528 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



NOTES FKOM CANADA 



J. L. Byer. 



That statement of mine in the 

 June 1st issue, concerning our 

 •early spring in Ontario, needs 

 some revision at this date, June 11. 

 While April was unusually warm, 

 and vegetation came on in propor- 

 tion to the weather. May proved 

 to be one of the most backward on record, 

 with cool days and some frosty nights; and 

 as a grand finale to the unusual weather, a 

 heavy frost on the night of May 26 killed 

 tender vegetables and injured fruit in some 

 places. At present we are in need of rain ; 

 and unless we get showers soon, clover will 

 be very short. Bees are in fair condition, 

 even if there have been but few days for 

 gathering honey from spring sources of 

 nectar, which all goes to prove once more 

 that bees that have winterd well, and have 

 lots of good stores to draw on, will stand a 

 great lot of unfavorable weather conditions 

 and yet build up for the honey-flow. 



arkham, Ontario 



toring on aster honey, I did not care to be 

 too sure as to how the colonies would turn 

 out at that early date, April 7, and conse- 

 quently kept on the safe side in saying how 

 they had wintered. I am glad to say that 

 they were uuich better than I stated in the 

 May 15th issue. I have just returned from 

 the yard a month later than above date, 

 and, aside from some queenless colonies, not 

 a single colony died, and we have no weak 

 stocks in yard. Nearly all are fully occupy- 

 ing two full-depth stories, and some have 

 three, with a clover-flow still ten days away. 

 These bees did not have a flight from the 

 last week in October till April 7, and the 

 lemperature was as low as 40 below zero. 

 Another year might tell a different tale un- 

 der like conditions; but as a rule we expect 

 at least four months without a fly at that 

 location, and with good stores we do no 

 worrying. 



J. E. Crane, page 394, May 15, speaks of 

 a weed called paintbrush, or hawkweed, that 

 is such a nuisance in Vermont. North of 

 Brockville, in Leeds Co., where we had a 

 large apiary for three years, this pest is 

 established firmly in the thin rocky and 

 sandy soil that is common there. The plant 

 seems to be good for nothing; but it will 

 crowd out everything else unless, as he 

 states, it is found that sweet clover will kill 

 it. Judging from what I saw in Leeds Co. 

 I formed the opinion that it would be only 

 a pest in localities where pastures were left 

 for years at a time; but it may be that it 

 would establish itself in good land too. Per- 

 sonally I do not know the botanical name of 

 the pest; but I remember the farmers call- 

 ing it paintbrush, and all expressing a fear 

 that it was going to ruin all their pasture 

 lands. 



« • » 



Speaking of long confinements for bees 

 during the winter, friend Doolittle thinks, 

 page 441, June 1, that bees cannot be kept 

 in for more than five months on summer 

 stands and be in good condition for tlie 

 summer's work. I suspect that would prove 

 riglit in the majority of cases; but tliere 

 are exceptions to all rules. When I wrote 

 up the account of my trip to the yard win- 



That editorial regarding laying workers, 

 page 433, June 1, does not clear up matters 

 at all so far as I am concerned. Mr. Cliad- 

 wick's queens play out and so do mine. So 

 far all is plain sailing. Chadwick finds 

 colonies that have lost their queens, with the 

 majority having laying workers, and. here 

 is where the difference comes in. At the 

 York Co. yards, owing to a total failure of 

 crop last year, no requeening was done by 

 me ; and examination this spring shows that 

 none to speak of was done by the bees 

 themselves. As a result, although we had 

 hardly any actual Avinter loss, yet fully 10 

 ]»cr cent (same as friend Chadwick's) are 

 either queenless or might as well be so far 

 as their usefulness for this year's crop is 

 concerned. But in eveiy case the colony is 

 either hopelessly queenless with but a few 

 bees left, has a young virgin that never was 

 mated, or else has the old clipped queen 

 laying a few drone eggs. Long seasons or 

 many of them does not explain the diffei'- 

 ence, and it surely must be that Mr. Chad- 

 wick has a sprinkling of Holy Land or 

 Cyprian blood as the editor suggests. I 

 have been told by men who have handled 

 these breeds that they are bad for develop- 

 ing laying workers. [Notice that Mr. Chad- 

 wick. in this issue, says he has no Holy 

 Land bees nor Cyprians. Is it not possible 

 that even i)ure Italians would vary gi-eatly 

 in this respect? — Ed.] 



