1879 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



131 



STIlUrii.VTIVE FEEDING. 



ANOTHER IMPORTANT STEP TAKEN. 



MR. Laugstroth has been keeping up 

 quite a correspondence with me, in re- 

 - ' gard to feeding bees flour candy, and 

 giving them water at the same time, and lias 

 frequently spoken of experiments made by 

 himself, and his neigh Dor, D. A. McCord. 

 The out come of it seems to be the arrange- 

 ment given below. 



STIMULATING BEES TO PROMOTE 

 EAKLY BREEDING. 



MC.CORD S (ANDY AND POTTLE FEEDER 



It is absolutely necessary that bees should have 

 water as soon as brood rearing- commences in the 

 spring-, and. more especially, when they have candy, 

 which thev can utilize with gTeater facility when 

 water is close at hand. There are many days in ear- 

 ly spring-, that are too cool for the bees to fly out 

 and get water. Then, if a supply of water is given 

 them in the hive, and also some candy with plenty 

 of flour in it. they will go on with work, and increase 

 about as fast as they would if they could fly out. I 

 send you the above sketch of an experiment I have 

 been trying-, which I find to be a perfect success. 

 Place an 8 oz., flat panel bottle in a common frame, 

 fasten a slat on each side and one across the top 

 wiih a hole for the neck of the bottle, bore a hole in 

 the. cork and put in a wiek just as you would in a 

 lamp, and fill with water; also fill the sides or a part 

 of them with candy having- plenty of flour mixed in 

 it, and you have got it. I put one in a chaff hive 

 with a 6 oz. bottle, and they scarcely touched the 

 candy until I filled the bottle with water, when they 

 went to work at once, and moistened the candy at 

 the edges next the bottle, first, showing- their econ- 

 omy in time, by making- as few steps as possible. 

 They took every drop of the water out by that wick 

 in 24 hours. 1 have filled it several times since. 



D. A. McCord. 



Oxford, 0., March 21th, 'TO. 



Many thanks, friend M. I will place to 

 your credit $5.00, for the above invention, 

 and if it does not all belong to you, you can 

 divide the money with the right person. I 

 have no doubt it will be the thing exactly, 

 and I imagine 1 see my way clear now, to 

 something I have long sought; viz., a way 

 of feeding bees sugar just as it comes from 

 the stores, without waste. Have wooden 

 boxes to hold the sugar at each side of the 

 bottle, and perhaps it might be heaped right 

 up around the "wick." To feed flour, just 

 sprinkle it right in with the sugar. Sugar, 

 water, and flour, all fresh, clean, and right 

 under their very noses! Who will get the 

 next $5.00 for an improvement on this? 



I believe it is finally decided that the grape sugar 

 of commerce is not the glucose (if commerce, and 

 that grape sugar cannot be converted into the glu- 

 cose of commerce; at least, the Michigan Agricul- 

 tural College have failed in so doing. If any body 

 else can do it, we should be glad to hear from them. 

 Our books and dictionaries sometimes need setting- 

 right, like other people. If you send an order to 

 any of the factories for glucose, you will never get 

 grape sugar, and if you send for grape sugar, you 

 will never get glucose. 



II 



PROMISED to give the results of further exper- 

 iments in feeding flour candy to secure early 

 breeding. If I am mistaken in supposing that 

 our editor first used flour candy for this purpose, 

 he will set me right. Mr. Raitt, a Scotch apiarian, 

 has obtained excellent results from using it as made 

 by Mr. Root's receipt, while Mr. Pettigrew speaks, 

 in the London Journal of Horticulture, of barley 

 bannocks soaked in honey, as successfully used 

 many years ago. 



Hartlib, in his Reformed. Commonwealth of Bees, 

 published more than two hundred years ago, is the 

 first author of whom I have any knowledge, who 

 recommends flour as a bee feed. He used that made 

 from peas. As his work is mainly a compilation 

 from the experience of others, it was probably an 

 old practice in his day, just as giving bees a roasted 

 chicken, which has found some modern advocates, 

 can be traced back to the old Romans. I heard 

 old bee-keepers, many years ago, recommend, as a 

 desirable spring food for weak colonies, bread made 

 from Indian corn and soaked in honey or sugar 

 syrup. 



I extract the following, in substance, from my 

 journal. 



Feb. 25th. Maximum temperature, 60°. A large 

 spread of eggs and young larva' in my trial hive. 

 In a neighboring apiary of 17 stocks, wintered in 

 thin hives with chaff dividers and cushions, most of 

 which were much stronger than my trial hive, only 

 two had even a small patch of brood. In another 

 apiary Of about the same number of stocks, win- 

 tered in the same way, except that they had winter 

 passages while none had been made in the combs of 

 the first apiary, all the stocks had considerable 

 brood. 



Feb. 26th. 23°. Very strong wind, with occasion- 

 al snow. Gave a bottle of water under the cush- 

 ions, with a hole in the cork, on Novice's plan. 



Feb. 27th. 20° to 22°. Water freely taken. 



Feb. 28th. 20° to 40°. Always find bees clustered 

 on candy. Many eggs and young larva?. 



March 1st to 4th. Too cold for bees to fly; more 

 snow. Found on the 4th very few eggs or larva?. 

 All the pollen in the combs gone. Suspecting that 

 the bees could not eat the candy fast enough to get 

 what they needed for their brood, I gave old comb 

 with pollen. 



Mar. 5th. Bees worked well upon flour in the 

 open air. 



Mar. 6th. Heavy rain. When not raining, bees 

 worked on flour in sheltered boxes. 



Mar. 8th. 40° to 76° 



Mar. 9th. 



Mar. 10th 



Mar. 11th 



Mar. 12th 

 of brood f o 



Pollen from red maple. 

 Have made a large spread 



50° to 72°. 



50° to 72°. 



40° to 50°. 



28° to 20°. 



their numbers 

 Mar. 13th to 14th. Bees fly. 

 Mar. 15th. 18° to 34°. Very strong winds 

 Mar. 16th. 18° to 30° 

 Mar. 17th. 22° to 30° 

 Mar. 18th. 8° to 28°. 

 Mar. 19th. 12° to 40 



Four inches of snow. 



No eggs or larvsr have 

 been destroyed this last cold spell. The spread of 

 brood has been increased somewhat, but, of course, 

 not nearly as much as if the weather had been 

 warmer. In all the examinations I have made since 

 the candy was flrst given, I have always found bees 

 clustered upon it, although it was in the outside 

 frame. They have steadily comsumed it, and stored 

 considerable of it, when liquified, in their combs. 



I have been thus particular, that the kind of 

 weather when these experiments were made might 

 be clearly understood. My friend, Mr. J. H. Pierce, 

 of Dayton, 0., at my sug-gestion, has given flour 

 candy to a number of stocks with substantially the 

 same results; so that I think I may venture the 

 opinion that we may now dispense with the great 

 labor and disturbance of using liquid food for stim- 

 ulative feeding. 



I believe that the glow consumption of the candy, 

 and the disposition of the bees to work incessantly 

 upon it, is a constant slimulus, and for this reason 

 gives better results than can be obtained in any 

 other way. 



If bees are well supplied with pollen, I should ex- 

 pect equally good results, even if the candy had no 

 flour ir, it. In regions where pollen is gathered in 



