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1911 gives every inspector the power to destroy by fire every colony of 

 bees that is not housed in a hive with removable frames. During the past 

 season the inspectors did not enforce this part of the Act as they felt 

 timely warning should be given, but at the first hint of the advancing wave 

 reaching the boundaries of the Province they will be compelled in justice ta 

 careful beekeepers, and to the fruit growers, whose success is largely de- 

 pendant upon the pollination of the blossoms by the activities of hosts of 

 bees, to carry out the intent of the law. It is incumbent therefore upon 

 every one who has bees in ordinary boxes to transfer them to regular hives 

 as speedily as possible. By so doing he will benefit himself by making a 

 crop of honey possible, and remove a menace that threatens his neighbours. 

 How to make the change will be told later on. 



In the district of which Chilliwack is the center the hive in general use 

 has many objectionable features. Its dimensions, which are about 14 

 inches in every direction, were at one time quite popular with many bee- 

 keepers, but it is no longer manufactured by any of the large firms. As 

 used in this district it has two serious defects. The bottom board is firmly 

 nailed to the body of the hive, so that it is not possible to remove in the 

 spring the thousands of dead bees that sometimes gather below the combs 

 during the winter, unless one transfers all the frames to a clean hive. 

 Again and again in the apiaries of well-intentioned men one came across 

 colonies in which many thousands of dead bees were rotting in deep pools 

 of water that had gathered on the bottom-boards after a rainstorm, beingr 

 unable to escape on account of the tight nailing. Bees are very cleanly- 

 creatures and it is too much to expect them to do good work in a hive 

 where an overwhelming stench prevails. As a matter of fact they make- 

 little headway, for the combs are mouldy. 



The second objectionable feature of these hives is the small entrance. 

 In the month of May and onward all summer one of these hives contains 

 50,000 bees and almost as many young at various stages of development, 

 all of whom must depend for their supply of fresh air through this little 

 doorway. Such a condition is intolerable, so the bees remedy it in the only 

 possible way, by swarming, which at once cuts down enormously the num- 

 bers depending upon this source. On a ranch in Chilliwack district a hive 

 with a small entrance, and situated in an angle of the house that faced the 

 southwest, rather startled its lady owner by throwing out seven swarms in 

 the course of the summer, and of course produced no honey. It was her 

 first venture in beekeeping so before the inspector arrived on the scene she 

 had visions of the whole ranch dotted with bee-hives, an ever-increasing- 

 number of dollars spent yearly for homes, and not a cent of income. A 

 little explanation as to the cause of the trouble brought peace to her mind, 

 accompanied by a determination to provide plenty of ventilation in the 

 future. 



These same hives have a third feature, not necessarily a bad one, but 

 it is so in actual practice in the hands of the average man the frames are 

 not self-spacing. It is the nature of bees to build their combs about 1% 

 inches from center to center, and the modern hive is filled with frames that 

 almost automatically adjust themselves in the right place; furthermore it 

 is impossible to put in more than the proper number of frames, while a 

 shortage of even one is apparent. The hives under consideration are in- 

 tended for nine frames, but it was no unusual thing to find as many as ten,. 



