238 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 15 



that time. Now with an old queen permanently 

 in the nucleus the bees do not become demoral- 

 ized by the removal of the young laying queen, 

 and the nucleus remains fresh, as Dr. Miller 

 calls it; in fact, I am occasionally obliged to re- 

 move a comb of brood to prevent its getting too 

 crowded. 



In regard to Dr. Miller's case of No. 42 hive, 

 page 120o, I had several similar cases some years 

 ago, where a colony would raise a cell and kill 

 the young queen (or did the old queen do it?) 

 and then immediately afterward they would raise 

 another cell, and the young queen would again 

 disappear. Twice I found the virgin queen dead 

 in front of the hive, and the mauled appearance 

 suggested that it was the work of the bees and 

 not of the queen; but it may have been bees from 

 other hives which entered the wrong hive return- 

 ing from the fields, and, having a young laying 

 queen in their own rightful home, objected to a 

 virgin. I am sure that bees mix far more than 

 many bee-keepers think. 



One strain of golden Italians which I had years 

 ago were particularly bad locaters, and I could 

 find some of them in almost every hive in the 

 apiary, while there were very few of the other bees 

 among the goldens. When I raised queens of 

 this strain I always had trouble with virgins re- 

 turning to the wrong hive, and I went to some 

 trouble to mark their hives conspicuously. Some 

 of these virgins entering the wrong hive were ac- 

 cepted with the loss of the former queen. Since 

 going out of this strain I have had almost no 

 straying of virgins; and as I do not now mark the 

 hives, the loss in mating-flights, for several sea- 

 sons, is not more than three out of a hundred. 



This spring I found the first case of young and 

 old queen going through the winter together, al- 

 though I had one case of two old ones wintering 

 on the same combs before. 



Tooborac, Vict., Australia. 



ONTARIO PROGRESSING APICUL- 

 TURALLY. 



The Jordan Harbor Apicuitural Station 

 to Be Established at Once. 



BY R. F. HOLTERMANN. 



The Ontario Apicuitural Station, which was 

 foreshadowed in Gleanings some time ago, is to 

 be a reality at once. Mr. Morley Pettit, Nixon, 

 Ontario, well known to the bee-keeping fraterni- 

 ty, has been appointed. He will be Provincial 

 Apiarist, having charge of the experimental 

 apiary at Jordan Harbor, and he will be the lec- 

 turer at the Ontario Agricultural College, Gu- 

 elph, and inspector of apiaries in the counties 

 given below. 



Mr. Pettit is the youngest son of S. T. Pettit, 

 formerly of Belmont, now living retired at Ayl- 

 mer West, Ont. Mr. S. T. Pettit's apicuitural 

 activities were mostly carried on from Belmont, 

 Ont., and he will be best remembered in connec- 

 tion with that address. Morley Pettit will prob- 

 ably hold the record as to a season's profits from 

 an apiary, having cleared some $1200 from 69 

 colonies in one year. He has, therefore, had 

 good apicuitural training in his boyhood. He 



MORLEY PETTIT, AVLMER, ONT., CAN. 



Mr. Pettit has recently been appointed to the position of Pro- 

 vincial Apiarist at the Ontario Agricultural Station. 



has a first-class certificate as a schoolteacher, and 

 an extensive experience as a bee-keeper him- 

 self, all of which, focused upon the work in which 

 he is now to engage, should bring to the apicui- 

 tural world something worth knowing. It is to 

 be hoped (and I believe it will be the case) that 

 the Ontario government will not be slack or slow 

 in supplying needed equipment. 



The Hon. Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Duff, 

 represents Simcoe Co. in the Legislature. This 

 is a county of great apicuitural activity, having 

 in it men of progressive ideas. In our gratitude 

 to Mr. Duff, and in hopefully looking forward to 

 the future, it will do no one an injustice to state 

 that the decision to establish the Jordan Apicui- 

 tural Station was one of the last acts of the Hon. 

 Nelson Monteith, and bee-keepers will not be 

 likely to forget that in this act, in the providing 

 of lecturers at county meetings, and in an increase 

 from $600 to $2500 for the stamping-out of foul 

 brood, Mr Monteith has broken away from a 

 rut into which Ontario apiculture had fallen. 

 The inspectors for Ontario are as follows. Tl e 

 grant for the year is $2500. 



DISTRICTS. 



1. J. S. Schranic, Port Elgin, Ont.; counties ot Bruce and 

 Huron. 



2. D. Chalmers, Pool, Ont.; Perth and Waterloo. 



.1. W. A. Chrysler. Chatham, Ont.; Lambton, Kent, Essex. 



4. John Newton, Thameslord, Ont.; Middlesex, Elgin. 



5. James Arnistrone, Cheapside; North and South Norfolk, 

 North and South Oxford. 



6. Jacob Alpaugh, Eden, Ont.; Wellington, Grey. " 



7. H. G. Sibbald, Claude, Ont.; Simcoe, Dufferin, Peel. 



8. Morley Pettit, Nixon, Ont.; Brant, .Wentworth, Halton, 

 Haldemand, Lincoln, Welland. 



