May, 1912. 



American Vae Journal 



the brood-chami)er are interchanged 

 from one part of the hive to another, 

 not only in the brood-chamber, but up 

 into the supers as well. This shows 

 the great importance of having these 

 all alike and interchangeable to give the 

 best results. It is for this reason that 

 we have been most successful with the 

 divisible brood-chamber hives, and on 

 this account have not hesitated to rec- 

 ommend them to others from time to 

 time. Dr. Miller has asked us to play 

 fair, and asks what under the sun the 

 advantage of shallow supers has to do 

 with the question of the advantages of 

 the divisible brood-chamber hives. Our 

 answer is, that if shallow supers have 

 advantages over deep ones, which is 

 granted to a certain extent, and we can 

 use these same shallow supers inter- 

 changeably in the brood-chambers as 

 we do, it makes it the more important 

 to adopt them. Or, in other words, if 

 the shallow supers are valuable fea- 

 tures in the divisible brood-chamber 

 hive, and the same — as shallow supers — 

 have advantages over deep ones, there 

 should be no question about their su- 

 periority. 



We wish to mention in conclusion 

 that we do not attribute our greater 

 success to the mere fact that we have 

 thrown our whole energy into using 

 the divisible hives without trying out 

 the Langstroth size just as thoroughly. 

 From Dr. Miller's statement, " that it 

 is not entirely fair to compare the in- 

 experienced young Scholl with the 

 Scholl of mature years and brilliant 

 energy," it may be taken that we were 

 young and inexperienced when we 

 tried the Langstroth hives in our ear- 

 lier bee-keeping, while we are using the 

 divisible brood-chamber hive now, with 

 our experience of knowing how to use 

 them, and, for that reason, a compari- 

 son would not be a fair one. However, 

 this is not the case, for as a young, in- 

 experienced person, we gave not only 

 the Langstroth but other hives a thor- 

 ough trial side by side with the divis- 

 ble brood-chamber hive, and we are 

 doing this today, with our advanced 

 years and experience. That is to say, 

 we have now hundreds of Langstroth 

 hives in use in a large number 

 of apiaries together with the divisible 

 brood-chamber hives in the same yards. 

 The longer we handle the two differ- 

 ent kinds, however, the more we learn 

 to appreciate the advantages we enjoy 

 by using the divisible brood-chamber 

 hives in connection with shallow su- 

 pers, both for comb and extracted 

 honey. 



As a result, the number of colonies 

 in the divisible brood-chambers is an- 

 nually increasing, and will continue to 

 increase, as all the new hives pur- 

 chased for the last number of years 

 have been nothing else but the divisible 

 brood-chambers, or the shallow supers. 



We realize that an effort to com- 

 pletely cover all the points for which 

 we have been put to task, would require 

 more time and study. This we have 

 not at our disposal, however, in spite 

 of the fact that we are enabled to ac- 

 complish more with the divisible brood- 

 chamber hives by saving a lot of time 

 otherwise necessitated by a large num- 

 ber of extra manipulations necessary 

 with deeper hives and supers. 



Conducted by J !.. Ever. Mt. Joy, Ontario. 



Obituary- 



S.T. Pettit, D.Chalmers, Mrs. 

 Haberer 



The grim reaper has been busy lately 

 among Ontario bee-keepers, and two 

 of our well-known men have been 

 called away, Mr. S. T. Pettit, father of 

 our Provincial Apiarist, and Mr. David 

 Chalmers, one of our inspectors of api- 

 aries. Mr. Pettit was 83 years old, and 

 as his health has been poor for some 

 time, in a measure his death was not 

 unexpected. He was very prominent 

 among the older bee-keepers of Onta- 

 rio, and although the writer never had 

 the privilege of meeting him person- 

 ally, owing to the fact that Mr. Pettit 

 quit attending the conventions just 

 about the time I started, yet for the past 

 few years he has corresponded regu- 

 larly with me at times, and the interest 

 shown in my work, by him, was to me 

 a source of great pleasure, as Mr. 

 Pettit was one of those earnest Chris- 

 tian men whom it is a privilege to have 

 as a friend. He was an expert bee- 

 keeper, and of quite an inventive turn 

 of mind, always striving to find out 

 what was the best in the way of things 

 pertaining to bee-keeping, and in all 

 his experiments he was ever eager to 

 give others the benefit of his discov- 

 eries. 



Mr. Chalmers was also well known, 

 and as he was in just the prime of life, 

 in so far as one could judge by appear- 

 ances, needless to say the report of his 

 death came as a great shock to all of 

 his friends. An expert bee-keeper, a 

 good inspector, as well as a frequent 

 contributor to the Canadian Bee Jour- 

 nal, he will indeed be missed — espe- 

 cially when his place is vacant at the 

 next convention of the Ontario Asso- 

 ciation — as friend Chalmers has been a 

 regular attendant at that gathering for 

 a number of years. 



We have also just learned of the 

 death of Mrs. Haberer, wife of Jacob 

 Haberer, one of the directors of the 

 Ontario Bee-Keepers' Association. It 

 has been my pleasure to meet Mrs. 

 Haberer a few times, and her kindly 

 German manner towards the writer, 

 when I first met her at the Detroit con- 

 vention, is still remembered with pleas- 

 ure. Mr. Haberer and family, as well 

 as the relatives of both Mr. Pettit and 

 Mr. Chalmers, will have the sincere 

 sympathy of a host of Canadian bee- 

 keepers. 



Praise for Carniolans~Do They Resist 

 Foul Brood? 



Editor Root, in a recent issue of 

 Gleanings in Bee Culture, says that the 

 yellow Italians have not wintered as 

 well as the darker strains commonly 

 called leather colored. This, I believe, 

 has been the general experience of 

 most bee-keepers here in Ontario, in 

 so far as outside wintering is con- 

 cerned — for cellar wintering I have not 



heard of so much dilTerence. And let 

 me say right here again, that the Car- 

 niolans are just as much ahead of <i>iy 

 kind of Italians as the dark strains 

 of this race are ahead of the Goldens 

 in the matter of hardiness. I know 

 many will say that they have no trouble 

 wintering Italians in our severe climate, 

 but under conditions where the Italians 

 winter zee// the Carniolans will winter 

 belter, and under conditions where 

 most Italians are liable to perish, Car- 

 niolans will generally come through all 

 right, and surprise you by their rapid 

 building up in the spring, even if they 

 have been badly depopulated during 

 the winter by not being properly cared 

 for. No, I have no queens for sale, 

 and hold no brief for any Carniolan 

 breeder, yet, today, I am more than ever 

 of the opinion that the Carniolan is the 

 best all-around bee for our northern 

 climate. 



One factor alone has led me to do a 

 lot of Italianizing lately, and that is be- 

 cause I am not sure that the Carniolans 

 are as good at resisting black brood 

 (European foul brood) as are the Ital- 

 ians, and as we are expecting an at- 

 tack of this at any time, naturally we 

 have been taking the advice of friends 

 as to the advisability of getting more 

 Italian stock. At the same time, a num- 

 ber who have had the disease in their 

 apiaries, tell me that they fought it suc- 

 cessfully with Carniolans, and justly 

 think it is a libel on this race to say 

 they are not as good as the Italians in 

 this respect. Can any one in New 

 York, or other States, give fosilh'e 

 proof that the Carniolans will not 

 "stand up" against European foul 

 brood ? I have had no experience in 

 my own yards with this disease, and 

 the question is asked in all good faith. 

 Personally, I have always found the 

 Carniolansasgood larvae feeders as the 

 Italians, and much better than the 

 blacks. As they are prolific breeders, 

 under adverse circumstances. I can not 

 understand zv/iy they should not be as 

 good as the Italians in fighting the dis- 

 ease. 



I have been told, in a casual way, that 

 the Italians were better to clean up the 

 disease than the Carniolans, but in so 

 far as I can remember, no one has ever 

 given a specific case to prove the point. 

 If any one has the information, the 

 writer at least will be pleased to have 

 the light turned on for his benefit, as 

 well as for others who may be halting 

 between two opinions. 



Conditions in Ontario 



From reports of wintering received 

 to date, I judge that there will be no 

 very heavy loss of bees in Ontario, 

 wherever the bees were well protected. 

 In our own yards the loss is practically 

 limited to the home apiary, where a 

 number of colonies were wintered in a 

 specially prepared hive with no pack- 



