884 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Dec. 21, 1905 



scheme a failure and a nuisance. Who wants to waste time 

 hiving Zi. part of a swartnf Bees so fanatically attached to 

 their chosen spot that a large fraction of them refuse to be 

 wheeled away from it. Page 791. 



White Association Members in Texas. 



So the Texas B.K. Association thinks it worth while to 

 ordain that members must be white persons. Wonder if 

 they ever suffered, or were in danger of suffering, from per- 

 sons not white getting too thick. Page 792. 



Miss Wilson and Butter-Making. 



And Miss Wilson tried if she could make a little dab of 

 cream come butter by agitating it in an icecream freezer. 

 Enterprising. And we care enough about our department 

 conductors to like to get side views of their personality. 

 Many big churns in common use (those depending mainly 

 upon the gravity of the cream to do the agitating) strike me 

 as sadly and needlessly helpless when cream takes a notion 

 to say, " I won"'t !" as it often does. " Any old thing " of 

 a churn is tip top when cream in dutiful mood says, " I 

 will." Page 795. 



Conducted by Morlet Pbttit, Villa Nova, Ont. 



Be Prepared for Next Bee-Season- 



It is a common misconception among those outside the 

 profession that bee-keepers have nothing to do through the 

 winter months. Even many bee-men themselves look for- 

 ward to the time when the bees are winter-packed, with the 

 idea of being free from all care with regard to them. A 

 summer occupation it is to them. Well, there is something 

 in it. Bees do not require to be fed night and morning, and 

 tended like other stock on the farm, but they need attention, 

 nevertheless. 



In the cellar the ventilation requires a certain amount 

 of attention to regulate for changes of temperature. The 

 dead bees require to be cleaned from the hive-entrances, 

 and the floor swept up occasionally. Outside, snow must be 

 cleared from the entrances, and, if possible, covers re- 

 moved on bright, sunny days to let the packing dry out. 

 All, of course, with as little disturbance to the bees as 

 possible. 



But this is a small part of the work. The man who 

 would make the most of the short summer season will make 

 all possible preparations before that time comes. There 

 are certain supplies required to be got ready each year, and 

 they should be provided for as soon as possible after the 

 close of the honey-flow. At that time all is fresh in the 

 mind, and it is much easier to decide on what is required 

 than it will be later. The apiarist knows best then how 

 much of his time the bees have taken, and can form the 

 best idea of how much increase, if any, he desires to make 

 the following season. He can make out his list of require- 

 ments — hives to accommodate the required increase ; extra 

 supers, if needed (every hive should be allowed at least two 

 supers) ; frames, sections, foundation, etc. 



Increase can be made most profitably by nuclei and 

 ripe cells or queens. At the present price of queens I would 

 advise the specialist honey-producer to patronize the spe- 

 cialist queen-breeder. Of course, there is always some risk 

 of their being damaged in the mail, and on this account, 

 largely, we use good, ripe cells in forming nuclei whenever 

 they turn up in the course of our examinations for swarm- 

 ing impulse ; but we flnd very little time, indeed, for queen- 

 rearing. Queens ordered in quantities can gerferally be 

 secured at reduced rates, and they should be ordered now, to 

 insure their delivery when wanted. The order should be so 

 arranged that a few will come each week, on a certain day 

 of the week, during the swarming season. 



Objection is made to investing money in supplies which 

 may not be needed this year. This can not be avoided with- 

 out running the much more grave risk of seeing the hives 

 overcrowded with honey, the bees idle and swarming, and 

 no supplies ready. We always make it a point to be ready 



for the worst — I should say, the best. Figure on "wintering 

 all the bees we have put into winter quarters, and securing 

 the highest average yield of honey we have ever had. Then 

 buy supplies accordingly. 



There are always some cans and barrels left over at the 

 end of the season, but they are good stock for another year. 

 Plenty of storage is the great essential. As far as possible 

 let this storage be the packages in which the honey is to be 

 sold. Don't count on keeping honey in milk-cans and 

 crocks, to be laboriously dug out and melted up before sell- 

 ing. Arrange to run the honey directly from the extractor 

 through a strainer into the package in which it is to be sold. 



Another point in preparedness, which very many bee- 

 keepers are prone to neglect, is in the matter of reading. 

 The bee-papers have been coming regularly through the 

 busy season, hastily glanced over, aud laid away, with a 

 promise to read them more carefully in winter. It is winter 

 now. What about those bee papers ? 



I knew a farmer once who was a great student. He 

 read early aud late on science, history, philosophy, until he 

 came to be considered an oracle by his neighbors, and to 

 the outside world a recognized authority on many subjects 

 outside oi farming. I would rather be well versed in the 

 line of business from which comes my daily bread. 



Possibility of Dark Honey or Sugar Syrup in 

 the Brood-Ciiamber Going- into Sections 



"York County Bee-Keeper" hits the nail fairly on 

 the head in the following, taken from the Canadian Bee 

 Journal : 



"At present quite a controversy is going on over the 

 line relative to the practice of feeding sugar syrup. Mr. 

 Boardman practices feeding just previous to the clover-flow, 

 so that the brood-chamber will be full and all clover honey 

 go into the supers. In a late issue in the American Bee 

 Journal, Editor York advises bee-keepers to make their 

 hives heavy for winter by leaving plenty of sealed combs 

 of dark honey, arguing that the dark honey thus placed will 

 really be equal next season, pound for pound, with light 

 honey. 



"Commenting on this. Editor Hutchinson, in the Re- 

 view, asks bee-keepers to see how much of this dark honey 

 will go into the sections, intimating, of course, that there 

 is not much likelihood of dark honey, or sugar syrup either, 

 going into the supers. Seems to me Mr. Hutchinson is 

 treading on dangerous ground, for surely any practical api- 

 arist knows that if a brood-chamber is full of any kind of 

 honey or syrup (provided the colony has a prolific queen and 

 swarming does not take place), quite a large percentage of 

 this honey or syrup will find its way into the surplus apart- 

 ments. This is something that any one can test for himself, 

 and if the novice has colonies to go into the clover-flow with 

 the brood-chamber full of buckwheat honey, he may decide 

 that while experience, if a' good teacher, it is sometimes a 

 little expensive." 



Bees and Alsike Clover 



The Hon. Nelson Monteith, Minister of Agriculture, is 

 a bee- keeper. Being a fruit-grower, and seeing the impor- 

 tance of bees to fruit, he became a bee-enthusiast on 

 that account. As to their importance to alsike and buck- 

 wheat, the evidence keeps piling up. A few years ago a 

 man came 4 miles to me to have me put bees on his farm for 

 his alsike. He gave a free house for extracting, and board 

 for the men while working at the bees. In the fall he had 

 a good crop of alsike seed, and we had a good crop of honey. 



Mr. J. L. Byer, in the Farmers' Advocate, gives his ex- 

 perience thus : 



"In addition to growing quite an acreage of alsike 

 clover each year ourselves, we also handle considerable seed 

 for a well-known Toronto firm. Coupling this with our in- 

 terest in the business from a bee-keeper's view, I suppose 

 there is no exaggeration when I say that we practically 

 know the acreage and individual yields of the different 

 fields of clover within a radius of 3 miles of us each year. 

 In seasons that the acreage is limited, there does not appear 

 to be so much difference in yields, as far as distance from 

 the apiaries is concerned ; accounted for, no doubt, by the 

 fact that when pasture is scarce the bees forage over a much 

 greater extent of territory in search of nectar. On the other 

 hand, in seasons when there is a large acreage, the yields 



