416 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



July, 1920 



@ FROM NORTH, EAST, WEST AND SOUTH 



In these hives shown herewith the top hive- 

 body supers are chock-full of honey, and 

 the bees are far advanced in filling the 

 lower supers — many of them section supers 

 from which some completed sections had al- 

 ready been taken when the picture was 

 made. The bees, as told in the last issue 

 of Gleanings, were driven during the week 

 of April 16, and this picture was made just 

 two weeks later. 



In eastern Carolina beekeepers will begin 

 extracting late in June, and the work will 

 go right on thru July and, in some localities, 

 probably well into August. W. J. Martin. 



Wilmington, N. C. 



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In Ontario Since sending in copy for 

 June, we have had a very 

 dry period in most parts of Ontario, and 

 the result is that alsike has been rushed on 

 at least 10 days sooner than it should open, 

 taking the lateness of the spring into con- 

 sideration. Altho opening quite fast the 

 plants are short and stunted; and, unless 

 copious rains come soon, alsike prospects 

 are anything but bright, whether for honey 

 or seed purposes. Eastern Ontario, especial- 

 ly that part of the country adjacent to 

 Ottawa, has had soaking rains, and I sup- 

 pose the clover there will be corresponding- 

 ly better as compared with the drouthy 

 areas farther west. As reports come in 

 respecting winter and spring conditions of 

 the bees in Ontario, we learn with j-egret 

 that the loss of colonies has been very great. 

 East from Toronto where the crop was bet- 

 ter last year, wintering appears to have 

 been above the average, especially where 

 cellar wintering is largely practiced, and 

 this applies to most of the eastern part of 

 Ontario. But most of the counties in west- 

 ern Ontario have had abnormally heavy 

 losses, which are not confined to small in- 

 experienced beekeepers. In many cases, a 

 dearth of pollen appears to have been 

 the cause of heavy loss; as, with no natur- 

 al pollen in the hives in April and with no 

 chance of the bees getting fresh pollen ow- 

 ing to inclement weather, of course brood- 

 rearing stopped and the death rate exceed- 

 ed the birth rate, with the enevitable re- 

 sult that the bees dwindled to mere nuclei 

 or perished outright. In one large chain of 

 apiaries that I ex,amined, the foregoing 

 causes brought about the heavy loss, as the 

 bees wintered perfectly in every way, and 

 then dwindled out in April and early May. 

 In other sections of the country, granu- 

 lated natural stores caused disaster in hun- 

 dreds of colonies; and, taking all reports 

 received and averaging the same, I do not 

 believe that 30 per cent loss will cover the 

 amount of colonies dead in counties west of 

 Toronto. 



Sugar keeps soaring in price, altho not at 

 present nearly so high as in the United 



States. What honey will do in sympathj^ 

 with these high sugar prices remains to be 

 seen, but I do not think it will go to the 

 high figures named by some parties; in fact, 

 I do not think it would be the best thing 

 for the industry for the honey to go so high 

 as to be beyond the reach of the masses of 

 the people. Some contracting has been al- 

 ready done by a few beekeepers, but the 

 most of them, no doubt, expect much high- 

 er prices than those prevailing at present 

 and will take no chances on selling now. 



Present prospects are for a light acreage 

 of buckwheat in our immediate localities; 

 but is is to be hoped that enough will be 

 grown to help out in the sugar bill, for all 

 signs point to scarce and dear sugar this 

 fall. 



Eegarding that colony having the two 

 aluminum combs, I woi;ld say that the 

 queen continued to avoid using them for 

 brood-rearing until all four waxen combs 

 on opposite side of the hive were literally 

 crammed with brood in all stages. On May 

 19 I shifted the aluminum comb that was 

 next to the fourth waxen comb and placed 

 it outside of the hive, putting a waxen 

 comb next to the one full of brood. There 

 was not an egg in the aluminum comb at 

 that date, altho considerable fresh pollen 

 and some honey had been placed in it. The 

 changing of combs was made at 4 p. m. on 

 May 19; and the next day at the same hour, 

 just 24 hours later, I examined the hive and 

 found the newly placed waxen comb with 

 hundreds of eggs in it. Altho crowded for, 

 at least, 10 days, with the aluminum comb 

 next to the brood-nest not an egg would the 

 queen place in the cells, but inside of 24 

 hours the waxen comb was used freely. 

 And yet last summer this same queen used 

 the two aluminum combs freely for l)rood- 

 rearing during hot weather. But I do not 

 consider this a fair test; and, if possible, T 

 want to get enough combs of the metal 

 variety this summer to have a colony on 

 them for wintering, and also to see how they 

 compare with other colonies on waxen combs 

 in regard to brood-rearing in April and May 

 when we have such cool weather. Bui, 

 candidly, I feel at present like advising any- 

 one to go slow in buying large quantities 

 of these combs for northern use. It is bet- 

 ter to wait a short time until the combs are 

 more fully tested. Needless to say, I have 

 no axe to grind in the matter. If the wish 

 was father to the thought, certainly I would 

 be reporting in glowing terms how suc- 

 cessful this new invention was turning out. 



Markham, Ont. J. L. Byer. 



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Tj» Texas ^^ spite of adverse weather 



and late spring there is thus 

 far a good honey crop in Texas. In the 

 chaparral district extracting began by the 

 first of May, and averages of 70 to 125 



