May y, 1907 



American l^ae Journal 



the sharpened blade of the knife on the 

 wings of the (jueen, when both hands 

 are lowered down within an inch or 

 two of the tops of the frames in the 

 hive, when the knife is lightly drawn, 

 the wings severed, and the queen runs 

 unharmed below. You need not be 

 afraid of cutting the fingers, for if you 

 stop drawing the knife as soon as the 

 queen drops, you can not do so. 



If you think you can not catch the 

 queen "left handed," then use the 

 right hand in catching her. Next hold 

 her so her feet can touch the forefinger 

 of the left hand, to which she will im- 

 mediately cling. Now shut the thumb 

 down carefully over her feet, being 

 sure that you get all three legs on one 

 side so she will not twist around and 

 break a leg, as she would surely do if 

 only one foot were held fast. Having 

 her held thus securely, carefully lower 

 her with her back to the top of the 

 hive till her wings spread out on top 

 of the same, when you can cut them 

 ofi^ by bearing down with the knife on 

 top of the edge of the hive. 



If it is the first queen you have ever 

 clipped, you may be a little nervous 

 and shaky, but if you go slow and 



think of nothing but the work you wish 

 to perform, you will soon feel as much 

 at home clipping queens as you are in 

 removing the surplus honey from the 

 hive. 



Now for the other plan which is used 

 to mark certain queens which you wish 

 to keep track of. Have at the apiary a 

 pair of small scissors, and when you 

 wish to cut only one wing, or any defi- 

 nite part of the wing or wings, use 

 these scissors instead of the knife. 

 When doing this you will catch and 

 hold the qu%en by the legs in your left 

 hand, as told how to do above, when 

 you will deliberately, with the points 

 of the scissors, cut just as much, and 

 just as little, and just where on the 

 wings or wing as you have decided 

 that should be done that the queen 

 may be marked so as to distinguish 

 the points which you wish to register 

 in your book in which you keep the 

 pedigree of all your best queens. 



I would as soon think of going back 

 to the old-foyy ways of our fathers, 

 when keeping bees, as to work an api- 

 ary on the swarming plan without hav- 

 ing the wings of all queens clipped. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



Conducted by J. L. Bter, Mount Joy, Ont. 



The Prospects in Ontario 



Reports as to how bees have win- 

 tered here in Ontario are exceedingly 

 varied Dysentery has been quite 

 prevalent, and, on the whole, I am in- 

 clined to think that the loss will be 

 above the average. 



April, up to date of writing (17th), 

 has been unusually cold ; in fact, in 

 our locality there has not been a single 

 day that bees could fly freely. Cold 

 north winds during the day, and freez- 

 ing nights, have been the rule. As a 

 result, alsike — which is our chief source 

 of surplus here — is quite badly heaved, 

 especially on low grounds. Taking 

 everything into consideration, the 

 prospects for a good crop of honey are, 

 with us, none too flattering. However, 

 last year prospects were good, yet the 

 crop was almost nil ; so with the hope- 

 fulness so characteristic of bee-keepers, 

 we are trusting that conditions will be 

 reversed this season. 



Distance Bees Gather Nectar 



I hardly know what to think of the 

 claims of Doolittle, Chambers, and 

 some others, relative to bees working 

 freely at from 3 to 5 miles from the 

 apiary. Mr. Chambers seems to think 

 page 279) that the race of bees has 



much to do with this longdistance 

 working, for he says : " I have learned 

 to despise a race of bees that are not 

 good for a crop of honey if it is to be 

 had only 3 miles from them. Doolittle 

 and others pin their faith to the Ital- 

 ians, and claim that it is common for 

 their bees to work at distances named. 



Now I happen to be an admirer of 

 the same race that Mr. Chambers is so 

 enthusiastic over, viz.: the Carniolans 

 — and while I have them as well as 

 Italians in my apiaries, yet I am sorry 

 to confess that, so far, pasturage 3 

 miles or over from the bees might just 

 as well, so far as practical results are 

 concerned, be 2o miles away. While 

 bees at my out yard were working 

 freely on buckwheat, at the home yard 

 hardly a bee was moving, although the 

 nearest fields of buckwheat were little 

 over 3 miles away. 



Have an idea that there is a good 

 deal of truth in Mr. Chambers' guess, 

 that the " location of the apiary with 

 regard to the surrounding country has 

 something to do with it." No doubt if 

 there had been some fields of buck- 

 wheat, say half way between the home 

 yard and the buckwheat 3 miles away, 

 the bees would have found the latter 

 also, as I have noticed that they seem 

 to go further wlien they have some- 

 thing to lead tliem on, as it were, than 

 is the case where there is a lot of blank 

 territory to fly over. This question of 



long-distance gathering does not ap- 

 peal to nie in a controversial manner, 

 as I believe it is one that every intelli- 

 gent bee-keeper can solve for himself, 

 and, personally, I only wish I could 

 truthfully (and thankfully) claim to 

 have a strain or race of bees that would 

 reach my pasturage 3 miles away, or 

 even 10, for that matter. 



Clipping Queens' Wing-s 



Glad to note (page 262) that so well- 

 known an apiarist as R. C. Aikin clips 

 his queens while they are on the combs, 

 without touching them with his fingers. 

 Now, if any one comes along and 

 pokes fun at me for advocating such a 

 method, I shall just turn him over to 

 the metcy of Mr. Aikin, and look on 

 and smile. 



The scissors I use are by actual 

 measurement 4', inches long, and have 

 a curved point. Most of the small scis- 

 sors are manufactured for ladies' use, 

 and, as a consequence, the handles are 

 too small for the clumsy fingers of one 

 of the masculine gender. The pair I 

 am using are, as previously stated, 

 made specially for surgeons' use, so 

 this difficulty is overcome, and at the 

 same time the scissors are small and 

 light. 



I might add for the benefit of some 

 who may try the plan, and at first pro- 

 nounce it a failure, that the first time 

 I attempted to clip in this way the 

 method was pronounced impracticable, 

 but after exercising a little patience, 

 my mind was changed, and to day I 

 can clip the queens about as fast as 

 you have a mind to pass them along. 



Dysentery Among Bees 



While at the Victoria County bee 

 keepers' convention, a few weeks ago 

 the subject of dysentery was under dis- 

 cussion. As previously stated, this 

 trouble has been unusually prevalent 

 during the past winter and present 

 spring here in Ontario, and a number 

 of the bee-keepers at the meeting re- 

 ferred to were telling of their losses 

 from this cause. 



Mr. J. T. Storer, of Lindsay, who is 

 a very successful bee-winterer, stated 

 that for more than 10 years past he 

 had not had a single case of dysentery 

 among his bees, and he attributed it 

 all to the fact that he always made it a 

 point to have every colony go into 

 winter quarters very heavy with good 

 stores And, again, no matter how 

 heavy a colony might be with honey 

 in the fall, he wanted each colony to 

 have at least 10 pounds of syrup made 

 of best granulated sugar. Mr. Storer 

 uses a fairly large hive, viz : 8-frame 

 Langstroth length, but 3 inches deeper, 

 and he sees that each colony has at 

 least 40 pounds of stores before putting 

 it into the cellar. Although his 

 cellars are about perfect, and his bees 

 winter in ideal condition, consequently 

 using very little stores, yet Mr. Storer 

 finds no difficulty in turning this re- 

 serve supply of honey into his bees be- 

 fore the clover flow comes on. 



Mr. Storer's success certainly speaks 

 well for his methods, and while some 



