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D This Kam Is filnfMd at tiM raduetion ratio shacked balow / Ca doeumant aat filin* au taux da rMucUon indiqu* ei-daaaoua. lOx 14x Itx 22x 26x 30x 7 12x 16x 20x 24x 28x 32x Th« copy filmed h«r« has bean raproductd thanks to tha ganarosity of: Library Agrieuiturt Canada The imsgas appearing hara ara tha bast quality posaibia eonaidaring tha condition and iagibility of tha original copy and in kaaping with tha filming contract apacif icationa. L'axamplaira film* fut raproduit grica * la gAnArosit* da: BIMiothiqut Agriculture Canada Laa imagaa auivantaa ont M raproduitaa avac la plua grand aoin, compta tanu da la condition at d« la nattati da I'axampiaira film*, at an conformiti avac laa conditiona du contrat da filmaga. Original copiaa in printad papar covara ara filmad beginning with the front cover and ending on the laat page with a printed or illuatrated impres- aion. or the back cover when appropriate. 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Maps, platea. charts, etc.. may be filmed at different reduction ratloa. Those too largo to bo entirely Included In one expoaure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, aa many frames aa required. The following diegrama illustrate the method: Lea cartea. planches, tableaux, etc.. peuvent Atre filmte i dee taux de rMuctlon diff4renta. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour Atre reproduit en un aeul cllchA. II est filmA i partir de Tangle aupArlaur gauche, de gauche i droite. et de haut en baa, en prenant le nombre dimagas nAcassaira. Las diagrammea suivants illustrent la mAthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 ««K»OCOnf MSOUITION TBT CHART (ANSI and ISO TEST CHART No. 2) /APPLIED IM^F i„. '653 Eo>l Main StrMt (716) 2SB-5M9-FO, BULLETIN 182.] [JUL., ..10 yf/o Ontario DqMutment of Agriculture FRUIT BRANCH. Bee-Keeping in Ontario ARRANGED BY MORLEY PETTIT, PROVINCIAL APIARIST. The information contained in this report has been taken from answers to questions sent out in a circular, dated May isth, 1910, to our mailing list of bee-keepers in Ontario. This list is by no means com- plete ; but it is being added to from time to time as names come in from various sources. We hope that bee-kvtpers who may not have received blanks for report in May will send their names to this department asking that they be added to the mailing list. For this purpose one who has only one hive of bees is quite as much a bee-keeper as one who has a hundred hives. Report blanks were sent to two thousand one hundred and seventy- five bee-keepers. Reports were received from four hundred and eighty- eight. Seventy-eight per cent, of those who received blanks did not take the trouble to fill them out. The result is that the status of bee-keeping can be only very roughly estimated. While we have inadvertently failed to send blanks to some of the most extensive bee-keepers owing to the incompleteness of our lists, and a reorganizing of this part of the work, the value of this report is much less than it would be if the rank and file of the bee-keepers would take the trouble to supply a little information when requested. The counties which have local associations have almost invariably sent in the most and best reports, showing the value of the spring meet^ ings in arousing interest. The information obtained with reference to local soil and drainage conditions will not be given in this report. It is being reserved until fuller information can be secured, when a special bulletin will likely be prepared. The relation between the nature of soil and the honey pro- duced by plants growing on it is very marked, and presents a problem for careful research. The summer honey plants reported are uniformly white and alsike clover. Basswood is reported from many of the counties although it does not form the staple source of nectar that it did some years ago. Rasp- berry bloom is reported as a honey plant in the counties of Bruce, Mu«- koka. Glengarry, Perth, Prescott, Renfrew, and York Alfalfa is being introduced into many of the counties, but its value : honey plant in Ontario is very problematical. It does not seem to yield nectar to any extent outside of the irrigated lands of the West Even if it did the custom of cutting for hay when only one-tent!-, in bloom would practi- cally destroy its value as a honey plant. Thistle bloom is one of the ill winds of the careless fanner which blows the bee-keeper some good, but improved methods of fanning are limiting this source — fortunately for the general good. Withal, our most depcn(£ble source of white honey is alsike. Where this is grown extensively for seed on a good stiff clay, well-kept apiaries are practically certain to yield a splendid average income from year to year. The prospects for honey this season so far as the honey flora is con- cerned are almost uniformly fair to good all over Ontario. The follow- ing counties report prospects " Poor to Fair " : Carleton. Dufferin, Dur- ham, Essex, Grenville, Haldimand, Kent, Lennox, Middlesex. Muskoka, Prescott, Simcoe, Stormont, Welland, Wentworth, York. There is a variety of fall honey plants. Buckwheat, of course, is the staple, and is growing in popularity from year to year. Next to it is goldenrod, bcneset, and some aster. Second crop red clover yields surplus gathered by some strains of Italian and Camiolan bees. Sweet clover gives considerable surplus in some sections. The total number of colonies reported for the fall of 1909 is 18445, for June ist, 1910, it is 16,729. Roughly calculating from the percentage of bee-keepers who sent reports, one would be well within the limit in stating that there are 100,000 cok)nies of bees in Ontario this spring. The average number of colonies owned by those who reported is 34.3 each, spring count. Bees have wintered very well. The 9.3 per cent, loss given by those who have reported is quite light, as some of the most extensive specialists count on an annual 10 per cent- loss in wintering. Much or the winter loss is not definitely understood, owing to the limitations of our actual knowledge of bee-nature. The reasons given in the re^ "- loss of queens, late weak swarms, starvation, dysentery, foul brc entilation of the hive or cellar, dampness in hive or cellar, ! u v, robbing, mice, and that indefinite term "spring- dwindlir '" r cases are covered by the term " winter killed," whidi is quite i. .en though of uncertain definition. The whole wintering problem is one of the most frequently stated " difficulties " in the reports. The condition of bees is very similar all over Ontario. The very warm weather early in March set up breeding and made the colonies strong early in the spring, but very short of stores. This shortage of supplies and the unfavorable weartier later cut down breeding, much brood and even whole colonies starved, but not until in some cases a little epidemic of swarming sent many premature swarms out to suffer or starve in their new hives. Those who gave their bees one-quarter as much attention as they would give other live stock fed them sugar syrup, and will probably reap dollars fgr dimes in the clover hooey season. Ii\ m»ny eases it will take bees at least two weeks into the clover flow to jStft ready for work. The proportionate number wintered in cellars and outdoors varies greatly with the tatitude. In all the southern and western counties out- door wintering predominates, wiiile in the north and east cellars are more popular. Some few repositories built above ground are used, but these do not as a rule give as good satisfaction as the underground cellar well darkened and ventilated. Bees were removed from cellars earlier than usual this year because the excessive heat in March made it impossible to keep them comfortably cool in the cellars This matter of mainuining a proper temperature is one of the chief difficulties in ceHar wintering A few warm days in March make it necessary to set the bees out, then they suffer m their unprotected hives through weeks of bad weather afterward. The only way to winter bees in the average cellar is to pack ** tJl!?*'' **'*'" warmly after setting them out. This the vast majority of bee-keepers will not do. so we recommend packing them warmly on their summer stands in October, for all except the more northerly counties. ' ^yithout knowing what extenuating circumstances there may have been in some cases, we would judge that many who wintered outdoors unpacked their hives too early. There seems no reason why bees com- fortably packed on their stands should be stripped and exposed to the inclement weather of April and the first half of May. Packing cases should be made so that a super could be put in the hive if necessary before it is unpacked. In fact, many leave the hives in the winterin" cases all summer. If the cases are individual this method has some advantages, but where six or eight are in a case it is decidedly objection- able, both from the standpoint of convenience of handling, and the dis- tribution of disease which may be in the yard. Bee-keeping in some of the best counties of Ontario is greatly hampered by men clinging to these antiquated hives, when a single honey crop would more than pay for convenient modem appliances. Very little disease was reported. Men are not usually proud of its presence in their apiaries, although the disgrace is not in findi.ig it present but only in failing to seek to get rid of it. The Ontario Department of Agriculture is spending $3,000 this year in a continuation of the fight against Foul Brood. There are sixteen district inspectors in the fieW and their reports show that there is plenty of work for them to do. All suspected apiaries are being visited first, and any bee-keepers wishing to clear up doubts as to the presence of this disease in their neighborhoods should send word to the Department of Agriculture at an early date. It is quite natural that those who send a special request for the services of the inspector will be more apt to get them than those who do not. The report on the races of bees shows f?.r too great a percentage of black or German bees kept throughout the • rovince. While these beei« have many good qualities Uiey are no better than the Italians in any respect except possibly in the whiteness of capping on comb honey, and Aey are a rare prey to the European Foul Brood which has swept so disastrously over many parts of the United States and has done great damage in some parts of Ontario. It is impossible to cure this dre^d dimse so well in any except Italian bees. On this account, as well as for otter reasons, we would urge strongly that all apiaries in Ontario be Italianized as soon as possibte. All kinds of hives are used, from the " bam " down through the list ot the twelve-frame, ten-frame, eight-frame Langstroth, the Jones, Rich- ardson. Gallup, Quinby, and home-made. Only one man was brave enough to say he used box hives, and the number of combs, he said, was Goodness knows how many I f'on't." After all. the kind of hive for °!**J° "■* l' the kind he has the best success with, but when one is just starting or is seeking uniformity of fixtures there seems nothing to gain and much to lose by adopting a hive which is a little different from everything under the sun. The chief difficulties which bee-keepers have c.^r be summed up in the two great problems of apiculture— swarm control and wintering. In many cases the trouble is summed up in the words of one man who said his chief difficulty was to " get the old woman to watch for swarms." The interest that is taken in this problem of swarm control is shown by the fact that when the Department of Bee-keeping at the Ontario Agri- cultural College sent out notices that instructions would be supplied to all who cared to conduct an experiment in the control of swarming, more thanthree hundred and twenty-five men and women from every county of OnUno, and from other provinces from the Atlantic to the Pacific, made application for the circular of instructions on this important subject A great many stated that they had not time to give the bees attention X "^/if*"" ""'y ^^^ *^*™* ** *•>* same time as the heavy work on the farm. The solution to this difficulty is to have plenty of store combs and supers. Stack these on the hives from time to time as needed, and syste- matically keep the bees busy and contented so they will not think of wanUng to swarm, then neither the " old woman " nor the old man will Jf "^^^^ getting ^rms down from high trees, or seeing them go to The wintering problem needs to be just as carefully studied. No colony ever dies without a definite cause, which should be carefully sought out and prevented next time. Plenty of good stores, good queens, warm packing, shelter from winds, all these and many others are factors in successful wintering. If the bees are always prepared for the hardest kind of winter they will get through the easy ones all right. Prospects are right for prices this year as the markets are bare and honey has become a staple which dealers look for regulariy. Blanks will soon be sent out by the Committee on crop reports and prices. It is to be hoped they will meet with a hearty and prompt reply by all who receive them. The folk>wing reports are sv -nmarized directly from the statements received: I n Cmmm. I Dktra lU- qMTHirroiB D*tMlU- Moval of PiMkliHi. Winter fctciaa. Bnat C»rl«toa OoMerlM DlMdM . OariMun ■ ragia .... Olancwry OnnTlll* Orty HaMlnwiid HMtinfli HOMMI ... Kmt .... Lambton LMwrk . If k« and sUu-va Poor qaMM, WekklWMVM, •Urrtnc. BterringMtd foal brood. Laanox Robbing, qtiOMM. and •tarratlon. Btwrrlng, honejr dew, djnentrr UtOIWUOM. Poor quMnii and •tarring. Robbing Poor qnaoiis. Starratioa. liacoin I IB Old qnooBit and latoawarma. PoorqaMn*. •tarrlag, on- traaoo eioggod with doadWa. Starring, wlatar killed; Starratloo, lat awariH, d r ■ •atrr, . poor TaoUlatlon. Poor qaeena, late awanna, apring dwtadUag. Poor qnaeaa and atarvattea. Mlddlaaox .... MuakiAa .... Nipiaaing Oia- triot Norfolk Nonhomber- Und K Ontario Oxford „ qar na and Mfeaa dwlnd Poor qib 4M. Starr .,a^ mioe. Maiahtt. MareiilSU April M. March S8 to April la March at to MarehM. MaiehWto April I& March ». MarehlOto April 1. 100 too 37 March SO to April ia. April lA MarehSto April SS. April 4. 100 36 100 100 1» IStorraiiMB and qutwaae««ira Poor b-)< -*- *v j LBte> ' poor (, -i Motha, •.. ^t-ring,, poor q ii e« n 8 . four ' «s 100 100 M Marebnto April I. March M to Aprils. March 89 to April M. AprUlto April 10. 'oui ■moi Starrlag. ( dwiadteg. qaeena. -"-^ March 1 to April » Marchttto April A March 28. March A MarcAaoto April f *. Mai eh U. Mai«h»to April 1. MarA ajrK. Ma/Mto Maj IT IS n w n 100 Aarillto Jnael Ann. IS to %UrV. as 7« 100 M 100 100 87 Maeaogar ajrrup. 4t per coat ted aagararrap. 40peroeat«a« aagar. Hoeeraad aoaieayrap. March 8 to March SS. Marl to Mar 17. April SO to Mar XL MajSOi April IS to far Si. Mar«to Mar 12. Maria Marl to Maris. 73 46 S7 Mar I to ifarSS. April IS to Maris. April 881 MarO. to SOpereeatfed angar arrap. 34pareeatfed aagar arrap. fed angar arrap. Honor. SO per cant fed angar arraa. 8 per cent fed Bmier. Irrapaa hooer. HoBor ai arrap. Honer- arrap. \Bim») •7- lUr Moetlr hoaer. 64peroeot angar arrap. 26 per cent fed angar arrap. Sipereeatfcd augar arrap. MannMt Wstwioo 10 ftpr qiMMM sad ■UnrMlM. !• RobMac. • 'oul brood, aUrrJ M» lUmnh M to LApHl 1. Morabnto LAprilU MwohKto LApHl 10. lUrehMto tUrebtk JMorohtlta LAiffU,* Marehldto April 1. HwchJBto IfMcbK. Horehn. Marehiato MorchK. MporentM lUpOiOMtM « PMT etnt fad Mcwarmp. [lOporooatfod IporoMtfoi ao..r.uiwood Bosb^boot. ^^...jp^. ., Ai-i-.bM.wood feP^t""^*''^- I . "o-wood-Buckwheat, wlden-Oood. ,^rftSft'b?» i |CU>..r.bM„rood,k^;gS5!- on,. air u. Ctfod. jOood. ••Wrtot^od. Good. Good. ■bort of Onlr fair j^ '•Ir to good. Cfop Proipecta. ■■MiaMuW. Hnwi ... KMt .... lAmbloa UiMrk .. Lmiiox . Llaeelii MMdlM«s MMkoka.. NlplMiDg . Norfolk ... Nprthambor- OHUrlo. Oxford . Pool .... FoHh... Prowett.. PriBoo UWMd .. Roof row RosoU Siniooo.. Storoioat .... TemiMMinlng. VlotorU....". Watorloo ... WolUnd » n m 79 4 t> 188 > Wellington .. Went worth... Tork 33 11 31 » M ! j 88 ! S3 15 « 198 I I a ft ti • M I 5 a f I M "i^*'. owoot! ~^ eloror. CloTor, bMowood. loUoB-ntir. juood. Ig«?««: 'ooo4. |r«lrtogood. Good. BookwhoM, rod. BookwboMt. KoUea KoMen l« 15 m 1 H 81 87 37 111 15 SB 10 6 » 5 M 8 t 15 ▲Wko. bMOWOOd, white eloror. Whito^ AUIkoBnekwhoM. eloTor.bMowood. rod. CloTer. bMOWOOd. :Biiokwh««t, mIII** ^ •'•|ko Boekwhoot. (Mover, bMOWOOd. i wkT?'' '^'i'^- Buckwheat. jWwto Md ftUike Ooldcnrod. ; oJoror.bMiwood. jAMko *nd white Bnokwhoot. -£••;«'. bM« wood. ! Tlorer."*"'''^""''' '^""•"""'.'rtM ««or Clover.'dandoUon. I None, wlid flower*. I ^i-i? *^ white Buekwhoat. goMen eloTor, ohoetaut,' rod. hoMwood. Clorer, ttMewood.lBnokwIieM. AMke Md white Bnokwheot. I cIprer.bMMWood.; whJte and aliiike'aoldenrod. baok- elorer.baiiawood. wh»«t. White clover. Buckwheat, aMke, baaewood. rod. jAWke. alfalfa Bu:kwheat. clover, rMpbonr, I baMwood. i Clover, ba>iwood,[aoldenrod. raepberrj. ■«*l«n-ical7 fUr tejIWr to jPoortofWr. jPoor to very Only fair to fair to vorr good. good, rairtogood. Oaed^to vorr 'air I o good. ralr. Good. Ptoriofair. ( Jr. i^airly good. ralr to good. ExeoUent. Fair to good. falrtogood. ralr. Oood. PoortoftUr. fair to good. Fair to good. O^falr toFalrtogood. _good. I Oood. \w»lr to 01 KoWen-On^feir to rMr"to good. rairiogood. 'olrtosood. 81 Clover, boMwood.! Buckwheat. I nMke. {Alalke,rMpberry,i Buckwheat. _, I clover, baeewood.! rod. Into clover. Clover, baeawood.{Goldonrod. buck _, ^ ! wheat. I Clover, base wood. Buckwheat. [ thlatle. I AMke aiid wfaito Buckwheat. I dovor.boMwood. iClover. None. ,AUiko and white Buckwheat. Clover, Im«8 wood. '• White and aldke None. clover, bamwood. Alsike and white Noee. clover. ite White M.dee"''*"'"'^'"*'- ■ weet clover,! bamwood. i Clover. baMwood,: Buck wheat. raapberry. Fair. i'Wrtogood. Oood. , rair to good. Good. Poor to fair Fair to good "no good. ■>—». Fair. ! Fair to good. golden- fair to good. Fair to good. Good. Fair to good. Fair to good. Poor to fair. Fair to good. Fair. IFair. Good. Good. Fair to very ralr to s'ji.o. ^Good. : Fair to good. (Oood but ahort I ofatorea. I {Fair to good.