HHJ BEE-KEEPERS REVIEW, 



323 



was lacking : aud whcu both were 'come- 

 at-able, ' lack of time, and other duties pre- 

 vented. At last, however, this season, the 

 fates were propitious, aud the experiment 

 was begun aud ended; and as it may interest 

 some that have the same idea in view, I will 

 give a brief account of how I succeeded. 



Ten good strong colonies were selected, 

 bread-pan feeders procured and placed in 

 position, sections in supers i)ut on, aud the 

 work began. But there was too great a loss 

 of bees by drowning in the honey : so the 

 pans were dispensed with, aud the old Mil- 

 ler feeders and some of the old-style Heddon 

 feeders placed on the hives. These were 

 some better, but the loss of bees wasstiU too 

 great. 



Then the latest improved Heddon feeders 

 were substituted, and they proved a perfect 

 treasure, as they could be filled without 

 disturbing the bees the least, and not a bee 

 was drowned or daubed with honey. There 

 was one slight draw-back, however, and 

 that was when it rained, the slide would 

 swell, aud it was almost impossible to draw 

 the slide back far enough to fill the feeders. 

 This was overcome, however, by dispensing 

 with the slide entirely and substituting the 

 the ordinary cover of the hive, in place of 

 the slide. Then ' all went merry as a mar 

 riage bell. ' 



The next trouble after the feeders were 

 satisfactorily working was, the bees began 

 to swarm. Several were put back but re- 

 fused to stay. Then the Alley drone traps 

 were put on, and the result was that in two 

 hours or less, two of the strongest colonies 

 were smothered, and off went the traps. 

 Then part of the queens were removed, but 

 in all such hives the bees sulked for days, 

 and did but little. Six of the ten we orig- 

 inally started with kept rigtit on and stored 

 and capped the honey all right, but were 

 exceptionally slow in capping the honey 

 completely, compared with that of natural 

 production — so much so that many of the 

 sections were travel-stained before comple- 

 tion. I kept a strict account of all fed 

 them and of all that was completed by them, 

 which I give below, and anyone that chooses 

 can figure out whether I made anything by 

 it or not. If one has time on his hands and 

 plenty of drawn sections ( or sections with 

 drawn combs or partly-filled combs,) and 

 plenty of cheap extracted honey, it may pay ; 

 otherwise, decidedly not. 



Number of pounds of honey fed 1250. 



Number of pounds capped lioney 6S0. 



Of course the colonies used, have their hives 

 chock full of honey for winter, much more 

 than they will really need ; and as there were 

 originally ten of them, aud all have at least 

 thirty pounds each of honey, that should be 

 taken into account when the balance sheet 

 is made. 



The honey was thinned by mixing a small 

 quantity of hot water with it at the time of 

 feeding. 



The weather was all that could be desired 

 — dry and hot. 



It took much longer for the bees to com 

 plete the job than 1 expected — something 

 over six weeks — and yet the feeders were 

 kei)t constantly full. 



Tiiey took the feed greedily at first, until 

 the brood chamber was full aud the sections 

 nearly so. Then they laid off and completed 

 and capped the sections at their leisure. 



From one to four supers were on at times, 

 but the best results were obtained when two 

 were used. 



Brood rearing ceased when feeding began, 

 as all empty cells were filled at once, but 

 was gradually resumed until it became nor- 

 mal. 



Three colouies of blacks, three of Italians, 

 aud four of hybrids were selected to ex- 

 p9riment with, but as two of the hybrids in- 

 sisted on swarming, and as one black and 

 one Italian were smothered, those left were 

 of the three strains, and were carefully 

 watched as to how they ditt'ered in their 

 work. The blacks and hybrids made the 

 whitest and most salable honey, and the 

 blacks capped theirs the soonest — much the 

 soonest — and, to my mind, for that work 

 are far ahead of both the Italians and the 

 hybrids. 



Towards the last a few supers of sections 

 filled with starters full-sized and only one 

 inch, were used. They were a little longer 

 in being filled and finished but were the 

 nicest and most salable when completed. 



One-half inch starters were used at the 

 bottom of nearly all the sections, and every 

 section was filled full, while those without 

 the starter at the bottom had a bee space be- 

 tween the honey and the bottom of the 

 section, aud were not so well finished. 



There are other points in connection with 

 this experiment that I have failed to give on 

 account of lack of time, but I have come to 

 the conclusion that as a general thing it 

 won't pay to feed back. Keep your sections 

 that are partly filled for bait combs after 

 extracting the honey from them. They are 

 extremely valuable for that purpose, but 

 they musthe kept clean and free from mice 

 and dust and dirt, and don't you forget it. " 



Belleville, Ills. 



Commenting upon the above the editor of 

 the Progressive says : 



" On page 24.3 will be found an article 

 from E. T. Flanagan on feeding back ex- 

 tracted honey for the production of comb 

 honey. In feeding back l'_'r>0 pounds, the 

 loss appeai-ed to be about oOO pounds. Mr. 

 Flanagan pertinently asks the question, 

 'Does it pay?' We think in some cases 

 it does pay to turn a cheap article of ex- 

 tracted honey into a fancy article of comb 

 honey on this basis. We think Mr. F. would 

 have had better success had he not added 

 water to his honey, as the weather was hot 

 at the time, and honey, no matter how ri- 

 pened, would have been thin enough for the 

 bees to handle, and the long delay in cap- 

 ping and the travel-stains would have been 

 obviated to a considerable extent. Mr. C. 

 F. Lane, of Paragould, Ark., has written us 

 that he has 4000 pounds of extracted honey 



