'/ 



The American Apiculturist. 



% f 0urnal bcbot^b to prnrtuul gcfhtriiin^, '-;. 



ENTERED AT TUK POST-OFFICE, WENHAil, AS SZCOKD- CLASS MATTER.-- 

 Published Monthly. Henry Atxet, Manager 



VOL. V. 



WENHAM, MASS., JAN. 



!?• 



No. I. 



We deal in first-class apiari- I Established in 1883. Terms : I Any yearly snbscriber is en- 

 an supplies of all kinds, lowest | $1.00 per year, 50 cents per six | titled to one of our best queens 

 prices. Prompt delivery. I months, 2.T cents ijer three I at any time between June 1 and 



Workmanship unexcelled. | months. Cash in advance. | Oct. 1, by remitting 50 cts. 



Address all eommunieatlons AMEKICAKT APICULTURIST, "Wenham, Mass. 



For the American Apiculturist. 



SUGAR STORES OR NOT? 



R. L. Taylor. 



The que.stion of the desirability 

 of using sugar to supply bees with 

 the necessary stores for winter is 

 a multiform one, and I fear is has- 

 tily decided this way or that, with- 

 out a due consideration of it in all 

 its bearings. To say nothing of 

 the many incidental facts wliich 

 have a bearing tlie one wa}' or the 

 other, it makes much difference as 

 to tlie question of profit, whether 

 the sugar is fed in exchange for 

 extracted honey or comb honey, 

 whether bees are likely to winter 

 better on sugar stores than on honey 

 or the contraiy, whether the in- 

 creased quantity of honey placed 

 on the market in consequence of 

 an extensive use of sugar for win- 

 ter stores is to demoralize prices 

 or not. 



The matter of the effect on the 

 markets must by no means be lost 

 sight of. If all beekeepers were to 

 extract all the honey from their 

 hives and to winter their bees on 

 sugar exclusively, the greatly in- 

 creased quantit}'^ of extracted honey 

 put upon the market in consequence 

 would be utterly disastrous to 

 prices. If double the usual amount 

 of any commodity which is exten- 

 sively produced be placed on the 



market, that market would be ru- 

 ined. Ilone}^ can be no exception. 

 It is equally plain that every addi- 

 tional person who gives sugar to 

 his bees, in exchange for hone}', is 

 doing an injury to the honey mar- 

 ket greater or less in proportion to 

 the amount so exchanged ; and in- 

 asmuch as it is now generally con- 

 sidered that that market is now 

 depressed to the very verge of un- 

 profitableness, it is evident that 

 from compulsion, the general rule 

 must be to winter bees on natural 

 stores. 



Making allowances for excep- 

 tional cases, this point would cover 

 the whole ground, were it not for 

 the fact that by skilful manage- 

 ment it appears to be possible to 

 increase the amount of salable 

 comb honey at the expense of a 

 greater or less lack of stores in the 

 brood-chamber. Tliat this is quite 

 a different question will appear 

 from the following considerations : 

 The market for comb honey seems 

 not nearl}'' so much oppressed as 

 that for extracted honey ; it is 

 more elastic, more capable of ab- 

 sorbing an extra amount without 

 being affected. Then there is in 

 the exchange of sugar S3a-up for 

 comb honey a good margin of 

 prolit. Even at the present low 

 prices, one-half the value of the 

 extra amount of comb honey ob- 

 tained would supply the brood- 



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