666 



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EXPERIMENT. 



" Feeding Bark " — in Order to 

 Obtain Comb Honey. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY C. W. DAYTON. 



The experiment which I am about to 

 describe, was maile in oi'der to deter- 

 mine the feasibility of feeding back 

 honey already gathered, when the 

 Queen-Restrictor is employed. 



My Qiieeu-Restrictor may be adap- 

 • ted to contain any number of brood- 

 frames, but the one used in this exper- 

 iment contained only one frame. The 

 Queen-Restrictor to contain one frame 

 consists of the frame and perforated 

 sheets of zinc, so jn-epared and attach- 

 ed together as to confine the queen 

 upon one brond-comb, and no more, 

 while the worker-bees may pass unre- 

 strained. A reversing device is also 

 provided, so that the Restrictor may 

 be reversed to cause the destruction of 

 queen-cells. 



Having previously prepared the Re- 

 strictor. as descriljed. on July 8. I 

 went to a prosperous colony occupying 

 a 10-frame hive. At tirst this colony, 

 with the hive, was removed from the 

 stand a little to one side, and an empty 

 hive placed on the stand instead. Then 

 one of the straightest, best-filled combs 

 of brood was selected ahd transferred 

 from its frame into the frame in the 

 Restrictor, and the queen hunted up 

 and placed upon it, and then all placed 

 in the center of the empty hive. The 

 vacant space on either side of the Re- 

 strictor was tilled with wide-frames of 

 sections, after which the remaining 

 combs were taken from the colony and 

 the bees shaken before the new hive, 

 which thej' readily entered, to join the 

 queen. These combs Ijeing rendered 

 destitute of bees were given to a nu- 

 cleus. There, also, was placed on the 

 top of the new hive-, a super of 21 

 sections. 



The wide-frames held 24 sections, 

 making in all 45 4ix4}x7-to-the-foot 

 sections, to the colony. Separators 

 were used and the sections were filled 

 nearly full of newly made foundation 

 measuring about lOi feet to the pound. 

 This completed the arrangement of 

 the hive. 



Everything being ready, a large, 

 shallow, slatted feeder, exactly the 

 size of the bottom of the hive, was 

 placed under the hive in place of the 

 bottom-board and the colony fed all 

 the honey it would take from the bee- 

 feeder. 



At the start, from 3 to 4 pounds a 

 day was taken, and after 4 or 5 days 

 the amount increased to 7 to 12 pounds 

 per daj'. which was supplied to the 

 feeder twice a day, 6 pounds to a feed. 



On July 15. the sections were ex- 

 amined and 40 sections of comb honey 

 removed, and 40 sections filled with 

 foundation, as before, put in their pla- 

 ces, and the feeding continued. 



On July 21, 31 finished sections were 

 taken ; on July 26, 30 ; on July 30, 17; 

 after which, the surplus space being 

 full of sections, the experiment was 

 drawn to a close by feeding until the 

 sections were all finished, which was 

 on August 10, and all the sections 

 removed. 



After weighing, it was found that 

 there were 163 sections weigliing, on 

 the average, a trifle over 14 ounces,, 

 and they cost 236 pounds of honey. 

 Figuring comb honey at 15 cents a 

 section, it is 124.45. Figuring honej' 

 at 7 cents in barrels, it equals .fib. 52. 

 or a difference of $7.93, not consider- 

 ing the cost of foundation and sec- 

 tions. A part of this hone}' was sold 

 at 15 cents a section. 



It was noticeable of these sections, 

 that they were, without exception, 

 built out true and filled with honey 

 clear to the wood. What propolis 

 there was (and there was very little) 

 ajjpeared to be white wax ; the bees 

 having not much use for wax. they 

 seemed to use it in place of glue. 



Several other colonies were experi- 

 mented with, more or less like the one 

 described, and the amount of food re- 

 quired to perfect 50 14-ounce sections, 

 always fell below 80 pounds ; and in 

 one trial. 50 sections were completed 

 on less than 72 pounds of food. 



This experim(!nt was made in behalf 

 of necessity. I have studied mucli to 

 find a device or system that would pre- 

 vent such large quantities of brood 

 being reared during the harvest, and I 

 have foimd it in restraining the queen 

 from laying at certain seasons. In 

 short, to contract the brood-nest with- 

 out changing the usual hive space. 



It is my belief that there are queens 

 prolific enough to maintain 10 combs 

 full of brood, up to the close of the 

 honey harvest, wheu the brood cannot 

 but hatch out a set of something like 

 50.000 idle boarders. All the bees 

 that hatch in the 10 days preceding 

 the end of the harvest, are useless also. 

 These two numbers equal 75,000 bees. 

 Reckoning 7,000 bees to a pound, we 

 have lOi pounds. Calling a pound of 

 bees equivalent to 3 pounds of honey, 

 and the time and labor of the old bees 

 in caring for the bees, 2 pounds, it 

 reaching a total equivalent of 52J 

 pounds of honey, which is worse than 

 lost. The most of those colonies which 

 are not read}' to swarm before the 

 harvest, are found to have the largest 

 amounts of hatching brood in their 

 hives, at and near the end of the 

 harvest, when there is no honey for 

 them to gather. 



The aim of my experiments this sea- 

 son has been mostly to find a way to 

 make this large number of unseasona- 

 ble bees profitable. 



I am satisfied that, at the present 

 prices of comb and extracted honej-. 

 there is a wide margin of profit over 

 the cost of the teed, in feeding back 

 extracted honey to obtain comb honey; 

 and what remains is to ascertain if it 

 will pay for the labor. 



It has gone to record many times 

 that 2 or 3 pounds of extracted honey 

 is required to obtain one pound of 

 comb honey, and my faith in that 

 record prevented mj' experiments in 

 that direction until now. 



Clinton, Wis. 



SYRIAN BEES. 



Their Extra-Prolific Queens not 

 Advantageous. 



Written for the American Rural Home 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



I see by the papers that some are, 

 still puffing the .Sj'rian bees, as just 

 the bees for the • multitude" to keep, 

 one of the reasons which is given for 

 there so thinking, is that of their extra 

 prolificness. To make this idea more 

 emphatic, one writer says all his expe- 

 rience in bee-keeping has tended to 

 make him value prolificness in a queen 

 above all other qualities. He wants 

 them to be so prolific that lots of brood 

 will be reared at all seasons of the 

 year when the weather will permit 

 He wants the hive overflowing with 

 Isees in the spring of the year, in the 

 summer, and in the fall as well. Such 

 words as these are a great surprise to 

 me. If he had modified this statement 

 so as to make it read, that he valued 

 the pi'olificness of a queen above all " 

 other qualities, when it could be so 

 regulated that such prolificness would 

 be of the greatest profit to the* bee- 

 keeper. I would hold up both hands 

 for it ; but wheu he writes that he re- 

 gards the prolificness in a queen at all 

 times of the }'ear above all other qual- 

 ities, the printer either made him saj' 

 what he did not intend to, or else he is 

 very much mistaken. Here, where we 

 have but about 6 weeks during the 

 whole season in which the bees make 

 anj' gain in honey, what we want is a 

 queen that can be coaxed to fill the 

 hive to over-flowing with brood during 

 a few weeks previous to this honey 

 harvest, and laj' just as few eggs at all 

 other times as is consistent with ac- 

 complishing the above object. 



If the writer of the above had a piece 

 of work which he must accomplish at 

 a certain time If he was to receive any 

 profit therefrom, he would hire his 

 help before that time expired or not at 



