1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



123 



be converted, as it were, into many 

 times its weight of white honey. I do 

 not want any more honey-dew for 

 winter stores. Some winters bees ap- 

 pear to winter on it all right; in 

 others they will not. There was a 

 good deal of it gathered here last fall, 

 I put about 100 colonies in with this 

 honey-dew, and the loss so far is 

 about 20 per cent. Very likely it 

 will be 50 per cent, before May — per- 

 haps more. A good many of these 

 hives were badly spotted by the first 

 of January, but as far as I have been 

 able to observe, honey-dew answers 

 every purpose as well as the best 

 honey, when the bees can fly. 



When I feed sugar I use the best 

 granulated, I have tried cheap brown 

 sugar, both dark and light, and such 

 as we can get here is not fit to feed 

 bees at any time. There is something 

 in it that does not agree with them. 



Now a few words about feeders- I 

 use the Miller for all kinds of feed- 

 ing, and I think this, or some kind in 

 which we can feed during the day- 

 time without danger of robbing, is 

 best; for here, even quite late in the 

 spring, the nights will often be so 

 cool that bees will not take feed read- 

 ily from a feeder that is set outside 

 near the entrance, and if they would 

 when the nights get cool, I think it 

 is much better to feed in the morning 

 and then the feed will be carried be- 

 low by night, and they will keep quiet 

 and protect the brood better. 



Any feeder or method we use in 

 which it is necessary to use smoke 

 every time we feed, is a bad thing. 

 The less bees are smoked and disturb- 

 ed in the spring, the better. 



To illustrate the benefit that can be 

 derived from feeding in some seasons, 



let me describe one of the out yards* 

 Last year feeding was necessary to 

 secure a crop. The bees in this yard 

 were mostly in 8- frame hives — a few 

 were on 10-frames. The surplus to 

 be gathered from this yard was white 

 clover, basswood and flowers. There 

 was but very little fruit-bloom in 

 reach of this yard. About this time 

 feeding was commenced, and continu- 

 ed right through the white clover 

 season, for at first it was so cold at 

 night that it did not yield any, and 

 towards the last it dried up. But in 

 the home yard, about 13 miles from 

 this, white clover yielded enough to 

 keep brood-rearing, and considerable 

 honey-dew was secured in the spring, 

 which formed on box elder leaves, I 

 never saw the conditions vary in a 

 few miles as they did last year in this 

 out-yard. Practically nothing was to 

 be had until basswood, which was fair, 

 but it did not last long, but the bees 

 were ready for it, and secured what 

 there was — about 53 pounds per col- 

 ony in one pound sections. 



Each of these colonies were fed 

 about 30 pounds of sugar, which, at 

 5 cents per pound, would be $1.50 

 per colony. Fifty pounds of honey 

 at 15 cents a pound would be S7.50 

 per colony. Now to deduct $1.50 per 

 colony for sugar will leave $6 per col- 

 olony. They also secured enough 

 from fall flowers to winter on, and 

 about 12 pounds of surplus per colo- 

 ny, but we will not say anything 

 about this — we will say the basswood 

 honey was all they got, and we had 

 to feed 30 pounds more sugar for 

 winter stores — this would make $1.50 

 more to subtract from $6.00, which 

 would leave $4.50 per colony. In 

 this yard there were 127 colonies, 



