22 



average from 20 colonies; Comox, 160 pounds a hive from 7 colonies all 

 spring count. The season was undoubtedly a favorable one yet the average 

 yield in the regions worked by the inspectors was only 19 pounds a hive. 

 In Comox district there were 78 hives from which the owners got just one 

 pound each on an average, yet most of these were far more favorably situ- 

 ated for honey production than those from which the big crop was secured. 

 It is not enough to say that the failures were due to lack of skill, w 

 must put our finger on the mechanical conditions that hindered. Broadly 

 speaking these were insufficient ventilation, lack of room, and mechanical 

 obstructions. There were many minor hindrances which will be dealt with 

 in due course, but we will first and most fully attack the three we have 

 -enumerated. 



ON HIVES. 



The hives in general use in the province we regret to say are not suited 

 for present-day methods of beekeeping. As a district was settled some 

 one started to keep bees and whatever form of structure he housed them in 

 has become the standard of that locality. So we find a region where ordin- 

 ary packing boxes predominate, another where the hives are the same in 

 width, depth and height, with bottom boards firmly nailed to the body, and 

 with an entrance three inches wide and half an inch in height; still an- 

 other where the Langstroth dimensions which are the standard of this 

 continent are practically followed; but these are not BO common as they 

 might be. 



Now as a matter of fact, so far as the bees are concerned, one form of 

 housing is just about as good as another, provided its size is suited to their 

 needs, and shelters them from inclement weather conditions. But a bee- 

 keeper keeps bees so that he may get honey, and so the hive must be 

 designed to facilitate his purpose. The aim of the bees is to gather honey 

 not only to sustain their own life, but to so swell their numbers to such a 

 multitude that they can afford to still further increase the bee population 

 by throwing off new colonies in the form of swarms. The aim of the bee- 

 keeper is to keep each colony intact and to secure for his own use the honey 

 which in the ordinary course of nature would be used to build combs and 

 raise young bees in the new colony. We thus see that while the packing 

 box is sufficient for the purpose of the bees it is utterly useless as a meana 

 of honey production. The inspectors came across many colonies that were 

 housed in boxes but in not one instance was a yield of honey reported. 

 This form of beekeeping then is merely a source of trouble to the bee- 

 keeper. 



But the keeping of bees in packing boxes has a more serious phase that 

 must be plainly stated. That terrible scourge generally known as Foul 

 Brood, notwithstanding such steps as are being taken to fight it, is spread- 

 ing over this continent at a swift pace. At least twice it has found a 

 lodgement in this province, having been imported by settlers, but each time 

 has been ruthlessly wiped out, and so far as the inspectors know British 

 Columbia is free of it at the date of writing, but it is moving towards us 

 on th| south and at no distant date we must face its onslaught. So far 

 -we^have had only preliminary skirmishes. When the real attack comes 

 every bee-hive in the province must be in such shape that its internal con- 

 dition can be learned by removing the combs. With a box hive a thor- 

 ough inspection is simply impossible, therefore the Foul Brood Act of 



