CONDITIONS ON LULU ISLAND AND IN THE VANCOUVER-NEW 

 WESTMINSTER DISTRICTS. 



The westerm Inspector regrets that so far he has had no opportunity 

 to investigate thoroughly the floral conditions in the region between New 

 Westminster and the sea but the successful bee-keepers in the district 

 have promptly and kindly put their experience at his service. 



On Lulu Island there is a fine acreage of clover providing material 

 for a splendid honey flow in June and July. But there is a great dearth 

 of nectar and pollen-bearing blossoms between willow bloom and clover, 

 and another just after the honey flow. As a consequence, brood raising 

 comes almost to a standstill during April and May, while honey dew is 

 gathered in the fall. Round Ladner is the densest bee population the 

 Inspector has yet met, there being something like 500 hives in the town 

 and immediate vicinity, but the honey production of the average hive 

 is practically nothing. 



The problem here is to prevent the bees gathering honey dew in the 

 fall and to ensure sufficient stores in the hives in April and May. After 

 many experiments, Mr. J. Reagh, of Ladner, finds the following system 

 to work well. After the honey flow is over and before the honey dew 

 appears, he fills a hive solid with frames full of honey and sets it under 

 the brood chamber and removes from the latter all frames excepting those 

 containing brood. As soon as the brood hatches out, these frames are 

 taken away. The bees are thus forced to cluster on the solid comb, and 

 since there is no room for more storage they do not gather honey dew 

 and thus endanger their health in the winter. 



Usually the honey given early in the fall is sufficient to carry the 

 colony through until the honey flow in June. 



Mr. Reagh says he finds this system works better than feeding sugar 

 syrup in the fall and again in the late spring months. 



So far, the Inspector has learned of no one who has made a real 

 success of bee-keeping in the district between Vancouver and New West- 

 minster. Fireweed is scattered plentifully in this region, providing fine 

 possibilities in July and August, but unfortunately, as in Lulu Island, 

 there is a dearth of nectar after dandelion bloom is past. The bee-keepers 

 of this district might, with advantage, ponder over Mr. Reagh's method. 



THE MATSQUI DISTRICT. 



For a perfect sequence of pollen and nectar-bearing plants the western 

 Inspector knows of nothing that surpasses the Matsqui and Sumas prairie 

 districts. In these regions from the willow bloom until the end of August 

 there does not appear to be a break of even one day in nectar and pollen 

 production. Willow, dandelion, fruit blossoms, big leafed and vine maples, 

 white clover, alsike clover, fireweed, euphorbia and many others overlap 

 each other in an ideal way. So early as the last week of April, 1912, he 

 found double storey colonies packed with bees on all of twenty frames, a 

 magnificent army with which to accomplish great results in the honey 

 flow, if kept intact, but alas too frequently allowed to divide itself Into 

 half a dozen swarms, with the necessary consequence that the bee-keeper 

 secured very little surplus honey. 



