MARon. 1920 



GLEANINGS T N BEE CULTURE 



159 



FROM NORTH, EAST, WEST AND SOUTH 



ceiling in great drops and the l-ieo<5 are not 

 as quiet as they sliould be, witli, I sliouUl 

 jmlge, too high a death rate — at least I 

 think there are too many dead bees on the 

 lloor for the number of colonies in the cel- 

 lar. But I started to mention this cellar 

 again because of having just read in the 

 February issue an account of how the bees 

 are wintering in that big Medina repository. 

 Forty-eight degrees is mentioned as the 

 temperature at which the bees there are the 

 quietest: while on the other hand, with but 

 a single exception, all my correspondents 

 want nothing higher than 45 and have no 

 objection if it is a few degrees lower than 

 that. One of these beekeepers who favors 

 a low temperature, winters his bees in three 

 different cellars, and he has anj^ amount of 

 ventilation, with temperatures getting as 

 low as freezing at times if I understand him 

 right, and yet he says he rarely loses a colo- 

 ny unless by mice getting in. Some of these 

 bees are never looked at from the time they 

 are put in till they are taken out. This man 

 is one of our most extensive producers in 

 Ontario, having had about two carloads of 

 lioney from clover this past year. He says 

 that, with the high temperatures advised 

 by some authorities, he would lose two- 

 thirds of his bees. I do not know who is 

 right; but I am quite sure that the present 

 cellar I am using would be better with more 

 fresh air coming in, and I am not sure but 

 that an improvement would be noticeable if 

 it was a few degrees warmer. 



Dealers in supplies and bees report a very 

 keen demand for spring delivery — especially 

 so in regard to bees. But bees seem rather 

 hard to pick up here in Ontario, doubtless 

 due to so many beginners entering the game. 

 As to getting bees from the South, just now 

 Uncle Sam does not seem to want our money, 

 and with discounts ranging around 15 per 

 cent or higher it is a serious handicap to the 

 |iersons getting bees from over the line. 



Sugar has advanced $2.50 a hundred 

 wholesale, and it is now quoted at Toronto 

 at .$14.71. J. L. Byer. 



Markham, Ont. 



In North Carolina. J}'"" $«'!j^ ^'^'■«-, 



Ima Beekeepers 

 Association, in session in Greensboro Jan. 

 9 and in. received with enthusiastic ap- 

 proval a suggestion by Franklin Sherman, 

 State Entomologist and retiring president 

 of the association, that plans be launched 

 for making the 1922 session of the State 

 Association a great Beekeepers ' Conference 

 for the whole Southeastern section of the 

 country, to include Virginia, Tennessee, 

 South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, 

 Louisiana, and jiossibly Texas. It is planned 

 to hold the sessions in Charlotte, a North 

 Carolina citv with railroad and hotel facili- 



ties that peculiarly adapt this point for the 

 convenient and economical assembling of 

 such a conference. The plan is to include 

 rot only the leading beekeepers of this 

 State and of the Southern States, but also 

 to secure the attendance of authorities in 

 beekeeping from the North and West as 

 well, such as Dr. E. F. Phillips, apiculturist 

 for the United States Government, Editor 

 E. E. Root of Gleanings in Bee Culture, and 

 others. There is every indication now that 

 the North Carolina beekeepers will under- 

 take to get together such a conference of 

 beekeepers, the State Association being now 

 in quite a flourishing condition. 



The attendance at the State convention at 

 Greensboro was especially large, with many 

 of the smaller "back lot" beekeepers as 

 well as the commercial end of the business 

 attending. An entirely new staff of officers 

 was chosen for the next year, headed by 

 J. M. Gibbs, Eeidsville, as president. The 

 other officers include W. W. King, Wilming- 

 ton, vice-president; J. E. Echert, Raleigh, 

 secretary-treasurer; R. W. Ethridge of 

 Selma and W. D. Monroe of Chadbourn, 

 members of the executive committee, along 

 with the officers previously named as di- 

 rectors ex officio. 



E. L. Kirkham, extensive beekeeper of 

 Washington, N. C, caught the attention 

 and special interest of the convention in a . 

 presentation of a well-thought-out plan for 

 co-operative buying of supplies and for the 

 sale of bee products. While some thought 

 the State to be scarcely developed sufficient- 

 ly in bee culture to justify a state-wide co- 

 operative organization that could be operat- 

 ed economically, the association voted to 

 instruct the new executive committee to in- 

 vestigate carefully and make report with 

 recommendations to the next annual conven- 

 tion, which will probably be held either at 

 Goldsboro, Wilmington, or Washington, N. 

 C,. the eastern beekeepers being entitled to 

 have the next convention in their part of 

 the State. The executive committee selects 

 the time and the place, the time, of course, 

 to be, as usual, early in January. 



The convention received quite favorably 

 a suggestion by Franklin Sherman, retiring 

 president, that there be a midsummer special 

 meeting of the Association at some con- 

 venient point in the Western Carolina 

 mountains, Asheville, Hendersonville, or 

 seme other easily accessible mountain re- 

 sort where business and pleasure can be 

 most happily blended in the program. 



North Carolina now has nearly 200,000 

 colonies of bees, with the percentage of 

 those represented in the membership of the 

 State Beekeepers' Association constantly in- 

 creasing; and the application of improved 

 methods of bee culture is also constantly on 

 the increase. W, J, Martin, 



Wilmington, N- C. 



