FEBRUARY 1, 1913 



81 



1, 1912, p. 545) is easier to get just right. 

 (Pure glucose for the purpose eau be ob- 

 tained from most candy-makers.) This 

 candy has the advantage of staying right 

 until consumed. 



Common " fondant," as made hx the 

 candy-manufacturers, is excellent ; but un- 

 less it is just right it will not stay right, 

 but will soften when subjected to the con- 

 ditions of the hive and run down between 

 the combs. The property of " rightness " 

 in fondant seems to be dependent on the 

 proportion of tartaric acid to sugar and the 

 time they are boiled together. Some candy- 

 makers can make a firm non-softening 

 fondant every time, wiiile others can not. 



On orders for one hundred j^ounds or 

 over, most candy-makers will make up 

 candy after any desired formula, and will 

 cut it into blocks or slabs of any desired 

 size, and at a cost not so very much above 

 the cost of the sugar. Not a few beekeep- 

 ers have the professional candy-men make 

 their bee candy for them, considering it 

 better and cheaper than making it at home. 



Another word about soft sugar and I am 

 done — no, not out of sputter, but just hold- 

 ing up for a future lime. 



The use of soft sugar for stimulative 

 feeding was, so far as I can learn, first 

 given to the beekeepers by Samuel Sim- 

 mins, of England, and he should be given 

 the ciedit for it. I have done so in pre- 

 vious articles, but did not in those quoted. 

 It has been used in this countiy for many 

 yeai's, but does not seem to have become as 

 widely known as its merits deserve. Now, 

 if your editorial does not put a damper on 

 its use by getting some people in wrong on 

 it — and they will surely speak right out 

 loud — its use may spread. 



There, I feel better. As I bear no ill 

 feeling-s, I trust that yon will soon be able 

 to sit up and take a little nourislimeut. As 

 an emergency diet, I would suggest candy. 



Providence, R. I., Jan. 9, 1912. 



[Regarding the question of soft sugar 

 for winter feed, we plead guilty that Mr. 

 Miller did not recommend it for cold weath- 

 er; but we see no reason in the world why 

 it could not be used at such a time if it 

 could be used in warm weather. While it 

 is true that bees can get water during hot 

 weather when they could not during winter, 

 yet as a rule enough moisture collects in 

 the hive to give the bees all the water they 

 need. If the soft sugar is placed in paper 

 pie-plates, the same being placed right 

 above the cluster, as we recommended it, 

 the moisture from the bees ascending will, 

 in all probability, soften it enough more so 

 tl.at it will be excellent winter food. 



If we were guilty of misquoting, we are 

 glad of it now, because it has drawn out a 

 valuable article that will be a stimulus to 

 further discussion of a very important mat- 

 ter — what to feed bees during mid winter 

 when no combs of stores are available. In 

 this connection, if Mr. Miller did not rec- 

 ommend feeding soft sugar during mid 

 winter, there are others who did; but just 

 who, we can not now recall. Verj' often, 

 by reading a journal for a year one will 

 gather a composite opinion; and that is 

 precisely what we did when we misquoted 

 our friend Miller. 



Regarding " fondant " and any sugar 

 using glucose, we have a fear that they will 

 not be all that is desired. We should be 

 more afraid of the use of fondant and 

 candy with glucose in — much more so — 

 than we would of soft cane sugar placed 

 in the paper pie-plates above the bees. 



Later. — We sent the above footnote to 

 Mr. Miller, and he has made a further reply 

 wliich follows. — Ed.] 



MORE SUGAR. 



That paper pie-plate seems to bother the 

 editor. It is like a cork on a fishline, bound 

 to bob up; but just wait until the condensed 

 moisture he is banking on for the sugar gets 

 in its fine work on that pie-plate, and he 

 will have a first-class paper-pulp " flap- 

 jack." Well, never mind; it is quite likely 

 to be forty-leven miles from the would-be 

 user, and he will tiy a wash-boiler or an 

 ash-sifter or some other convenient tiling. 



Now, I hope tliat I am a brave man, 

 or, what is perhaps as good, am believed to 

 be, for I see danger in what I am about to 

 do. I am going to tell just how the New 

 Hampshire man used the soft sugar when 

 he wintered the two colonies on it. The 

 danger lies in my being given the credit of 

 it and of recommending it, when, as a mat- 

 ter of fact, I am only reporting it. 



In the first place, the man who did it was 

 Mr. A. A. Byard, of West Chesterfield, N. 

 H. In the second place, he prei^ared his 

 bees in the fall, late in the fall, but still the 

 bees could be handled. And he did it thus: 



Three empty combs were hung in the 

 middle of each of two chaff-packed hives. 

 On each side of and close up to them were 

 hung division-board feeders solid full of 

 soft sugar. The spaces back of the feeders, 

 were stuffed full of dry leaves. 



The bees were then shaken into these 

 jirepared hives. Now, I do not know wheth- 

 er he shook them in on top of the frames 

 and feeders or down in front of the en- 

 trance and let them waltz in ; but he got 

 them into those hives and on to and between 

 th'^ combs — leastAVise most of them — for he 



