October, 1915. 



American "Bee Joarnalj 



345 



successfully reared. 



While most of the studies undertaken 

 are carried on at Tamakoche, as the 

 Pellett country home is called, an occa- 

 sional journey is taken into the bad 

 lands or mountains or other out of the 

 way place for special material. Mr. 

 Pellett enjoys especially his occasional 

 visits to the Indian reservations, and 

 among them goes by the name "Big 

 Spider." 



Mr. Pellett needs no introduction to 

 the beekeeping fraternity, as he has 

 accomplished much in that line. He 

 has written numerous manuscripts and 

 several bullelins on different pliases of 

 the science, and at present holds the 

 position of State Inspector of Iowa. 



Ames, Iowa. 



Cane Sugar vs. Beet Sugar 



What is the Proper Proportion of 

 Water to Sugar in Making Syrup? 



BV J. A. HEBERLE, B. .-;. 



FREQUENTLY in discussing the 

 feeding question cane sugar is rec- 

 ommended as being preferable to 

 beet sugar for feeding bees. Mr. D. D. 

 W. wrote recently "in regard to the 

 trouble so many have with feeding 

 hard candy, let them take a tip from a 

 professional candy maker, and use only 

 cane sugar — «<■;■(■;• bn-/ siig^ur." The 

 professional candy maker here can get 

 but beet sugar, yet the candy he makes 

 is all right. All common sugar is called 

 (chemically) cane sugar, whether it is 

 from the sugar beet, from the sugar 

 cane, from the maple tree or any other 

 plant or fruits, and is chemically and 

 physically identical. 



Refined sugar is today of such high 

 purity that wherever refined cane sugar 

 is used the refined beet suyar may be 

 used with equally good results. The 

 only difference in the refined sugar in 

 the market may be the minute quanti- 

 ties of foreign matter that may still 

 adhere to it from the raw material of 

 which it is obtained and of substances 

 used in the process of extracting and 

 refining; but the quantities are so ex- 

 tremely small that sugar from the beet 

 and the cane when refined are equally 

 healthy for human consumption and for 

 the bees. The yellow unrefined sugar 

 from the sugar cane may be preferable 

 to that from the beet, owing to the 

 more difficult complicated process and 

 the chemicals used. I am not aware 

 that unrefined beet sugar is offered in 

 the retail market. 



If refined beet sugar were not good 

 for the bees, the beekeeper here would 

 have found it out because many thou- 

 sands of pounds have to be fed to the 

 bees annually. It often happens that 

 the bees gather not enough honey dur- 

 ing the summer to last them until next 

 spring. We also have in some parts, 

 especially in the Black Forest and the 

 Vosges, honey from a kind of fir tree 

 that is not suitable for wintering in 

 our climate ; the same is true of honey 

 from honeydew. These honeys must 

 be extracted and sugar fed instead. If 

 that is not done and the bees cannot 

 take frequent flights (in our climate 

 they cannot do it) they will suffer from 

 dysentery, and lots of colonies die 



while others are so weakened that they 

 can gather no surplus. Colonies when 

 fed sugar syrup at the right time, so 

 they can feed during the winter on it, 

 come out without loss, /. c, with but 

 few dead i ees. 



Formerly ultramarine was used to 

 make the refined sugar very white — 

 the housewife used bluing for the same 

 purpose when washing. Such sugar 

 was boiled, and the ultramarine 

 skimmed off. In Germany the ultrama- 

 rine is not used any longer in the pro- 

 cess of sugar refining, 



HOW MUCH WATER SHOULD BE USED IN 

 MAKING SYRUP ? 



On this question authorities have 

 differed ever since sugar has been used 

 for feeding bees. The amount to be 

 used is given from one part of sugar 

 for one part of water to three and one- 

 third parts of sugar for one of water. 

 Some recommend a small amount of 

 tartaric acid, about a teaspoonful for 

 every 10 pounds of sugar; a little vin- 

 egar may be used instead. This is to 

 help, or rather invert the sugar. If the 

 syrup is not boiled it won't invert 

 much. Tartaric acid is not found in 

 honey, and I would not recommend it. 

 I never use anything to aid inversion, 

 the bees do the inverting just as well. 



An analysis of fed sugar showed that 

 the syrup not capped contained 19.5 

 percent, while the part capped showed 

 20 2 percent of water. Just the oppo- 

 site might have been expected. The 

 open syrup contained 14.9 percent of 

 cane sugar, the capped 11.1 percent. 

 It has been inferred that the inversion 

 is continued in the cell after the syrup 

 is capped. 



.\LBUMEN IN FED SUGAR SYRUP. 



The analysis showed in the uncapped 

 syrup 1128 percent, in the capped 0.36 

 percent of nitrogen. Sugar contains 

 no nitrogen, and an analysis of some 

 of the commercial sugars in the mar- 

 ket show a purity of 99.8 percent of 

 cane sugar. So this nitrogen is not 

 present as impurity. The inference 

 made is justified by this analysis that 

 the bees supply albumen to the syrup 

 while inverting it. This albumen in 

 the sugar syrup is of so great impor- 

 tance that the experiment should be 

 repeated. 



The sugar in nectar in most flowers 

 is principally cane sugar; the bees in- 

 vert it and eliminate the excess of 

 water. The greater part of water in 

 nectar, I believe, is eliminated by the 

 bee gathering the nectar, on her way 

 home before she deposits the load in 

 the cell. 



Nectar contains much water, but 

 varies greatly. As high as 93.76 percent 

 of water has been found. If the bees 

 can eliminate so much water when 

 gathering nectar, we may be sure they 

 can make healthy winter stores from 

 syrup 1 :1, providing it is not too cold. 

 On the other hand, if the solution is 

 too concentrated we may doubt the 

 ability of the bees to supply water. 



In making syrup for the bees I would 

 rather err by taking too much water 

 than too little, as Saucho Panza said ; 

 he preferred to lose the game by hav- 

 ing a card too many rather than not 

 having enough. While not admitting 

 ability of the bees to eliminate 

 water readily, we must take into con- 



sideration that they do this in the sum- 

 mer in warm weather, out in the field. 

 For best results we should do our feed- 

 ing for winter stores early in the fall, 

 say in September. The nights should 

 not be very cold, and all surplus combs 

 should be removed. In warm weather 

 the bees can do the work of inverting, 

 eliminating the excess of water and 

 capping the syrup much better than in 

 cool weather, and — what I consider of 

 importance— may gather pollen which 

 may be needed to supply the albumen 

 they add to the syrup while inverting. 



From the above cited analysis we 

 may justly infer that to feed large 

 quantities of syrup means, besides, the 

 work of invertingit. Much work short- 

 ens their life, a weakening of the body. 

 A weakening of the body means a loss 

 of vitality, less resistance to disease, a 

 tendency to degenerate. Sugar syrup, 

 if fed early enough, makes unques- 

 tionably good winter stores, but for 

 brood-rearing it is greatly inferior to 

 honey, because it lacks the nutritive 

 salts, ethereal oils, etc. I use sugar 

 and cold water, equal parts, and try to 

 be done by Sept. 15, but do not feed 

 more than enough to last until early 

 spring. Feeding late in the fall, a little 

 more sugar than water should be taken, 

 but I would never advise to make it 

 more concentrated than two parts of 

 sugar to one of water. At all times it 

 would be good to add honey 10 percent 

 or more, but especially if late feeding 

 has to be done. I would never advise 

 to feed more than two quarts of syrup 

 every evening, or one gallon every 

 other evening. In feeding only half 

 of this amount the bees would con- 

 sume probably a little more for them- 

 selves while doing the work, but they 

 would be sparing their energy and 

 vitality worth a pound or even two of 

 sugar. 

 Kempsten, Bavaria, Germany. 



No. 10.— The Honey-Producing 

 Plants 



BY FRANK C. PELLETT. 

 {Photoera1>ks bv the author.) 



IN the April number some of the 

 mints were described, but for lack 

 of suitable pictures some important 

 ones could not at that time be con- 

 sidered. 



MOTHERWORT. 



The common motherwort, Lionurus 

 carduica, is a weed introduced from 

 Europe and North-rn Asia. It is now 

 quite generally naturalized from Can- 

 ada to Florida and west to Louisiana. 

 For some reason it is seldom included 

 in lists of honey-plants, although it is 

 said to be an excellent source of nec- 

 tar. Reports of bees working on this 

 plant very freely in 1914, when most 

 other plants failed to yield anything, 

 were frequent. 



The motherwort grows in clumps in 

 waste places in old barn lots, along 

 railroads, in factory grounds, etc. It 

 grows from two to six feet high with 

 small flower clusters in the axils of the 

 leaves. It is a relative of the catnip, 

 and apparently equally as attractive to 

 the bees. This plant was formerly used 

 to some extent in medicine, especially 

 for di§?^se5 of women. It is also 



