NOVKMBEK 1, i9ir. 



88' 



NOTES FROM CANADA 



I Brood rearing was very 



until quite late in the season, and 

 colonies are going- into winter 

 quarters with great clusters of 

 what must be mostly young bees 



I hatched in August and September 



— in fact, many colonies now in 

 still have quite a lot of sealed 

 Other conditions being equal, this 

 mean good wiintering and early 

 building up in the spring. Abundance of 

 clover, abundance of young bees, and abun- 

 dance of good stores in the hives — are we 

 doMuhearled? No. 



October 



brood. 



should 



" Prices are running anywhere from 15 

 to 20 per cent lower than last year on all 

 grades of extracted " — editm-ial, page 784. 

 As mentioned in my notes for Oct. 1, I am 

 ^lad to say that such is not the case here in 

 Ontario, even if our country is engaged in 

 the great war now in progress. Ne^er be- 

 fore have we had such a keen demand for 

 honey, and this notwithstanding the fact 

 that the wholesalers have handled very little 

 of our product. At least one prominent deal- 

 er remarked early in the season that this 

 year "Tlie beekeepers could carry their own 

 stock, and they would buy from them as 

 they need hou'^y." If others have had the 

 same experience we have had, carrying the 

 stock has not been a very long or trying 

 job, and the wholesalers will not have vei-y 

 mur-h hniipy to handle. 

 « « * 



October to date (11) has been cooler than 

 usual, even if we did anticipate a warm fall 

 after so much cool summer weather. Feed- 

 ing has been a rather slow job, and once 

 again the inverted pail has proven to be 

 the very best feeder for cool weather, as 

 bees would take the feed in this way when 

 they would not touch it in the old-style 

 feeders. We Jiave just finished feeding, 

 and, all told, have used quite a lot of sugar 

 in the different apiaries. At the north yard, 

 which will again winter mainly on aster 

 honey, all the colonies were fed and packed 

 away for winter bj' Oct. 9, and they can 

 now run their own show for about six 

 months. During that period I am not like- 

 ly to sec the yard more than once; but I 

 suspect they get along just as well as or 

 better than the apiaries do around home 

 that I do more meddling with during these 

 months. Early packing and a dry warm 



J. L. Byer, Markham, Ontario 



heavy location may help to explain how our bees 

 wintered so well on aster honey last year, 

 and with this thought in view the same 

 course was followed this fall again. This is 

 not saying that tliey will winter well on 

 these stores again this winter, but naturally 

 1 have not nearly the misgiving's on that 

 ?core that I had a year ago. 



Much has been said about the quality of 

 a.^^ter stores for table use, and the surplus 

 I obtained this year is much better than 

 I had last season. In fact, I have sold it 

 locally at the yard for the same price as 

 the clover, and in a wholesale way was also 

 able to get a good price. Color was about 

 ^s good as clover, flavor very good, but 

 body not as heavy as standard, this usually 

 being the case with all late fall honey, I 

 believe. 



That special number of Gleanings given 

 over to the uses of honey in cooking is 

 timely, and I hope that many will try some 

 of the recipes given. It is a fact that even 

 among beekeepers there is little known, or 

 at least practiced, in the matter of using 

 honey in domestic baking and cooking. 

 That honey is a fine thing for baking va- 

 rious kinds of biscuits and cakes is a fact 

 aHested by the lai ge manufacturers of bis- 

 cuits who use carloads annually. Honey is 

 dearer than sugar, and we may be sure that 

 these manufacturers would not use honey if 

 they could get something " just as good " 

 for less money. I am well acquainted with 

 ihe manager of one of the largest biscuit 

 concerns in Canada, and he tells me that 

 they simply have to use honey to get goods 

 that will stand keeping for any length of 

 time without drying out badly, as all bis- 

 cuits, sweetened with sugar alone, will do. 

 Before honey started to get to the whole- 

 sale prices that have ruled here in Ontario 

 for the past few years, we used to sell the 

 bulk of our clover honey to the manufac- 

 turers; but of late years they use the cheap- 

 er honey which maiidj- comes froai Jamaica 

 and is laid down here cheaper than we can 

 compete with. All things considered, this 

 changed condition of affairs has not hurt us 

 much, if any, in the matter of selling our 

 white hon.ey, as the consumption of this has 

 wonderfully increased during the last three 

 or four 3'ears, and many families now use 

 from 50 to 200 pounds of honey annually 

 ihat formerly used little if any. 



