.Iirt,Y, 1022 



a Ti F, A N I N G ft IN B E K U Tj T U R E 



a FROM NORTH, EAST, WEST AND SOUTH 



itH'Oguized as the cause is, tliut tlicro is an 

 abiimlauce of IjIooiu, Init it is bloom that 

 [)ro(hu',es so little pollen that the bees can 

 get practicuU}' none of it. Then, again, tlie 

 frequent showers wash out the pollen from 

 many plants before the bees are able to 

 secure it. The most abundant ])ollen-])ro- 

 (lueers are the flowers in wliicli tlie jiollen 

 is most exposed to the rains. 



In a preceding article the e..cessive loss 

 of queens was mentioned. One cause of this 

 is the lack of pollen. It may not be the 

 only cause, but it is one of the principal 

 ones. Later, I hope to take up, in a more 

 extensive article, the subject of pollen in 

 relation to tropical beekeeping. 



The checking of brood-rearing just when 

 it is most desirable is another result, and 

 sometimes right in the height of a honey 

 flow. This is especially true during the 

 black mangrove flow, as this tree provides 

 no pollen available for the bees and there 

 are seldom any other plants in bloom at 

 the same period which do provide it. If the 

 bees are short of pollen stores at this time 

 brood-rearing ceases and workers begin to 

 loaf in the hive and to die at a rate that 

 leaves them piled on the bottom-boards. The 

 effect is similar to a bad attack of disap- 

 pearing disease or paralysis; but this will 

 clear up in less tlian 48 hours, if a substi- 

 tute pollen is fed them, and work imme- 

 diately becomes normal again. 



Brood will be found dead in all the hives 

 short of pollen stores. It resembles very 

 closely European foul brood, but it quickly 

 clears very soon after pollen is available. 

 The writer has cured in less than a week 

 frequent cases, that in the clover region 

 would be pronounced a bad case of Euro- 

 pean foul brood, by giving a comb well 

 supplied with pollen. (This is not suggested 

 as a new cure for foul brood, however.) 



The beekeeper who migrates from the 

 northern states to tropical locations should 

 inform himself on the pollen-producinji 

 flora as well as on the nectar-producing. 

 There are many places in the tropics where 

 pollen-producers are too few, and every- 

 wliere there are periods when none are 

 available. C. E. Bartholomew. 



Key Biscay ne, Fla. 



In Ontario ^^ ^^^^ date (June 9) our 



section of the country 

 has been visited with very heavy rains and 

 the ground is thoroughly soaked. Alsike is 

 looking fine and is in bloom about 10 days 

 earlier than usual. Although we have had 

 seemingly ideal weather for nectar secre- 

 tion, yet little has been gathered, and at 

 some of our yards we have had to feed be- 

 tween fruit bloom and clover. But the sea- 

 son is young yet, and, with clover looking' 

 so well and so much moisture in tlie ground, 



T still look for a croji of clover lioney even 

 if tilings have been slow so far. This ap- 

 plies to apiaries in York, Ontario and Went- 

 wortli counties; but, ' for some reason or 

 other, things are altogether different in 

 Simcoe County, where we have two large 

 apiaries. There the bees are very far ad- 

 vanced, and it is necessary to extract quite 

 a quantity of honey from willows and dan- 

 delion to get it away from the clover that 

 has started to yield up there already. 



With so much rain here at the home sec- 

 tion, a heavy buckwheat acreage is assured, 

 as the ground is now in fine shape for work- 

 ing up into a nice seed bed for this plant. 



Foul brood is bad enough in any form- — 

 no one familiar with the diseases bearing 

 that name will dispute such a statement for 

 a moment. But wlien one h^s the two 

 brands to combat with all the time, as we 

 have in our York County yards, "bad 

 enough" is hardly expressive enough. Eu- 

 ropean foul brood is a nuisance, while the 

 American brand is much worse so far as a 

 cause of actual loss of good supplies is con- 

 cerned. We would have little dread of the 

 European here any more if we had not the 

 American in the locality as well; but the 

 having both diseases present in a locality 

 complicates matters very much and adds at 

 least 50 jier cent more to the general work 

 of an apiary. This spring we have found in 

 our eight apiaries at the home center about 

 25 cases of the European, most of them mild 

 while some were bad enough. All were de- 

 queened and left queenless for eight or ten 

 days and then a queen given again. In two 

 cases, after young queens had been intro- 

 duced, I found a few scales of the Ameri- 

 can, showing that while these colonies had 

 been afflicted with the European quite bad- 

 ly they also had a few cells of the Ameri- 

 can which had been overlooked. Indeed it 

 is very easy to overlook a few cells of 

 American foul brood in a colony when tliere 

 are some hundreds of larvae dead 'from the 

 European form. Of course all our work was 

 for naught so far as these two colonies are 

 concerned. 



Apiarists living in localities where no 

 brood diseases are present do not really ap- 

 preciate what they have to be thankful for; 

 and, as I think of how we had things here 

 some 10 years ago before foul brood showed 

 up here, I am made to think of the old say- 

 ing, "You never miss the water till the 

 well goes dry. ' ' 



I have heard nothing concerning tlie pro- 

 posed co-operative movement for some time, 

 and at this late date it looks doubtful as 

 to whether the organization can be jierfect- 

 ed in time to function, so far as this year's 

 crop is concerned. Secretary Milieu reports 

 a very heavy business in containers, etc., as 

 a- starter. J.L.Byer. 



Markham, Ont. 



