January, 1908. 



American H ee Journal /^^ % 



before September 20. Editor Hurley 

 says he prefers to feed when the "last 

 batch of brood has hatched." I sup- 

 pose Mr. Hurley does not mean to in- 

 fer that he waits until there is abso- 

 lutely no brood in the hives, as in our 

 locality some colonies will have some 

 brood clear into November. However, 

 the point is this : By waiting till Sept. 

 20, my object in so doing is precisely 

 the same as in Mr. Hurley's case, as 

 by that time brood-rearing is pretty well 

 over, and the syrup fed goes where I 

 want it — right into the heart of the 

 brood-nest. So you see, there is not 

 so much difference in practice, after 

 all, between advice given by Mr. Hur- 

 ley and methods followed by myself. 



At first glance, Mr. Adams' views in 

 favor of feeding at the close of the 

 honey harvest does, I admit, seem dia- 

 metrically opposed to what Mr. Hurley 

 and myself advocate, but after careful 

 scrutiny the difference is not so ap- 

 parent. 



Mr. McEvoy is very enthusiastic in 

 this matter of early feeding, and Mr. 

 Adams is a thorough disciple of Mr. 

 McEvoy's, at least in the matter of 

 feeding bees. 



It will also be remembered that Mr. 

 McEvoy is very particular that his bees 

 go into winter quarters on combs sealed 

 clear to the bottom, full of either good 

 honey or sugar syrup. Knowing Mr. 

 McEvoy's views along this line, for 

 some time it was a mystery to me, how 

 solid scaled combs, could be obtained, 

 by feeding "at the close of the honey- 

 flow." In a personal interview, only 

 a short time ago, Mr. McEvoy ex- 

 plained how he accomplishes this. 

 Like Mr. Adams, at the close of the 

 honey-flow he feeds all the colonies 

 will take, then in the fall zvhen the 

 brood is hatched out, he l>i(ts on the 

 feeders again, and completes the job. 

 While I can not positively assert that 

 Mr. Adams followed out the latter part 

 of the program, I feel pretty sure that 

 such is the case, judging from the fact 

 he is an advocate of colonies being 

 very heavy for winter. 



Again, the matter of locality figures 

 a great deal in feeding, as well as in 

 many other things pertaining to bee- 

 keeping. Mr. McEvoy, who lives in a 

 locality where there is almost abso- 

 lutely no bee-forage after the white 

 honey-flow, admitted that the early feed- 

 ing was not to be thought of in places 

 where there was a buckwheat or other 

 fall flow. If I am correct, there is 

 rarely, if ever, any fall flow in Mr. 

 Adams' locality. In our immediate dis- 

 trict, while we rarely obtain much sur- 

 plus from the buckwheat, yet enough 

 nectar comes in to keep brood-rearing 

 going on at a lively rate well on into 

 September. 



The strain or race of bees has also 

 quite a bearing upon the subject at is- 

 sue, as it is a well-established fact that 

 pure Italians, as kept by both Mr. Mc- 

 Evoy and Mr. Adams, are more con- 

 servative in the matter of brood-rear- 

 ing than are Carniolans and their cross- 

 es. While I have some pure Italians, 

 the great majority of my bees have 

 Carniolan blood, and the latter always 

 breed later in the season than do the 

 Italians. 

 All things considered, there is not 



then so great a difference of opinion 

 among the three Canucks under arraign- 

 ment, on the subject of feeding bees 

 for winter. However, before closing, 

 let me repeat in a "stage whisper," that 

 fo- my locality, "experience has taught 

 me, that for various reasons, it is not 

 wise to do much feeding previous to 

 Seputember 20. 



Amount of Sypup to Feed for Winter 

 Stores 



Another interesting phase of the feed- 

 ing question has been the different esti- 

 mates made, as to the number of 

 pounds of syrup necessary to be given 

 to a colony to make up a certain de- 

 ficiency in weight. Some years ago, a 

 member of the Ontario Bee-Keepers' 

 Association made the statement that a 

 pound of sugar made into syrup would 

 not be equal to more than a pound of 

 honey for winter stores. I thought at 

 the time that loo low a value was placed 

 on the sugar, but after some years' ex- 

 perience in feeding a number of colo- 

 nies, I came to the conclusion that the 

 estimate of my friend was about cor- 

 rect. However, I never made any care- 

 ful experiments along that line, conse- 

 quently I was in no position to make 

 anything like a positive assertion. 



At the fall meeting of the Connecti- 

 cut Bee-Keepers' Association, the ques- 

 tion, "How many pounds of sugar 

 should it take to make 10 pounds of 

 winter stores?" caused that careful 

 apiarian investigator, Mr. Allen Latham, 

 to do some experimenting, and it is a 

 source of pleasure, at least to the writer, 

 that we now have some authoritative 

 data on the subject. Three average colo- 

 nies were weighed and then fed at once 

 20 pounds each of syrup, made of 12;/^ 

 pounds of sugar to 7I/2 pounds of water, 

 a ratio of 5 to 3. At the end of two 

 weeks the hives were again weighed, and 

 the following gains recorded : 14.5, 14, 

 and 13.5 pounds. 



Mr. Latham says, if we assume that 

 each colony had the right to consume 

 one pound of stores (whether fed or 

 not) during tlie 2 weeks, the actual gain 

 would be 15.5, 15, and 14.5. While these 

 results seem to prove that a pound of 

 sugar equals somewhat more than a 

 pound of honey for stores, the question 

 still arises, "Is a pound of the sealed 

 syrup equal in lasting qualities to a 

 pound of honey?" Although I much 

 prefer pure sugar syrup for wintering, 

 yet of 2 colonies weighing precisely the 

 same in October, one fed on sugar, the 

 other with honey, I would be much more 

 afraid of the first-named colony being 

 the first to starve in the spring; this as- 

 sumption of course being based on colo- 

 nies not fed beyond the danger limit. 



It would be interesting if Mr. Latham 

 or some otlier bee-keeper of an inves- 

 tigative turn, would carry out these ex- 

 periments from fall till the following 

 spring. 



Growing Mustard for the Bees 



Speaking of bee- forage, in December 

 American Bee-Keeper, Arthur C. Miller 

 says : 



"Another form of pasturage which 

 might be possible to the bee-keeper run- 

 ning his own farm, is the sowing of 



mustard with his grain crops. It is 

 doubtful if the average farmer can be 

 persuaded to do anything of the kind 

 unless he is also a honey-producer, for 

 the farmer looks upon mustard as a 

 noxious weed." 



If by the word "mustard" Mr. Miller 

 means charlock or wild mustard, as we 

 have it liere in Ontario, farmer bee- 

 keepers would better hesitate before 

 sowing it on their own or any other 

 land. While it may not, as Mr. Miller 

 points out, materially reduce the yield o£ 

 grain, yet mustard is a noxious weed, 

 and good farms infested with the plant 

 will not sell for more than 60 percent 

 as much as the same land free of the 

 weed. Moreover, this Province classes 

 it as a noxious weed, and no one could 

 lawfully spread it on his own or any one 

 else's land. 



However, I agree with Mr. Miller as 

 to the value of the plant as a honey- 

 producer, and as two of my three yards 

 are in localities where mustard has full 

 sway over some hundreds of acres of 

 rich land, I am in a position to appre- 

 ciate fully the benefits of the plant from 

 a bee-keeper's view. In the majority of 

 years, it blooms at the same time as al- 

 sike, and in such cases the benefits of 

 the plant are not so pronounced, as I 

 find when the clover is yielding well, the 

 mustard is not visited by the bees. 



But some years we have an exception- 

 ally early seeding, and when this is the 

 case, the mustard blooms from 10 days 

 to 2 weeks earlier than the clover, and 

 it was in a year like that, that the mus- 

 tard was worth fully $500 to the scrib- 

 bler of these notes. While bees in lo- 

 calities that had no mustard, had to be 

 fed, my bees stored about 25 pounds [.er 

 colony, and what splendid condition they 

 were in for a short, rapid clover flow 

 that followed! While the yard that had 

 no mustard within reach stored very lit- 

 tle surplus, the other apiaries averaged 

 over 100 pounds per colony. 



Mr. Miller says that with him the 

 yield seems to be uniform one year with 

 another, but with us that is by no means 

 the case, as some years it yields abun- 

 dantly, and at other times hardly a bee 

 visits the bloom. However, the bee- 

 keeper is always sure of the bloom, as 

 it is quite able to withstand frosts, 

 drouths, or any other conditions of 

 weather. The honey is of fair quality, 

 light golden in color, and as a rule goes 

 right in with the clover honey, with no 

 detriment to the latter. 



Souvenir Bee Postal Cards 



We have gotten up 4 Souvenir Postal 

 Cards of interest to bee-keepers. No. i 

 is a Teddy Bear card, with a stanza of 

 rhyme, a straw bee-hive, a jar and sec- 

 tion of honey, etc. It is quite senti- 

 mental. No. 2 has the words and mu- 

 sic of the song, "The Bee-Keeper's Lul- 

 laby;" No. 3, the words and music of 

 "Buckwheat Cakes and Honey ;" and No. 

 4, the words and music of "The Hum- 

 ming of the Bees." We send these cards, 

 postpaid, as follows : 4 cards for 10 

 cents, 10 cards for 20 cents; or 6 cards 

 with the American Bee Journal one year 

 for 50 cents. Send all orders to the of- 

 fice of the American Bee Journal, 118 

 W. Jackson Blvd., Chicago, 111. 



