February, 1909. 



\ American ^cc Journal 



^STi rr /" 



nmmmam 



Canadian 

 'Beedom 



Conducted by J. L. BYER, Mount Joy, Ont. 



Good Winter for Bees. 



The weather here in Ontario, so far 

 this winter, has been all that could be 

 desired, as far as the wintering o'f bees 

 has been concerned. Although there 

 have been no days since the last of No- 

 vember, that they could fly ; on the other 

 hand, there has been no very cold wea- 

 ther ; only once has the thermometer got 

 down to zero here in York Co., and then 

 that was but for one day. Hives were 

 heavy with buckwheat honey last fall, 

 and while I have seen heavy losses when 

 those stores were so much in evidence, 

 yet in nearly every case there was some 

 honey-dew present, too. Last season, as 

 far as I could see, there was not a par- 

 ticle of this article gathered, and, as a 

 consequence, barring unforeseen circum- 

 stances, we look for good wintering. 



Alsike Clover and Prospects. 



Alsike clover, which is our main de- 

 pendence here for honey, never went 

 into winter in better condition than it 

 did last fall, and with honey at present 

 good prices, the outlook for bee-keepers 

 next season is certainly not discouraging. 

 However, we have learned that "pros- 

 pects" do not make good crops, always; 

 yet, on the other hand, we rarely get a 

 crop unless the "prospects" are previ- 

 ously in evidence. 



Dr. Miller and His "Forty Years." 



Perhaps I should be ashamed to con- 

 fess it, but the truth is that previous to 

 the past few weeks, I had never read Dr. 

 Miller's "Forty Years Among the Bees." 



What do I think of it? Well, we 

 always anticipate pleasure when we be- 

 gin to read anything from the pen of Dr. 

 Miller, and in this case it is needless to 

 say that I was not disappointed. Not 

 that it is a comprehensive work on bee- 

 keeping — indeed, the author makes no 

 such claims for the work ; but somehow 

 the easy conversational style of the book 

 is infectious, and as we get glimpses 

 into the home life of one known and 

 loved by thousands of bee-keepers, a de- 

 sire involuntarily asserts itself to "go 

 thou and do likewise." 



The author apologizes for the short 

 biographical sketch which he says the 

 publisher insisted on printing. Well, if 

 that is the case, our hearty thanks are 

 due the said publisher, as the biography 

 is one of the best parts of the book. 



The "grit" and determination shown by 

 our genial friend, in his struggles for an 

 education, cannot help but be an incen- 

 tive to all young people who read the 

 story, whether their prospective calling 



be bee-keeping or any other profession. 



Of course there are some things in 

 his bee-keeping instructions that we 

 would not all agree with, but that simply 

 adds interest to the work, for who ever 

 heard of two bee-keepers who would 

 not differ on a good many points as to 

 how best to manage the bees? 



Dear reader, if you have not yet read 

 the book, by all means do so at your 

 earliest opportunity, and be benefited, 

 as the writer most assuredly has been by 

 its perusal. 



"Shaking" Work Into Bees. 



Just at present there is quite a stir 

 again among correspondents in bee-pa- 

 pers, over the now-quite-old idea of 

 "shaking" bees to secure various results. 

 Geo. W. Williams, in the Review, advo- 

 cates shaking all the bees out in front of 

 the hives during the honey-flow, and 

 claims that colonies so treated will give 

 a much larger surplus than if they had 

 been left alone. The idea is that this 

 treatment puts the colony in much the 

 same condition as a newly hived swarm, 

 and that they will then work with the 

 vigor so characteristic of bees in the 

 latter condition. 



I do not know if there is much in his 

 contention or not, but I do know that 

 the "shaking," so much advocated a few 

 years ago, is not now nearly as popular 

 as it was at that time. This much I 

 have learned by private conversation and 

 correspondence, and many who were 

 former enthusiasts of the system have 

 discarded it almost entirely, while others 

 who still practice it have modified the 

 original wholesale methods, more or less. 

 While the plan has some advantages, a 

 continued trial of it soon reveals the 

 fact that there are many disadvantages 

 as well. 



Cellar Wintering of Bees. 



As mentioned more than once in these 

 columns, the writer has had but little 

 experience in cellar-wintering. How- 

 ever, during the past few winters, as I 

 have been wintering part of one apiary 

 in a cellar, I am beginning to know 

 some of the perplexities of the indoor 

 system. Just when to take the bees into 

 tile cellar is one of the hard things to 

 decide, sometimes, as the past fall gave 

 ample evidence. 



While going to the Ontario conven- 

 tion this fall in company with that vet- 

 eran bee-keeper, J. T. Storer, we were 

 discussing this subject, and although it 

 was but Nov. ID, I found that he had 

 already put his bees into the cellar. 

 While the writer thought it too early, 



Mr. Storer thought otherwise, as he said 

 he felt pretty sure that the bees would 

 not get another flight this fall. Subse- 

 quent events proved that this was not 

 the case though, as shortly afterward 

 the weather moderated, and the bees had 

 frequent flights right up to the last day 

 or so in November. 



Naturally, I was feeling pleased that 

 my bees were not in the cellar, when 

 circumstances unexpectedly came that 

 made it impossible for me to put the 

 bees in the cellar till Dec. 10, after they 

 had been exposed to 10 days of pretty 

 cold weather after their last flight. Just 

 now I am wondering if they would not 

 have been better off in the cellar early 

 in November. 



The December issue of the Review, 

 shows that even men like Mr. Hutchin- 

 son have their troubles in this line some- 

 times, too. He had to move some bees 

 quite a distance to a cellar, and to make 

 things so that the bees could not fly out 

 while being hauled to the cellar, a half- 

 depth body was put under each hive, 

 the bottom of each of these extra bodies 

 being screened. After the bees were 

 all ready for moving, and the hives 

 were facing every direction, .the weather 

 turned warm very quickly, and before 

 the bees could be put into the cellar. 

 The result was, that the bees were in an 

 uproar, and as the hives had been shifted 

 off their stands, it was impossible to 

 give them a flight. They were put into 

 the cellar and Mr. Hutchinson says they 

 simplv "roared" for a few days till the 

 weather turned cold again. He antici- 

 pates no trouble as a result of this dis- 

 turbance, but personally, believe I would 

 be a bit uneasy if it were my bees in a 

 like condition. 



The nature of the stores in the hives 

 will largely determine the outcome, and 

 as we are told that they are of the best, 

 in the case of the bees under discussion, 

 the chances are that Mr. Hutchinson's 

 prophecy will prove to be correct. Any- 

 way, I hope so, and the result will be 

 looked for with interest next spring. 



Methinks as a certain good friend 

 near Buffalo read of the hives being so 

 fixed that the bees could not get out 

 into the cellar, that the "smile that won't 

 come off" must have been in evidence; 

 for be it remembered, not so long ago, 

 a certain editor characterized the Her- 

 shiser bottom-board as a "harmless in- 

 vention," and now we find something on 

 exactly the same principle being used 

 by the said editor. Well, "all things 

 come to those who wait," and our Buf- 

 falo friend will now be satisfied with his 

 revenge, even if he did have to wait a 

 long time for it. 



Apicultural Experiment Station. 



At the Ontario Bee-Keepers' Conven- 

 tion, held in Toronto last November. 

 Secretary Hodgetts stated that the On- 

 tario Department of Apiculture was con- 

 sidering the advisability of establishing 

 an experimental apiary somewhere in the 

 Province, in the near future. Now 

 comes the announcement that the Sta- 

 tion is to be at Jordan, Ont., where there 

 is already a farm carried on for ex- 

 perimental purposes, mainly up to the 

 present, for the advancement of fruit- 

 culture, an industry for which the Niag- 



