June 1, 1911 



325 



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J. L. Byeu. Mt. Joy. (Hit. 



The season here in York i'o. is about two 

 weeks later than last year. At this date. 

 jSIay VI. wiki phims are just t)i)ening. aiul 

 for the i)ast three days yeUow willows have 

 been in bloom. While there is an abundance 

 of nectar in the plum-trees, the wind has 

 blown a gale for tMO days in succession. To- 

 day I tried to do some queen-clipi)ing. but 

 gave it up in disgust at noon, as no head- 

 way could be made when the wind was 

 strong enough to blow the bees ofT the combs. 

 Aside from that they seemed irritable. (Who 

 could Vjlame them when nectar was abun- 

 dant and the weather warm, but a thirty- 

 mile breeze blowing to butl'et them about?) 

 In one case a colony balled its (jueen. 



J)r. Miller, in commenting on the migra- 

 tory bee-keei)ing practiced by H. C. Ahlers, 

 ]). i9(), Ajnil 1. says. "Strenuous, but .■)2.500 

 pounds." It must have been strenuous 

 work to do all that moving, and I think Mr. 

 Ahlers earned every ])ound of the 32,500. 

 From ISO colonies, that would mean about 

 180 pounds i)er colony; but last season a 

 man in Eastern Ontario i>roduced from that 

 number of bees 46.800 ])ounds, or 260 j)ounds 

 per colony, and, in addition, he increased 

 about 75 per cent without moving a colony 

 out of the yard. Of this amount, 160 ])ounds 

 l)er colony was very choice clover honey. 

 Of course, this was somewhat extraordinary' 

 for Ontario, and a yield that i)robably will 

 not be (iui)licated for some time. 



In that trouble between the buyer and 

 .seller of bees as chronicled on p. 205. Ajiril 

 1, my sym])athy is entirely with the i)ur- 

 chaser. Any man who has kej)! bees should 

 have enough "horse sense" to know better 

 than toattemi)t to ship bees a longdistance 

 on combs drawn from starters, but not fully 

 com))leted. Such combs, without any wires 

 in them, are too fragile to use in moving 

 bees in hot weather, even if never trusted to 

 the tender mercies of e.\])ress liandlers. 

 Again, what is more exasjjerating than to 

 wait for weeks to get an answer from a man 

 to whom you have sent money for l)ees or 

 queens? While attending the Wellington 

 Co. meeting this sjiring the (juestion was 

 raised as to why it is so much harder to in- 

 troduce queens from some breeders than 

 from others. Mr. Pettit said he hail found. 

 as a rule, that those (pieens are more easily 

 introtluced which are received from men 

 who put the stock uj) in neat cages and in 

 good shai)e. and who i)romptly answer all 

 letters, than those from bee-keejiers who 

 send out slouchy i)arcels, and who are slow 

 in rei)lying to letters of in(iuiry. The moral 

 is obvious, and "a word to the wise is suffi- 

 cient." 



While at the Wellington Co. meeting we 

 had the i)leasure of calling on Mr. Pettit at 

 the Agricultural College, and of having a 



pleasant visit with him. He is certainly 

 the right man in the right place, and we be- 

 lieve that he will be successful in the work 

 he is outlining for bee-keepers. He is doing 

 a lot of C(Miscientious work; and the short 

 course in bee-keejnng mentioned on i)age 

 190. Ajjril 1, can not fail to be helpful in 

 sjjreading a lot of useful knowledge. At the 

 college the students have an ai)icultural 

 club, and. through Mr. Pettit's assistance, 

 different si)eakers have been obtained 

 through the winter months to come to ad- 

 dress them. Among the men who have ad- 

 dressed the class are Mr. Sibbald. who sjjoke 

 on the essentials of l)ee-keei)ing; Mr. Miller, 

 who gave an illustrated address on the Hed- 

 don hive, aiul Mr. Hurley, who s])oke on 

 bee-journalism. All of these men are thor- 

 oughly qualified to hantUe the subjects 

 mentioned; and first-hand information of a 

 nature of this kind is very heli)ful to the 

 students in connection with the theoretical 

 training received in the lecture-room. .Judg- 

 ing from present develoi)ments •* e surmise 

 that, in a few years. Ontario will have an 

 apicultural station second to none on the 

 continent. Certainly it will not be the pro- 

 vincial apiarist's fault if this is not the case. 



From rei)orts received to date I would 

 judge that the bees have wintered well, as a 

 rule, throughout Ontario aud (Quebec. In 

 most sections clover has also come out well; 

 but I regret to say that a few counties re- 

 port the clover badly injured — in some lo- 

 calities about all of it being ruined. Natu- 

 rally, I am sorry that my own district is 

 among the unfortunate ones in this resjiect, 

 as fuliy half of the alsike is a failure. How- 

 ever, it might be worse; for wherever the 

 clover was seeded on fall wheat it wintered 

 well owing to the long stubble protecting it. 

 As there was a large acreage of fall wheat 

 last year, some alsike went into winter 

 quarters ])rotected by the long stubble, and, 

 as a result, I think that we have about 100 

 acres left within reach of each apiary. 



The counties of York, Ontario, and \'ic- 

 toria seem tobeatTected the worst; and from 

 north, east, and west of these counties have 

 come rejiorts of good wintering of the clover 

 and wheat. Lack of snow exjilains the <lif- 

 ference, as with us what little snow we had 

 left early in March; and then for over a 

 month we had dry cold windy weather with 

 freezing by night and thawing by day. In 

 many cases the clover died without being 

 heaved out of the ground — a very unusual 

 occurrence with alsike clover, although more 

 frequently true of the red variety. In many 

 cases, even the alfalfa was killed, although 

 the roots extended into the ground for a 

 great de])th. Continued exjxisure seemed 

 to cause the crown of the i)lant to die; and 

 when the warm weather finally came, the 

 toj) of the i)lants seemed to be rotten, and 

 in many cases they have not cast forth a 

 sprout. 



