THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



571 



bees have done to others. Under the 

 iictuHl legislation of the Empire ( V 

 ci-dexsus). the apiarist frequently es- 

 capes the penalty of this article, be- 

 cause no one knows who owns the bees 

 when they are away from their hives, 

 lie is not responsible for his swarms 

 when they abscond, for then they are 

 only his property by law. 



In principle (after the law of 1791), 

 the culture of bees, like all other an- 

 imals, is not under any restriction ; 

 any one has the right to keep as many 

 colonies of bees as he wishes on his 

 own lands, or to transport them from 

 one place to another.—! Vaudore, 20;!.) 



Kor tlie American Bee Journal. 



Preparing Bees for Winter, etc. 



JAMES HEDDON. 



In response to many solicitations, I 

 will give the following advice, based 

 npon my experience in feeding bees 

 for winter. 



We need not fear winter losses 

 from .any cause except bee-diarrhea. 

 I do not know positively, but I am of 

 the opinion that the consumption of 

 pollen in confinement is the prime 

 cause of bee-diarrhea. I am also 

 further quite positive that bees never 

 partake of bee-bread in confinement, 

 if the temperature surrounding them 

 does not sink below a certain point. 

 I am fearful that honey often contains 

 enough floating pollen to cause fecal 

 accumulations during contiuement, 

 because pollen in this form cannot be 

 rejected by the bees under any circum- 

 stances iH which the consumption of 

 such honey is going on. I do not be- 

 lieve that bees can void fecal accumu- 

 lations in a dry state, and thus avoid 

 diarrhea. Many years' experience by 

 many beekeepers with sugar syrup, 

 has demonstrated that it is better as 

 a winter food than honey. 



UOW TO I'REI'ARE THE SYRUP. 



Enquirers ask for the results of my 

 experience in preparing and feeding 

 sugar syrup for bees in winter, which 

 is as follows : 



Into a boiling-pan put three pounds 

 of water, heat it until it boils, and 

 with a wooden-paddle stir this boiling 

 water as you sift into it ten pounds of 

 granulated sugar. When it is all dis- 

 solved, and the syrup is boiling, pour 

 into it one-half of a tea-cupfuU of 

 water, in which has previously been 

 dissolved a large tea-spoon level full 

 of tartaric acid. Stir it a moment 

 longer, and then remove it from the 

 fire. Feed the syrup while warm (not 

 hot), if convenient. I use and prefer 

 a large feeder covering the entire top 

 of the hive, which holds 18 pounds at 

 one filling. 



This syrup will not crystallize if 

 the acid is used in the proportion 

 mentioned, and is of full strength, 

 and the syrup boiled as directed. 

 Such syrup is at once, when cool, of 

 the consistency of well-ripened honey, 

 and as the bees receive, store and seal 

 it readily, I know of no reason why it 

 is best to feed it to them thinner, and 

 depend upon them to evaporate a por- 

 tion of the water in it. 



WIIKN TO FICKD THE SYRUP. 



The best time to feed the syrup is at 

 once— iis soon as you are satisfied that 

 all gathering of natural stores is past. 



PREPARING THE HIVES. 



There are two ways of preparing 

 the hives to receive this rood. No 

 notice need be taken of the bee-bread 

 which the combs may contain, pro- 

 viding a low temperature is properly 

 guarded against. One w,iy is to wait 

 till the brood is all hatched out in the 

 hive, then exchange with them honey- 

 less combs for theirs containing their 

 honey. I should prefer to feed into 

 only five Eangstroth combs, and in 

 some way fill up the rest of the space 

 contained in the hive made for eight 

 or ten frames. 



The hive is now ready to put on the 

 feeder, and it is perhaps better to feed 

 them about 2-5 pounds of this syrup. 

 It is true that large colonies often 

 consume not more than 2, 3, or 5 

 pounds when wintering well, from 

 the time they cease to fly until they 

 again fly in the spring ; yet all must 

 need several times more than this to 

 carry them from the time of feeding 

 until the time of gathering new 

 honey the following year, and I see 

 no reason for giving them only suf- 

 ficient stores to sustain life during the 

 period of confinement, unless one has 

 some old honey or other inferior feed 

 that he may wish to convert into 

 brood and bees in the spring, before 

 the bees will gather new honey. I 

 am speaking for latitudes similar to 

 my own. 



For brood-rearing, when bees can 

 fly almost daily, I would rather feed 

 honey than sugar syrup, especially if 

 bee-bread was not plentiful in the 

 hives, or pollen in the field, owing to 

 the fact of its containing nitrogen— 

 the great tissue-making element. 



Another and more simple way of 

 preparing the hives, and one which I 

 believe to be practically safe, is to 

 work them through the summer in 

 such a manner as to bring them out 

 at the end of the honey-flow partially 

 or almost entirely destitute of honey, 

 (see my article on page 437), and feed 

 the syrup on top of the stores which 

 the hive contains, without moving a 

 single comb. 



I shall try both of the above plans 

 the present season. The latter plan 

 embraces the advantages that, first,no 

 preparatory manipulation is required, 

 and second, the bee-keeper does not 

 have to wait for the last of the brood 

 to hatch from the hive. I believe it 

 to be almost certain of success. The 

 sugar-syrup stores will be placed 

 where its consumption will take place 

 mainly during the period of confine- 

 ment. 



THE PROPER TEMPERATURE. 



I am persuaded that 45- Fahr. 

 (ranging .above that point rather than 

 below) is the proper degree for the re- 

 pository. Of course this would be a 

 deadly temperature for the interior of 

 the hive, and I should prepare the 

 hives with only lower ventilation. If 

 a cellar is very damp, such dampness 

 will not tend to produce bee-diarrhea, 

 but it will injure the hive, and may 

 be avoided by placing on its top a 



case or super filled with chaff, shav- 

 ings or other absorbent. 



Now, I fancy I hear ^lessrs. Boom- 

 hovver, II. V. Train and others say, 

 " Why, bees will always winter well 

 in that way upon their natural stores!" 

 The reports from these gentlemen 

 have given us evidence that such is 

 true of their locations, but I fear it is 

 not true in my own, as well as in 

 many others. I wish it was, for I do 

 not like to run in debt for sugar while 

 I have on hand tons of the choicest 

 white extracted honey, for which, in 

 bulk. I can find no purchaser. 



After the temperature is properly 

 cared for, how much then depends 

 upon the quality of the food, remains 

 for experiment, and I shall be one to 

 try to solve the problem. 



The amount of water, acid and 

 sugar mentioned in the above way of 

 preparing the syrup, is given merely 

 as a proportion. I boil half a barrel 

 of sugar at one time, on a common 

 cook-stove, in a flat copper-boiler 

 made for the purpose, and which 

 covers the entire top of the stove. It 

 would be better to have the large 

 tea-spoon a little rounding with the 

 tartaric acid than any scant of level 

 full ; and one had better feed his bees 

 twice what they need than any scant 

 of their necesssties. They will not 

 w.aste any. 



REPLIES TO VARIOUS CRITICISMS. 



I wish to say to Mr. Gresh (page 

 551 ) and others, that I have us^d the 

 word " prime " correctly. It has many 

 definitions, in which case I, of course, 

 have a choice. It is defined by Web- 

 ster, and used in common conversa- 

 tion, as " first in rank, degree, dig- 

 nity or importance, first in excellence; 

 of the highest quality." 



I also wish to say that I know Mr. 

 Gresh is mistaken in supposing that 

 deep frames may have any advan- 

 tages over shallow ones for wintering. 

 True theory and practical experience, 

 both, deny it. 



Prof. Cook only said that Mr. Doo- 

 little's bees had the odor of diar- 

 rhea, and seemed to be without pol- 

 len, as Mr. (4resh now states it, which 

 is quite different from his former 

 statement. 



I did not read Mr. Doolittle's article 

 on page 69 (1884), until my attention 

 was called to it by a friend two weeks 

 ago. That article is prior to my arti- 

 cle, but not to my work which is 

 three years old, so I cannot "give 

 him priority in using the system." 

 Besides, I find that it is not a sys- 

 tematized summer and winter man- 

 agement, as meant by me in my 

 former article. According to Mr. 

 Doolittle's statement, he has in Sep- 

 tember "from 18to 22 pounds of honey 

 in the fr.ames, with a very small col- 

 ony of bees for wintering." Now, 

 this is not systematized iis a necessary 

 summer and winter management, for 

 it leaves the hives much in the same 

 condition as when managed without 

 contriiction, while my own method 

 brings them out quite short of stores, 

 and in a good condition for the intro- 

 duction of sugar syrup. This is the 

 way it looks to me, yet it is of no im- 

 portance, for I only stated what I be- 

 lieved and in keeping with the facts, 



