670 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Notes from Canada 



J. L. Byer, Mt. Joy, Ont. 



A few days ago the Crop Committee of 

 llie Ontario Beekeepers' Association met in 

 Ontario to consider the buckwheat-honey 

 situation. Reports received indicated about 

 the same yield as last year, which means a 

 rather light ci'op, for last season was a long 

 way below the average. In our locality the 

 yield is much lighter than last year. Rain 

 did not come in time to help the buckwheat ; 

 although we have had a light j'ield of this 

 honej'^, for .some reason the bees stored more 

 honey in the brood-nest than usual, so of 

 course we have llie comfort of knowing that 

 the feeding-bill will be lighter, even if the 

 surplus is smaller than was anticipated ear- 

 lier in the season. Any way, the crop from 

 clover was good, so naturally we do not 

 feel like grumbling at the situation. 



Since writing my last notes for this de- 

 partment nearly all parts of Ontario have 

 had copious rains, and the long drouth 

 prevalent in many plae«s has been broken. 

 Rains came too late in many localities (our 

 own section among them) to be of much 

 help to the clover. As a result the prospect 

 in these places is poor indeed for alsike 

 next season. Beekeepers in Brant Co. re- 

 l>ort good catches of clover, and I under- 

 stand that adjoining counties in that part 

 of Ontario have been blessed with early 

 rains too; so some parts of the Province 

 will have a good chance of a crop next year 

 any way. It is too early to make a fore- 

 cast; and, after all, so much depends on 

 weather conditions at the time of the honey 

 season, no one ever knows what may hap- 

 pen, even if prospects are very poor. At 

 the apiary 100 miles north, forest fires got 

 uncomfortably near the bees ; but rain came 

 in time to prevent the fires spreading to the 

 apiary. Nothing gives one a more uncom- 

 fortable feeling than to fear the results of 

 a thi-eatening fire; and I certainly heaved a 

 sigltof relief when Avord came that rain had 

 at last stopped the fires from spreading. 

 * * « 



This spring a young man li\ang near me 

 sent to one of our well-known queen-breed- 

 ers across the line for 25 one-pound pack- 

 ages of bees. The bees were sent just at the 

 opening of the clover flow, and on coming 

 to Toronto were stupidly held by the cus- 

 toms officials or express handlers (perhaps 

 both were to blame) for 48 hours after their 

 arrival in that city. Naturally the bees 

 were in none too good shajie when they ar- 

 rived; but a strange feature of the case to 

 me was that eight queens were dead in the 



cage, although the majority of the bees 

 were still alive but about starved out. My 

 own experience has always been that the 

 queen will be about the last one to die in 

 case of staiTation in hives or cages, and I 

 could not understand the cause of so many 

 queens being killed. My own conclusion at 

 the time Avas that the queens had been killed 

 when introduced to the bees in the cages; 

 but I could hardlj^ believe that such a thing 

 would happen in case of queens mailed by 

 an experienced queen-breeder. It is only 

 fair to state that the queen-breeder in ques- 

 tion acted verj^ fairly and generously in the 

 matter, and these criticisms are not made in 

 a carping spirit. The breeder in question 

 is and has always been noted for his desire 

 to give the '' square deal." Perhaps some 

 othei^s who may have had experience in 

 shipping packages of bees may be able to 

 explain why the fatalities among the queens 

 were so high, and whether it is a common 

 experience to find dead queens among the 

 bees when they are shipped in this way. 

 * * * 



NO OBJECTION TO HAVING COLONIES STRONG 

 OUT OF SEASON. 



G. M. Doolittle's reasoning on page 442, 

 where he champions the plan of iising dum- 

 mies in the brood-nest for the purpose of 

 forcing all white honey into sections is hard- 

 ly clear to me. He says that in apiaries of 

 blacks or hybrids the use of dummies will 

 save from $150 to $200 in an apiary of 100 

 colonies ; but with a good strain of Italians 

 that will reduce brood-rearing as the flow 

 increases, the use of these dummies for the 

 purpose of repressing out-of-season pro- 

 ductiveness is not so apparent. With a non- 

 restricted brood-nest with such a strain as 

 he describes what will happen in the honey 

 season? It has been my experience that it 

 invariably means that the colony will put 

 a great lot of white honey in the brood-nest 

 instead of in the sections; and for my part 

 I should prefer to have the queen occupy- 

 ing the frames with brood instead of having 

 the combs filled with honey. Where there 

 is a buckwheat flow folloAving the clover and 

 basswood. I do not believe there is wisdom 

 in trying to force a queen to occupy as few 

 as five frames with brood, as in such loca- 

 tions there are no periods of from .35 to 50 

 days between flows as he specifies; but, on 

 the contrary, when there is a basswood flow 

 it makes us hustle to get it off before buck- 

 wheat comes on. For " our locality," " bees 

 alwaj^s strong " is the only safe rule if best 

 results are to be obtained, and I never fret 

 about bees being reared out of season. 



