1H'j6. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



437 



nitely large amount of the honey fed, and also because, other- 

 wise, room is given for the storage of a large amount of honey 

 where it is of less value than it was before it was fed. The 

 capacity of five Langstroth frames is about right, or of one 

 section of the Heddon hive, and this latter is better because 

 this hive is so shallow that that amount of comb occupies a 

 space equal horizontally to that occupied by the sections in a 

 section-case, so that the heat and odor rise equally from the 

 brood-chamber to all parts of the section-case. This is an ad- 

 vantage, especially if there should be cool weather before the 

 feeding is finished. The combs used should be such as are 

 filled with brood so far as possible, and the residue with honey, 

 thus the bees are prevented as far as possible from using or 

 storing the honey so as to entail a loss. 



5. The condition of the sections to be filled should be con- 

 sidered. The farther the comb in them is worked out, the 

 more honey they contain when they are given to the bees to be 

 completed, the greater will be the relative profit. On the other 

 hand, the less they contain, and the less work done upon 

 them, the less the profit, if, indeed, it does not pass the van- 

 ishing point. The liberal feeding contemplated will turn a 

 great army of quiet bees into active laborers, and will induce 

 the rearing of increased amounts of brood, and growing brood 

 and active laborers require a large amount of food — we don't 

 know how large, but probably more than one could guess, so 

 the economy is seen of aiding the bees so far as we can by 

 giving them the best possible comb to fill, as in other ways, 

 so that the work they have to do may be finished at the ear- 

 liest possible moment, that the wages they exact in the shape 

 of food may be stopped. The matter of the amount of honey 

 required for food while the bees are in a state of activity, and 

 for the production of the wax needed to carry the work to 

 completion is one of very great importance, as may be seen 

 from the details of the results of an experiment which are 

 given in the accompanying table. 



The experiment referred to was made for several pur- 

 poses ; one of which was to show the results that may be ex- 

 pected to follow a disregard of some of the principles stated 

 in the foregoing. Not having a supply of honey for the pur- 

 pose, I used granulated sugar, which was made into a syrup 

 by boiling a certain amount of water and adding an equal 

 quantity of sugar by weight. In the process of preparation 

 there was an evaporation such that the weight put in was 

 14.65 per cent, greater on the average than that taken off. 



The feeding was begun the tOth of August last, and re- 

 quired four and a half weeks for its completion. The three 

 colonies employed were dark hybrids of more than the aver- 

 age strength of the apiary. Each colony had a brood-chamber 

 consisting of a two-section Heddon hive with a fair amount 

 of brood for that season in a year of great dearth of bee-pas- 

 turage. The sections to be filled were all furnished with foun- 

 dation only, and one case was given to one of the colonies, and 

 two to each of the others. The feed was supplied to the bees 

 in pans placed above the sections, and was given as rapidly 

 as it could be taken. The greatest care was taken in keeping 

 a record of the amount fed, the amount given each time being 

 weighed separately. During the greater part of the time 

 when feeding was going on, there was a moderate amount of 

 honey being gathered, sufEcient, however, to supply most of 

 the apiary with abundant winter stores, notwithstanding pre- 

 viously the danger that most of the colonies would have to be 

 fed for winter seemed imminent, and many stored a consider- 

 able surplus in empty combs. It cannot of course be deter- 

 mined how much honey the colonies under consideration gath- 

 ered. Probably not nearly so much so as they would have 

 done had they not been receiving feed, and judging from the 

 results, one of the three gathered much less than either of the 

 others. If this was so, it resulted from the difference in tlie 

 characteristics of the bees of the different colonies. All three 

 certainly brought in large quantities of pollen. 



It will be noticed that in the table the weight of each 

 brood-chamber before and after the feeding is given, and to 



that is added the weight of each at the time of putting them 

 into winter quarters. In the next column appears the weight 

 of the liquid food given each, and that is followed by figures 

 showing the amount of dry sugar that went to make up the 

 syrup ; then after the weight of the honey produced and the 

 gain in the weight of the brood-chamber, comes, last of all, 

 the amount of sugar which has disappeared entirely, and this 

 upon the assumption which is a somewhat violent one, that 

 one pound of dry sugar made but one pound of ripened syrup. 

 But if we assume that a pound of sugar made lyi pounds of 

 sugar-honey, the figures showing the amounts consumed 

 would be greatly changed, and, disregarding fractions, we find 

 No. 1 consumed 84 pounds, No. 2, 31 pounds, and No. 3, 38 

 pounds. 



The question — What has become of these large amounts ? 

 — is a puzzling one, but our ability to answer it at least suflB- 

 ciently to enable us in practice to greatly reduce them is the 

 point upon which the answer to the question — Can feeding 

 back be made profitable ? — must turn. As bees have never 

 been suspected of casting good syrup out of the hive we may 

 assume that it was all used legitimately in carrying on the 

 work of the hive, but for different purposes, as it answers for 

 food, fuel, and building-material. It would be rash for one to 

 undertake to say for which of these purposes the greatest 

 amount was used, but probably if the facts could be got at it 

 would be that for food, if we include under that head all that 

 is used for the nourishment of the brood as well as that portion 

 of the honey consumed by the mature bees, and needed to 

 make, with the pollen consumed, a balanced ration. This dis- 

 position of the matter would leave the honey or syrup con- 

 sumed by the bees more than that to be divided and ascribed 

 to the other two purposes, that of creating heat and that of 

 producing wax. 



The only point that remains to be noticed in this matter Is 

 the method by which the expenditure of material for any of 

 the purposes above defined may be curtailed. 



The expenditure for food pure and simple could be judi- 

 ciously decreased to any great extent. That of the mature bees 

 could not be decreased to any great extent. That of the ma- 

 ture bees could not be decreased at all (if the work were done 

 at that season for the same length of time), and that of the 

 brood only to the extent the brood itself might be safely de- 

 creased. As bees at the season mentioned are seldom inclined 

 to rear much more brood than is necessary to bring the colony 

 through in good condition to the next spring, not very much 

 could have been saved here in this case, but all that could have 

 been done in this direction would have been accomplished 

 without danger of curtailing the brood too much by allowing 

 each colony a brood-chimber of a single section instead of 

 two. Earlier in the season when bees are inclined to give 

 more attention to the rearing of brood, such cutting down of 

 the brood-chamber would without question effect a large sav- 

 ing in the expenditure of food. The contraction of the brood- 

 chamber would prove very effective in other ways, especially 

 in the saving of honey as fuel, as the size of the space to be 

 warmed would be greatly lessened, and a much greater per- 

 centage of bees would be forced into the surplus-cases where 

 heat is especially needed while the working of wax is going 

 on ; and. too, the amount of the food given stored in the orood- 

 chamber would be cut down about one-half. (See account of 

 my feeding back experiment made in 1893.) 



Again, the choosing of the season from the middle of July 

 to the middle of August would be an advantage in all ways, 

 for the heat of the sun would serve largely to keep up the 

 temperature which must otherwise be maintained by the con- 

 sumption of fuel, the amount of food would also be decreased 

 to some extent, and, as comb is made thinner, and so goes 

 farther in hot than in cool weather, a substantial economy in 

 the saving of building-material would result. 



I shall only continue this to mention one other point 

 already referred to, which is hardly excelled by any in impor- 

 tance as an element in securing the highest success, -viz. : the 

 providing the bees with sections containing comb well worked 

 out and partly filled with honey, such as are usually plentiful 

 at the close of the early honey harvest, instead of empty sec- 

 tions. This is an advantage in many ways. The combs are 

 in condition for the process of filling to proceed at once, and 

 comparatively little wax needs to be produced, so that the 

 work is greatly hastened, and the consumption of honey saved 

 in every direction. The honey, also, in such sections, which 

 is unsalable in that condition, is doubled in value by the com- 

 pletion of the sections ; indeed, without the motive of bring- 

 ing such sections to a salable condition, feeding-back should 

 seldom be undertaken. — Review. Lapeer, Mich. 



See " Bee-Keeper's Guide" offer on page 4-17. 



