GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



NOTES FROM CANADA 



J. L. Byer, Markham, Ont. 



The severe drouth that started 

 July 1 is still prevailing in many 

 parts of Ontario at this date, Sept. 

 14. True, we have had a few light 

 showers lately, but no rain to soak 

 the ground, and, as a result, clover 

 will be scarce in many parts of the 

 province next year. No doubt some local- 

 ities have been blessed with more rain than 

 we have had here in York Co. as well as in 

 tlie north part of Simeoe Co., where we 

 have one apiarj^; but generally speaking it 

 can be safely assumed that, in contrast to 

 the great clover season of 1916, 1917 will 

 be a lean year in that respect. 



Page 362, May 1, Allen Latham uses a 

 phrase that is hard for me to understand. 

 " Italians will swarm where the blacks work 

 contentedly " is what I have reference to. 

 Personally I have never been a booster of 

 the Italians, as many know ; for altho I 

 have had a lot of fine stock of this race, yet 

 rarely do we have the uniformly populous 

 colonies as when we had more of our favo- 

 rites, the Carniolans. I have had lots of 

 what would be called " blacks " too, I sup- 

 pose; and if there is anything I have prais- 

 ed the Italians for above other things it is 

 that thej^ so rarely swarm when producing 

 extracted honey, as compared with the Car- 

 niolans or black bees. I gave up trying to 

 solve the question why Allen Latham finds 

 just the reverse to be true in his case, and 

 once more we shall have to call to our help 

 that old and much abused word " locality." 



RESULT OF THE HARVEST NOW KNOWN. 



At this date full results of the season are 

 noAv known to all. The crop has been above 

 the average for a white-honey yield, prac- 

 tically all of the surplus coming from clover. 

 Bas.swood seems to have been a failure all 

 over the Province and in Quebec as well, 

 by what I have been able to learn. The 

 demand has been exceptionally keen, and 

 prices have been fair. Of course, as usual 

 in a good season, some beekeepers got nerv- 

 ous and sacrificed their crop, and whole- 

 salers were ready to pick up such consign- 

 ments. Personally, all our honey was sold 

 in early September, the local demand this 

 year taking thousands where hundreds filled 

 the ordei's last year. 



Owing to continued drouth, buckwheat is 

 almost a total failure in most sections. To 



show what one good rain will do I might 

 say that of the four yards here in York Co. 

 only one stored any buckwheat to amount to 

 anything — about 40 pounds per colony. 

 That yard had a good rain during buck- 

 wheat bloom. At home, just 7 miles away 

 from this yard, no rain fell, and no buck- 

 wheat honev was stored. 



NO FEAR FROM BUCKWHEAT HONEY. 



Mr. A. T. Brown, in September Beekeep- 

 er, saj'S of buclc^vheat stores for winter, that 

 they are "unsuitable as a food for bees," and 

 to back up this sweeping assertion he stated 

 that in the fall of 1914 he extracted his 

 buckwheat honey and fed it back to the 

 b'^es, and, as a result, lost 37.5 per cent of 

 his apiary. One swallow does not make a 

 summer, and I imagine I see many old-time 

 beekeepers in the buckwheat regions smile. 



Some of the best wintering we have ever 

 had has been on buckwhat stores; and if the 

 crop is gathered during hot weather in 

 August, and no honey-dew is gathered along 

 with it, buckwheat honey is fine for winter- 

 ing. Mr. Brown extracted the honey and 

 fed it back — a bad practice, generally 

 speaking, as there is risk of spreading brood 

 diseases unless honey is boiled, and then 

 the bees would surely die. If fed as it 

 comes from the extractor, as a rule much of 

 it would granulate in tlie comb, and bad 

 Avinteiing would follow. While I have done 

 little feeding of honey in the fall, whenever 

 such work was done the honey was diluted 

 with warm water to the proportion of two 

 parts of honey to one of water. 



While I prefer good clover honey or 

 sugar syrup from best granulated sugar to 

 any other kind of winter stores, unquestion- 

 ably I would not worry if I knew all colo- 

 nies had full combs of well-ripened buck- 

 wheat honey. This year the bees go into 

 winter quarters with the most clover honey 

 in the brood-nests that we have ever expe- 

 rienced; so, all other things being normal, 

 good wintering may be looked for. 



ONE TIME WHEN DRAWN COMBS ARE INDIS- 

 PENSABLE, 



Often the question is asked as to what 

 drawn combs are worth. This year I have 

 been figuring that their value is hard to 

 reckon under certain conditions. On Mon- 

 day, July 3, I was suddenly taken ill, and 

 for six days I could hardly crawl around — 



