420 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



December 



tute wax; the second, and a still 

 more surprising one, that thej ap 

 pear to be accompanied in every col- 

 ony by a fourth order of individuals, 

 consisting in about a dozen of what 

 may either be lalled fertile workers or 

 drone-producing queens, but differing 

 from either of these classes as we 

 find them with other bees, as they 

 are like queens in form, but smaller, 

 and are marked, as are the drones 

 that they and they only produce, by 

 a yellow spot upon the breast.' 



"Mr. Onions' latest experiments 

 were carried out in Rhodesia with 

 bees imported from the suburbs of 

 Cape Town. Some of the bees were 

 sent him from near to where his lace 

 Cape apiary was situated. What is 

 our 'Cape bee?' One would have 

 thought that a bee of purer African 

 race would be found in Rhodesia; a 

 Punic or Egyptian bee having worked 

 its way down. Mr. Onions does not 

 claim to be able to demonstrate 

 worker-laying workers from the na- 

 tive bee found in Rhodesia, but from 

 the hybrid bee from the Cape. 



"I know of only one man here who 

 claims to be able to repeat Mr. On- 

 ions' experiments, and he acknowl- 

 edges that the colony does not pros- 

 per, and finally perishes through 

 weakness. 



"I think we need to better under- 

 stand the factors which govern sex 

 in mating. In this we are told that 

 there are certain laws which, like 

 those of the Medes and Persians, are 

 unalterable, and it is a question 

 whether, in face of these laws, it is 

 possible for an egg from a fully de- 

 veloped and mated queen, to produce 

 either a worker-laying worker or 

 only a drone-laying queen, simply by 

 the difference in the feeding of the 

 larva after the egg — in which are 

 wrapped unalterable laws determin- 

 ing sex — has hatched. 



"What we speak of as the 'Cape 

 bee' is not a pure race, but a hybrid. 

 Bees of various colors and stripes 

 and characteristics are found in the 

 hive at the same time. We have yet 

 much to learn about the 'Cape bee.' 

 "ALF. J. ATTRIDGE " 



Beekeeping in British Columbia 



OUR old friend and correspond 

 ent, F. Dundas Todd, of Vic- 

 toria, sends us an account of 

 the Provincial Fair, in which three 

 tons of honey were exhibited early 

 in October. It seems that the ladies 

 are doing considerable work in this 



line, a- will appear from the 



ing quotation in the "Daily Province-:" 



"A Woman Exhibitor. — Tha 



ig is not exclusivth a man's 

 work is proved by the exhibit oi Mi 

 McCallum. of Delia, w hose '1' 

 300 pounds of honey products . 

 the first prize, and combined with 

 winnings in other classes, won the 

 gold medal of the exhibition. 



"Mrs. McCallum has kep 



only, bul in that time has 

 forged to the front in this interest- 

 ing pi 



Mr. I - idd' let ter follows : 



Mr. Dadant ; I am enclosing 

 a readable account of our It. 1 

 exhibit at New W Provin- 



cial Fair, which I suspect was written 

 by our President, J. 11. Winson, .i 

 man who turns many a delightful 

 phrase with a facile pen. 



"Five years ago I judged the honey 

 at lliis exhibition. The whole ex- 

 hibit could easily have been staged 

 on a common kitchen table. The 

 great war brought a cessation of ac- 

 tivities in agricultural exhibitions in 

 British Columbia; now, with happier 

 times, they have resumed. The con- 

 trast between 1914 and 1910 gives a 

 rather good measure of the advance 

 our province has made, even with the 

 din of warfare sounding in our ears, 

 and the absence of our boys, who 

 were long in deeds but mighty short 

 in claims. 



"Our women folks minded the boys' 

 bees, as they did so many other 

 chores, and they did the work well, 

 as you will see from the article. One 

 of them, Mrs. McCallum, simply 



swept the decks in almost every 

 class, and I want to assure you she is 

 a real beekeeper, doing every bit of 

 the work herself. Furthermore, I 

 want to say I know dozens more just 

 like her in British Columbia. 



"Our crop, on account of the dry 

 season, is very spotty, but we expect 

 the total to show a decided increase, 

 due to the enthusiasm now prevalent 

 all along the line. These and other 

 matters will probably be dealt with 

 later on. 



"I have worked my own apiary over 

 into the Dadant style of hives, with 

 only one modification, I used the 

 Jumbo frame. It is the easiest han- 

 dled hive I ever tackled, and I have 

 about run the gamut. The transfer 

 of 39 colonies cost me some money 

 and a lot of work, but I don't think 1 

 will ever regret going through it all. 



"Yours sincerely, 



"F. DUNDAS TODD." 



BEEKEEPERS BY THE WAY 



A Successful Teacher-Beekeeper 



1). W. Spangler, of Longmont, < olo., 

 is no eight-hour-a-day man, He docs 

 i w o days' wi irk in one As a i eacher 

 of agriculture and science, he does a 

 full day's work in the school room, 

 and later docs another day's work 

 with his bees or in his garden. He 

 has been known to rise at 4 o'clock 

 in the morning in order to do a half 

 I:' work at crating honey before 

 t inie to go to the school room. 



Spangler is a delightful fellow witli 



a genial, winning personality, just the 



il man needed in Si hoi d work. 



m teachers of agriculture 



' red at as impractical, but not 



so Spangler, He makes more money 



out oi thi day' work he di >es in his 



garden and with his bees than he 



in thi chi ii '1 room. 



Fact is he is reputed to make nearly 



double from his agricultural opera- 

 tions that the city pays for his ser- 

 \ ices as a teacher. 



Pack east Spangler would be re- 

 garded as aii extensive beekeeper 

 with his 300 colonies of bees. Main 

 a man puts in his full time with no 

 mi ire I ban that. Beside his bees and 

 his school work he has several aetes 



devoted to garden vegetables and 

 Fruit , and likes to put all the theo- 

 ries put forward in the text-books to 

 tin test of actual practice in his own 

 tnds. 

 With all his a( i n ,ii,s he finds time 

 for a brief vacation now and inl- 

 and takes his family to his cabin in 

 the mountains near Long's 1'cak. 



w hei e the abo'N e pii ture u as taken. 



Tt is a delightful place to go, as the 



writer has reason to know, having 



been a guest there. 



