1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



525 



NOTES FROM CANADA 



By R. F. Holtermann. 



QUALITY OF CANADIAN HONEY. 



This season bee-keepers can rejoice in a 

 very fine quality of honey which will increase 

 very much the demand tor the article. But- 

 ter is now worth an exceptionally high price, 

 and the present outlook is very promising. 



CAPPING HONEY. 



Elmer Plutchinson in the Bee-keepers' Re- 

 view for July, among other practical hints, 

 mentions the honey lost in the cappings after 

 draining them as much as possible. I, too, 

 wrestled with that problem, and tried to 

 melt these cappings, without the addition of 

 water, by putting them in vessels and setting 

 these in hot water, but .the honey was prac- 

 tically unmarketable. For the last two years 

 my solution has been to put the fairly 

 well-drained cappings through a large solar 

 wax-extractor. Ihis, if proper attention is 

 given, leaves a very marketable honey. 

 The capping-melter, I hope, will be still bet- 

 ter. 



VENTILATORS IN SUPERS. 



This season I have found quite a strong 

 tendency to swarm; but havingtheold queen 

 clipped, and with thorough care going through 

 the brood-chambers, and destroying queen- 

 cells every week, I have two chances at ev- 

 ery embryo queen before a swarm can get 

 away. I allowed two colonies to swarm, 

 giving them a super each with a ventilator 

 at the back. I have before stated that the 

 bees do not use these ventilaterrs as entrances 

 unless young bees hatch in the supers. I 

 now find that, if the ventilator is open when 

 the swarm locates itself, bees may use the 

 ventilator as a permanent entrance. 



ELECTRICAL CONDITIONS. 



W. Z. Hutchinson, in the July Review, 

 writes, "The electrical condition of the at- 

 mosphere preceding a rainstorm is nearly 

 always favorable to nectar secretion." No 

 doubt many of us have noticed that, preced- 

 ing a thunderstorm, the bees put in some of 

 their best work. I have, however, often 

 wondered whether it was not on account of 

 the heat and moist condition of the atmos- 

 phere. With an almost saturated condition 

 the plant throws but little moisture off, and 

 the nectar rises in the nectar-glands of the 

 blossoms. Such a condition may be obtain- 

 ed in a hot-house by means of heat and mois- 

 ture, irrespective of any electrical condition; 

 however, I may be wrong in my deductions. 

 I can not say conclusions, for to my mind the 

 matter is an open question. 

 <*■- 



HONEY-KNIVES. 



Let me be bold enough to predict that the 

 heated honey-knife will not supersede the 

 cold. My son Ivar and a young man, Arthur 



F. Hodgson, who have been with me for 

 years, and are now engaged in bee-keeping, 

 recently helped me to extract honey; and 

 while at work they stated that there is no 

 need of a bevel on a honey-knife. It simply 

 requires a blade strong enough not to spring. 

 Since that, I see Louis H. Scholl, page 423, 

 Gleanings, wants "just a plais butcher- 

 knife." I have done very little uncapping, 

 but I think likely the heavy knives we have 

 been using are unnecessary. The two young 

 men I refer to prefer to lean the top end of the 

 comb toward the side that handles the knife. 

 They cut with an upward stroke, when the 

 strip of capping hangs perpendicularly, mak- 

 ing a bevel unnecessary. We can agree on 

 upward or downward stroke only when those 

 who whittle are no longer divided into two 

 classes, viz., those who draw the knife toward 

 them and those who hold the wood nearest 

 them and cut from them. 



bee-escapes. 



Elmer Hutchinson, in the July number of 



the Bee-Keepers' Review, gives his method of 



using bee-escapes. He writes: "We take 



the hive-cover off, give the bees a few har,d 



Suffs from the smoker, the combs of honey 

 eing all sealed over, and no open cells of 

 honey for the bees to stick their bills in; 

 half or more of the bees will at once rush 

 down out of the super; when the one u^g 

 the smoker pries the super loose, the other 

 man lifts it up, and the one with the smoker 

 slips an escape-board in place under the top 

 super. We never put more than one super 

 above an escape-board at a time." 



So far as I know, the above method is 

 about the best way of using the bee-escape; 

 and there is no doubt that, to those who are 

 in towns and cities, and to those who object 

 to even an occasional sting, and to such as 

 have limited experience in robbing time at 

 least, the bee-escape is a boon. But it seems 

 to me it is a great waste of time to such men 

 as Hutchinson to put a bee-escape under a 

 super such as he describes, and I could with 

 the same help, almost, have the super of cap- 

 ped honey off the hive while he is getting 

 the bee-escape board under. Then think of 

 making another visit to the hive for every 

 super on it, and think (or shall I say let us 

 forget to think?) of warming the honey ar- 

 tificially and breathing the foul air from coal- 

 oil stoves during extracting, tending to run a 

 person down at a time when he is already 

 under a good deal of physical strain! It just 

 seems to me I should like to run a race with 

 a man who uses bee-escapes. Mind, I am 

 now discussing the advisibility or inadvisa- 

 bility of men using bee-escapes who are not 

 surrounded by dwelling-houses, who know 

 the kinks to prevent robbing, even in rob- 

 bing time, and who will not make thought- 

 less slips which may demoralize the whole 

 apiary. During the time that bees would 

 rob we recently extracted, in a building 

 no better than a barn, 5600 lbs. in one 

 day of nine hours, and gave no trouble to 

 the people with whom the apiary was located. 



