178 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



NOTES FMOM CANAD 



J. L. Byer, 

 J. E. Crane bints that il takes 

 great care to make hard candy that 

 will give perfect satisfactioii^ while 

 A. C. Miller says, page 97 ^ Dec. 

 15, " any lively youngster " is sup- 

 posed to be able to do the trick. 

 How do YOU feel now, Mr. Crane? 

 Personally we had no trouble making " bard 

 candy," but the trouble was that it did not 

 suit us, or, rather, the bees, after it was 

 made. » * * 



When the National convention was held 

 in Detroit a few years ago I had the pleas- 

 ure of meeting and conversing for about 

 lialf an hour with the late Mr. Bingham 

 whose death was chronicled in Gleanings 

 for Dec. 15. My first and last personal 

 meeting with him" has always been remem- 

 bered with pleasure, as I was impressed 

 with the fact that he was a real gentleman 

 —one of nature's noblemen. Steadily we 

 are losing our old landmarks of beekeeping; 

 and since I have had the pleasure of attend- 

 ing conventions — not so many years either 

 —it is rather sad to recall some of the 

 names and faces of men we once learned to 

 respect and in many cases really loved. 

 » * * 

 February S.— Moderately cold. We are 

 having fine winter weather, with no extreme- 

 ly cold snaps, for the past four weeks, 

 there are mountains of snow in roads and 

 other exposed places, while I should judge 

 we have about 18 inches on the level. This 

 looks good for the wintering of what little 

 clover we have, as well as the winter-wheat 

 crop — the latter, no doubt, more important 

 at the present time than the clover, as the 

 cry to the farmers during this awful war 

 period is, " Produce more wheat." Bees have 

 had no flight, and of course may go six or 

 eight weeks yet before having a chance to 

 cleanse themselves. Prospects are none too 

 good for wintering, as no late flight, small 

 clusters, and poor stores combined in some 

 places do not make best conditions for the 

 bees. A few colonics in my own yards show 

 unmistakable signs of dysentery, which is 

 bad here in Ontario for this time of the year. 

 » * « 

 Some time ago the editor rather jollied 

 me for wondering why beekeepers in Ohio 

 and other places in the same latitude have 

 trouble sometimes in wintering their bees 

 outdoors while here in Ontario, where we 

 often have a period of four months or more 

 when our bees never have a flight in the 



majority of seasons, we have fair wintering. 

 The main " jolly " came in because I refer- 

 red to Ohio as being " warmer " than it is 

 here. Of course I was told all about those 

 damp cold winds ot! the lake, and the 

 changeable weather, and the opinion was 

 really given that bees have a better time up 

 here than they have further south. Perhaps 

 they have sometimes; but how about a sea- 

 son like this? As before stated, our bees 

 have had no general flight after Nov. 1. 

 Clusters are smaller than usual, and in rnany 

 cases some inferior stores are in the hives. 

 As a result, as already intimated, our bees 

 need a flight badly, and there is just a bare 

 chance that they will not get one for weeks 

 yet. A friend" not far from Medina, 0., 

 wrote me early in January that his bees had 

 a number of good flights in November, and 

 also had two or more splendid flights late 

 in December. I have had no word since; 

 but I suppose that, during the mild spell in 

 January, the bees would fly freely again in 

 that month. Now, won't the editor admit 

 for once that he lives in a "warmer" climate 

 than we do here in Ontario? 

 # « * 



As to those., big quadruple cases you are 

 trying out, of course you will get good 

 results — no question about that, as they are 

 used by a number of our very best men in 

 Ontario as well as in other places where the 

 winter grows very cold. As a rough guess I 

 would say that half of the bees wintered 

 outside here in Ontario are thus housed,, as 

 men like Holtermann, Sibbald, Miller, and 

 a number of other extensive beekeepers use 

 the method exclusively. In the face of all 

 this it may seem like presumption on my 

 part to say that I do not like them, and 

 much prefer the single-colony hive, per- 

 manently packed. We are told that, with 

 four colonies together, the heat will be more 

 conserved, and that the bees will wiiiter 

 better than in the single-colony packed hive. 

 While it seems reasonable, yet in my expe- 

 rience this so-called advantage is simply a 

 "talking-point" as an agent would say. 

 After wintering dozens of colonies in single 

 cases year after year in the same yard 

 beside cases holding two and three colonies 

 eacli, as 1 had at this place, I never could 

 see a bit of difference in results. The large 

 cases are so bulky that it is almost impera- 

 tive to have a man with one to do any 

 changing around ; and as I am usually alone 

 in the yard during spring and fall, the single 

 hive, double-walled, is the one I want. And 



