312 



September, 1914. 



American Hee Journal 



the purchase and sale of honey is more 

 profitable than his honey production. 



As a rule, in German Switzerland the 

 crop conditions are less favorable than 

 in Romande Switzerland, where sain- 

 foin is still largely cultivated. Here it 

 is lacking. Our best localities are in 

 the mountain valleys and in the plains 

 where the pine yields honey abun- 

 dantly. In the mountain where the 

 bees can harvest from the bottom of 

 the hill to the top, the crop is length- 

 ened. In the plains it lasts but two or 

 three weeks. If the weather is favor- 

 able, the apiarist is in good humor, as 

 the supers are then filled. But we do 

 not have this pleasure mor ! than two 

 or three times in ten years. 



We have another drawback which 

 keeps increasing, it is the more inten- 

 sive cultivation of the land for profit. 

 Hazel, willow and alder furnish much 



HEINRICH Sl'UHLER 



pollen, but their wood is of low value, 

 and they are constantly removed for 

 something better. Chemical manures 

 are also injurious to honey production. 

 It is for these reasons that, in spite of 

 improved methods, our honey crop has 

 not increased in the past 30 years. The 

 average is from 8 to Id kilos (18 to ti2 

 pounds), and the average crop of an 

 apiary rarely reaches 30 to 40 kilos. In 

 many cases our bees cannot harvest 

 enough to winter, and we have to feed 

 them, besides leaving to them all the 

 honey gathered. Many beekeepers re- 

 move most of the honey and replace it 

 with sugar syrup. It is the low price 

 of sugar which permits this. 



The race preferred in German Switz- 

 erland is the black Swiss bee, while 

 formerly the Italian and Carniolan 

 races were thought best, and our own 

 was considered as degenerate. The in- 

 troduction of Italian and Carniolan 

 bees has made a slight change in this 

 race, which now often shows, in its 

 bees, yellow bands or spots and gray 

 hairs. Probably the mixture has helped 

 its regeneration. 



For the past 15 years much time and 

 care have been spent in the rearing of 

 queens according to the principles fol- 

 lowed in cattle raising, by selection of 



males and females. Every year, spe- 

 cial courses and conferences are held 

 by the breeders. The best black colo- 

 nies are selected to supply eggs and 

 larv.-e for breeding, and minute care is 

 used to secure for them the most favor- 

 able conditions during their growth. 

 The riiatured cells are placed in boxes 

 sufficiently large to accommodate a 

 half pound swarm with two or three 

 combs. Queens of selected stock are 

 reared in an isolated location, a "mat- 

 ing station" which is supplied with a 

 colony containing choice drones. 



However these stations do not offer 

 much guarantee of select matings, be- 

 cause they are sometimes only a kilo- 

 meter distant from other apiaries, and 

 it is a fact that queens often prefer 

 strange drones from a distance of 5 or 

 f) kilometers (.'! to 4 miles). 



At the present time our apiarian au- 

 thorities recommend in-breeding as an 

 efficient means of fixing the good 

 qualities of a race, while the Americans 

 object, as we did once, that this in- 

 breeding may cause degenerescence, 

 and may be one of the principal causes 

 of foulbrood. It may, therefore, be a 

 good thing that our queens are able to 

 mate at a great distance so as to pre- 

 vent a risk as pernicious to bees as to 

 beekeepers. Let us remain true to the 

 principle that, in order to succeed, one 

 should follow the natural laws existing 

 among bees. 



Zurich, Switzerland. 



Fall Feeding of Sugar Syrup 



BY J. A. MCKINNON, 



IN your foot-note on page 129 of the 

 April number of the American Bee 

 Journal, you give the proper pro- 

 portions of water and sugar for good 

 bee feed. Every time I see that two to 

 one formula given. I ask myself, does 

 that beekeeper really know what he is 

 talking about, or is it because he has 

 the habit of saying it over so often, or 

 is it because some one else said so and 

 it must be so ? 



I have fed a few tons of sugar in dif- 

 ferent proportions, and I consider the 

 two to one way of making the syrup a 

 most wasteful method, excepting when 

 10 percent of honey is added. Other- 

 wise in the late fall, when nights are 

 cool, one-third to one-half of the feed 

 so made will granulate or candy so 

 hard in the combs that the bees cannot 

 eat it. 



I hear some one say. " I have never 

 had that experience." Of such a one I 

 would ask. have you ever looked 

 throueh your hives and combs two or 

 three days after feeding your colonies 

 for winter with this two to one syrup ? 

 If so, vou will be in a position to 

 know; if not. vou had better wait until 

 you try it. If a colony is given as 

 much as it can take down in 24 hours ; 

 that is, 2-5 to 10 povinds, fully one-half 

 will be wasted, ami the fact might never 

 be known to the beekeeper unless he 

 took the trouble to examine the combs. 

 as the bees will start to cut the candied 

 sugar out at once, and if the weather 

 should remain warm, the most of it is 

 carried out at the entrance or to the 

 field. 



With me, tartaric acid does not act 



much as a preventative. Last fall I 

 had about SSOO pounds of sugar to feed 

 for winter stores, and I thought I 

 could prevent granulation by using a 

 liberal amount of acid. I made some 

 feed two parts sugar, one of water, 

 adding one teaspoonful of the acid for 

 every 20 pounds of feed. This did not 

 help in the least, as in some hives the 

 combs were candied almost solid. 

 First, a thin crust would form on top 

 of the unsealed syrup, and in the course 

 of two or three days it would be as 

 hard as flint. Anything that was sealed 

 over did not appear to be candied. In 

 cases where I fed only 10 pounds at a 

 time the candying was not so bad, and 

 where I fed early in the season, using 

 a thinner feed, there were no candied 

 stores. 



1 don't know that locality should 

 make any difference in this respect, but 

 what puzzles me is that so many ex- 

 tensive beekeepers endorse this method. 

 I am under the impression that a good 

 many beekeepers are wasting a lot of 

 sugar, not to mention the time that 

 it takes to dissolve it and cart it 

 around the yard. Experience is the 

 best teacher, and in my case it has cost 

 me pretty high, and sometimes when I 

 could least afford it. 



Last fall when I noticed that there 

 was a lot of this candied stuff in some 

 hives, I made the best of a poor job, by 

 refeeding or exchanging for sealed 

 combs of honey, or I would take out 

 three or four combs and brush the 

 bees off at the entrance, then take the 

 combs to the water barrel, and souse 

 them full of water. This seemed to 

 help some, although in a few hives it 

 caused brood- rearing to start late in 

 the season. 



After this I will not feed any more of 

 this two to one feed ; half and half will 

 do very well for mine, and I will feed 

 earlier in the season, so as to have 

 most of the stores sealed over. Ten to 

 1.5 pounds of feed might be wasted un- 

 known to the beekeeper, yet the col- 

 ony might have enough stores left to 

 winter. 



I would like to hear from others 

 who have had experience, and who 

 have taken the trouble to look through 

 the hives two or three days after feed- 

 ing for winter stores. Because one's 

 colonies have always wintered, when 

 fed this, is no proof; even an examina- 

 tion the following spring will not re- 

 veal much candied syrup unless the 

 colony has died outright. 



St. Eugene, Ont. 



Editor Dadant suggested "two parts 

 of sugar to one of water." Mr. Mc- 

 Kinnon says "half and half will do very 

 well for mine," and Editor Dadant de- 

 sires my comment. My first thought 

 is that I would rather not use either 

 sugar or water. Honey is better than 

 either, or both. Only in the niter ab- 

 sence of honey would I feed sugar 

 syrup nowadays, and it would then be 

 with a guilty feeling that I ought to 

 have managed better so as to have had 

 on hand a supply of heavy combs of 

 sealed honey, .^nd then if I did have 

 to feed sugar, I wouldn't make it into 

 syrup either thick or thin. I'd seta 

 Miller feeder on a hive, pour into it 

 dry sugar and then put in water. That's 

 simpler, easier, pleasanter, and safer 



