742 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Dec. 1 



len. The result of speculative feeding in 

 autumn is the same, I have observed, in all 

 years. Our cold-blooded bees react very 

 poorly, as a rule, on autumn feeding. It is 

 true that, without feeding, there would be 

 no brood at all in the hives; but still, the 

 1500 or 2000 young bees hatching from the 

 brood started would not count very much in 

 comparison with the 20,000 or 30,000 which 

 go to make up a good colony in the winter. 

 In regard to so small an amount of brood, I 

 may say that the influence of it on the result 

 of the sclaes is to be neglected, for colony 

 A, with its uncapped brood, has only 5.03 lbs. 

 more in its daily decreases in weight than 

 colony B with its capped brood. 



Let us now look at the conclusions that are 

 to be deducted from these results. Colony 

 A has received from Sept. 11 to Sept. 16 30.1 

 lbs. of a 52.5-per-cent syrup, making an in- 

 crease of 15.8 lbs. of sugar; also 4.4 lbs. of a 

 56.2-per-cent syrup, or 2.47 lbs. of sugar. 

 The total amount of sugar given to colony A, 

 therefore, was 18.17 lbs. The increase in 

 weight of the colony was, therefore, 34.5 lbs. 

 (30.1+4.4) from the 11th to the 19th of Sep- 

 tember. This amount, less the total decrease 

 in weight, is given in the above table 18.04 

 lbs., leaving 16.46 lbs. as the net increase. 

 Normally this colony would have lost, if it 

 had not been fed during the. nine days, one 

 pound, which we must add to the above 

 weight; therefore we can actually reckon on 

 an increase of 17.46 by the feeding. I will 

 admit that the syrup in the hive was thick- 

 ened to a consistency of about 75 per cent of 

 sugar, so the real increase of sugar under 

 this supposition is 17.46 X. 75== 13.17 lbs. As 

 I gave 18.17 lbs. I therefore lost exactly 5 lbs. 

 of sugar, or, in other words, 27.6 per cent. 



Colony B received, from the 2d to the 6th 

 of September, 17.2 lbs. of a 60-per-cent syrup; 

 that is, 10.32 lbs. of sugar. The increase 

 from Sept. 2 to Sept. 13 was 17.2 lbs. less 7.98 



lbs. (the total loss as given in the above ta- 

 ble) , making 9.22 lbs. To this increase must 

 be added 12x.08= .96 lbs. of loss which the 

 hive would have suffered if I had done no 

 feeding. By the feeding, therefore, we can 

 say that the hive gained 10.18 lbs. of proba- 

 bly about 75-per-cent syrup. This would 

 amount to about 7.63 lbs. of sugar. There- 

 fore by feeding I lost, in this case, 2.69 lbs. 

 of sugar, or 26 per cent in weight. 



The result is somewhat striking. The 

 question whether the food is better given 

 thick or thin has often been discussed; but 

 according to my experiments the difference 

 is not very great. Of course, the colony fed 

 the thin syrup loses more water than the 

 one fed the thick syrup; but the real loss 

 does not seem to be very different. For my 

 part I prefer to give thick syrup chiefly, espe- 

 cially if the season is advanced. However, 

 I think we ought to give considerable of the 

 thin syrup for providing the bees with the 

 necessary amount of water. 



I added to all the syrup that I fed, 1 per 

 cent of tartaric acid in order to facilitate the 

 inversion of the cane sugar into dextrose 

 and levulose. I have found that, with the 

 acid, especially if the syrup is boiled a few 

 minutes, there is less of a tendency to crys- 

 tallize in the combs and on the bottom-board 

 in the spring. Moreover, tartaric acid is at 

 the same time a good disinfectant to put in 

 the food. 



The results above prove once more my 

 theory which I recalled in the introduction, 

 that the bringing-in of nectar or of syrup 



Eroduces a remarkable increase in the com- 

 ustion of food in the bodies of the bees — 

 partly, perhaps, because all the vital func- 

 tions 01 the Dees are heightened, and also 

 because of the amount of chemical energy 

 necessary for the ripening of the honey or 

 syrup. 

 Rheinau, Zurich, Switzerland. 



