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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



NOVEMBEB, 1921 



F. W. L. SLADEN 



In our October issue brief mention was made of the untimely death of F. W. L. 

 Sladen, Canada's Dominion Apiarist, his death being ascribed to a drowning accident 

 and so reported to us. A close friend and associate of the dead apiarist, C. B. Grooderham, 

 has now sent us the following brief account of the death and life work of Mr. Sladen : 



were studied thoroly, and in 1904 he pub- 

 lished his book, ' ' Queen-rearing in Eng- 

 land. ' ' A second edition of this book was 

 issued in 1913. 



In 1912 he joined the staff of the experi- 

 mental farm at Ottawa as assistant ento- 

 mologist for apiculture, and in 1914 when the 

 bee division was separated from the ento- 

 mological branch he was given the position 

 of apiarist in charge. In 1920 this position 

 was changed to Dominion Apiarist. 



Since coming to Canada Mr. Sladen has 

 done much for the advancement of apicul- 

 ture. Almost his first work in Canada was 

 a study of the honey-producing plants from 

 coast to coast and of the conditions under 

 which they secrete nectar. He has also given 

 much study to swarm control and had de- 

 veloped his two-queen system by which 

 swarming is controlled and two queens are 

 wintered over in each hive. He has also de- 

 voted considerable study to wintering prob- 

 lems and recently issued bulletin No. 43 on 

 "Wintering Bees in Canada." 



Queen-rearing and bee-breeding, however, 

 have been Mr. Sladen 's first considera- 

 tion, and experiments have been car- 

 ried on annually by 

 him in different parts 

 of Canada. In 1919 

 a mating station was 

 established on Duck 

 Island and isolated 

 mating became a 

 fact. The experi- 

 ments were contin- 

 ued during 1920 and 

 1921, and a large 

 number of queens 

 have been reared at 

 Ottawa and trans- 

 ferred to the island 

 for mating with 

 drones of special 

 breeding. Excellent 

 results have been ob- 

 tained, and purely 

 mated queens have 

 been distributed to 

 branch farms and 

 beekeepers in differ- 

 ent parts of the Do- 

 minion. It was while 

 carrying on this 

 work at Duck Island 

 that Mr. Sladen met 

 The Late Dominion Apiarist. his death. 



On Sept. 10, F. W. L. Sladen, Canada's 

 Dominion Apiarist, died of heart failure 

 while bathing at Duck Island, in Lake On- 

 tario. Mr. Sladen had been suffering from 

 heart trouble for several years, and only 

 three years ago was ordered by his physi- 

 cian to take a long rest. It appears that 

 Mr. Sladen, who could not swim, had been 

 in the habit of bathing in shallow water at 

 the edge of the lake after finishing his work 

 with the bees, and on Saturday went into 

 the water as usual when he was suddenly 

 stricken with heart failure. Mr. Sladen was 

 not missed from his tent until the next 

 morning when a search was made by Mr. 

 Thomas, the lighthouse keeper. Mr. Sladen 's 

 clothes were found on the shore, and the 

 body was found in the water about 70 feet 

 from the shore. 



Mr. Sladen was born in 1876 at Shooters 

 Hill near London, England. He was edu- 

 cated privately and commenced beekeep- 

 ing at the age of 13. He also became keenly 

 interested in the bumblebees and solitary 

 bees and spent nearly all of his spare time 

 in studying them. 



At sixteen he wrote "The Humble Bee, 

 Its Life History and How to Domesticate 

 It. ' ' He also wrote 

 a series of articles on 

 the wild bees for the 

 British Bee Journal. 

 In 1896 he visited 

 India to study the 

 bees of that country, 

 especially Apis dor- 

 sata, A. florea, and 

 the domesticated va- 

 rieties of A. indica. 

 In 1901 he visited 

 prominent beekeepers 

 in Canada and the 

 United States.. It was 

 in March of that 

 year that he discov- 

 ered the function of 

 Nassanoff's or.gan in 

 the honeybee. 



All this time Mr. 

 Sladen was special- 

 izing in queen-rear- 

 ing and bee-breeding, 

 and he developed a 

 hardy golden bee suit- 

 able for the trying 

 English climate. The 

 subject of queen-rear- 

 ing and bee-breeding 



