33 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 1 



Every year's experience convinces me 

 more and more of the importance of feeding 

 our bees at certain times of the year. We as 

 honey-producers have sadly neglected this 

 important part of our business. 



There are many of us who neglect to do 

 certain things both useful and necessary for 

 the welfare of ourselves and bees, simply be- 

 cause we have no convenient and quick way 

 to do the work. In feeding these 200 colo- 

 nies I have just mentioned, if we had been 

 obliged to feed them in our small spring feed- 

 ers holding only about 2 lbs. each, we should 

 have had an elephant on our hands; and the 

 feeding, if done at all, would have required 

 two weeks or more, as the bees would hard- 

 ly have entered a small feeder so late in the 

 season. 



The principal advantage in late fall feed- 

 ing is to have the bees store the syrup in and 

 around the cluster where they have removed 

 the honey during the last of their breeding 

 in the fall; then this is first consumed by the 

 bees during the winter; and by the time they 

 commence to use their honey they are out of 

 the cellar, and can frequently fly; so if their 

 honey contains pollen, or is otherwise of 

 poor quality, it can do them no harm. 



I think the time is near at hand when the 

 successful honey-producer will substitute su- 

 gar syrup for honey as a winter food wher- 

 ever bees require a cellar for winter protec- 

 tion. In order to compete successfully with 

 many that are now well established in the 

 production of honey, it is necessary for us to 

 be ever ready to take advantage of any thing 

 that will add to our income, even though it 

 may require the investing of some money at 

 first. 



We must certainly sow before we can ex- 

 pect to reap. This applies as truly to bee- 

 keeping as to any other line of business. 



Delanson, N. Y., Dec. 6. 



[It is the usual rule nowadays to feed su- 

 gar syrup early in the fall before cold weather 

 sets in, making the proportions half sugar and 

 half water, either by weight or by measure. 

 While this does not make a syrup by any 

 means as thin as nectar, yet a thin syrup the 

 bees will invert better than a thick one; that 

 is to say, they partially digest it, making it 

 more suitable for a food. Such a syrup, 

 when evaporated in the hive, will never 

 granulate or revert back to sugar; nor is it 

 eier necessary to use any acid to prevent 

 such granulation. But in feeding late in the 

 fall, after cool or cold weather has set in. it 

 is necessary to feed as our correspondent 

 advises, with a syrup two parts of sugar 

 and one part of water, and perhaps it may 

 be advisable to use an acid. .„. r. 



There is an advantage in feeding late, and 

 all at one feed, thick syrup. The bees store 

 it quickly, and in the mean time there is no 

 tendency to induce brood-rearing, because 

 there is not time for it, and because it is too 

 cold. The thick syrup does not require 

 evaporation like the thinner one, and conse- 

 quently does not cause the bees to set in mo- 

 tion their little chemical laboratories to in- 



vert the syrup. Possibly there is an advan- 

 tage in this. At all events, we have a num- 

 ber of times in late fall, when it was too cold 

 for the bees to fly, fed a thick syrup, and in 

 each case the bees came out in fine condition 

 in the spring. Whether this was due to oth- 

 er favorable conditions, or whether it is an 

 actual advantage to have an uninverted syr- 

 up, we can not say. 



This is an interesting field for experiment 

 and discussion, and we should be glad to 

 hear from others of our subscribers who may 

 have any thing to offer on this subject. — 

 Ed.] 



FRANK RAUCHFUSS' HOME IN COLO- 

 RADO. 



BY FRED "W. MUTH. 



Mr. Frank Rauchfuss lives in a pretty lit- 

 tle home in the suburb of Aurora, on the out- 

 skirts of Denver. Standing before his house, 

 in the middle of the road, one can see, at 

 night. Pike's Peak, 95 miles distant, and from 

 the front porch can be seen the beautiful, 

 picturesque, snow-capped mountains some 

 sixty miles away. 



Mr. Rauchfuss needs no introduction to 

 the bee-keeping world, as he is one of the 

 best bee-men who ever lived, and is the 

 manager of the Colorado Honey-producers' 

 Association. He conducts a bee-supply and 

 honey store at 1440 Market Street, Denver, 

 where he disposes of many carloads of bee- 



FRANK RAUCHFUSS AND FAMILY OF AURORA, 

 COLORADO. 



supplies during the honey season, and sells 

 the product of the members of his associa- 

 tion. 



Mr. Rauchfuss and his good wife speak 

 German at their home, which pleased me 

 more than I can tell, for it reminded me of 

 days of yore in my dear old home. 



It would certainly make any farmer's wife 

 envious to see Mrs. Rauchfuss' garden next 

 to their house. Never before have I seen a 



