332 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1 



NOTES FROM CANADA 



By R. F. Holtermann. 



clover prospects in canada good. 

 So far as I can learn, white and alsike clover 

 have come through the winter in excellent condi- 

 tion, and, although late, promise well. In my 

 experience a cold and wet spring is likely to be 

 followed by a dry summer; but for the last eight 

 months it has not been safe to foretell weather. 



LOCUST AND BASSWOOD PLANTING IN CANADA. 



W. K. Morrison, p. 265, refers to the locusts 

 as honey-yielders. Mr. E. J. Zavitz, who has 

 charge of forestry work in Ontario, has the locust 

 and the basswood tree on his list for planting. 

 As many thousands of acres are to be planted un- 

 der the Ontario government, Prof. Zavitz" • de- 

 cision will be of interest to bee-keepers. 

 4^ 



INOCULATION FOR ALFALFA. 



Before me lies a circular sent out by the Mich- 

 igan State Agricultural College. The subject is 

 "Inoculation with Nodule-forming Bacteria." 

 The difference between the plants treated and not 

 treated with the bacteria is simply astonishing. 

 Can it be that the failure of alfalfa to yield hon- 

 ey in Ontario is due to the lack of inoculation? 

 This has already been suggested as the cause. 

 Why could not our provincial government con- 

 duct some experiments in this direction? 



QUEENLESS COLONIES AND WORKER COMBS. 



Doctor Miller, I am inclined to believe you 

 are correct when you say " queenless bees will 

 build worker comb if weak enough. '' I see now 

 in L' Apiculture Ntwvelle" Paris, France, that 

 the editor says that I am too positive. I can 

 not say that I have a great desire to have ex- 

 perience with queenless colonies, but I do re- 

 member initancei where I decided a colony was 

 queenless, shook the bees from the combs, and 

 left them in the hive. These bees built worker 

 comb, and I decided there must have been a mis- 

 take. I can even remember hunting for queens 

 which I was unable to find. Thanks for this in- 

 formation. I am glad to be corrected. 



IS A HIVE THAT CARRIES IN NO POLLEN QUEEN- 

 LESS? 



There is another statement made in this con- 

 nection, and that is that a queenless colony does 

 not gather pollen. If so, how can we tell that a 

 colony is queenless for any length of time by the 

 pollen-clogged combs? [You can't. The state- 

 ment, as we remember it, has to do with pollen- 

 carrying bees, and not with pollen in the combs. 

 If, for example, here is a hive where the return- 

 ing bees are not carrying in pollen while the oth- 

 er bees are, it is claimed that such hive is queen- 

 lets. We should like to inquire how generally 

 true this is. — Ed.] 



THE LONDON CONVENTION IN CANADA; OUT- 

 DOOR-WINTERED COLONIES FURTHER ALONG. 



The Middlesex Bee-keepers' convention at 

 London, May 1, was a great success for a coun- 

 ty conrentioB. At least forty were in atten- 



dance, with the president, Geo. Kimball Reeve, 

 of London township, in the chair. The winter 

 losses were only between 5 and 10 per cent, prob- 

 ably not exceeding the former figure. Those 

 bees that had been wintered outside and packed 

 had in some instances increased in strength dur- 

 ing the winter, but they had also consumed an 

 unusual amount of stores. The members pretty 

 well agreed that, owing to the cold, wet, and 

 backward spring, there was an unusually small 

 quantity of brood in the hive. Those who had 

 packed their bees and wintered outside were the 

 more fortunate. 



4rr 



THE SENSE OF SMELL IN LOCATING FOUL BROOD 

 IN A HIVE. 



W. A. Chrysler, Chatham, Out., one of the 

 foul brood inspectors, stated in a conversation 

 with me that to him the sense of smell is a won- 

 derful help in detecting the disease. He remark- 

 ed that he had been very successful in diagnosing 

 the disease in this way. Most of those who have 

 any thing to do with foul brood know the pe- 

 culiar odor emanating from the putrid matter re- 

 sulting from the action of the foul-brood germ 

 upon the larva; of the bees, and Mr. Chrysler re- 

 ferred to this, stating that, when once the bee- 

 keeper became acquainted with the smell, it is 

 unmistakable. He had tried to detect the odor 

 by removing the quilt; but unless in advanced 

 cases he had not succeeded in detecting the dis- 

 ease by this method. He had, however, been 

 successful with only five diseased cells in the 

 hive by the following plan: He went to the hive, 

 and, without disturbing or smoking the bees, and 

 with a veil on his face, he put his nose to the en- 

 trance of the hive, and through his nose drew in 

 a long breath, and in this way he had been able 

 to detect the disease with only five or six cells 

 diseased in the hive. [We have detected foul 

 brood in the same way. We located a colony 

 once in this manner when we could find only one 

 diseased cell; but we have never found that en- 

 trance diagnosis was reliable. It is, however, a 

 great aid in locating affected colonies. — Ed.] 



THE ODOR OF A QUEENLESS COLONY. 



Mr. Chrysler also stated that he could detect 

 by odor a colony which has been queenless for 

 some time. He said that the colony which has 

 uncapped worker brood has an odor which a col- 

 ony without such brood does not have. It had 

 taken a good deal of practice to make this meth- 

 od a success, but he had finally succeeded. Mr. 

 Chrysler gave as a parallel a nest of puppies. 

 One with experience can tell without seeing or 

 hearing, but by odor, that the nest is here or 

 there. So worker brood has its distinct odor. 



It is now some years since, in Gleanings, I 

 advanced the theory that bees single out cjueen- 

 less stocks and rob them, not because the bees in 

 queenless colonies have less courage, but because 

 the odor is not the same. Mr. Chrysler surely 

 endorses that theory, and has made practical use 

 of it. At the close of the conver3ation Mr. 

 Chrysler stated, " I would not care to get up in 

 public and make these statements, for I should 

 expect to be attacked; but they are, nevertheless, 

 true." I think that this information is too val- 

 uable to remain hidden. 



