712 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



November, 1922 



FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



the educational side: Beekeeping has been 

 taught at the Ontario Agricultural College, 

 Guelph, since 1909. Credit must be given 

 to Morley Pettit for his work as provincial 

 apiarist and head of the department of api- 

 culture for nine years, as being largely in- 

 strumental in placing apiculture in the po- 

 sition it occupies at the present time. Today 

 we have a fine stone and brick building, de- 

 voted entirely to apiculture, which cost 

 about $60,000. We have an apiculture op- 

 tion leading to a bachelor's degree, at the 

 end of the four years' course. The apicul- 

 ture option is based on biological subjects, 

 and students taking this option must have 

 at least two years' experience with a com- 

 mercial beekeeper. This insures that the 

 graduates will be practical as well as re- 

 ceiving the scientific training. The apiary 

 consists of about 200 colonies, including a 

 special queen-breeding apiary. There are 

 two annual short courses, one of two weeks 

 in January and a one week 's course in June. 



.rp^i^i 



The new ;i])iculUu'ul lnulJiii,i;' uf tliu Uiilario A^i'i- 



cultural College, Guelph, Ont. It is said to be the 



finest building devoted wholly to beekeeping in 



America. 



Ontario has a successful beekeejiers ' asso- 

 ciation, with a membership this year of near- 

 ly 1500. Our annual conventions are always 

 well attended, and speakers from various 

 states in the Union have declared that our 

 attendance is larger than that of any simi- 

 lar convention elsewhere in North America. 

 This year the association has purchased hon- 

 ey containers, supplies, over 3000 queens and 

 2500 nuclei and package bees for its mem- 

 bers. At the annual convention, to be held 

 at the Prince George Hotel, Toronto, on 

 December 6, 7 and 8, we expect to launch a 

 co-operative buying and selling organization, 

 and in view of the volume of business done 

 during the year, amounting to over $70,000, 

 without special organization, there is every 

 prospect of a successful start. At the Ca- 

 nadian National Exhibition held in Toronto 

 from August 26 to September 9, the associa- 



tion staged a honey exhibit and sold over 

 $3000 worth of honey, in packages up to 10 

 pounds, mostly in glass packages of one 

 pound and less. 



Cgming directly to the practical and com- 

 mercial side of beekeeping, Ontario is very 

 favorably situated. In the spring our main 

 sources of honey are from willows, soft and 

 hard maples, elms, dandelion and fruit 

 bloom. Our main summer sources are from 

 the white Dutch and alsike clovers, with 

 basswood and the sweet clovers, the latter 

 becoming more abundant each year. In the 

 north, wild raspberry and fireweed or wil- jL 

 low-herb also provide a good surplus. In • 

 the fall, buckwheat, goldenrod,.boneset and 

 asters are found in many localities and prove 

 good yielders. Nature has been kind to On- 

 tario beekeepers in that the honey flows are 

 usually well defined. Our spring sources yield 

 amber honey, our summer sources a fine qual- 

 ity table honey, and our fall sources dark 

 amber or dark. Careful beekeepers have lit- 

 tle trouble in keeping each color of surplus 

 separate so that we have a very high per- 

 centage of light honey. 



Many of our commercial beekeepers are 

 favorably known throughout North Amer- 

 ica, and among them are members with 

 nearly 1000 colonies. Some of our largest 

 crops this year will run from 50 to over 100 

 tons. 



It is not easier for inexperienced beekeep- 

 ers to succeed in Ontario than elsewhere, 

 but we believe that there are few, if any, 

 other places in the world that will yield so 

 large an average of fine quality table honey 

 as Ontario, Canada. The number of bee- 

 keepers in Ontario has undoubtedly de- 

 creased in the past decade, but the number 

 of commercial beekeepers and colonies has 

 materially increased. 



Our annual convention is open to any bee- 

 keeper, and a card addressed to the secre- 

 tary's office, O. A. C, Guelph, will bring a 

 program. A special invitation is quite un- 

 necessary. We could tell of many other ad- 

 vantages which Ontario possesses but will 

 leave these for the convention. 



Guelph, Ont. F. Eric Milieu. 



HONEY PRODUCERS' LEAGUE 



What It Has Been Doing and What It Expects 

 to Do 



The program which the Executive Com- 

 mittee of the American Honey Producers' 

 League has laid out for the coming year is 

 as follows: Publishing the booklet on laws 

 pertaining to beekeeping and beekeepers, es- 

 tablishing a means of contact with indi- 

 vidual members, furnishing warning signs, 

 and taking up beekeeping problems that de- 

 mand national attention. 



