GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



NOTES FMOM CANADA 



J. L. Byer, 



An early spring here in Ontario, 

 and all kinds of vegetation, includ- 

 ing the clovers, are looking well. 

 The latter part of April was un- 

 usnally warm for this latitude, and 

 everything came on with a rush. 

 In fact, there was such a rapid 

 gTowth that we feared late frosts might 

 seriously affect the tender growth. But dur- 

 ing the last ten days we have had cool wet 

 weather, and the growth has been held back 

 somewhat. All things considered, this is 



for the best. 



* * * 



For the information of Dr. Bruennech. 

 page 245, let me say that I am not " pre- 

 tending " when the statement is made and 

 can be substantiated that in our Cashel api- 

 ary we had a Carniolan queen that lived till 

 her seventh year. She was not at all prof- 

 itable during the last two years of her life, 

 but was kept as a curiosity to see how long 

 she would live. Her five first years had 

 been so profitable to us that we did not 

 begrudge giving her a full lease of life, even 

 though she was not so capable during the 

 nest two. But, as Dr. Bruennech intimates, 

 four years is the limit of most queens ac- 

 cording to my observations — in fact, very 

 few from the matter of economy should be 



kept that long. 



* * * 



Bees clustering out in April is an unusual 

 experience for us. While little of this was 

 noticed at the apiaries here in York County, 

 the fronts of the winter cases at the north 

 yard were covered with bees in the evenings 

 during the warm spell in April when bees 

 were on soft maple. As a result, manj' 

 colonies had to be supered at that early 

 date, and the cjueens at once started laying 

 in the upper stories. With normal spring 

 weather from now on, the majority of the 

 colonies in this j-ard will have to be relieved 

 of old honey to allow the queens room. 

 While the general verdict is that aster hon- 

 ey granulates rapidly, in this case there is 

 none of the granulation in evidence at this 

 late date, and I never knew bees to winter 

 outside on such a small amount of stores. 



* * * 



G. M. Doolittle is one of our closest ob- 

 serveis; and this being the case I read with 

 much wonder his statement on page 312, 

 April 15, that he had never heard a queen 

 " pipe " excei)t on a comb. Tlie matter is 

 beyond my comprehension when 1 remem- 

 ber that Mr. Doolittle has been handling 



rai, Ontario 



queen-bees nearly all his lifetime. Time and 

 time again I have brought a package of 

 queens home and placed it on a sideboard, 

 and the children would soon be listening 

 with interest to the challenging notes from 

 one queen to another. More than that, I 

 have heard them quahking in the box in the 

 postoflice when a number were tied togeth- 

 er, and it has been a common thing to have 

 them thus exercising in my pocket on the 

 way home from the postoffice. 



P. C. Chadwiek, page 353, says that, 

 among the number of his two-year-old 

 queens that have played out, the majority 

 of such colonies have fertile workei's. An- 

 other mystery to me, surely ! Is it in the 

 strain of bees, or what? Wtile I do not 

 for a moment claim that there is no such 

 thing as fertile workers, yet in our yards 

 their occurrence is rare indeed. And as we 

 do not practice systematic requeening, we 

 have some queens play out too — in fact, 

 far too large a percentage to please me. 

 But in at least 99 cases out of 100, either 

 an old played-out clipped queen will be 

 present, or else a virgin that has been rear- 

 ed too early in spring to get mated. To be 

 perfectly honest in this matter, I cannot 

 say that I am sure of ever having had a 

 genuine case of laying workers. The few 

 times we imagined such was the case, we 

 were not sure but that a small virgin might 



have been present. 



* « * 



Recently I received from Mr. Samms, of 

 Mars Hill, N. C, a pail of " chunk " honey 

 of delicious quality and appearance. The 

 source of this honey — basswood — rathei' 

 surprised me, as we do not generally find 

 basswood honey so far south. I frankly 

 acknowledge that the quality is equal to 

 our own basswood honey, both in color and 

 flavor. By the way, the tei'm " chunk '' 

 honey does not appeal to me at all, and I 

 wonder that our southern friends — more 

 particularly those of Texas, where this style 

 of putting honey on the market originated, 

 if T am correct — do not get some more at- 

 tractive name for honey marketed in this 

 way. From North Carolina we have had 

 samples of three beautiful lots of honey — 

 basswood, locust, and sourwood; and for 

 my own part, at least, the term "southern 

 honey " has a much belter sound to me than 

 it did a few years ago. [A large numbei- 

 (iT the southern producei's now favor the 

 better name, " bulk comb " honey. — Ed.] 



