840 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Dec. 7. 1905 



300 pound averages, delightful climate, and the like, until 

 Arthur Laiug of Hamilton, R. H. Smith of St. Thomas, 

 and Jacob Alpaugh of Gait, could resist no longer, but 

 made the venture of the trip last winter. The rest of us — 

 more cautious — are now reaping the benefit of their experi- 

 ence. At the Ontario bee-keepers' convention in Toronto, 

 Nov. 15 to 17, Mr. Laing gave his experience. 



The advantages of Jamaica bee-keeping, as set forth 

 by Mr. Laing, are principally cheap labor — wages being 

 about 25 cents per day, without board. On the other hand 

 are expensive and inadequate transportation, starvation 

 period during several months in which bees steadily dwindle 

 and fall a prey to the ravages of moths and ants ; honey 

 prices about 2j4 cents per pound, and an average yield of 

 25 pounds per colony. 



Mr. Laing also mentioned confidentially, fit as, and, if 

 my memory serves me rightly, land crabs, ticks, scorpions, 

 lizards, and other household pets too numerous to mention. 

 In fact, all considered, it was quite evident Mr. Laing came 

 away with a bad impression of Jamaica for bee- keeping. 



Ventilating Hives 



It is pretty well established that large hive-entrances 

 are the thing in the honey season ; but not so many will 

 admit, or have ever thought of the advantage of super ven- 

 tilation. I can not remember when my father, S. T. Pettit, 

 did not put 3 or 4 strips ^i-inch square and about 4 inches 

 long lengthwise on the oack end of 3 or 4 top-bars in the 

 extracting super. They projected 'i inch, and held up the 

 back edge of the quilt and cushion to admit air to the super 

 in hot weather. That was one of the things I could not get 

 around at first when changing from cushion and gable 

 cover to the flat cover packed with felt paper, which is so 

 much more convenient in migratory bee-keeping. 



R. F. Holtermann suggested to me a saw-cut about ^s- 

 inch wide and 3 or 4 inches long in the back of the super a 

 couple of inches down from the top. It is fitted with a gal- 

 vanized-iron slide for closing in cool weather, and for mov- 

 ing. The bees never use it for an entrance except when the 

 queen gets into the super, and it is certainly a great help in 

 controlling swarming. 



Report of the Middlesex Convention 



The annual meeting of the Middlesex Bee-Keepers' 

 Association was held in London, Nov. 4. Those present re- 

 ported a very good season, an average of about 75 pounds 

 per colony, spring count, mostly extracted honey. One 

 member reported 228 pounds of extracted honey from one 

 colony, and 196 sections from a single colony, and neither 

 of these offered to swarm. 



Mr. R. H. Smith read an instructive paper on, " Shall 

 We Keep More Bees or Manage those We Have to Better 

 Advantage ?" He advocated the latter plan of caring for 

 those we have rather than increasing the number of colo- 

 nies and decreasing the amount of surplus honey per colony. 



Mr. Miller read an interesting paper on " Managing 

 Out-Apiaries Without Help." By the use of hives and im- 

 plements adapted to his system, he is able to visit each yard 

 every 4 days ; the honey can be extracted or taken home to 

 be extracted. He uses the Heddon hive ; the colony is ex- 

 amined for queen cells between the two sections of the hive, 

 the top portion being raised or tipped back by an implement 

 of his own design. If there are signs of swarming the col- 

 ony is divided. 



The subject of producing comb or extracted honey was 

 taken by Mr. Anguish. What he thought to be of more 

 importance was to have strong colonies, then you can pro- 

 duce either, but he did not like to put on sections towards 

 the close of the honey-flow ; he would put on an extracting 

 super. Another important point brought out was, that 

 ^trong colonies ripen their honey better than the weak ones. 



An address on foul brood was given by Mr. Gemmill, 

 Assistant Foul Brood Inspector of Ontario. He considered 

 our foul-brood laws very good, as some of the States had 

 copied from them. The disease is on the decrease. He con- 

 sidered it more dangerous with young bee-keepers, who were 

 more likely to have robbing, and spread the disease. A sus- 

 pected case should be destroyed, or treated in a careful man- 

 ner by shaking on starters, then in 3 or 4 days shake again 

 on full sheets of comb foundation. Caging the queen will 

 prevent them from swarming out. 



Reforesting was discussed, led by Mr, Robb, who 



thought that beekeepers should plant basswoods and honey- 

 locusts. 



The sowing of buckwheat for honey alone was not 

 thought advisable, as it requires a warm, light soil and a 

 moist atmosphere, to secrete nectar. 



The following are the ofBcers for the ensuing year : 

 President, Morley Pettit; Vice-President, F. J. Miller; 

 and Secretary, E- L. Bainard, of Larnbeth. 



E. L Bainard, Sec. 



-V (£ontributcb -f 

 Special Clrticlcs 



Some Mistakes of Bee- Keepers 

 the Apiary 



Pests of 



BY C. W. DAYTON 



I NOTICE the mention of " Prevention of Swarming by 

 Inversion," on page 517. This was one of the operations 

 performed with the " Queen-Restrictor," which I de- 

 described in Gleanings in 1889 or 1890. When we first begin 

 to experiment with a contrivance we watch it daily, or even 

 hourly, sometimes. But when we get a large number of the 

 new contrivances in use the colonies increase, and corres- 

 ponding profits invested in more " irons in the fire," our 

 experiments are liable to be conducted by the "lick and 

 promise" fashion. 



I believe the " Inversion " system failed because it was 

 too much labor. During the several years since that time I 

 have looked upon the " Queen-Restrictor " as a waste of 

 thought. But last year when the colonies bred up so strong 

 that they clustered all over the fronts of the hives when 

 there was no prospect of there being a pound of honey for 

 them to gather, I wished then that I had a " Restrictor " for 

 every queen. 



Outdoor Feeding of Bees. 



On page 553, Mr. Hasty suggests in regard to my out- 

 door feeding, that I could have exchanged a few full combs 

 from the strong colonies into the weak. So I could have 

 done, but I was very busy at other kinds of work, and sup- 

 posed if the feed was supplied all the time the strong would 

 get stronger, and the weak would get enough to live and 

 build up somewhat. It seemed that about SO would not even 

 carry it home. I thought that I could spare no time so much 

 as to raise the covers, and did not go amongst the hives 

 more than once in 10 days. I did not know there were more 

 than a dozen dead until I needed the hives to put swarms in, 

 and that was often not until the swarm was already on a 

 bush. Though there was lack of attention there was no 

 lack of feed put out, and I had 7 or 8 tons of honey to draw 

 on, and it was not used grudgingly. 



As it turned out, there were 30 to 40 swarms about two 

 weeks earlier than in other apiaries, and kept nearly one 

 extracting ahead of other apiaries. 



Now, attention is usually the cheapest article in the 

 whole apiary management. I have a very large stock of 

 attention, but there was not enough of it where it ought to 

 have been. I think Hasty, Doolittleor Miller ought to have 

 warned me beforehand. As it is, I can not use their advice 

 until it happens again. 



We see bees so anxious to rob at sometimes of the year 

 that we take it for granted that they will rob at all times. 

 I had been reading of "shortcuts." The " cut " I chose 

 was very " short." One day last January, with the ther- 

 mometer at 76 degrees in the shade, I went to one of my api- 

 aries of between 60 and 70 colonies, and at about 7 o'clock in 

 the morning put out several feeders of half honey and half 

 water boiled together. I put this feed right in amongst the 

 hives. Then I went into the shop to await developments. I 

 expected to hear the sound of robbery in a few minutes. 



Eight o'clock came, and 9, and at 10 o'clock I went to see 

 what was doing. Only 5 or 6 bees around the feed 1 Said I 

 to myself, " Is it possible that this whole apiary has ' gone 

 up?'" I kicked a hive; a roar of bees came. I kicked 

 another ; a roar. Another ; a roar. And so on along the 

 line. 



"Well," says I, " this shows that bees do not know 

 things all of a sudden and without previous experience." It 



