932 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CJLTURE. 



Aug. 1 



The United States Reclamation Service has on 

 its slate a project for damming the Colorado Riv- 

 er, for a great scheme costing $40,000,000 at 

 least. These plans, when carried out, will result 

 in great good to the bee-keeping industry in the 

 far Southwest. 



NOTES FROM CANADA 



By R. F. HOLTERMANN. 



Oh for some easy method of getting a young 

 laying queen into a hi\e to replace one which is 

 failing! I have seen many methods advocated, 

 but I am afraid I lack the courage or faith to put 

 some of them into practice. Others entail too 

 much work and loss. 



# 



We have been spending day after day examin- 

 ing stocks for queen-cells, noting the general 

 condition, giving room, and doing the many 

 things necessary in modern bee-keeping. The 

 honey-flow has been good over almost all the 

 province. There ha\ e been remarkable yields of 

 honey; and yet in some sections, owing to dry 

 weather, the flow has been poor. Many ask 

 what prices will be, and I am pleased that I am 

 not on the committee which is to recommend a 

 price. There should -be moderation both ways. 

 The prices should be neither too high nor too 

 low. First-class honey will be protected by a 

 dutv to a certain extent. 



INFERIORITY OF BLACK BEES. 



I never before was so thoroughly convinced of 

 the inferiority of black bees. My Carniolans 

 and even the Italians can keep a twelve-frame 

 Langstroth brood-chamber well filled with brood; 

 but the black queen generally occupies less and 

 less room with brood; and where there is a long 

 flow of white honey, and then a fall flow, the 

 black colony is simply not in it at all, because of 

 the lack of bees. 



# 



THE NEXT N.^TIONAL BEE CONVENTION TO BE THE 

 BEST YET. 



Because of the energy which Secretary W. Z. 

 Hutchinson is displaying, the good honey-flow 

 bee-keepers are securing, and the great help 

 which individual members of the association 

 might give to create an interest in the meeting, 

 the coming National convention at Detroit should 

 in reality prove to be the best yet. I know of 

 quite a number of Canadians who expect to be 

 there. 



* 



MOVING A CARLOAD OF BEES TO THE BASSWOODS. 



We are just preparing to take a carload of bees 

 to basswood at Long Point Island. Two years 

 ago I took 240 colonies there at an outlay of 

 about $200, and received practically no return ; 

 but the enterprising bee-keeper must run such 

 risks. The result may be very difl^erent. This 

 season a 10,000-lb. return would not be any 

 more remarkable than a failure. 



When moving we screen the hives in front and 

 not on top, and we water the bees frequently, so 

 that they are moved with corqfort to themselves 

 and to us. 



BEES NOT SO MUCH INCLINED TO ROB IN CLOUDY 

 WEATHER. 



W^e always have a number of students at our 

 apiaries so that we have more or less of a school 

 or college, and we discuss methods and reasons 

 for action. We were speaking of robbing, and 

 to a young man from Finland, Russia, who is 

 with me for the season, I said that, other condi- 

 tions being equal, bees do not start robbing as 

 readily in cloudy weather as when the sun shines. 

 In robbing-time I prefer a cloudy morning to a 

 bright one; for when the sun shines brightly, 

 robbing is more likely to occur. Another young 

 man who has been with me for years endorsed 

 this statement, and added that it was something 

 which, so far as he knew, had not been mention- 

 ed in the bee-books and papers. 



THE BUILDING OF WORKER-CELLS AN INDEX OF 

 THE PRESENCE OF THE QUEEN. 



How many beginners in bee-keeping there are 

 who do not know that, when the bees build 

 worker comb naturally, it is a sure sign of the 

 presence of the queen, and that it settles at once 

 the often difficult question as to whether the 

 queen is with the bees or not! Another way, if 

 one is doubtful as to the presence of a virgin 

 queen, is to give the bees a comb of young un- 

 sealed brood; and if the bees are queenless they 

 will start cells. Many a queen is destroyed in 

 introduction because the bees have other means 

 of securing a queen. Avoid giving the colony 

 young brood ; and if such must be left in the 

 hive, examine the combs, and in about 36 hours 

 break down any cells that may have been started. 



THE ASPINWALL HIVE PUT TO A SEVERE TEST. 



Some object to the Aspinwall hive because it 

 is large and can not be readily carried about. 

 Such men, in advancing that reason, are at least 

 dangerously near the class that would object to a 

 modern reaper because the old sickle can be car- 

 ried about more readily. I have five Aspinwall 

 hives in my apiary. On a certain day I gave in- 

 structions to a young man to make a special hive 

 for some of the combs which were to be taken 

 out of the brood-chamber and replaced by the 

 slatted frames between the remaining combs. 

 Owing to the end-spaces, the Aspinwall frames 

 are not interchangeable with regular ones, and 

 can not, therefore, be put into an ordinary hive. 

 The young man neglected to do this, and the 

 following week three of the five colonies had the 

 swarming impulse. Of course, this is no reflec- 

 tion on the hive, as, without the slatted divi- 

 sions, it was not really an Aspinwall hive. We 

 then put in these slatted frames, or divisions, and 

 actually broke up the swarming impulse in two 

 out of the three. The third colony swarmed, 

 owing to one cell being missed ; but the bees re- 

 turned after the cell was broken down ; and this 

 colony, too, is now free from the swarming im- 

 pulse. This was a rather severe test, as the hive 

 is supposed only to pre-x'ent the swarming im- 

 pulse and not to cure it. 

 * 



HOW MUCH SHALL HONEY BE THINNED FOR FEED- 

 ING BACK.' 



The same young man from Finland is mak- 

 ing a careful study of the ABC and X Y Z of 



