JANUARY 15, 1914 



51 



thing's to which I referred when I said 1 

 had not determined some factors to my sat- 

 isfaction. 



A little history in connection with this 

 latest thing in requeening will, T believe, bo 

 of interest at this time. Some twenty or 

 more years ago Dr. C. C. Miller experiment- 

 ed with putting' in ripe cells to cause forced 

 supeisedure and for the prevention of 

 swarming. I am not sure that he was the 

 first to try that, but I do know that subse- 

 quently others, including myself, tried it, 

 and also used virgin queens. The results 

 were far from satisfactory, though Mr. Da- 

 venport, I believe, experimented with the 

 same thing and is understood to have had 

 less loss than the rest of us. The use of 

 virgins or cells I believed was economically 

 a mistake; and for that reason, and because 

 of the small success, I abandoned their use. 

 and turned to the use of young laying 

 queens. The change proved wise, and 

 brought success. 



Now comes in another bit of history of 

 particular interest to Mr. Allen Latham and 

 myself. For years before we became ac- 

 quainted we found ourselves working out 

 the same problems and arriving at the same 

 solutions. As time went on we got to com- 

 paring notes; and when we failed to agTee 

 I always, and I think he generally, went 

 over the problem again and most carefully. 

 In other words, when he agrees with me 1 

 feel sure that 1 am right; and when he does 

 not, I dig for facts to prove one or the 

 other of us wrong. We have had many a 

 long and interesting discussion of sundry 

 matters pertaining to bee culture, and fre- 

 cjuently remarked on the interesting fact of 

 our so often tackling the same question and 

 arriving at the same conclusion, each with- 

 out the knowledge of what the other was 

 doing. One day I asked him why he had 

 been following me all these years? For an 

 instant he sort o' gasped; then, catching 

 the twinkle in my eye, he came back with 

 one of his knock-out retorts. Look out for 

 liim. 



Well, we have both been working on this 

 problem of requeening without dequeening, 

 he with cells and virgins, and I with those 

 and (later) with la5dng queens. Neither of 

 us said aught to the other of what he was 

 up to, though he told me he Avas at work on 

 something wliich he considered of great 

 promise. When I decided to publish what I 

 did I wrote to him for his opinion ; and, lo 

 and behold ! we again had been working at 

 the same problem. When I say that we agree 

 in believing it one of the most important 

 advances in modern bee culture, and also 

 agree in believing that we will soon make 

 the results as uniform and as certain as 



they now are in the smoke method of intro- 

 ducing to queenless colonies, the beekeepers 

 may be assured that they are not chasing 

 any will-o'-the-wisp in following it up. 



And this reminds me of a phase of the 

 subject which deeply interested both of us, 

 namely, the requeening of colonies in trees, 

 boxes, and box hives, where the owners for 

 sundry reasons do not want their property 

 disturbed, and where the cost of getting out 

 and transferring the bees is prohibitory. 

 The displacing of black stock under such 

 conditions with good disease-resisting Ital- 

 ians means more than at first thought ap- 

 pears. 



Providence, R. I. 



BEEKEEPING IN BRITISH COLUMBIA 



The Bureau Hive for the Peculiar Weather Con- 

 ditions 



BY F. DUNDAS TODD 



Unlike ancient Gaul, which, as schoolboys, 

 we learned was divided into three parts, the 

 big Province of British Columbia is popu- 

 larly divided into two, generally known as 

 the wet and dry belts. The section of the 

 province under my care as a bee-inspector 

 and instructor in apiculture lies in the wet- 

 test part of the i^rovince. 



Generally sjjeaking, beekeeping is carried 

 on by the let-alone plan. Under my super- 

 vision are at least three thousand hives 

 eared for in every conceivable way, and un- 

 cared for in ways that are inconceivable. 

 Again and again I have wondered exceed- 

 ingly how, with such awful lack of protec- 

 tion, a few hun.dred bees could survive a 

 winter where the thermometer would drop 

 to ten degi'ees below zero, and where often 

 steady rainfall for days would soak every 

 inch of comb, especially when the most fa- 

 vorable conditions of protection and food 

 supply often result in the extinction of the 

 colony. Some day I may tell my readers 

 some of my experiences and some of the 

 conclusions about wintering I have reached. 



Our springs begin along in March, and 

 not infrequently dawdle along in most ex- 

 asperating fashion until near the end of 

 June. Our nights are always cool, except- 

 ing for a few days in the height of summer, 

 and even at their worst they are far from 

 being unpleasant. 



Brood-rearing begins in March. In a fa- 

 vorable season an eight-frame hive will be 

 packed with brood by the end of April. At 

 that time a second brood-chamber may be 

 given, and by the first of June both stories 

 will be crammed with bees and brood. I 

 have seen l)oth chambers of a ten-frame hive 

 ci'owded with bees on April 20, 



