1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



741 



chance have we if F. H. Cyrenius and others 

 are correct ? 



I thought over tliis subject a great deal un- 

 til I read on page 280, May 1, Doolittle's ad- 

 vice to Mr. Hall, whose conditions in Cali- 

 fornia are much the same as mine, only Mr. 

 Hall's bees were about a month behind mine. 

 Mr. Doolittle's advice to tier up and give 

 room until the time for shaking, for comb- 

 honey production, is just what I meant to 

 follow for extracted-honey production, as 

 comb honey is not in demand here, and ex- 

 tracted clover honey nets us from seven to 

 nine cents. However, I should have divided 

 my two brood-chambers by the Alexander 

 plan to make double the number of colonies, 

 as it does not do to let golden chances like 

 these slip, and there is no law here limiting 

 the number of out-apiaries one may own. 

 Furthermore, I should either have extracted 

 the honey-filled super and returned it, or 

 have given another super if too busy to ex- 

 tract, so as to provide more and more room 

 as the necessity for preventing swarming re- 

 quired. 



Now for my query : If it is possible to pre- 

 vent the bees from swarming by practically 

 making them produce extracted honey, and 

 then, when the flow arrives, make them 

 transfer that same honey into comb-honey 

 supers, how can any sensible bee-keeper 

 have his bees in advance of his honey-flow? 

 I may be wrong, but it seems to me that 

 there is nothing at all in the theory of brood 

 being raised too early, unless it is that there 

 is an increased demand upon the stores. 

 But if the business is really a business and 

 not merely a hobby, surely there can be 

 nothing against wholesale feeding if it pays 

 and is a necessity. It seems to me that many 

 of us want the easiest method, although the 

 more thorough plan would pay far better. 



Our honey-flow starts in the middle of De- 

 cember, when you have put your bees in the 

 cellar, and when you are wrapping up your- 

 selves — something that we never do here. 

 Our climate is practically like that of Florida. 

 I have orange and lemon trees flourishing in 

 my orchard, and the nearest snow is 150 

 miles south of us on top of mountains 8000 

 feet high. Our local mountains, over 3000 

 feet high, are never snow-covered, even in 

 the severe winter. 



I wish we had A. I. Root out here, for he 

 would encourage us in our fight for prohibi- 

 tion. We are greatly interested in the pro- 

 gress of the Anti-saloon I.eai^ue. I am a 

 member of the New Zealand Alliance, which 

 is the name of the prohibition society here. 



Kihikihi, Waikato, N. Z. 



[We do not think you need to be worried 

 about your bees raising brood too early, 

 Mr. F. H. Cyrenius lives in a locality where 

 it is quite cold during the winter, during 

 which the bees go into a long winter sleep 

 or semi-hibernation, or a condition approxi- 

 mating hibernation. In such a locality, too 

 early stimulation of bees in the spring by 

 feeding or supplying artificial heat some- 

 times does more harm than good. V/e should 

 judge that the conditions with you are very 



much the same as they are in Texas, and we 

 are, therefore, referring your inquiry to Mr. 

 Louis H. Scholl. 



The conditions of locality vary so much 

 that what would apply to one would not 

 necessarily be applicable to another. There 

 are places where, undoubtedly, too early 

 brood-rearing brings on a force of bees too 

 soon for the expected honey-flow; but in a 

 climate like yours we hardly think you need 

 to fear any thing of that kind. If you follow 

 carefully the Doolittle plan we do not think 

 you will experience very much difficultv. — 

 Ed.1 



FEEDING THICK OR THIN SYRUP. 



BV DR. BRUEXXICH. 



On page 396, July 1, I gave some observa- 

 tions to prove that, in the height of the sea- 

 son, the nightly decreases in weight of a col- 

 ony on the scales do not result from an evap- 

 oration of water in the honey, but are to be 

 ascribed to the augmented consumption of 

 the nurse-bees, caused by the heightened 

 organic combustion I further stated that 

 the idea of ripening the honey from the nec- 

 tar by mere evaporation was an unscientific 

 legend, on the supposition that the thicken- 

 ing of the nectar takes place in the honey- 

 sac of the nurse-bees, the superfluous vv^ater 

 going into the blood, and being eliminated 

 partly by the respiration and partly by the 

 rectal gland. 



This autumn, with my two colonies on 

 scales I made some experiments for ascer- 

 taining the actual loss arising by feeding a 

 thin or thick solution of sugar. The colony 

 which I shall designate as A had a queen 

 reared in 190S, while B had one reared in 

 May, 1909. Both colonies were in equal-siz- 

 ed hives, occupying ten frames of approxi- 

 mately 139 square inches each. There was 

 practically no brood. Colony A had 15.4 lbs. 

 of honey, and B had 20 lbs.; both colonies 

 had a good store of pollen. 



I fed colony B first, giving the bees during 

 the nights from the 2d to the 6th of Septem- 

 ber 17.2 lbs. of a 60-per-cent solution of su- 

 gar (specific weight 1.29, one gallon contain- 

 mg 6.45 lbs. of sugar) . I fed colony A more 

 intensively with a thin solution day and 

 night. The bees were obliged to take from 

 the 11th to the 13th of September 30 lbs. of 

 a52.6-per-cent solution (specific weight 1.245, 

 one^allon containing 5.45 pounds of sugan . 

 Besides this I gave the bees of this colony on 

 the 16th of September 4.4 lbs. of a 56.5 per 

 cent solution (specific weight 1.26, one gal- 

 lon containing 5.95 pounds of sugar). 



In the table (next pagei I give the daily and 

 nightly losses in weight of the two colonies. 

 Before discus? "^ the results given I may 

 add my obsc ::s of an examination of 



both colonies the 22d of September. A had 

 in three combs very little uncapped brood — 

 from 60 to Ir, square inches. B had capped 

 brood in only one frame — about 60 square 

 inches. The weather during the feeding was 

 fine, and the bees brought in still more pol- 



