1901 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



643 



understand he started out in a few days and 

 safely moved his bees south. 



Our force marched back down town, and 

 further calls upon bee-men were prevented by 

 the arrival of the train ; and I left, feeling as 

 though I had some very good friends in Ven- 

 tura, and no nips taken either. 



Along with the pleasure of meeting friends 

 in Los Angeles and Ventura there were also 

 sad features. One of these was in finding a 

 vacancy in the ranks of the bee-keepers by 

 the death of Mr. C. C. Aldrich. He was al- 

 ways in attendance at our conventions, and 

 was a thoroughly posted bee-keeper, and his 

 name has appeared many times in the bee- 

 papers. He was much of a genius in the 

 matter of hives and management. His prime 

 days of bee-keeping were spent in Minnesota, 

 where he manufactured bee-keepers' supplies, 

 and published a little book upon bee manage- 

 ment. He came to California about ten 

 years ago to spend his declining years. His 

 apiary was at Elsinore, Cal.; and when not 

 attending his bees he was selling his honey in 

 a little honey-store in Los Angeles. His sign 

 read, "Honey from first hands." Mr. Al- 

 drich was a little over 72 years of age. 



FEEDING BACK. 



"Good morning, Bro. Doolittle. Can you 

 tell me what is meant by ' feeding back ' ? I 

 see something about this matter in one of my 

 bee-papers, but I do not think I fully under- 

 stand it." 



" In order that Bro. Brown may know just 

 what was meant, I will say that feeding back 

 is the feeding of extracted honey, taken dur- 

 ing the honey-harvest, back to the same colo- 

 ny from which it was taken, after the harvest 

 is past, for the purpose of getting said honey 

 stored in sections, the colony at this time hav- 

 ing been fixed for section honey." 



" What is that for ? " 



"The object of such a procedure is to get 

 an article of a less price converted into one 

 which brings a greater price. By using the 

 extractor during the honey-flow, nearly twice 

 the honey is obtained that would have been 

 secured had the colony been worked for comb 

 honey ; but this extracted honey does not 

 bring more than about half the price it would 

 if stored in sections. Thus you will see that, 

 if a way could be devised whereby the double 

 quantity of extracted honey could be gotten 

 into the same amount of comb honey, a great 

 gain could be made." 



"Yes, I see; and that is something after 

 the idea I got in reading what I did. Say — 

 that would be just the thing for me, as I have 

 a lot of extracted honey on hand ; and if I 

 could turn it into section honey it would be a 

 big gain to me. Tell me more about it." 



"You get excited over the matter, just as 

 the rest of us have during the past, and I know 

 of no better way to tell you what I wish than 

 to give some of my experiments conducted dur- 

 ing the past." 



" That is right. That is just what I wish to 

 know about." 



"When comb foundation was proven to be 

 a success I thought here was a chance to make 

 a profitable business by extracting my honey 

 during the flow from white clover and bass 

 wood, and feed it back during the time of 

 scarcity between basswood and buckwheat. 

 Accordingly, after the harvest of white honey 

 was over I prepared three colonies that were 

 strong in numbers, to one of which was given 

 44 sections with baits in the center, the same 

 as would have been put on at the commence- 

 ment of the season had I been working for 

 section honey. The second was given the 

 same number of sections partly filled from 

 colonies which had not fully completed what 

 they had in their hives, while a third was giv- 

 en the same number of sections with only 

 starters of foundation in them. I now fed 

 these colonies 15 lbs. each, which they carried 

 off during the first day, and kept on feeding 

 as fast as they would take it afterward until I 

 thought the sections ought to be filled." 



" How did the matter come out ? " 



"Those having the partly filled sections 

 took 42 lbs. of honey before the sections were 

 ready for market, and the 44 sections weighed 

 about 47 lbs. when completed ; but as they 

 weighed some 32 to 34 lbs. when placed on 

 the hive for feeding, you will see that I had 

 fed 42 lbs. of extracted honey to make a gain 

 of only 15 lbs. in the sections." 



" Whew ! Not much profit there." 



" No ; and when it came to the one prepar- 

 ed as we do those worked for section honey at 

 the commencement of the season, I had to 

 feed 134 lbs. before they were completed, or 

 134 lbs. to secure about 46 lbs. in the sections. ' ' 



"Worse and worse ! But what became of 

 the one having only starters ? " 



" This part was never completed ; for after 

 I had fed them some 50 lbs. they only just got 

 to building comb nicely, and soon after this 

 comb-building seemed to get to be an old sto- 

 ry, so that, after awhile, they simply lived out 

 of the feed-dish, and did nothing else." 



" But do not others have better success ? " 



"Some claim that they do ; but it was said 

 that, if we thinned the honey, it would be 

 more like the nectar which comes in from the 

 fields, and thus we would secure good results. 

 I tried this, and have made many experiments 

 along this feeding-back line, many times and 

 in many ways, but generally with no real suc- 

 cess, unless it may be called a success to have 

 such sections as are nearly completed, those 

 lacking just a little of being full enough for 

 market, finished up for market. In this case I 

 think it pays, even if we have to feed three or 

 four times the amount we get back of what we 

 feed ; for, did we not do this, these nearly 

 filled sections would have to be carried over to 

 the next season, and this makes considerable 

 work." 



"How do you account for having so much 



