HONEY PRODUCTION 



F. W. L. SLADEN, Apiarist, Dominion Experimental Farms 



The statistics of honey production on farms during the year 1910, given in the 

 Fifth Census of Canada, amount to 713,250 pounds for the whole of Canada. Following 

 is the production in pounds by provinces: 



Ontario, 516,658; Quebec, 169,507; Manitoba, 8,958; British Columbia, 6,460; 

 New Brunswick, 6,004; Nova Scotia, 3,857; Alberta, 931; Saskatchewan, 520; Prince 

 Edward Island, 355. 



These figures, however, are much below the actual production of honey in Canada, 

 and this in turn is only a small fraction of what could be produced. Honey in paying 

 quantities may be obtained over the greater part of this vast country, and thousands 

 of tons are going to waste annually for want of bees to gather them. 



With the reduction in the young manhood of the country during the war, our 

 occupations should be productive and profitable in the highest degree. Bee-keeping is 

 such an occupation if the bees are well managed, and are kept in a place where, within 

 one or two miles of the apiary, the principal honey producing plants are plentiful. 

 Chief among these, in the farming sections, are white Dutch clover and alsike clover, 

 and, in the timber lands, willow herb or fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium), which 

 often springs up in abundance after forest fires. The honey from alsike and white 

 clover, and also that from fireweed, is of the best quality, being light in colour and mild 

 in flavour. Such honey is worth from 10 to 113^ cents per pound wholesale in Ontario. 

 As the outlay and working expenses in bee-keeping are small, it pays well to obtain 

 eighty pounds or so of honey per colony in an average season. This amount can be 

 obtained from clover and other sources in most farming sections in Eastern Canada 

 with proper management of the bees, and places may be selected where 100 pounds or 

 more can be got. The expert apiarist needs to examine his bees only once a week 

 during the active season, and can thus easily keep as many as 200 colonies without 

 help. Bee-keeping, however, is an occupation that has to be learned. 



Many bee-keepers are not giving their bees proper attention, and the adoption of 

 progressive and systematic methods by all would enormously increase the output of 

 honey and add considerably to the wealth of the country. A somewhat careful estimate 

 of the number of bee-keepers in Ontario has been made by Mr. Morley Pettit, Provincial 

 Apiarist, and he considers that there are about 10,000 in this province alone. Those 

 bee-keepers who are succeeding would find it highly profitable to increase their stock 

 by breeding or purchasing bees, especially queens, and, if the neighbourhood of the 

 home apiary is already well stocked, to establish an out-apiary in a place not less than 

 two or three miles from the home apiary where the above-mentioned plants are plentiful. 



Weather, especially during the period of honey flow, very largely affects the yield 

 of honey, as it also does most farm crops. In a season that is very wet or cold, or very 

 dry, the honey crop may be a failure, but such years are rare, especially in the interior 

 of Canada. In a good year heavy yields may be got in favourable localities by experi- 

 enced men. Taking one year with another, in a favourable locality as large an annual 

 income may be obtained from bee-keeping as from any branch of farming. For keeping 

 an apiary, it is not necessary to occupy more than an acre or so of land, and half an 

 acre often proves sufficient. 



It is usually more profitable to produce extracted-honey than comb-honey, because 

 about double the amount of honey is thus obtained and less skill is required, and the 

 demand for comb-honey, which is a luxury, is limited. Under present conditions the 

 advantages of extracted-honey production over comb-honey production are becoming 

 greater. A popular retail package for extracted-honey is the tin pail in sizes holding 

 2Yi pounds, 5 pounds and 10 pounds of honey. Economical considerations should 

 tend to develop the demand for this package at the expense of the various styles of 

 glass jars which, though they show the honey well, hold less and cost more for the 



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