684 



GLEANINGS 1-. BEE CULTURE 



Notes from Canada 



J. L. BvEE, Mt. Joy, Ont. 



Speaking of queen bees, may I be allowed 

 'to forecast that, in the near future, there 

 will be some radical changes made in the 

 methods of raising them? Lately we hear 

 much about rearing from eggs instead of 

 'transferring the larvae, and I believe this is 

 «one step toward the change that is apt to 

 "take place. Anyway, I am very firmly 

 convinced, after an exhaustive test, that 

 queens reared by transferring the larvaB do 

 not live nearly as long as do those reared 

 under the swarming impulse. I base my 

 belief on a large number of cases taken 

 collectively, not on individual cases, which 

 prove nothing one way or the other. 

 * * # 



Relative to the new postal ruling of the 

 United States regarding the mailing of 

 queens, in our humble opinion the Depart- 

 ment is to be congratulated on making an 

 effort to prevent the dissemination of dis- 

 ease in mailing-cages, and I wish that our 

 Canadian Postal Depai-tment would make 

 a similar ruling. At the last Ontario con- 

 vention held in Toronto, November last, 

 this matter was spoken of when the com- 

 mittee was considering what recommenda- 

 tions to make to the Federal Parliament re- 

 garding necessary legislation for the bee in- 

 dustry. While the most of the members of 

 the committee, including myself, Avere not 

 in favor of doing any thing to hamper the 

 free introduction of queens into Canada 

 from the United States, owing to the fact 

 that the demand for queens is greater than 

 Canadian breeders can supply, yet I ven- 

 ture to say that every member of that com- 

 mittee will be glad that the ruling referred 

 to has been made. While the chances of 

 introducing disease in mailing-cages may 

 not be very great, yet that there is a chance 

 no one will dispute; and then, again, there 

 is no question but that some queen-breeders 

 have been unjustly accused in the past. 

 If they take all precautions against the 

 chance of disease being carried in their 

 €ages, there will be no chance of an unjust 

 accusation being made against the queen- 

 breeder. 



From the fact that some queen-breeders 

 have made a success of using a candy with 

 no honey in it, it does look indeed possible 

 in the near future for all of them to be on 

 the safe side i"egarding any accusation of 

 spreading foul brood through the country 

 in their mailing-cages. While not in the 

 business, most assuredly I would try the 

 plan if needing any candy for fitting up 



mailing-cages for queens. In England it 

 is quite a common thing for many colonies 

 to be wintered exclusively on candy instead 

 of honey stores; and in this country it has 

 been tried to a limited extent as well. Only 

 a few days ago, while talking with Mr. F. 

 L. Pollock, of Stouffville, Ont., he told me 

 that last winter he tried the plan with the 

 best of success, and that he considered it 

 more economical tlian feeding sugar syrup, 

 and not nearly so much bother. This winter 

 I believe he intends to try the plan on a 

 more extensive scale, and results will be 

 awaited with interest. I believe he follows 

 the plan for making the candy as outlined 

 in Gleanings. I said he, but really it 

 should be she, as Mrs. Pollock does the 

 work of making the candy- just as I expect 

 another woman would be asked to do the 

 work if I needed some candy made. It's 

 a sure guess that I would burn it if I tried 

 to make it myself. 



ITALIANS CAME OUT AHEAD IN THE RACE. 



In Eastern Ontario the majority of the 

 bees have been of the old-time black or 

 German variety; and wliile my limited ex- 

 perience in that locality as an inspector 

 convinced mie that those bees in their purity 

 are much more quiet than many of the 

 hybrids kept further west, yet I knew 

 nothing positive as to their honey-gathering 

 qualities as compared with the Italians or 

 Carniolans. In the spring of 1911 1 bought 

 a large a^Diary out there, and in the fall 

 about a third were Italianized. This sea- 

 son (a poor one in that section) the 80 

 Italians stored more than double as much 

 as the 160 blacks in the same apiary, all 

 receiving the same attention. At the last 

 convention of the Ontario Associatiori, 

 some men from the East strongly cham- 

 pioned the blacks ; and I have been serious- 

 ly wondering lately whether they have ever 

 given the other races a trial. At any rate, 

 if all that east yard of mine had been 

 requeened a year ago it would have meant 

 more dollars for us this year; and when 

 a man tells me after this that the blacks 

 are as good as Italians or Carniolans I 

 will just think he is joking. At any rate, 

 European foul brood is causing a good 

 many to change stocks, for while Italians 

 and Carniolans are not immune to the dis- 

 ease they stand up against it much better 

 than the blacks. In fact, experience has 

 shown that there is no use trying to cure 

 the latter race if they once get infected. 



