Oct. 1, lyii 



583 



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^^(DSffl (B/ara^m/a 



J. L. Byer, Mt. Joy, Ont. 



To-day I have received word from the crop 

 committee of the O. B. K. A. relative to the 

 prices for buckwheat honey. The commit- 

 tee report that there seems to be about the 

 same quantity of this honey as last season, 

 and about the same prices are recommended. 

 If the crop is as reported, certainly some 

 other section is making up the average, as 

 around here the crop is much smaller than 

 for a number of years. 



Another month has passed since the copy 

 for these Notes was sent the last time, and 

 still the weather is "very dry." While we 

 have had two light showers, yet the surface 

 of the earth is but slightly moistened, and 

 the ground below the surface is as dry as 

 chalk. Districts not far from us have had 

 copious showers, but our section has been 

 most unfortunate in that respect, and as a 

 result many wells that have never failed us 

 before are now on the " dry " list. [We pre- 

 sume that the recent general rains have 

 since given relief. — Ed.] 



A tumbler of syrup at the entrance, with 

 cork chips for floats, kick the hive, and run 

 — page 516, Sept. 1. I have often used this 

 principle in allowing colonies to clean out a 

 comb, even in September, and it always 

 works well. Lean the comb close to the en- 

 trance late in the evening, stir up the bees 

 a bit, so that they come out, and in the 

 morning the comb will be empty of honey. 

 Of course, this would not be safe with a weak 

 colony, and the ])ractice is not to be com- 

 mended under ordinary conditions. Really 

 I hadn't the ne-ve to tell of this rough-and- 

 tumble method of having an odd comb 

 cleaned out until I read that Dr. Miller did 

 something almost as bad. 



A few days ago while walking through 

 one of my apiaries with a friend my atten- 

 tion was called to a small bunch of bees on 

 the front of the hive. As the day was cool 

 and cloudy my curiosity was aroused, and 

 on examination I found about a dozen bees 

 clustered around an old clipped queen. I 

 surmise that she had been superseded and 

 driven from the hive, although I have not 

 looked into that hive since seeing the old 

 queen on the front. It was a colony that I 

 had marked for requeening, and I judge the 

 bees have saved me the trouble, This is 

 the first time, however, that I have found 

 the old queen driven out, although quite 

 often I have found one on the further side 

 of the combs with the young queen in charge 

 of the brood-nest. It would be interesting 

 to know how bees as a rule dispose of their 

 superseded queens. 



As predicted last month, buckwheat has 

 done little, and in three yards hardly enough 

 for winter stores was secured. At the Altona 



yard, for some reason the buckwheat yield- 

 ed better than usual, although the acreage 

 was much less than around the yards nearer 

 home. However, what little buckwheat 

 there was around the yard in question was 

 earlier than around home, and it always 

 turns out here that the earlier buckwheat 

 yields the honey. Another factor in the 

 case is the fact that at the Altona yard the 

 bees are mostly Carniolan, and much more 

 l)opulous than are the bees at the other 

 yards where more Italianizing has been 

 done. After the clover flow was over we had 

 about five weeks of very dry weather with 

 scarcely a drop of nectar coming in. In a 

 time like that, the Carniolans keep up their 

 strength much better than other races, and, 

 as a result, were boiling over with bees when 

 the buckwheat was ready. Any way, let 

 the reasons be what they may, while the 

 three yards nearer home have stored hardly 

 any thing in the supers, the Altona yard 

 has put up an average of about 40 lbs. a col- 

 ony — enough to buy all the sugar that will 

 be needed for the other yards, and then they 

 will be very heavy for winter after having 

 shared up with the other apiaries. 



I wish to endorse most emphatically the 

 closing paragraph of Holtermann's article, 

 page 360, .June 15, where he says, "Another 

 desirable feature in any honey-knife is that, 

 when laid down on a straight surface, the 

 shank and point shall not touch the surface. 

 In other words, the blade should be on a 

 general curve instead of being straight." 

 We have seven or eight knives, all except 

 one of the Bingham type. I say, "of the 

 Bingham type," but possibly the one that 

 all prefer and use, whenever it is to be had, 

 and is stamped " B & H," may not be, strict- 

 ly speaking, a Bingham knife. Any way, 

 that particular knife has a curved blade; 

 and as to its superiority — well, I know friend 

 Bingham would own up to it himself if I 

 had him testing the different knives in our 

 possession. We have knives bought direct 

 from Mr. Bingham and others bought from 

 dealers, and all of them are simply "not in 

 it " when compared with the old " Bingham 

 & Hetherington," purchased by my grand- 

 father many years ago. Why the change, 

 I wonder, as the former type of knife should 

 be made just as well as the awkward ones 

 that are sold at present? And as to materi- 

 al, that old knife will take an edge that 

 would shave one if his razor happened to be 

 on a "wire-edge." While we now use main- 

 ly the heated uncapping-knife, yet when 

 any work is to be done in a hurry, and we 

 have not the heating arrangement with us, 

 the old knife is always hunted up, even if 

 the others are on hand. Why can not Mr. 

 Bingham and other manufacturers make us 

 some of the old-patterned knives such as 

 our grandfathers used to use? 



