THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



chamber with the necessaiy sugar 

 stores. And, again, in making this 

 exchange, no handling of the bees 

 or brood-combs is i-equii'f>d. The 

 labor of preparing and distributing 

 the food is short, easy and not un- 

 pleasant. On the contraiy, if the 

 exchange of the sugar stores is to 

 be made for extracted hone}', the 

 disagreeable and, vvitliout care, the 

 somewhat dangerous work of ex- 

 tracting from the brood-combs, must 

 be performed at a time when the 

 bees have nothing to do but to 

 ■watch for opportunities to make 

 trouble, the marketing of the honey 

 is apt to be disappointing, and at 

 best there is no hope of profit un- 

 less it be found in what 1 would 

 believe are exceptional cases, where 

 the exchange so much improves the 

 the qualities of the stores for win- 

 tering purposes as to give a proba- 

 ble success in wintering for almost 

 certain failure. 



This brings me to what is per- 

 haps the most important point in 

 the whole matter, and that is 

 whether stores of pure granulated 

 sugar S3'i'up are better for winter- 

 ing purposes than is honey. I have 

 experimented more or less for the 

 last seven or eight years with sugar 

 for winter stores, with the result 

 that 1 find within me an abiding 

 faith in the value and the necessity 

 of sugar stores if we are to allow 

 every phase of the subject except 

 successful wintering to drop out 

 of sight. In the fall of '84, I sup- 

 plied 200 colonies exclusively with 

 such stores, and notwithstanding 

 the ensuing disastrous wintei-, 

 when fully ninety per cent of the 

 bees in this part of the state per- 

 ished, there was not a single nor- 

 mal colony out of the two hundred, 

 that, so far as I could judge, did 

 not winter perfectly. I expect 

 sometime to l)e able to winter m}^ 

 bees perfectly and with certainty 

 on honey, though I have not learned 

 jo do it as yet ; but with sugar 



stores alone, I think I am war- 

 ranted in saying that 1 can do it 

 now with practical certainty. If 

 1 am correct in this assertion, it 

 follows that there is a difference in 

 favor of sugar between that and at 

 least some kinds of honey for the 

 purposes of winteriiig. What is 

 the solution of this? I believe 

 there are several reasons for it. 

 First, stores gathered late in the 

 season on account of the undesira- 

 ble sources from which some of 

 them are taken, and on account of 

 the want of thorough evaporation 

 are much moi-e liable to fermenta- 

 tion than are proj^erly prepared 

 sugar stores. Secondly, many af- 

 firm, and I believe they are correct, 

 that the pollen often found floating 

 in honey, particularly in that gath- 

 ered late in the season and but 

 partially ripened, is a cause of dis- 

 comfort to the bees and so a cause 

 of much of the imperfect winter- 

 ing. And then, thirdly, sugar syrup 

 is in its nature much less exciting 

 to the bees than an^^ honey. 



Every apiarist who has fed sugar 

 syrup to bees cannot have failed to 

 notice that it is a much pleasanter 

 labor than would be the feeding of 

 hone3^ He soon learns that it is 

 very much less likely to incite rob- 

 bing than is honey. Bees will be- 

 come blind witii excitement over 

 exposed honey, while they will 

 work lazily and without emotion 

 on syrup. When spring opens, you 

 will seldom see robber-bees prying 

 into the hives of colonies whose 

 stores are purely sugar. 



Wly should not these character- 

 istics of honey and sugar have a 

 corresponding effect upon the bees 

 during the winter? I can conceive 

 of no reason wh}' they should not, 

 and from ray experience in winter- 

 ing bees on both kinds of stores, 

 am satisfied that they do. Any 

 one I think would be convinced if 

 he could in March look into a col- 

 ony wintered on honey and see the 



