December, 1909. 



401 



American Hee Joarnal 



Canadian 



Conducted bv J. L. B YER, Mount Joy. Ont. 



Report of the Ontario Convention 



The annual convention of the Onta- 

 rio Bee-Keepers' Association was held 

 in Toronto Nov. 10, 11 and 12, 1909, 

 during the same week the Ontario Hor- 

 ticultural Show was in progress. This 

 show, now an annual affair, is made up 

 of exhibits of fruit, flowers, vegetables 

 and honey, and as an educator of the 

 public it is a great factor in helping the 

 sales of these different products, and 

 especially so in the matter of honey, as 

 this latter article has, in the times gone 

 by. too often unfortunately been classed 

 as a luxury instead of being looked 

 upon as a staple in the line of foods. 

 The convention was fairly well at- 

 tended, but personally, at least, I looked 

 for a larger attendaYice, as the bee- 

 keepers of the Province the past sea- 

 son were blessed with a good crop, as 

 well as good prices — a combination that 

 should certainly go a long way in 

 bringing out the fraternity to such an 

 important meeting. However, what may 

 have been lacking in numbers, was cer- 

 tainly more than made up in enthu- 

 siasm. 



Pres. Couse. of Streetsville, occupied 

 the chair in his usual genial and capa- 

 ble manner, and the meeting through- 

 out was entirely harmonious, although, 

 as is usually the case at bee-keepers' 

 conventions, the discussion at times 

 was good and lively, very decided opin- 

 ions pro and con being given on vari- 

 ous subjects that came up for consid- 

 eration. 



Among the visitors from a distance 

 were Messrs. Dine, Hershiser, House, 

 and Clark, from New York State — the 

 last three being no strangers to us, as 

 they have been with us before, and from 

 the parting greeting of Mr. Dine, we 

 believe he will, if spared, be with us 

 again at some convention in the near 

 future. 



Whatever the impressions formed by 

 our visitors may be, one thing is cer- 

 tain, they are always heartily welcome, 

 and we look forward with pleasure to 

 the thought that in the future there will 

 be more of these fraternal visits back 

 and forth between the two countries, 

 as most assuredly the boundary line is 

 simply imaginary in so far as it refers 

 to the good fellowship existing be- 

 tween the men and women of the bee- 

 keeping fraternity. 



Queen-Rearing and Queens. 



Broadly speaking, the time of the 

 convention was mainly spent in discuss- 

 ing two very important phases of bee- 

 keeping, namely — the best methods of 

 suppressing foul brood, and the advan- 

 tages of having good (jueens in the 

 hives. With the latter subject, the best 



methods of rearing queens were also 

 taken up, and the convention was fort- 

 unate to have two of our best queen- 

 breeders in attendance, who gave ad- 

 dresses on the subject of queen-rearing, 

 illustrating by means of the various 

 paraphernalia useii by commercial 

 queen-rearers, the different steps in the 

 systems so plainly that the veriest nov- 

 ice could have at least a superficial 

 knowledge of this fascinating phase of 

 the industry. The two gentlemen to 

 whom thanks are due for their kind- 

 ness in showing us how they do their 

 work, are Mr. Clark, of New York, and 

 Mr. Frank Adams, of Ontario. As one 

 member of the .Association remarked, 

 it is not often that men are liberal and 

 generous enough to "giveaway" the 

 secrets of the work, whereby they earn 

 their bread and butter; but he might 

 have qualified the remark by saying 

 that this procedure was not very com- 

 mon outside of the bee-keeping profes- 

 sion. 



Along the line of queens, Mr. Sib- 

 bald gave a splendid address on, "Im- 

 portance of Requeening," and in the 

 discussion that followed all agreed that 

 many queens are being kept that should 

 be destroyed, and quite a few present 

 were in favor of the annual requeening 

 of all the hives. However, the ma- 

 jority would not follow so radical a 

 plan, and the general consensus of 

 opinion seemed to favor leaving good 

 queens for at least two years. Poor 

 queens should not be left in the hives 

 even one year. 



Foul Brood. 



As to foul brood eradication, the fact 

 that one whole session of the conven- 

 tion was given to the discussion and 

 consideration of this disease proves 

 that it is thought to be a serious men- 

 ace to the industry. All 14 of the in- 

 spectors sent in reports of the season's 

 work, and while it was stated that there 

 was no cause for alarm, yet nothing in 

 the way of half-way measures would 

 ever keep the disease under control. 



The black brood outbreak in the 

 eastern part of the Province is really 

 the most alarming factor presenting 

 itself at present, and after the situation 

 had been thoroughly discussed, a reso- 

 lution was passed unanimously asking 

 the Department of Agriculture to take 

 the most radical measures to suppress 

 the plague before it spreads from the 

 few isolated localities where it is now 

 raging. 



Government Experiment Apiarv. 



Mr. Pettit gave a resume of the work 

 done in the apiary during the past sea- 

 son, and while it was stated that the 

 work was yet in the initial stage, yet it 



was hoped that another year the equip- 

 ment, etc., would be so improved that 

 the experimental work would be of real 

 value to the apiarists of the Province. 

 Mr. Pettit had been in correspondence 

 with the various agricultural stations 

 in the United States and other places, 

 and in the whole comparatively little 

 work was being done in the way of 

 apicultural investigations. All the par- 

 ties written to had given courteous re- 

 plies, and in many instances much val- 

 uable information had been imparted 

 that will be of much use in perfecting 

 the work and organization of the Sta- 

 tion recently established. Mr. Pettit 

 was anxious for suggestions on the 

 part of the bee-keepers as to profitable 

 work to carry on, and while some 

 thought that simple, practical experi- 

 ments should be first carried out ; 

 others inclined to the view that work 

 more of the scientific nature should be 

 undertaken. 



Secretary Hodgetts opined that in 

 the near future Mr. Pettit would find 

 plenty of work in both the practical 

 and scientific sides of bee-keeping to 

 engage his attention fully, but at the 

 present time, owing to the work being 

 yet in its infancy, we must wait a while 

 before expecting too much from the 

 limited equipment at their disposal. 



Gasoline Engine for Apiary Work, 



The use of the gasoline engine 

 around the apiary, was the subject con- 

 sidered by Mr. Nolan, and after hearing 

 of this " handy man " as he employs it, 

 we would not be surprised if quite a 

 few orders for gasoline engines would 

 be placed with manufacturers the com- 

 ing winter. 



Messrs. Miller and Armstrong also 

 highly endorsed these labor-savers, 

 and the statement of Mr. Armstrong, 

 that in extracting 13,000 pounds of 

 honey, the cost for gasoline had been 

 but 75 cents, was quite a surprise to 

 most of those present. The engine as 

 used by Mr. Nolan is on skids, and can 

 be taken from one place to another, 

 and will saw wood, run a small circu- 

 lar saw for making hives — in fact, do 

 almost anything around the place 

 where no great lot of power is needed. 

 Especially for the large, reversible ex- 

 tractors now being manufactured are 

 these engines a real necessity, and 

 where labor is scarce, as it is now in 

 most sections, from an economic stand- 

 point it certainly looks as if it would 

 pay many of us to use more machine- 

 work in out-apiary operations than is 

 now the case. 



Rendering Comb into Beeswax. 



Wax-rendering came in for a thor- 

 ough discussion, and it was felt by 

 many that this valuable product of the 

 apiary was not receiving the attention 

 of many that it deserved. The many 

 presses on the market were discussed, 

 some preferring the hot-water ma- 

 chines and others the unheated press, 

 but all agreed that it was a mistake not 

 to use a press of some kind. A few 

 advocated the use of sulphuric acid for 

 clarifying the wax, but the majority 

 thought it should not be used except 

 in extreme cases. It was pointed out 

 by one speaker that wax properly ren- 

 dered needed no acid to clarify, and 

 this statement the writer would endorse 



