Gleanings in Bee Culture 



ra(D¥ 



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



Thanks, friend Crane, for that word of 

 good cheer, page 745, Dec. 15. May your 

 prophecy concerning next year be correct. 

 However, while 1 am not fretting about 

 what we can not help, nevertheless my faith 

 is not very strong for a good crop of honey 

 in 1912. I hope I may be "disappointed." 



Much evidence seems to be accumulating 

 as to the efficacy of carbolic acid used in 

 different ways in the handling of bees un- 

 der various circumstances. The use of this 

 drug for this purpose has been quite com- 

 mon in the British Isles for some time; but 

 so far as I know it has been used but little 

 in Canada. I am looking forward to trying 

 it some time next summer, as I am con- 

 vinced that it must be a good thing for cer- 

 tain manipulations of the hive. 



A correspondent of the British Bee Jour- 

 nal asks for the best method of extracting 

 wax from brood-combs, and expresses the 

 idea that the screw presses advocated by 

 many are too expensive to justify him get- 

 ting one. The editor of that journal advises 

 him to get a "solar," and says that is the 

 best and cheapest way of extracting wax, 

 adding that they will soon repay their cost. 

 Can the editor really mean that a solar is 

 the best arrangement for getting wax out of 

 brood-combs? Why, here in Canada we 

 have much hotter days than they do in 

 England, and the solar that will not leave 

 anywhere from 25 to 50 per cent of the wax 

 in old brood-combs is yet to come under my 

 notice. Last August I hajipened to be in a 

 large apiary conducted by an old gentle- 

 man, and he asked me if we ever tried burn- 

 ing the stuff from the solar wax-press after 

 the wax was all out. He said that his wo- 

 men folks liked it when they wanted a par- 

 ticularly hot fire; and when I saw them put- 

 ting some of this stuff in the stove I didn't 

 wonder it made a good fire. Oh how I ached 

 to get hold of a few tons of that kind of 

 fuel! It would not have gone into a stove. 

 A solar is all right for cappings or bits of 

 comb, etc.; but in my opinion it is worse 

 than useless tor brood-combs. More than 

 that, since disease is getting so evenly dis- 

 tributed over the country, I now regard that 

 kind of wax-extractor as being a very dan- 

 gerous arrangement in the hands of many 

 bee-keepers, and for my part I would gladly 

 see solar wax-extractors become a thing of 

 the past. 



Bees wintered outdoors had a good flight 

 in most localities in December. Up to date 

 (.fan. 1) we have not had nearly as severe 

 weather as at this season a year ago; in fact, 

 the thermometer has not yet reached the 

 zero-mark, although just now we are threat- 

 ened with a cold wave. There was much 

 rain and mud in December, and a farmer 



was telling me that, with the freezing and 

 thawing, some of his red clover was heaving 

 a bit -an unusual circumstance for this time 

 of the year. However, with colder weather 

 now, there will be no more danger along 

 that line for a while. As for the alsike heav- 

 ing, there is no need for worry, as there is 

 very little here to heave. Although the 

 weather has been mild, from all reports re- 

 ceived so far the bees indoors appear to be 

 wintering well. A few days ago a friend liv- 

 ing near where our east apiary is wintering 

 inside of three caves built right on top of 

 limestone rock, wrote me that he had just 

 been in the repositories, and that all were 

 dry and nice, and the bees so quiet that one 

 would not know they were there. 



The principle on which these "caves" 

 are constructed appears to me to be sound, 

 and they might be all right in localities 

 where it is not advisable to go deep into the 

 ground. They have given perfect satisfac- 

 tion for a number of years. Some time I will 

 illustrate them for the benefit of the readers 

 of Gleanings. This winter 280 colonies 

 are in them, and in past seasons as many 

 as 400 have been win'^ered with good results. 



A. C. Miller is a close observer, but I can 

 not agree with his conclusions as to how dif- 

 ferent methods of clipping the wings of 

 queens will affect their chances for being su- 

 i:)erseded. For a number of years I have 

 clipped the queens while they were on the 

 combs, and I try to get more than half of 

 all the wings off. I can not see a bit of dif- 

 ference so far as their usefulness is concern- 

 ed, compared with those that have only the 

 tips of one side cut off, or any other particu- 

 lar style of wing-dressing that maj' be in 

 vogue. Two years ago I reported having a 

 queen that lived to be seven years old — no 

 doubt about the matter at all, as I had proof 

 of my assertion. Well, the man this queen 

 was purchased from had the habit of taking 

 all of the wings off pretty close, and in this 

 particular case he had outdone himself and 

 clipped all her wings off close. 8he looked 

 very strange, and was always easily seen, 

 even though she was a dark Carniolan. As 

 to her qualities, I need not say much about 

 them, considering that she was alive till 

 seven years of age. She was very strong 

 every year till the fifth, but only moderate- 

 ly so the last two years. Combs full of 

 brood sealed all over — as if all eggs had been 

 laid in a day in that comb — did not look as 

 if she were hampered much by having no 

 wings. But then, who knows but that she 

 might have been better and lived till more 

 than seven years if she had been jiroperly 

 clipped instead of being marked as she was? 

 However, I should like to have a hundred 

 queens like her so far as her good points 

 were concerned, and wouldn't object if they 

 had their wings olY either, as I do not think 

 it would hurt them a bit. 



