AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



21 



onies, one-half of which were to be fed 

 sugar syrup for winter stores, and the 

 other half to be supplied with honey for 

 the same purpose. 



Considerable care was taken to select 

 and arrange the colonies so as to have 

 the two sets as nearly equal as possible 

 in point of strength, but the bees were 

 not weighed separately from the hive, 

 the strength being estimated by the 

 amount of space occupied by the cluster. 

 This is not a satisfactory course to pur- 

 sue when it can be avoided. I bow 

 appreciate the importance of the weigh- 

 ing better than I did at the time the ex- 

 periment was undertaken, and that 

 course will be taken if the experiment is 

 repeated. At some seasons of the year 

 the manipulation necessary to secure 

 the separate weight of the bees would 

 be so objectionable as to preclude its 

 use, but at the time contemplated it 

 would be neither objectionable nor very 

 difficult. 



Owing to the character of the latter 

 part of last season, few of my colonies 

 were very strong last fall, and in the 

 effort to select colonies with such condi- 

 tions as would facilitate the operations 

 of the experiment, it turned out that 

 those selected were considerably below 

 even the average strength, and in this 

 way another mistake was made which 

 should not be repeated. It is necessary 

 to point out further that the colonies 

 selected were partly in two-story Hed- 

 don hives, and partly in one-story ones, 

 and that in order to deprive one set al- 

 most completely of honey, and to supply 

 the other set with an abundance of 

 honey for winter stores, it was found 

 necessary to so manipulate the hives 

 that those to be wintered on honey had 

 two-story hives, and those to be fed 

 sugar syrup one-story. 



These arrangements were made the 

 last of September, and the necessary 

 feeding was done at once. 



The hives were first weighed when 

 they were put into the cellar, on Nov. 

 15th, and again when taken out the 

 first days of April. It will be observed 

 that two arewanting from the sugar-fed 

 set, and three from those wintered on 

 honey, but as none of them, as far as 

 appeared, perished on account of diar- 

 rhea, or on account of any peculiarity of 

 either kind of stores, nothing can be 

 predicated on that fact for or against 

 either kind of food. 



The following figures show the weight 

 of each hive at each season, and the dif- 

 ference or amount consumed by each in 

 pounds and ounces : 



THE SET WITH SUGAR STORES. 



Fall Weig-ht. Spring- Weight. Am't Cons'd. 



33-12 29-4 4-8 



31 28-8 2-8 



80 26 4 



33-4 30-8 2-12 



29 26-4 2-12 



29-8 26-8 3 



32-4 29 3-4 



32-4 29-8 3-12 



26-12 23-4 3-8 



26-8 24-4 2-4 



31-4 



THE SET WITH HONEY STORES. 



61-12 

 The amount of stores here shown to 

 have been consumed during the winter 

 is, I think, remarkably small, at least it 

 is smaller than anything I have hither- 

 to become acquainted with, and this 

 proportion seemed to hold throughout 

 my apiary. Indeed, in most cases ex- 

 amined, the stores seemed scarcely 

 touched, and though I lost a consider- 

 able percentage, not a colony perished 

 of starvation. 



But the important point brought out 

 by this experiment is the economy of 

 feeding sugar syrup for winter stores in- 

 stead of honey, where feeding is neces- 

 sary. From an examination of the 

 figures, we find that the average con- 

 sumption of sugar stores was but 3}g 

 pounds, while that of honey was 6% 

 pounds nearly, or more than twice as 

 much. This has added importance 

 when we remember what has been well 

 established, that granulated sugar syrup 

 is fully equal to the best honey as win- 

 ter food for bees, and far safer for that 

 purpose than any inferior honey. 



EXPERIMENT IN OUT-OF-DOOR WINTERING. 



With a hope of learning something 

 bearing on the subject of out-of-door 

 wintering, I made the following experi- 

 ment : 



In November, at the time when I was 

 putting the bees into the cellar for the 

 winter, I selected six colonies of good 

 average strength, each in a single-story 

 Heddon hive ; then the hives were placed 



