DECEMBER 15, 1914 



SOME EXPEKIENCES OF THE SEASON OF 1914 

 The Man Wlios 



BY OREL L. HERSHISER 



Originally Read before the Convention of the Ontario Beekeepers' Association 



Once there was a beeman who got a 

 bumper crop of honey and then some. At 

 first he was happy, and had visions of 

 wealth; but when he read in the papers that 

 nearly all who kept bees had bumper crops 

 also, some much larger than his, and that 

 the " land flowed with honey " as well as 

 with " milk," he was alarmed. He cried, 

 " This is more sweetness than the people 

 can eat. Surely this business has been over- 

 boomed, for beemen have suddenly become 

 as the sands of the sea in number, and 

 honey has deluged the land. Our hives and 

 bees will avail us nothing henceforth." 

 Straightway he " went to it " and sold his 

 bumper crop for a sum not gi-eater than he 

 had received for meager crops in other 

 years ; for many other beemen thought like- 

 wise. Honey was fairly thrown at the buy- 

 er, and was easy of purchase, for the 

 offerings were many and great. 



But the following- season was a lean one ; 

 and as the last prospect for a honey crop 

 faded away, and orders had to be refused, 

 he soliloquized : " Last season I received 

 little better than a song for my bumper 

 crop, and demoralized my market; and this 

 year I have little to sell. What little I have 

 is ' going some.' Bees and beemen do not 

 seem too numerous, and honey especially is 

 not too plentiful. The honey flood has sub- 

 sided, and I calculate that last season's and 

 tliis season's crops amount to not more than 

 an average for the two seasons. If I had 

 carried over to this season such part of last 

 season's crop as could not be sold at a fair 

 price, I might have realized handsomely 

 for all of it, and be ' bones and beans ' 

 ahead. But I let that bountiful gift of 

 nature slip away from me for nearly naught. 

 Good night." 



Moral: — Don't get a panic when you get 

 a good crop of honey, and sacrifice it for a 

 trifle, but " bide a wee " until supply and 

 demand are normal. 



The above fable illustrates one experience 

 common to many beekeepers for the season 

 of 1913 and 1914. But a few who do not 

 attribute the bumper crop of 1913 especial- 

 ly to the efforts of colleges and beekeepers' 

 associations to train thoroughly those who 

 wish to engage in beekeeping, but, rather, as 

 a phenomenon not likely to recur the second 

 consecutive season, are enjoying the average 

 returns from their apiarian investments by 



reason of the honey carried over from last 

 season. 



THE DISASTROUS EFFECT OF AN UNUSUAL 

 SNOWSTORM. 



To the north of an apiary, and about 150 

 feet distant, is a railroad embankment about 

 twelve feet high, which would seem to fur- 

 nish ample ijrotection from wind and drift- 

 ing snow from that direction. Some 700 

 feet to the west are houses and trees, and 

 immediately to the west is the honey-house 

 and other artificial windbreaks. Along the 

 south side is a windbreak of old hives five 

 feet high. 



During the latter part of February last 

 we experienced a fall of several inches of 

 dry light snow accompanied by a brisk 

 northwest wind that, notwithstanding the 

 supposed protection, drifted the snow, not 

 only around the hives, but into them, filling 

 every space between and to the very top of 

 the combs, and enveloping the cluster of 

 bees. When first looked over, four or five 

 days after the storm, 75 colonies out of the 

 108 contained live bees ranging from a 

 handful up to strong colonies. Very soon 

 they dwindled until but 43 colonies re- 

 mained, nearly all of which eventually be- 

 came reduced to what would amount to 

 from very weak to strong nuclei, and 13 of 

 these eventually became queenless. The 

 blanketing of snow seemed to take the vital- 

 ity out of those colonies that survived the 

 immediate ei¥ects of the severe chilling. 

 Colonies that, on first examination, seemed 

 amply strong soon dwindled badly, and the 

 loss of so many queens out of Ihe 43 surviv- 

 ing colonies is attributed to the devitalizing 

 effects of the severe chilling. 



The colonies were normally strong in the 

 fall when prepared for Avinter. About one 

 third of them were in double-walled hives, 

 well packed above. A part of the remain- 

 der were in single-walled hives in individual 

 packing-cases ; a few in packing-cases con- 

 taining four colonies each ; and four colo- 

 nies in eight-frame single-walled hives, 

 drawn into a cluster, two facing the same 

 direction, and just opposite the other two, 

 and each packed with an eight-frame hive- 

 body full of packing. There was no notice- 

 able difference in the wintering by the va- 

 rious modes of preparation except that 

 three out of the four eight-frame hives 

 came out much stronger than any of the 



