April 11, 1907 



American Hee Journalj 



Conducted by J. L. Byek, Mount Joy, Onl. 



How to Clip the Queen 



By the time this is in print, bee- 

 keepers in some localities will have 

 clipped their queens, but in the more 

 northern parts the majority will be 

 just thinking of starting at the work. 

 Nearly every bee-keeper has the "best 

 way," and as the writer is no exception 

 to the rule, I want to tell you how I 

 proceed in this important part of the 

 work in the apiary. 



Nearly all instructors say " catch the 

 queen ;" but in my estimation this is 

 entirely unnecessary, as I never think 

 of touching a queen with my fingers 

 unless once in a great while one should 

 happen to leave the combs and be 

 found on the side or bottom of the hive. 



However, we have to Jind the queen. 

 This done, the lower corner of the 

 frame is let rest on the hive, and is 

 held by one end of the top-bar in the 

 left hand. In the left hand is held a 

 fine pair of curved-pointed surgical 

 scissors bought expressly for the pur- 

 pose at a cost of 60 cents. As the 

 queen runs up the comb, slip the point 

 of the scissors under wing or wings as 

 desired, and the work is done quicker 

 than you can tell how on paper. It 

 may seem a little difficult at first, but 

 by practising on drones it is surprising 

 how easily you can become proficient 

 at the job. 



The past 2 seasons I have clipped at 

 least 200 queens each spring this way, 

 and have never made a mistake. I am 

 quite sure that every year a lot of good 

 queens are balled and lost after being 

 handled ; with the method described 

 the queen very often hardly notices 

 that she has been touched. 



One of Ontario's extensive apiarists 

 spent a day with me last year during 

 queen-clipping, and he declared that I 

 " did the work too quick for him to see 

 how it was done," and at different \Xvae.% 

 I had to point the queen out to him 

 after she had run around on the other 

 side of the comb, in order to convince 

 him that I really had clipped her wings. 



I am quite sure that after one has 

 learned " how," that he will never go 

 back to the old way of catching the 

 queen in his fingers. 



Sugar-Maple Sap for Bees 



A few years ago, while we yet had 

 considerable forest near us, we usually 

 expected our bees to gather consider- 

 able of the sap from the sugar maples, 

 that would evaporate on the stumps of 

 trees cut during the winter. I have 



seen them during warm days the last 

 week of March and first week in April, 

 working as busily as though there was 

 a regular honey-flow on, and whenever 

 the weather was fine at this season of 

 the year, the brood-rearing received a 

 tremendous impetus. 



I remember one spring the branches 

 of the trees were badly broken by an 

 ice-storm, and the sap was oozing out 

 of the hard maples everywhere. Strong 

 colonies stored as much as 2 combs full 

 of the syrup, and one warm evening 

 there was a roar in the apiary as 

 though we were in the midst of a 

 honey-flow. 



I am sorry to say this is a thing of 

 the past here, as we now have very 

 little bush left ; but this does not pre- 

 vent me from thinking yiha.X I would do 

 if I were located near a large bush of 

 sugar-maples. About the time the 

 boys say " sap's runnin'," I would with 

 a light hatchet score lightly on the 

 south sides as many maple-trees as 

 possible near the apiary. To be sure, 

 if the trees were not on my own prop- 

 erty I would first secure the owner's 

 permission to do the work. 



While we do not often hear anything 

 of the sugar-maple's value to the bees 

 in the early spring, yet there is no 

 question that they are a great help, 

 and at least a few bee-keepers every 

 spring follow the plan I have just out- 

 lined. 



Mr. Craig- to Continue as Editor 

 of Canadian Bee Journal 



On Feb. 11 the bee-keepers' depart- 

 ment of the Goold, Shapley & Muir 

 Co.'s establishment was badly dam- 

 aged by fire, as mentioned on page 228. 

 At the Brantford convention a number 

 of vfs visited the factory, and while 

 walking through the storeroom where 

 a very large supply of frames, sections, 

 hive-bodies, etc., was stored, I re- 

 marked that this would be a bad place 

 for a fire, little thinking that within 2 

 weeks all of the stock would be de- 

 stroyed. Fire is bad enough at any 

 time, but particularly so in an estab- 

 lishment of this kind in the early 

 spring, when tke bulk of the next sea- 

 son's stock is all ready for shipment. 



The bee-keepers' supply business was 

 merely a side-issue with the Goold, 

 Shapley & Muir Co., their firm being 

 extensively engaged in the manufac- 

 ture of windmills, galvanized tanks, 

 concrete mixers, etc., and in view of 

 the fact of their wood-working plant 

 being destroyed, they decided to sell 



out the bee-supply business to Messrs. 

 Ham & Nott, a firm that has engaged 

 in the wood-working business in Brant- 

 ford for some time. This firm has 

 also taken over the Canadian Bee Jour- 

 nal, and I understand that Mr. W. J. 

 Craig will continue as editor. 



The Messrs. Ham & Nott have our 

 best wishes, and we trust that the 

 supply business may be a success with 

 them ; and also that the Canadian Bee 

 Journal, under their management, will 

 be a live medium, and truly represen- 

 tative of the calling to which it is de- 

 voted. 



Contracted Hive-Entrances in 

 Winter 



Allen Latham says that colonies that 

 have entrances contracted to one side 

 of the hive, if the cluster happens to 

 be on the opposite side, die every time. 

 Editor Root agrees pretty much with 

 this view, and yet, not so very far from 

 here, lives a well-known bee-keeper 

 who winters from 300 to SCO colonies 

 with the hive-entrances all at one cor- 

 ner of the hive. Where he lives the 

 thermometer often falls to 20 degrees 

 below zero, and the bees are generally 

 confined for 4 months or more without 

 a flight. Yet he winters the bees as 

 successfully as any other bee-keeper in 

 the vicinity. 



It would be interesting to have Mr. 

 Latham explain why his theory does 

 not work out in practise, here in On- 

 tario. 



New Pure Food Law 



Under "scare" headlines a well- 

 known bee-keeper and chemist adver- 

 tises in one of our papers as follows : 



" The new food law takes effect -Jan. 1, 



190T." " Even that gathered from your 



own bees is not sure to pass inspection if it is 

 near a city or honey-dew localities, or you 

 feed your bees sugar syrup in the fall." 



It appears to the writer that this is 

 pretty strong, and if the Pure Food 

 Law is going to work down fine like 

 that, there is a possibility that it may 

 act as a boomerang. 



As to honey-dew, if a small quantity 

 of that in honey would come under the 

 ban, I suspect very little Ontario honey 

 would have passed muster last year. 

 Anyway, suppose a bee-keeper sent a 

 sample to said chemist for analysis, 

 and the verdict was '• genuine," how 

 would he be sure that a sample taken 

 from another tank would turn out the 

 same ? Suppose, in a pinch, he might 

 send the whole crop for analysis in 

 order to be positive. This might be a 

 good thing for the chemist, particularly 

 as the bee-keeper would likely be glad 

 to turn over the honey to pay the fees 

 for analysis ! 



Joking aside, I believe there is a pos- 

 sibility of " straining at a gnat and 

 swallowing a camel " in this matter, 

 and while I have no sympathy with 

 adulteration, it is to be hoped that 

 United States apiarists will not be in 

 such a dilemma as the advertisement 

 quoted from would lead us to believe 

 was the case. 



