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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 1 



NOTES FROM CANADA 



By R. F. Holtermann. 



the ontario bee-keepers' convention. 



Officers for the ensuing year: President, 

 Wm. Couse, Streetsville; First Vice-presi- 

 dent, W. J. Craig, Brantford; Second Vice- 

 president, W. A. Chrysler, Chatham; Secre- 

 tary-Treasurer, P. W. Hodgetts, Department 

 of Agriculture, Toronto. 



THE NATIONAL INVITED. 



The hearty and unanimous response which 

 the resolution inviting the National Bee- 

 keepers' Association to Toronto received 

 speaks well for the interest which will be 

 taken by Canadians in the convention should 

 the association accept. Canadians feel that 

 the fact that this is the second year that Can- 

 ada has been under consideration, and that 

 this really North American association will 

 not have seen Canada for fifteen years, 

 should bring the convention to Toronto. 

 Special railroad rates, offered during the 

 time of the Toronto exhibition, will be a 

 strong inducement to the convention. 



THE NEW YORK DELEGATION. 



We had a strong delegation from New 

 York State. S. D. House, Camillus, N. Y., 

 is a host in himself; and what one Ontario 

 member said we all say. "He knows what 

 he is talking about, and what he says is al- 

 ways to the point." No address awoke 

 greater interest, or was followed with closer 

 attention, than that by P. I. Clark, Borodino, 

 N. Y., on queen-rearing. The jewel, set in 

 gold, of his address, in my estimation, was 

 when he gave the simplest method of re- 

 queening by putting to one side of the hive 

 a comb of brood, separating it from the rest 

 of the hive by means of a tin which acts as 

 a tight division-board, and which also folds 

 over sufficiently to separate the top of this 

 compartment from the super. In this a cap- 

 ped cell is placed that is within two or three 

 days of hatching. This cell is protected by 

 means of a cell-protector. In this compart- 

 ment the young queen is fertilized, and at 

 the proper time after the old queen has been 

 removed, the nucleus with the young queen 

 and the full colony are united by means of a 

 small round hole in the tight division-board. 



REQUEENING. 



The officers of the association have evident- 

 ly been much impressed with the inferiority 

 of the average queen. H. G. Sibbald dealt 

 with that subject in his usual happy manner. 

 As a foul-brood inspector he saw the need 

 of better queens. He did not want a colony 

 queenless for even a few days if it could be 

 avoided. Some years ago when feeding 

 back honey to complete sections he noticed 

 that, as soon as the colony got the swarming 

 impulse, the bees did not take up any more 

 feed, also that a colony slackens up in honey- 

 gathering when it gets the swarming im- 

 pulse; also that queenless colonies do not 

 work as well as those that have a queen. 

 Mr. Sibbald favored a good strain of Italians. 



When Mr. Sibbald stated that he was care- 

 ful not to rear queens from cells produced 

 under the swarming impulse, Holtermann 

 felt he could now settle a small portion of 

 the score against him through Sibbald s 

 joke at H.'s expense. After gravely ex- 

 pressing his deep interest in Mr. Sibbald's 

 method of eradicating the swarming impulse 

 he stated he was going to take the last speak- 

 er to a dairyman's convention. Cows switch 

 their tails in a disagreeable manner when 

 being milked, and Mr. Sibbald could explain 

 to them how, by cutting the tails at birth 

 from the calves, in a few generations they 

 would breed a cow that would no longer 

 have the disposition to switch. 



F. J. Adams, Brantford, ably connected 

 the need of rearing good queens with honey 

 production. He pointed out how, with mod- 

 ern methods, non-swarming, stimulating the 

 queen, or something beyond nature's meth- 

 ods, had to be employed to keep good queens 

 at the head of the colony. 



FOUL BROOD. 



The reports of inspectors showed that the 

 sum of $2500 and the work of the fourteen in- 

 spectorshadbeen entirelyinadequate to cover 

 the needed ground for inspection. Between 

 sessions I heard of four county associations 

 that have asked that more time and money 

 be spent in this work during the coming 

 year, and one county has asked for an in- 

 spector — viz., Simcoe. 



European foul brood has made headway; 

 and a resolution submitted by R. F. Holter- 

 mann, seconded by Alex. Dickson, Lancas- 

 ter, Ont., was carried: 



''Resolved, That the members of the On- 

 tario Bee-keepers' Association view with 

 alarm the fact that cases of European foul 

 brood have been found among bees in On- 

 tario; that we desire to place ourselves on 

 record as, first, strongly favoring action on the 

 part of the government that win, by thorough 

 and careful inspection, locate every hive af- 

 fected; second, that the Provincial Govern- 

 ment take any action necessary which shall 

 enable it to secure complete control of af- 

 fected colonies." This was passed. 



A PURSE TO MR. WM. M'EVOY. 



I do not want to close this brief report 

 without saying that Thursday's regular pro- 

 gram was broken into by Mr. M. B. Holmes, 

 Athens, Ont., asking the president to call 

 upon some one to produce Mr. Wm. McEvoy. 



After a little search the object of interest 

 was produced, when he was presented with 

 a purse and address "on behalf of bee-keep- 

 ers generally, and members of the Ontario 

 association m particular," in view of the 

 fact that he had been the originator of the 

 method of treating foul brood now generally 

 recognized as the best in the world. The 

 address stated that Canadians are proud that 

 McEvoy had done this. The Germans have 

 invented almost every thing that has devel- 

 oped modern apiculture; the United States 

 has very largely improved upon these inven- 

 tions; but a Canadian has discovered how to 

 grapple with this scourge. 



