}l)e (§ee-)\eepeps' pev^iecu 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL 



Devoted to tl^e Interests of Hoqey Producers. 



$L00 A YEAR. 



W Z. HOTCHlflSOrl, EditoP & Pf op. 



VOL, V, FLINT, MICHIGAN, SEP, 10, 1892. 



NO. 9. 



The special topie of this issue is 



Feediqg and Feeders, 



That of the next issue mill be 



Tlq^e Coqstructioq of Bee Cellars, 



Cautious and Comparative Experiments 



Needed. — Why Spring Feeding is Not 



Profitable. — Why Fall Feeding 



Should be Done Slowly. 



G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



IN all of our ex- 

 periments with 

 new ideas as ap- 

 plied to bee cul- 

 ture, we are apt to 

 get ou a craze and 

 apply the new idea 

 to the whole 

 apiary rather than 

 use the caution 

 which we do in 

 our other business 

 of going slowly 

 and proving things as we go along. For 

 this reason we iind men who are usually dis- 

 creet in other matters, changing the queens 

 in the whole apiary in the month of May 

 because some one has said that by so doing 

 swarming may be avoided and a large yield 

 of section honey secured; and at the end of 



the season they did not know whether they 

 were right or not, for they had nothing in 

 the same apiary that had been left to go on 

 in the "good old way," and with which to 

 make comparisons. However, from the re- 

 sults in the different apiaries about them 

 they were led to believe that the thing was 

 not as good as what they had before been 

 using, so abandoned it. 



Another put his whole apiary in ferment- 

 ing manure in order to secure bees in time 

 for the very earliest blossoms, because some 

 one had said that in this way as large a yield 

 could be secured from apple blossoms as 

 from basswood, but time, that tester of all 

 things, showed him that he had fooled away 

 the most of his bees with little or no honey 

 to show for it. 



And so we might go on clear down to 

 feeding, telling of the mistakes which have 

 been made by recklessly conducting experi- 

 ments with thf whole yard, because some 

 one else had made a success of a certain 

 plan. Because friend Hill thinks he has 

 made a success in feeding to Ull his hives 

 before the honey harvest, is no sign that / 

 can jump right into that success with my 

 whole apiary, for I am not a Hill; and be- 

 cause Bro. Hutchinson is sure that feeding 

 back pays, does not alter the fact that hun- 

 dreds have fed back only at a loss, myself 

 being among the latter number. "Prove 

 all things and hold fast that which is good," 

 is as trite a saying to-day as the day it was 

 uttered, and if this article shall have no 



