GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Notes from Canada 



J. L. Byee, Mt. Joy, Ont. 



Wherever bees here in Ontario had 

 enough good stores last fall, they wintered 

 in fine condition. Many beekeepers report 

 heavy consumiDtion of stores, and attribute 

 it to a mild January. Clover is looking 

 well at this date (April 4) ; and as there 

 is an abundance of it this season, naturally 

 we are hoping for a good crop of honey. 



* * * 



Talk about jDluck, I think that picture on 

 page 155, March 1, where a transferring 

 operation is in progress, shows that virtue 

 personified. How many women would want 

 to be working like that with those thousands 

 of bees crawling all over the ground, and 

 over herself, as seems to be the case. Trans- 

 ferring will always be necessary, I suppose, 

 to a certain extent; but at best it is a mussy 

 job when done by the old-time methods. 

 The times are rare when one can not trans- 

 fer by simply putting the new hive on top 

 of the box or other receptacle, allowing the 

 queen to go above and occupy the good 

 combs or foundation. As soon as she is 

 above, slip a queen-excluder between the 

 two bodies, and then in 21 days shake off 

 the bees of the lower hive, doing as you 

 M'ish with the combs, now empty of brood. 



* * * 



The spraying question is a live issue in 

 Ontario again, especially in localities where 

 fruit is gTown extensively. Last week I 

 was in the counties of Northumberland and 

 Durham on a short Institute trip, and at 

 different places I heard of owners of spray- 

 ing outfils who said that they were going to 

 spray right along, and, if necessary, pay 

 any fines imposed. They said that the out- 

 fit is worth at least $15.00 a day to them; 

 and as the fine is very small, they can af- 

 ford to pay it if necessai-y and keep right 

 on at work. To make matters worse, some 

 good fruit-men are not as sure as formerly 

 that the spraying in full bloom injures the 

 blossoms; and with a big acreage to cover 

 they say that, if it were not for the bees, 

 they would spray right in full bloom. It 

 is a difficult question to solve; but there 

 is no question that the best-informed men 

 in the fruit industry are opposed to this 

 spraying in full bloom, even if it were not 

 detrimental to the blossoms, as they realize 

 that tlie bees are necessary in order to in- 

 sure best results in the way of fertilization. 

 Something will have to be done in the near 

 future, for this spring the chances are that 

 there will be considerable friction in some 

 localities; and if the law we have is to be 



enforced, certainly amendments must be 

 made that will make the fine more than 



nominal. 



* * * 



QUEENS MATE QUITE CLOSE TO THEIR OWN 

 HIVES. 



Mr. John McKinnon, writing in the Ca- 

 nadian Bee Journal, says that his Italian 

 bees did some robbing from hives four miles 

 distant, this last season, and also that some 

 black queens six miles away were mated to 

 Italian drones from liis apiary. While I 

 would not contradict these statements, yet it 

 would need some pretty positive proofs to 

 convince me that be is correct. Tor years, 

 much buckwheat was grown within four 

 miles of our home apiary; and while bees 

 in the buckwheat section stored more than 

 enough for winter each season, not once 

 was a drop of buckwheat honey noticed in 

 our yard. In said yard th§re were Italians, 

 Carniolans, and blacks, so no " race " claims 

 can enter into the matter as an explanation. 

 As to distant mating, I can not speak so 

 positively; yet all my observations along 

 that line certainly go to show that the great 

 majority of queens are mated quite close to 

 the hives from which they issue. Especially 

 is this so in so far as black bees are con- 

 cerned ; and usually with an equal number 

 of black and Italian drones flying, the 

 black chaps will come out ahead in the 

 race, as any one who has bred Italian 

 queens in a mixed apiary will testify to 

 from sad experience. 



Conversations with Doolittle — continued from p. 287. 



something in the no-drone theory, still 

 clung to the belief that swarming can be 

 prevented that way, and so I tried many 

 plans looking toward the prevention of a 

 single drone being reared in any hive in 

 their apiaries, they considering the preven- 

 tion of the rearing of drones the greatest 

 obstacle in the way, for it is the natural 

 instinct of a strong colony of bees to rear 

 a few drones when the colony becomes 

 prosperous enough in early spring. It was 

 found out that frames of all worker comb, 

 or those of foundation having that size of 

 cell, were not proof against drones, as some 

 anxious colonies Avould get in a few cells 

 in the corners of the frames, between the 

 frames and some part of the liive; or, if 

 thwarted in all these ways, they would even 

 cut down a little [)atc]i of worker comb and 

 build drone comb ; or the queen would lay 

 drone eggs in worker cells. 



