1494 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 1. 



year nearer a big honey crop than this time 

 last year [laughter]. Prices had advanced 

 to something nearer what they ought to be, 

 and they should remain nearer to what they 

 are at present. Bee-keeping year by year in 

 Ontario is getting to be an occupation ot 

 greater dignity. There would be an an- 

 nouncement to the effect that the grant for the 

 suppression of foul In-ood would be doubled. 

 The act had been changed, taking the power 

 to appoint inspectors out of the hands of the 

 association, and resting it in the hands of 

 the Department of Agriculture. A commit- 

 tee had met with the officers of the Depart- 

 ment before this act had been introduced to 

 the Legislature, and they had been unanimous 

 in considering this advisable. The inspector 

 or inspectors would also go out under the 

 direction of the department. 



Mr. R. H. Smith, St. Thomas, vice-pi-esi- 

 dent, opened the discussion on the president's 

 address. He said bee-keeping in the province 

 had made much progress during the 37 years 

 since the O. B. K. A. was organized, but he 

 would like to see much more. Many farmer 

 bee-keepers require to be reached— men with, 

 perhaps, only a few colonies. The proper 

 way is to get them to attend local and other 

 association meetings: those active and get- 

 ting in touch w^ith the life of bee-keeping are 

 not the ones to cut prices. By-laws which 

 would be submitted to the meeting had for 

 their object the encouragement of greater ac- 

 tivity in existing local associations, and the 

 encouragement of the organization of new 

 where they do not now exist. 



Mr. W. H. Kirby, Ottawa, an extensive bee- 

 keeper, spoke of the need of greater activity 

 in local associations. 



BETTER QUALITY. 



Messrs. R. F. Holtermann and M. B. Holmes 

 strongly emphasized the need of instructing 

 all so that we may have a more uniform and 

 better quality of honey put upon the market. 

 Mr. Holmes advised any thing not first class 

 to be sold for manufacturing purposes. 



COMMITTEE FOR ADVISING AS TO PRICES. 



The association has a committee which asks 

 for and receives reports as to the honey crop 

 at the earliest possible moment. They then 

 meet, compare, and carefully go over the in- 

 formation in hand, and then advise as to 

 what, in their opinion, the price should be. 

 There was no divided opinion as to the use- 

 fulness of this committee. They ha\e now 

 for three or four years done their work well; 

 and Mr. Wm. Coiise, secretary of the associ- 

 ation, said that, after acting on this couimit- 

 tee for years, he was more and more satisfied 

 as to the good work it is doing. 



COMB-HONEY PRODUCTION. 



Mr. N. H. Bowen, Niagara Falls, Ont., 

 brought this subject in a paper before the 

 convention. The essential requisites are, a 

 good honey-fiow, strong colonies of bees, con- 

 venient hives, and an apiarist who under- 

 stands handling the bees and hives so as to 

 take advantage of the fiow of nectar; Care 



should be taken in locating an apiary. He 

 advocated good wintering, a good queen, 

 ample food. He used the eight-framb Lang- 

 stroth: but, if need be. enlarged this with a 

 shallow addition on top. making it equal to 

 a thirteen Langstroth brood-chamber. When 

 sections were put on he placed the comb- 

 honey super between these two brood-cham- 

 bers, removing the upper when the bees were 

 nicely started in the sections. 



For comlj honey the swarming impulse was 

 not the great misfortune some described it to 

 be. He controlled it by shaking the bees on 

 a hive containing five frames filled with wired 

 foundation or starters — he preferred the for- 

 iijer — and one frame of comb to catch the 

 pollen. If this frame contained unsealed 

 brood it did no harm. The rest of the 

 hive was dummies. An empty brood-cham- 

 l3er was put underneath, and removed after 

 the second or third day. He shook all the 

 l^ees — in shaking, giving the brood to other 

 colonies, and the sections removed from the 

 old colony and given to the new. He pre- 

 ferred plain sections and fence separators. 

 There should l^e a fence between the outside 

 section and the wall of the super. He al- 

 ways used full sheets of thinnest foundation 

 in the sections. Italian bees were not as 

 good as Italian and blacks crossed. 



The Hon. Nelson Monteith, Member of 

 Agriculture, in a brief address stated he was 

 deeply interested in bee-keeping; he recog- 

 nized" its value to other branches of agricul- 

 tui-e, the value of honey as a food, and as- 

 serted that bee-keepers are not aggressive 

 enough in placing honey upon the tables of 

 the people in general. ' He then referred to 

 the matter of the inspection of apiaries. The 

 Department had sent a letter to the associa- 

 tion, proposing to divide the province iiito 

 six parts, with six inspectors and a much in- 

 creased grant. The executive would be con- 

 sulted in the appointments, but the Depart- 

 ment would suggest that Mr. Wm. McEvoy 

 be retained in his home district, and also as 

 an advisor in case of disputes. Many spoke, 

 all favoring an increased number of inspec- 

 tors, and it was found that there was very 

 little difference of opinion after all in the 

 views expressed. 



Mr. Wm. Couse, Streetsville, Ont., spoke 

 on the subject of wintering. Dryness of the 

 condition was the keynote, with plenty of 

 stores, and the bees kept dry, and all else 

 apj)eared to be secondary. 



BEE-SMOKERS. 



A discussion as to the requisites of a good 

 smoker showed some were in favor of a large 

 smoker and others a small one. Mr. J. F. 

 Miller used one with a bellows 7Xl0i in., 

 and Ixirrel to correspond. He held it between 

 his knees when operating, and wanted noth- 

 ing smaller. The convention was pretty 

 w-ell agreed upon the desirability of having 

 a strong connection between the Ijarrel and 

 bellows— a smoker with the nozzle slipping 

 inside of the barrel sides being pronounced 

 especially weak in this respect 



