9 



well understood that an acre of any of the above mentioned plants will 

 yield more honey, if well cultivated, than five acres of the same plants un- 

 cultivated, simply because there are more than five blossoms on the culti- 

 vated, to one on the uncultivated plants, besides each blossom on the culti- 

 vated giving a larger yield of nectar than from the uncultivated. 



Then some of the valleys are comparatively narrow, and the bees have 

 not the range of flight as if they had an open range all around. We have 

 sometimes found that the range was open on two ends only, and that the 

 sides are hemmed in either by a lake, or by an almost perpendicular moun- 

 tain of solid rock, with perhaps a strip of land half a mile wide and sev- 

 eral miles long on one side, but as bees do not store much surplus if they 

 have to go more than two miles, length alone does not count; we have found 

 bees in such locations in British Columbia, so that the beekeeper here must 

 spread out his colonies in fifties, or at most a hundred in one location, and 

 so on, adopting methods suitable to himself and the peculiarity of the 

 country. 



Having dwelt at some length with the different districts, perhaps an 

 idea of the results from beekeeping in British Columbia will not be out of 

 place. 



Taking the country from Lytton on the West, Cranbrook, on the East, 

 Keremeos on the South, and Seymour Arm on the North, there are some- 

 thing like 175 beekeepers, owning between them in April, 1911, 626 

 colonies, or an average of a fraction over four hives each, mostly in 8 and 

 10 frame hives. 



The amount of honey produced from these hives, with their increase, was 

 about 11,917 Ibs., or an average of a fraction over 19 Ibs. per hive. The 

 largest amount produced by an individual hive was 350 Ibs. We have 

 found that one of the mistakes the beginner generally makes is trying to 

 get ahead of his experience by extending his operations too rapidly. He 

 divides his colonies up to such an extent that half of them never build up 

 strong enough to survive the winter, and many of them become queenless. 

 Four or six really good strong colonies will survive the winter and give 

 better results the following year than 20 of these small colonies, because 

 half of them will not live through the winter, and it will take the other half 

 most of the following season to build up strong enough to take advantage 

 of the honey flow. The general practice in British Columbia for wintering 

 is to leave the hives outside and give them some extra protection. A few 

 winter their bees in cellars, and by what we have seen, one way appears 

 to be as good as the other. The winter losses from October, 1910, to April, 

 1911, were about twenty-five per cent. 



The demonstration work, provided by the Department of Agriculture, 

 has been highly appreciated through out the Province, and a great many 

 of the beekeepers have become very enthusiastic. 



