1352 



GLE.JiNINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Not. 1 



If the writer had not lately paid a visit to 

 Medina, Ohio, he would never suspect that 

 the individual on the cover page of Glean- 

 iNas, Oct. 1, is A. I. Root. Do you expect all 

 your readers to travel to Medina to find out, 

 or shall their curiosity remain unsatisfied? 



In reply to the question, "Are bees kept 

 with as much profit in Manitoba, where thei'e 

 are bluffs of timber, as in Ontario?" Mr. J. 

 J. Gunn, in the Farmer'^s Advocate, answex's 

 in part: "Bees are being kept quite profit- 

 ably in many parts of Manitoba. . Yards 

 of 100 colonies have yielded an average of 

 100 pounds of extracted honey per hive. 

 This, however, is exceptional." 



After examining all the hive-super-lifting 

 devices in Sept. 1st Gleanings, including 

 Holtermann's, we must come to the conclu- 

 sion that there is I'oom for improvement in 

 the meUwd. Holtermann's method of clasp- 

 ing the super is not perfect, but the lifter 

 leaves the brood-chamber clear for manipu- 

 lation; but how can a bee-keeper manipu- 

 late in Fig. 16, page 1122? The front of the 

 hive is the only accessible part. 



This is the time of year when the entrances 

 to hives should be sufficiently contracted to 

 keep the bees covering their winter stores as 

 much as possible. Many colonies dx-awing 

 away from outside combs on cool damp 

 nights have their winter food detei'iorate 

 before going into winter quax'tei's. Care 

 should, however, be taken not to ovex'do it, 

 as bees require fi^esh air. When the bees 

 gnaw the entrance-blocks (you can some- 

 times hear them doing this) then enlarge. 



Sometimes bee-keepers ax'e compelled, aft- 

 er extracting, owing to cix^cumstances, to 

 set their extracting-combs oxxt for the bees 

 to clean. This should be avoided; but if it 

 is done, Mr. Walter Bailey, Fox-estville, Ont., 

 makes a good suggestion. He says: "Put 

 the combs out in the early evening, after the 

 bees cease flying. During the night the 

 honey will absorb a certain amount of mois- 

 tux'e from the atmosphere and dew, and the 

 bees have less trouble in collecting the 

 honey. 



On page 1113, under the heading, "Waste 

 of Wax Scales," you mention the unusual 

 waste of wax scales, and attribute it to cool 

 nights. We had a small colony which was 



queenless for a considerable time; and, judg- 

 ing it worthless, we I'emoved the combs. 

 They clustex'ed in the portico; and during a 

 light bxxekwheat flow they secx'eted wax and 

 began comb-building. They were (or. leath- 

 er, the wax scales would be) very exposed 

 to cool air, and the same waste was noticed. 

 Your theory is probably connect the wax 

 not wai'm enough to be joined by the bees 

 into comb. 



Mr. R. A. Morrison, Cataraqui, Ont., has 

 also made me somewhat of a convei't to set- 

 ting bees in the cellar eaxiy. He states that 

 careful obsei'vation has led him to see that, 

 in cold weathex", bees on the outside combs 

 suffer; they chill, become permanently in- 

 jured, and are woi'se than useless. I have 

 myself for yeax's noticed that small clustei'S 

 on outside combs ax-e often dead when placed 

 in winter quax'tex's, and that, if hives ax'e put 

 in the cellar late, thex'e ax'e mox"e dead bees 

 bx'ought to the entrance by the bees the fix'st 

 few days than a month after that time. In 

 a northerly climate Mr. Morrison's sugges- 

 tion is probably wox-th acting upon. 



Mr. Jacob Alpaugh, Gait, Ont., states that 

 he has paid for some yeax's vexy close atten- 

 tion to coxnb foxxndation. He states a gx'eat 

 deal of it in Canada is stx'etched in making. 

 If it is less than five cells to the inch he will 

 not use it. It shoixld be 4| inches. Mi". Al- 

 paugh also claims that many queens do not 

 lay to their full capacity, becaixse they are 

 dissatisfied with the wrong size of cell, and 

 also that qxxeens, in themselves perfectly 

 good, ax"e sxxperseded on accoxxnt of impx'op- 

 er combs in the bi'ood-chamber. Like the 

 rest of us, Mr. Alpaugh is not always x'ight. 

 He has, howevex", brought forwaixl some ex- 

 cellent ideas in bee-keeping, and any thing 

 he advances is wox'thy of cai'eful considex'a- 

 tion. 



Some tixne ago Mr. Alexander and J. L. 

 Byex's, Markham, Ont., cx'ossed swords upon 

 the question of the thi(-kness of bxxekwheat 

 honey and other mattex's. To many, includ- 

 ing the writer, Mr. Byex's' article seemed 

 timely; but Mx\ B. is wrong when he speaks 

 of buckwheat honey being thin. We know 

 of no other Canadian honey with as much 

 body to it, when well x'ipened. It is "no 

 small chox'e" to remove it from the comb, 

 and sometimes long threads of honey fly 

 fx-om the extractor, '^his is particularly tx'xxe 

 if the extx'actor is not a revex'sible machine 

 where the combs lie close to the sides of the 

 can. Many of your x'eaders may not know 

 that in Europe heather honey is dark in 

 color, and so thick that it is not practical to 

 extract it. Buckwheat honey sometimes 

 makes me think of heather honey. Probably 

 Mr. Byex'S, as he is not in a buckwheat sec- 

 tion, gets his idea of buckwheat honey fx'om 

 what, until x'ecently, has been shown at the 

 Tox'onto exhibition. It was thin because the 

 px'esent season's honey had to be shown; and 



