THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST AND BEEKEEPER

Does it pay to keep bees in Manitoba, is a
question often asked and on which opinions
seem to differ.:
In some districts it has been found to be very
profitable and the reverse in others. The reader
then asks if it is profitable in one part and why
not in another, and we have to inform him that
Manitoba is a very large country and that we
have a great difference in the soils, flora and
other conditions.
These conditions may occur in other pro-
vinces, but not to the great extent they do in the
three Prairie Provinces. We have not the
beautiful fruit orchards of the East, neither have
we got the fields of clover, alfalfa or buckwheat
that abound in certain of the provinces, and
which we hear so much about. We have to
depend almost entirely on what the country has
provided in wild flowers and weeds, and in some
parts, especially the Red River Valley, the
country abounds with lots of both. Another
thing, in some seasons there is such a short
period between frosts that the bees have to work
overtime if they are going to store any honey
at all.
Manitoba is divided into several distinct dis-
tricts, the Prairie, the Bluffy, and the Scrub
Country. On the Prairie they have a number
of flowers especially along any creek or river
bottoms, but they have not many that are
valuable for bees.
There is considerable sweet clover being grown
now, and most years this is a valuable food ; but
it takes the Scrub Country to produce the best
conditions and this can best be said of the Red
River Valley, because, either owing to the soil
conditions or on account of it having been the
first settled.
We have several valuable plants in abundance
for the beekeeper. After the bees are put out in
the spring, generally during the first two weeks in
April, it is only a very short time until the
poplars bloom, and they abound in the Scrub
districts and then the bees get busy and you will
see them working hard and carrying in large
quantities, a greenish-grey pollen on their legs
every fine day they can be out. Soon after this,
the bloom comes on the balm of gilead and a few
dandelions show up, and the pussy willows bloom,
and the bloom comes on the maple (box elder).
I have never been able to ascertain even by close
observation that the bees ever got any honey
from these ; but, as pollen producers they are
certainly very important and valuable, as it
keeps them busy and the pollen they secrete
helps out the brood and you notice the queen
speeding up also. Next we get the strawberry
and other wild fruit blossoms, and you notice a
little honey coming in, and these carry you on
through May and into June, when you get the
wild raspberry and wild white clover. There
are lots of other flowers, some of them the bees
work on and others they do not, but the ones I
have already mentioned stand out by themselves.
These two abound all through the valley, especi-
ally north of the city of Winnipeg., the clover
forming a perfect mat alongside of the roads, and
in any place through the bush where there has
been a clearing at any time, and the raspberries
are in every bluff.
I have extracted honey at the end of June that
was as white and clear as water. July and the
first two weeks of August are when we get our
best flowers and when we depend on our honey.
We then get the clover at its best, the fire weed
(Great Willow Herb), the sow thistle, Canada
thistle and sweet clover if there is any in the
district. These, are all first-class honey plants
and the bees are certainly kept busy, and I have
seen a strong colony fill up an extracting super in
five days.
After the above plants are over we get the
different wild asters, and of these we have a
number of varieties, and they nearly all good

honey producers, and if the frost keeps off, as it
does some years, we get a lot of honey. We
have had bees fill up supers in September, al-
though this isexceptional.
We do not care for the quality of the honey
from the asters, as it seems very strong, but the
bees winter well on it, and it is light in color. As
keeping bees depends entirely on the flowers
growing in your neighborhood, you can easily
determine if it pays to keep them. What a lot
of people, however, do not understand is, that
bees do not work on every flower that grows, and
some they do work on do not produce honey and
some do not produce pollen and that bees cannot
get on without both. Do not keep bees unless
conditions are satisfactory. Do not keep them
unless you like them, but if you have once kept
them you will find it hard to be without.
The Returned Soldier and
Beekeeping
By R. A. RUTLEDGE, MANITOBA
IN offering these few remarks to the readers of
,iTuE BEEKEEPER, I do it with the idea of
merely offering a suggestion that may be of
use to.someof our returned soldiers. Many of

No veil needed here. In the apiary of R. J.
Fuller, Pickering, Ont.
our men, we know, are unable to return to their
former occupations, if they wished, and must
seek some other line of light employment. It is
for such that these remarks are penned with the
idea that to some disabled soldier who is puzzled
regarding his future, they may suggest the possi-
bilities of Beekeeping.
I have thought that a number of our returned
soldiers might be able to go into beekeeping,
joining it up with some other light employment,
such as poultry raising or keeping sheep. I
would not advise depending on beekeeping for a
full living in either Manitoba or Saskatchewan.
A living, however, might be supplimented to the
extent of a few hundred dollars in the majority of
districts by the keeping of bees.
I do not say for the healthy and strong to take
up this line of employment. Take for example a
soldier who has lost a leg, or even both legs or an
arm, shell-shocked or gassed, might be able to
help himself and be able to realize that life is still
worth living. He may still be useful a man in a
community and develop resources that are now
being wasted.
One of the chief reasons why many might not
feel inclined to handle bees is that they are afraid
of being stung. This will happen, but need not
happen often. The writer has passed through a

A' Beekeeper in Manitoba
By Wm. C. McKinnell

I
/

season receiving but few stings, and the few that
were received happened by the accidental crush-
ing of a bee in the manipulating of the frames.
In time, a beekeeper ususally becomes inoculated
so that the sting of a bee bothers him no more
than the bite of a mosquito.
As to having a market for the goods produced,
there may be no fear for years to come. The
writer has been handling bees in Manitoba for
the past fifteen years, and has never had to sell
extracted honey for less than fifteen cents per
pound retail, and this year the price has been
nearer thirty-five cents.
As to an estimate of the amount of honey pro-
duced per hive, it would be conservative to say
fifty pounds. The writer some years has
averaged about ninety with individual cases of
hives giving nearly two hundred pounds. Other
beekeepers have had much higher averages than
the writer, but this district has not proved itself
to be the best in quantity, but can hold its own
in quality..
An Experimental Apiary in
Toronto-A Suggestion
EDITOR THE BEEKEEPER:
DEAR SIR,-The Ontario Beekeepers' Conven-
tion held in Toronto this month was an eye-
opener to some of us. The numbers present
showed that there are many people interested in
the collection of Ontario's wonderful honey crop.
And after being told by . the Washington
experts that only 3% of the honey which the
flowers of our continent secrete is collected, one
realizes the need for getting together to look into
the possibilities of a more thorough collection of
this valuable and delicious crop.
Of the many things that impressed me at the
Convention, there are three that remain in my
mind. The first is the number of people at the
evening meetings who came from Toronto dis-
trict, and who were looking for information,
some hoping one day to go more deeply into the
honey business. The second is Dr. Gates' sug-
gestion that we establish a museum for bee-
keepers' appliances;-what a lot of time such a
museum would have saved some of us. The
third is the necessity of a wax melting plant
available to all beekeepers ; such a plant would
save messing up our home kitchens, and help us
to keep out of mother's bad books.
Now I would like to combine these three
thoughts with another, and it is this :-That our
Agricultural Department build or rent a building
for a museum and wax rendering plant some-
where in Toronto, close to a park, and that in
connection with this a small experimental apiary
be kept. If the Government will not allow this
to be done in Queen's Park, I feel sure that the
Toronto Parks' Department would allow us to
use a small area for this purpose. It might be
put close to the Zoo, for there a few hives would
have ample area for collecting a good crop of
honey. The Toronto Beekeepers' Association
might be willing to manage the rendering plant
and museum, and probably a member would do
the work in the apiary in exchange for the honey
collected.
Such a scheme would have the following
advantages : The apiary and plant would be
within about an hour's journey of one-fourth of
the total population of the province. The
rendering plant would be centrally placed from a
shipping standpoint. There are more bee-
keepers visiting Toronto than any other place in
Ontario. The apiary would be wonderfully
instructive to the children and others in the city.
Evening short-courses could be given there for
those who could not go to Guelph.
Toronto Exhibition management might be
willing to let such an apiary and museum form
part of their permanent exhibition.
I would like to have the opinion of more
experienced beekeeprs on this scheme and see if
something cannot be' done.
Toronto.             MAURICE GRIMBLY.

March, 1919.


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