1016 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



NOTES FROM CANADA 



THE HONEY MARKET. 



The iioney market in Ontario is 

 still better than when I wrote for 

 the October issue. The big crop 

 seems to have disappeared, and at 

 this early date, October 13, I find 

 it impossible to buy any honey at 

 a iDriee that would let me out, unless I sold 

 it locally at a figure higher than T obtained 

 for my own crop. High jDriees of other 

 food products, good wages among the 

 masses, and an unusually fine quality of 

 honey, seem to be the factors that have 

 brought about such conditions. At any 

 rate, contrary to the usual state of affairs, 

 the late market will this year be just as 

 good as or better than the early, and I have 

 not the least fear but that all the honey will 

 be cleaned up before next year's crop comes 

 on the market; in fact, I have my doubts 

 as to much of the crop being available in a 

 wholesale way after the first of the year. 



WHY WE FEED SUGAR. 



On page 932, Oct. 1, A. C. Miller chaffs 

 Mr. Crane for admitting that he has fed 

 " tons and tons of sugar syrup," and inci- 

 dentally claims that such practice is not 

 necessary if " improved methods " are used. 

 Being in the same boat, so to speak, as Mr. 

 Crane, so far as the feeding question is 

 concerned, we naturally would welcome 

 some good plan that would help us to do 

 away with the feeding problem, and at the 

 same time give us good results in wintering. 

 With this desire in my mind, let me briefly 

 outline conditions as we find them here in 

 our home district. Our main flow is from 

 alsike clover; and at the conclusion of that 

 flow, in about four years out of five we find 

 brood-nests with but little honey in them, 

 the most of the combs being filled with 

 brood. After taking off the clover honey, 

 super combs are returned to the hives, if for 

 no other reason than to protect them from 

 the moths; for with thousands of such 

 combs it surely is a job to keep them from 

 being ruined if not given to the bees to be 

 cared for. About Aug. 1 our buckwheat 

 flow starts ; and while one super would as a 

 rule take care of all the surplus we get 

 from that source in our district, yet we 

 hesitate to reduce them to that number by 

 reason of the moth nuisance as before out- 

 lined. Even with two or more supers on a 

 hive, with hives as large as the ten-frame 

 Jumbo, sufficient honey will go into brood- 

 nests at this time for winter stores if the 

 flow is not heavy. With a hive of the eight- 

 frame L. capacity run for extracted honey. 



J. L. Byer, Markham, Ont. 



feeding will nearly always be necessary. 

 With a good flow from buckwheat — say 40 

 to 60 pounds in our locality — even the 

 Jumbo hives will need feeding after supers 

 are off. 



This year has been an exception to much 

 of the foregoing; for during the last ten 

 days of our clover flow, which lasted longer 

 than usual, queens, whether young or old, 

 let up in brood-rearing, and the majority 

 of the hives were jammed with clover honey, 

 even when abundant super room was still 

 present. With a very light buckwheat flow, 

 brood-rearing was not increased to the same 

 extent as in other years, and this clover 

 honey was left in the brood-nests so that 

 little feeding is necessary. This is one year 

 out of the five referred to, and in no way 

 clears up the question as to what to do to 

 avoid feeding in the other four years. 



Would Mr. Miller advise keeping sealed 

 combs of clover honey when honey is the 

 price it is here in Ontario? In some sea- 

 sons the keeping of such honey would mean 

 the whole crop. Would he take off the 

 supers during the buckwheat flow? and if 

 so, what would he do with, say, some 15 or 

 20 thousand such combs, in order to protect 

 them from the moths? In any locality 

 where there is a fall flow as late as the 

 middle of September the feeding problem is 

 solved at once ; for, no matter whether su- 

 pers are on hives or not, honey coming in 

 at that date will, to a great extent, go into 

 brood-nests, as queens always slack up 

 brood-rearing at that season. We have 

 learned this much by establishing the yard 

 up north, as there we have aster and golden- 

 rod in September, and feeding is never such 

 a big job as we often run up against here 

 in York Co., where August sees the last of 

 our honey-flow. 



THE CONDITION OF THE CLOVERS. 



Since sending in my last batch of Notes, 

 refreshing showers have visited many sec- 

 lions of Ontario, and once more the grass 

 is looking green. But conditions as to the 

 crop of clover for next year have changed 

 but little, as alsike grown for seed is our 

 main source of honey here in York Co. ; 

 and the long-continued drouth, coupled with 

 the extreme heat of late July and early 

 August, played havoc with the freshly seed- 

 ed areas, and the acreage of alsike for next 

 year will be very small. Judging by con- 

 ditions at our north j-ard in Simcoe Co., 

 where more white clover grows than here in 

 our home section, the white clover seems to 

 have stood the drouth better than expected. 



