258 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Junk 



]adty$ 9 f^prf ipwf . 



Iff AM in a bushel of trouble with my bees. I am a 

 J6j[ beginner, and also a woman. Please send me a 

 sample of some good bee journal. If the 

 amount enclosed is right, I shall be glad, as I am in 

 a hurry to read and learn. Mrs. Scott Ferris. 

 Neosho, Newton Co., Mo., May 18, 1880. 



You speak, my friend, almost as if it were 

 a misfortune to be a woman; you do not 

 quite mean that, do you, even though you 

 do aspire to become a bee keeper? 



DEPOSITORY OF 



%la§hd %ejm 9 



Or Letters from Those Who Have Made 

 Bee Culture a Failure. 



IjpBjj EAR SIR:— My bees are dead, but I am going 

 %Wj to try again, and not make the same mistake 

 — over again. I took away their honey in July; 

 they did not make enough to keep them, and your 

 grape-sugar candy did not save them. 



Jno. W. VanDeman. 

 Benzonia, Benzie Co., Mich., Apr. 13, 1880. 



GRAPE SUGAR FOR FEEDING BEES. 



M T the recent convention of the Central Michi- 

 fl| gan Bee-Keepers' Association, an hour was 

 ' devoted to the relation of experience in wint- 

 ering bees. The president was specially called out. 

 He said he had lost about 40 colonies last winter. 

 The bees were kept in the same cellar where they 

 were wintered for two years previous, with loss of 

 only two colonies. He attributed his loss largely to 

 feeding a candy made of grape sugar*, coffee sugar, 

 and flour, as directed in Gleanings last autumn. 

 He said he was not sure that was the entire cause, 

 as his bees were not as well prepared for winter as 

 usual, he having been in the state of New York at 

 the time when his bees should have been prepared 

 for winter. He believed the result would have been 

 much better, if he had fed honey, or a syrup made 

 of white sugar. 



The association, by vote, requested these state- 

 ments to be sent to Gleanings in Bee Culture. 



J. ASHWORTH, PRES. 



Lansing, Mich., May, 1880. 



I see in May No. of Gleanings, p. 230, under 

 "G rape Sugar," that Mr. Maring feels like. writing 

 of grape sugar under Humbugs and Swindles. Now, 

 my experience is quite the reverse of friend M.'s. In 

 March last, I ordered from the Davenport Co. 110 lb. 

 of sugar, 6 lb. of which I made up as directed on p. 

 385 of Oct. No. of Gleanings, '79, and divided it 

 equally among my bees, 6 stands, before the weather 

 was warm enough for bees to fly. The remainder' 

 104 lb., I have fed outside of hives, and it is all gone* 

 and no white clover yet; but I hope the clover will 

 be along by the time June No. of Gleanings comes. 



Now, if Mr. Maring could see my six stands of bees 

 which have consumed 110 lb. of grape sugar, he 

 would not say, humbugs and swindles, for they are 



* I sent for a card of your candy to see if it was 

 like mine. 



full of bees and lying outside of hives, waiting for 

 white clover; and I think, from the number of bees 

 to the hive, they will bring it on the fly. 



The drones are out, and I fear the bees will swarm 

 before clover comes. 



Now, Mr. Root, as this is my first feeding of grapo 

 sugar, I would like to ask, was it feeding too much 

 to the hive? for, you see, 110 lb. for 6 stands makes 

 18? 3 lb. to the stand. J. P. Watt, 



Duck Creek, 111., May 15, 1880. 



Friend Boot; — Perhaps I was a little hasty in my 

 letter written a short time ago, denouncing grape- 

 sugar candy, but I assure you it did not express one 

 tenth part of the pure "cussedness" which I felt, 

 just at that particular time. 



I had lost six swarms of bees, which had from 

 eight to ten pounds of honey to the swarm, think- 

 ing I could bridge them over with the candy. An- 

 other colony had just swarmed out, and I did not be- 

 lieve you could make a bee eat it, though you chok- 

 ed him until he was white in the faoe. 



I say I had a colony swarm out ; I took some water 

 scented with peppermint, and gave them a light 

 sprinkling as they were going into other hives, so 

 they would not get stung to death, and then took all 

 the combs from the hive they had left, as they had 

 commenced to rob it, but left the grape sugar candy. 

 The next day, seeing them flying out and in pretty 

 freely, I looked in and found that they had eaten 

 about half of the frame of candy. So I filled the 

 hive with frames of candy, set it in one corner of 

 my bee yard, and now I have a boss feeder. 



I have 22 colonies, 4 in Simplicities and 18 in box- 

 hives. They are all packed in chaff at the top, and 

 all are in splendid condition. 



I intend to let my box hives swarm, and then re- 

 move them from their old stands, hiving the new 

 swarms in their place, upon fdn., and in Simplicity 

 hives, putting on an upper story filled with sections. 

 How do you think that will work? W. P. Hall. 



Pembroke, Genesee Co., N. Y., May 15, 1880. 



P. S. — I don't intend to winter on grape sugar; 

 not a bit. W. P. H. 



I must return thanks for the grape sugar candy. 

 My bees had stored so little honey last fall, that, 

 without the candy, I could not have brought through 

 more than two swarms out of ten. 



Mrs. Chas. Faville. 



South Wales, N. Y., May 5, 1880. 



The grape sugar candy has proved a complete suc- 

 cess with me. I made up quite a large amount in 

 the early part of winter, and gave to all my bees, es- 

 pecially to the weaker colonies, and have not an 

 ounce of it left over; but, instead, I have strong col- 

 onies that I have to watch to keep from swarming. 



Belleville, 111., May, 1880. E. T. Flanagan. 



The above letters were picked up almost 

 at random. They only show that grape 

 sugar, like many other things, is used and 

 liked by some, and not by others. One 

 friend had decided that bees could not eat it, 

 and afterward found them taking it greed- 

 ily, when they got on a robbing raid. I 

 think those who get the 1 1 hang" of it will con- 

 tinue to use it year after year, with economy 

 and good results. Our trade in it steadily 

 increases; I think we must have sold, at 

 least, 10 tons of it last season, for feeding 

 bees. With good, strong colonies, that can 

 get up and keep up the requisite heat to 

 melt it, I have never had any trouble; but, 

 in weak nuclei, I have often seen the bees 

 starve with any kind of candy. 



