1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



561 



CONVERSATIONS WITH 

 DOOLITTLE 



AT Borodino, New York. 



WHEN AND HOW TO FEED FOR WINTER STORES. 



"When must I begin getting the bees 

 ready for winter? A day or two ago an old 

 bee-keeper told me that the time to pre- 

 pare for winter was in September." 



"I quite agree with the old bee-keeper, 

 that, ir we want our bees to do the very best 

 possible in the spring, we must have ample 

 autumn preparation." 



"But my bees have not enough honey for 

 winter; and you would not feed for wmter 

 now, would you, when there is a chance that 

 tlie bees may yet get some more honey from 

 the fields?" 



" I think that the most of us are apt to put 

 off this feeding business as long as possible 

 in the hope that some favorable spell of hon- 

 ey weather will bless us by helping the bees 

 to fill up their combs with natural stores for 

 winter. But this I consider unwise. Some 

 advise feeding slowly in August till there 

 are stores enough for winter; but I think it 

 better to wait till September 8th to I'ith, or 

 not later than the middle of that month, in 

 any event, to do this feeding." 



"Would you feed slowly in September?" 



"No. I would feed as rapidly as possible." 



"Why not feed slowly at this time as well 

 as earlier in the season?" 



"Because rapid feeding insures a high 

 temperature in the hive, and this high tem- 

 perature insures the sealing of the stores 

 Tor winter, which in turn insures a dry at- 

 mosphere inside of the hive during winter, 

 no matter how cold or how much dampness 

 there is about the hive. And all of this tends 

 toward successful wintering, and the success- 

 ful wintering insures good strong colonies in 

 time for the white-clover harvest. Slow 

 feeding, on the other hand, and especially 

 with thin feed, means a waste all along the 

 line. There is a waste of energy in evaporat- 

 ing or boiling down the feed, and this in 

 turn means a waste (or shortening) of the 

 life of the bees, without giving a high tem- 

 perature inside of the hive. Much of the 

 stores is unsealed, and this unsealed honey 

 takes on moisture from every damp spell 

 during the winter. Such a thinning ot stores 

 tends toward diarrhea, and many bees will 

 die of old age before warm weather comes 

 in the spring. The whole result is a loss 

 through poor wintering, which means dead 

 or depopulated colonies when the harvest 

 from white clover comes." 



"How shall I make the feed for winter?" 



"After experimenting much, and trying 

 all of the formulas I found in print for mak- 

 ing feed for bees for winter stores, I now 

 consider this the very cream of the whole: 

 Put l.T lbs. of water into a suitable-sized ves- 

 sel, setting it over the fire until it boils, and 

 then slowly stir in 30 lbs. of granualated su- 

 gar, this stirring being done so the sugar 

 will dissolve instead ot going to the bottom 



and burning, as is quite apt to be the case if 

 the 30 lbs. were poured m at once. After 

 stirring till the sugar is dissolved, leave over 

 the fire until the whole boils two or three 

 minutes. After this, take it from the fire 

 and stir in 5 lbs. of extracted honey. This 

 makes 50 lbs. of the very best feed. " 



"What is the extracted honey put in for?' ' 



"To avoid the crystallization of the syrup, 

 as is often the case where it is made as thick 

 as this and fed rapidly. With thin syrup 

 and slow feeding the bees so manipulate it 

 that there is no trouble along this Ime; but 

 thick feed in cool weather will crystallize 

 more or less unless something is added. 

 Many formulas call for acids of different 

 kinds; but the honey answers all purposes, 

 and makes a food more eagerly taken." 



"Does it make any difference as to the 

 kind or quality of honey used?" 



"Not that I can detect, for this great bulk 

 of boiling hot feed thickens and purifies any 

 honey which may be stirred in. I should 

 not want to use honey which I knew came 

 from colonies having the genuine foul brood. 

 However, in curing my whole apiary of this 

 disease in the '70's, I fed hundreds of pounds 

 of it which was not heated to a greater de- 

 gree than here given, without a single colo- 

 ny showing the disease again. I know that 

 it is now thought that foul-broody honey must 

 be boiled a long time to make it safe for feed- 

 ing; but that painstaking pioneer bee-keeper, 

 Moses Quinby, fed and used hundreds if not 

 thousands of pounds of it, the same as I did, 

 with equally good results." 



"But what shall I do with my small colo- 

 nies — feed them the same as the rest? I have 

 some twenty or more quite small colonies 

 from second and third swarms " 



"I do not think it will pay you to winter 

 these separately. I would unite them." 



"When should this be done?" 



"Before feeding, always. And I would 

 unite all colonies of which I had any doubts 

 about their coming through in good order." 



"Why should I have any doubts about any 

 but the weaker ones I have told you about?" 



"Colonies which have old or otherwise 

 unsatisfactory queens should be placed in 

 this list, as well as colonies which, from any 

 reason, were without queens during the lat- 

 ter part of the summer for several weeks. 

 These are likely to have an insufficient num- 

 ber of young bees to come out strong in the 

 spring, and it does not pay to feed any ex- 

 cept tnose you are quite sure will go through 

 in good order." 



"If, after uniting all my small and doubt- 

 ful colonies, I still have more than I care to 

 winter, would it be best to unite ? " 



"In such a case I would look over all my 

 medium-sized colonies; and such as had half 

 enough stores I would unite by alternating 

 half of the combs of each having the most 

 honey in them in one hive, and shaking the 

 bees from each alternate comb down in front 

 of these united frames of honey. Then, if I 

 thought they did not have all the stores they 

 needed to make sure of their coming out 

 strong in the spring, I would feed." 



