Jan. 17, 1907 



'^^^^^03 



American "Bae Journal 



ii|> l)cf(iro winttT. If you Ikivo tlu- right 

 Uind of cclliir, that is, dry enough, you 

 you can feed in the cellar at any time. 



Ale.x Taylor had a similar experience. 



Mr. Sibbald — It pay.s to make a good 

 syrup 2 to I, and boil it. You can't 



feed enough tliin syrup in a short time 

 for winter. Vou must give it to them 

 thick. It is s.ifer to follow along good 

 lines that you have" tested, than to leave 

 them. 



(Codtianed next week.) 



, Jan ad Ian 



4*- 



Conducted by E. L. bYEB, Markham, Out. 



Wintering- On Solid Sealed 

 Combs of Honey 



Readers of the American Bee Jour- 

 nal will possibly remember that only a 

 few months ago the writer had a 

 friendly "mix up" with Dr. Miller 

 and Mr. C. P. Dadant on the above 

 subject. As an evidence of proof that 

 Mr. McEvoy (an earnest champion of 

 the system) is not at all afraid of risk- 

 ing everything by following the plan, 

 I submit the following from a private 

 letter just to hand : 



" I have the bees in every one of my 

 colonies crowded up with division- 

 boards. Each colony has from 4 to 6 

 combs, all of which were sealed from 

 top to bottom in September." As Mr. 

 McEvoy has somewhere in the neigh- 

 borhood of 300 colonies, any one who 

 has an idea of a wholesale death loss, 

 would hetter write to him in May or 

 June next, sending their sympathy, 

 and at the same time convince him of 

 "the error of his ways." 



Those "Mouse-and-Honey" 

 Experiments 



Those experiments recorded by Mr. 

 Hasty (page 1036—1906) are quite in- 

 teresting. At the risk of exposing my 

 ignorance, I must confess that although 

 I have many a time known mice to eat 

 honey, yet previous to Mr. Hasty giv- 

 ing his ideas on the matter I never sus- 

 pected that they recognized honey as 

 "drink " rather than "meat.'' 



More than once I have left piles of 

 extracting combs at an out-yard where 

 the honey-house was anything but 

 mouse-proof. While I always like to 

 know that mice are pretty scarce 

 around the place, yet we can never be 

 positive but that some may put in an 

 appearance. To settle this matter, I 

 always set aside two or three combs 

 with honey in, close to the piles of 

 super combs. On my next visit, if the 

 cotnbs with honey in were not touched, 

 there was no need of looking at the 

 empty combs — there were no mice pres- 

 ent. If the honey was eaten any, 

 sometimes traps were set as recom- 

 mended by Mr. Hasty ; but instead of 

 putting a dish with water in for drink- 

 ing purposes, we would substitute a 



dish of meal with a percentage of 

 arsenic mixed in. 



I remember on one occasion I called 

 at the honey-house in question and 

 found that the mice had been levying 

 a pretty heavy toll on my " test " 

 combs, and I also recall the fact that 

 although quite early in the fall there 

 was considerable snow on the ground, 

 and unmistakable evidence that the 

 offending mice had come from the out- 

 side of the building through the snow. 



It seems strange that these mice did 

 not quench their thirst with the moist 

 snow instead of gouging into the 

 combs of honey, especially as the snow 

 was not more than a foot or more 

 away — some of it actually being on the 

 floor, having sifted in through a crack 

 in the wall. However, mice may be 

 like quite a few people — prefer to have 

 their drinks well sweetened. 



While there is no question that mice 

 are a nuisance, yet with ordinary pre- 

 cautions there is no need of much 

 actual loss from that source. While I 

 have some 5000 extracting combs scat- 

 tered around, some of them, as I have 

 intimated, in places not mouse-proof, 

 yet I do not believe that I have lost 

 two dozen combs by mice since I have 

 been keeping bees. My worst experi- 

 ence was with the common red squir- 

 rels — an experience lasting and de- 

 cisive. Lasting, because it cost me 

 about $25 ; and decisive in so far that 

 all the culprits were shot inside of 24 

 hours after I learned of the damage ; 

 and also because I mentally decided 

 never to take chances again with a 

 red squirrel, if he were within a quar- 

 ter of a mile of the combs at an out- 

 yard. 



The mischief was all done inside of 

 2 weeks in November, 1905. Every- 

 thing was all right when I left the 

 yard after packing up for winter. 

 When I called again in 2 weeks, what a 

 change ! During my absence, 4 squir- 

 rels had "moved in " and taken pos- 

 session, and proceeded to fix up things 

 for winter according to a squirrel's 

 idea of comfort. The farmer on whose 

 place the bees are, had built the honey- 

 house and had finished the building by 

 papering inside with heavy building 

 paper. Not oae square foot of this 

 paper was left entire ! At least a dozen 

 holes were chewed through the walls 

 and roof for convenience of entering. 



Three or 4 supers were taken posses- 

 sion of for nests ; the combs were all 

 cut out, and the paper from the wall 

 carried in by the peck, and mixed up 

 with grass, feathers, and other litter. 

 A person would not think it possible 

 that 4 such small creatures could work 

 such destruction in so short a time ; 

 and while I felt somewhat annoyed at 

 the damage done, yet I confess that it 

 was with a feeling of pity that I dis- 

 lodged them from their snug quarters. 

 I was made to think of the passage in 

 Proverbs, referring to " things that 

 are little upon the earth, but ar« exceed- 

 ing wise " — feeling sure that our mis- 

 chief-loving little squirrel would not be 

 misplaced if classed among the number. 



How the Bees are Wintering 



To-day, at 9 a.m., the temperature 

 was 48 degrees. The sun is shining, 

 and bees wintered outside are likely to 

 get a flight. Mine are all in the cellar, 

 the temperature of which in the middle 

 runs about 46 degrees, and I think 

 they are in excellent shape. 



R. F. HOLTKRMANN. 



Brantford, Ont., Dec. 31, 1906. 



I hope expectations were realized. I 

 am sorry to say here in York county, 

 although fine in the early morning on 

 the day in question, later — about 10 

 a.m.— the sky became clouded over, 

 and the bees (and bee-keepers) were 

 disappointed. 



My bees are all outdoors, and they 

 have not had a flight since Oct. 25. If 

 they could have but one flight any time 

 now, personally I would rather that 

 were the last till some time in the lat- 

 ter part of March. Barring that one 

 flight, things may not turn out any too 

 well. But time will tell the tale. 



Honey from Alfalfa in Ontario 



Can we expect anything from alfalfa 

 here in Ontario ? From the Farmers' 

 Advocate I clip the following : 



" At the annual eonferenceot the Victorian 

 Apiarists' Association, Melbourne, Australia, 

 Dr. Cderry. Director of Agrio ulture, in an 

 • address, said he thought he might, perhaps, 

 get bee-keepers to act as propagandists in the 

 culture of lucern. He believed that if alfalfa 

 [lucern] were more generally grown the bees 

 would gather more honey. Honey produced 

 by the legumes is of the best quality. This 

 family of plants produce in their tissues 

 abundant nitrogen — the element which enters 

 into the composition of protein. From analy- 

 sis of samples of pollen submitted to him, he 

 had found in the case of pollen from culti- 

 vated plants of alfalfa as much as 2? percent 

 of protein: eucalyptus showed 20 percent, 

 and weeds 10 percent. Pollen, with a high 

 percentage of protein, is said lo be necessary 

 for the rearing of strong brood, and if Dr. 

 Cherry's claims are well founded, Canadian 

 bee-keepers should become enthusiasts in ex- 

 tending the area of this invaluable agricul- 

 tural plant." 



While alfalfa has, aside from its 

 value as a honey-producer, enough 

 claims to warrant it being grown on 

 every farm, yet I very much doubt if 

 Canadian apiarists have much to hope 

 for from this source. 



As to its possibilities in Alberta an d 

 other Western localities, under or 

 about to come under irrigation, I know 



