504 



GLE AIRINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 1.5 



FALL AND SPRING FEEDING. 



When to Feed Thick and when to Feed 



Thin Syrup; Syrup ys. Honey as a 



Winter Food. 



BY E. W. ALEXANDER. 



Feeding is becoming a very important part 

 of our business, and from the many letters of 

 inquiry I am receiving from parties in many 

 places I find some bee-keepers have rather 

 erroneous ideas of the proper way to do this 

 work in order to secure the best results, and 

 at the same time avoid all danger of the feed 

 entering the supers. There is no question 

 but that we can secure very beneficial results 

 by judicious feeding in early spring as well 

 as late in the fall: but we must be careful to 

 do it so no possible harm can come from the 

 practice. 1 would advise having every thing 

 as handy as possible before commencing this 

 line of work; for after it is commenced there 

 should be no stop until the weather becomes 

 warm and settled, except on fair days, when 

 the bees can gather nectar from the flowers. 



Before taking our bees from the cellar we 

 have our feeders all ready, and the necessary 

 barrels of sugar for spring use in our bee- 

 house; then with an agricultural boiler 

 which holds 45 gallons two men can make 

 the necessary syrup and feed six or seven 

 hundred colonies in less time than we could 

 formerly feed fifty. It is the advantage se- 

 cured from taking these short cuts on both 

 time and expense that I have called your at- 

 tention to f'o often. 



There are only a few conditions a colony 

 is likely to be in when it is necessary to re- 

 sort to feeding. First, in the spring, if the 

 bees have little or no honey they should be 

 fed at once five or six barrels to prevent 

 starving. This syrup should be about the 

 consistency of good honey; then to stimulate 

 brood-rearing it is far better to feed a much 

 thinner syrup. 1 find that, if made of 1 lb. 

 of sugar to 3 lbs. of water, it will give the 

 best results. This furnishes both food and 

 water mixed together, which is very neces- 

 sary to encourage early breeding. 



Then before the close of the season, if 

 there are some colonies rather weak in bees, 

 also light in honey, they should be fed daily 

 two or three pounds of either extracted hon- 

 ey or sugar syrup. This should be one-half 

 sugar to one-half water, which will encour- 

 age fall breeding and also add somewhat to 

 their winter stores. 



For the principal winter food the colonies 

 should have a syrup made of the best gran- 

 ulated sugar, one pound of water and two of 

 sugar. This should be boiled well until the 

 sugar is thoroughly dissolved. Some think 

 it necessary to add a little extracted honey 

 or tartaric acid to prevent the syrup from 

 crystallizing. We rather prefer this addition, 

 but have had good results without it. 



Feeding for winter stores should be done 

 late in the fall, about two weeks before put- 

 ting the bees in their winter quarters ; and 

 whatever amount they require should be 

 given them at one time. 



When feeding at any time or for any pur- 

 pose we must use good judgment; otherwise 

 we may thwart the very object we wish to 

 achieve. First we must be very careful to 

 feed just enough, and no more than the nec- 

 essary amount to secure the desired object. 

 When feeding in the spring, give only enough 

 for daily use of the thin syrup; and if there 

 is a spell of a day or two that is fair, and 

 the bees are getting some nectar from the 

 flowers, then stop feeding until the weather 

 becomes unfavorable for them to work, but 

 don't stop unless you are sure that the 

 flowers are yielding nectar. If you watch 

 your bees and the weather closely you can 

 stop feeding as it becomes more pleasant, so 

 there will not be any syrup left in their 

 combs. 



When feeding in the fall for winter stores, 

 we must be careful to feed only enough to 

 furnish them with the necessary amount to 

 last during their long confinement. I think 

 it best to feed all colonies 15 or 20 lbs. of 

 thick sugar syrup late in the fall; where a 

 colony has as much honey as it requires for 

 winter use, or more, I would remove two 

 combs of their honey from each side of their 

 hive early in the fall. Extract these four 

 combs and return them near to the center of 

 the hive; then when giving them their win- 

 ter food they will store it in these center 

 combs, and cluster on them during the win- 

 ter. In this way they will use up all the 

 syrup you have given them, and there will 

 be no danger of any being left to enter the 

 supers. 



We must be careful how we feed, to avoid 

 all harm, and at the same time secure those 

 good results from feeding. 



If we gave our bees a lot of thick syrup in 

 the spring it would be of but little use to 

 stimulate breeding, as they require water at 

 that season as much as they do honey. Then 

 if we gave them the thin syrup in the fall, 

 such as they require in the spring, it would 

 be one of the worst things we could do, as 

 it would cause almost every colony to have 

 the dysentery before mid-winter. 



You may think that, if a colony requii'es 

 feeding, it is of but little consequence when, 

 how, or what it is fed; but there is a right 

 and a wrong way to do all things, and our 

 bees are certainly very exacting in their re- 

 quirements. There is a great deal to be 

 gained in turning sugar syrup into bees in 

 early spring, and by it saving their lives dur- 

 ing the winter; but remember, even if the 

 law would allow us to do it there is not a 

 particle of profit in feeding sugar syrup to 

 bees to get them to turn it into either comb 

 or extracted honey. 



In one of my articles last fall I spoke of 

 our feeding 200 colonies sugar syrup as a 

 substitute for honey during the winter. Be- 

 fore feeding we removed nearly all the hon- 

 ey from these colonies, and now after five 

 months of confinement they are in perfect 

 health, and, without a single exception, have 

 wintered well. They are as bright and live- 

 ly as we could expect to see them in June. 

 We are so well pleased with this experi- 



