GLEANINGS IN BEE CUIAURE 



j.iL.Byer, I NOTES FROM CaNADA M'-J"y'0"'- 



This is the first time that feeding in July 

 or August has been necessary in our locality, 

 since I can remember. Owing to the abun- 

 dant stores our own bees had this spring, 

 ice were saved from doing this; but many 

 who bought iiound packages of bees in May 

 found some small colonies starvevd in July 

 before noticing their desperate condition. 

 * * * 



Glancing over the mass of reports in Aug. 

 1st Gleanings, one cannot help coming to 

 the conclusion that, taking all the honey- 

 jn-oducing sections of the United States and 

 Canada in general, the crop as a whole is 

 very light. So far as Ontario is concerned, 

 quite a lot of honey was carried over from 

 last year; and while we may reasonably 

 expect firm prices this year, it is not at all 

 likely prices will be much if any above 

 opening prices of last season. Of course, 

 should the present great war continue long 

 (which God forbid)^, it is hard to say what 

 might happen, as all the staples have already 

 taken quite an advance. 

 » * * 



European foul brood, or black brood, as 

 many of us prefer to call it, has made its 

 appearance in Victoria Co., in the vicinity 

 of Lindsay, Woodville, and other places in 

 that vicinity. It looks as though, sooner or 

 later, no place in Ontario would have a 

 monopoly of this disease. Universal re- 

 queening with good Italian stock seems to be 

 about the only remedy for it. Whether 

 Carniolans are as immune as Italians is a 

 question not yet settled, apparently, al- 

 though some beekeepers in affected places in 

 New York and Pennsylvania have reported 

 to me that they found the Carniolans supe- 

 rior to the Italians in this respect. 



* * * 



Speaking of outdoor feeding (page 570, 

 Aug. 1) A. J. Knox, of Orono, Ont., tells 

 me "that, although there was a great dearth 

 of nectar at time of feeding, he had to start 

 the bees with a little honey before they 

 would touch the syrup made on a one-to-ten 

 basis. He reports no robbing nor fighting 

 when feed was being taken up by the bees, 

 and that it was no trouble to work in the 

 apiai-y so long as the thin syrup was present 

 for the bees. No question but that the thin 

 syrup is a boon if work has to be done dur- 

 ing a honey-dearth such as we have had in 

 a few counties adjoining Toronto this year. 



♦ * » 



The weather in this part of Ontario is to 

 date, Aug. 10, quite similar to what it has 



been all summer — very dry. Clover for next 

 year, in so far as alsike is concerned, gives 

 promise of being a negligible quantity. As 

 stated in last batch of " Notes," the white- 

 honey crop is very short. Best estimates 

 place it at about 15 pounds per colony for 

 the Province of Ontario. Counties adjoin- 

 ing Toronto have practically no white honey 

 at all, while the main amount of surplus 

 white honey has been produced in the north- 

 eastern counties — places where the crop was 

 a failure last year. Our five apiaries in 

 York and Ontario counties did not store a 

 pound of really white honey; but at the 

 yard 100 miles north, late in the season we 

 got a spurt in nectar secretion that changes 

 matters very agreeably so far as that local- 

 ity is concerned. No large crop there by 

 any means; but when total failure is staring 

 one in the face, a good half-crop coming 

 unexpectedly is not to be despised. 

 * » » 



Some ten or twelve years ago I happened 

 to notice what at that time I thought was 

 some kind of shrub, a plant about three feet 

 high covered with small rose-pink blossoms 

 on which the bees eagerly swarmed during 

 July and August. Every year I would go 

 to the spot, and the few plants were always 

 there, for, although the place was unculti- 

 vated, yet the plant in question never spread. 

 Last week T was at the north yard, and I 

 found out that the plant in cj[uestion is fairly 

 common in rough land up there. The bees 

 were working freely on this plant; and' a 

 peculiar thing about it is that the pollen is 

 a vivid green. However, after coming home 

 again I at once walked the half-mile or so to 

 the few plants near home, and found that 

 they were there as usual. I cut off a com- 

 plete i^lant with my knife, and was sur- 

 prised to find a milky exudation issue at 

 once, and I saw that it was not a shrub, but 

 a perennial — something of the milkweed 

 family. Just then I happened to read the 

 editorial in Aug. 1st Gleanings regarding 

 swamp pasture, and I came to the conclu- 

 sion that my rare plant is the swamp milk- 

 weed. A text-book on botany was hastily 

 consulted, and, sure enougii, that is what it 

 is. It surely is a fine honey-plant, judging 

 by the way the bees work at it,, and I have 

 been wondering if it is at all common in 

 many parts of the Province. Although I 

 have lived all my life in York Co., the few 

 plants in the one place are all T have ever 

 iaeen able to find until I found it fairly 

 plentiful in a few places up at the north 

 vard last week. 



