee-keepers 

 would practise blending their honeys, 

 and doing it with judgment, they could 

 sell their off-colored (/. ,-.. not white) for 

 as much as their best. Such a mess as 

 I stirred up! A stocky little chap 



