266 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



NOTES FROM CANADA 



J. L, Byer, Markham, Ont. 



Generally speaking, our climate IIC. While I 



averages pretty well one year with 

 another. In other words, if we 

 get a drouth, quite likely a wet 

 spell will then follow; if we get 

 milder weather than usual during 

 early part of the winter, extreme 

 cold may be looked for later on. Certainly 

 the latter has been true here in Ontario this 

 winter, when a very mild January was fol- 

 lowed by a February three degrees colder 

 than the average (official), while March to 

 date (15th) has been very severe. The first 

 five days were all below zero, and on the 

 10th five below. As we have had only thir- 

 teen days during the winter that have shown 

 below zero temperature in our locality, it 

 is easy to see that March has more than 

 done its share in furnishing us cold weather. 



On page 81, Jan. 15, A. I. R. asks, "How 

 many years and even centuries has it taken 

 the bee to learn the trade of making the 

 beautiful honeycomb ? " The answer is real 

 easy, but I won't give what I think is the 

 correct solution of the problem, as it would 

 be too simple for modern scientists to con- 

 sider a moment. Instead of answering the 

 question, allow me to ask another one along 

 the same line : While the bee was learninfj 

 how to make the " beautiful honeycomb," 

 where were all the baby bees being reared 

 in the meantime? 



Some time ago I stated that the common 

 dandelion came as near to being an all-the- 

 year bloomer as any plant we have in On- 

 tario, as I had found blossoms in nine 

 months of the year. On Jan. 25 I found 

 a fully developed blossom in front of a 

 hive, so now I shall have to say ten months 

 instead of nine. But the common garden 

 pansy is a close second for the honor of 

 being our hardiest plant — indeed, it may 

 even lead the dandelion. On the same day 

 that I picked this dandelion blossom, dif- 

 ferent parties near us gathered pansy blos- 

 soms in their gardens. But bees do not 

 work on pansies, and they do on dandelions. 

 That is enough to make any beekeeper give 

 the latter plant the preference. 



Misery loves company, they say, and on 

 that basis I am inclined to agi'ee to a eer- 

 ta,in extent with friend Holtermann in his 

 lament regarding European foul brood, p. 



dread this disease I am los- 

 ing no sleep over the matter, and I take 

 comfort from the fact that men like War- 

 rington Scott and others in Ontario who 

 first had the disease among their bees, while 

 they do not claim to have entirely gotten 

 rid of the disease, yet have so mastered it 

 that it in no way interferes with getting 

 big crops of honey when there is any nectar 

 in the neighborhood. I am hoping that, 

 when we get the disease among our bees, as 

 we are sure to do sooner or later, we shall 

 be able in time to do likewise. That is the 

 grain of comfort I chew ;.t when I allow 

 my mind to think of tliis " curse of bee- 

 keeping." 



* * » 



This question of how far bees fly will 

 never be solved to my satisfaction, as there 

 are so many things to be taken into consid- 

 eration, such as strains of bees, topography 

 of country, etc. For years I was inclined 

 to take a view similar to expressions on 

 page 965, Dec. 1, and, in fact, I seriously 

 doubted that bees very often go more than 

 a mile and a half in search of nectar. 



Our apiary north of Orillia is in a flat 

 wooded country similar to that described by 

 the editor, Dec. 1, and observations taken 

 in 1913 prove how erroneous are the views 

 that, under such conditions, bees fly but 

 little over % of a mile. That year a terri- 

 ble drouth visited the section in question, 

 and all the clover on high land was literally 

 burned up. Nearly three miles southwest 

 of the apiary of over 200 colonies was a 

 strip along the river bank that was kept 

 moist enough so that alsike clover was kept 

 in bloom. The river had been dredged out, 

 and this strip of clover was only a few rods 

 wide and ran along the river for about two 

 miles still further from the apiary. Our 

 bees came to this strip of clover by the 

 hundreds of thousands, and they were on 

 the clover to the further end, so that many 

 were nearly five miles away from the api- 

 ary. There was no question about the mat- 

 ter at all, as one could stand at the north 

 end of the strip and see thousands of bees 

 coming and going to the yard, and there 

 are no other bees in that locality. 



That same year there was some white 

 clover west of the apiary across the bay. 

 It is two miles direct to the bay, and more 

 than half the distance is forest. Yet our 

 bees, under these forced circumstances, flew 

 the two miles to the bay, and then another 

 two miles across the water. You will un- 



