Jan. 25, 1906 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



71 



have only a small amount of honey in them, and yet some 

 of that honey may be sealed. Now we do cot think it worth 

 while to disturb that super at all, only we want it emptied 

 of all honey. When sorting our honey we like to have all 

 sections to be emptied placed in the supers, separatored and 

 wedged in tight, then thoroughly emptied of honey and 

 packed away all ready to set on the hives the next season ; 

 and so far we have found only one way that we can be sure 

 of getting this done, and that is by letting the bees rob 

 them. 



Mr. Bevins, on page 9, advises that No. 32 should have 

 had empty combs. Although it was not mentioned on page 

 810 (1905), that was exactly what they had— 8 extra brood- 

 combs nearly empty ; but even with this inducement the 

 bees would not take the trouble to uncap the sections. 



A Letter from a Young Sister 



Dear Miss Wilson :— Papa said that he met you at the 

 National convention, and that you said you were anxious 

 for short articles from the sisters. 



I have been working with the bees ever since I was 13 

 years old, which has been 3 seasons. I will give you some 

 of my experience. 



When I first commenced to take off comb honey I was 

 some afraid, but as I worked on I became braver, until now 

 I am not at all afraid. The first season I took off more than 

 100 pounds, and did not get many stings. After I had been 

 working an hour or two, mamma came out to see if I was 

 getting nervous. 



The next year I took off some more honey, and helped 

 papa put up queens. 



Last year, as there was not very much comb honey, I 

 did most of the extracting with the help of two neighbor 

 girls. They did the work in the apiary house, which was 

 to weigh, uncap, and extract the combs, while I took them off. 



I caught most of the queens to fill the orders, and my 

 little brother, or another boy, would put the wires on the 

 cages. 



I should have said that I just worked during the sum- 

 mer, as I go to school 9 months of the year. Last fall I 

 went into the high school. Elsie Strong. 



Clarinda, Iowa. 



P.S. — I write this for the benefit of timid girls who are 

 afraid to work with the bees. E. S. 



We are very glad to have the benefit of Elsie's experi- 

 ence, especially as her papa tells me that she is the very 

 best help he ever had in the apiary. And here is a nice 

 little letter from Kenneth ; I am sure he, also, will soon be 

 a great help to his papa : 



Letter from a Little Brother. 



Dear Miss Wilson:— lam a little boy 7 years old. I 

 help papa put up queens. I put 1 he screens on the mailing 

 cages after Elsie catches the queens. I also split smoker- 

 wood after papa has sawed off the blocks. Kenneth. 



=% 



Southern 

 -V 23eebom -f 



Conducted by Louis H. Scholl, New Braunfels, Tex. 



=J 



Feeding Bees in Winter 



In the South, where the weather is more or less warm 

 and sunny during the greater part of the winter and bees 

 can fly, it would be safe to give feed in liquid form if col- 

 onies are short of stores. In this case it would be better to 

 heat the syrup, made of one part of best granulated sugar 

 and one part of water. The sugar should be stirred into the 

 boiling water and kept hot, but not boiling, stirring it con- 

 tinually until all is a clear liquid. I would feed it slightly 

 warm, but not hot. It is not a good idea, however, to feed 

 liquid syrup when bees can not fly, as cleansing flights are 

 necessary after handling the syrup. Warm weather, too, is 

 necessary for a certain amount of evaporation of the syrup, 



but the heating before being fed helps it greatly in this re- 

 spect. 



If the weather is so that syrup feeding is not advisable, 

 and the bees must be supplied with stores, cakes of candy 

 should be given. Be sure to use high-grade granulated 

 sugar, dissolving it in boiling water. The ratio of sugar 

 and water that suited me best for making these cakes is 4 

 pounds of sugar to a gallon of water. More sugar makes 

 the cakes too dry. Boil this syrup carefully until it will 

 harden to mold into cakes. If a little of the syrup dropped 

 in cold water solidifies quickly it has boiled enough. 



Now pour the syrup into large shallow pans of some 

 kind, or a shallow wooden trough lined with butter, or par- 

 affin paper, to prevent sticking. The syrup should be 

 about 7.)'z inches deep so that when it has hardened it can 

 be broken into cakes weighing about 6 pounds each. Cakes 

 6 inches wide and 10 inches in length will average this 

 weight, but it is not necessary to have them in this exact 

 shape. Pieces broken off the cake in any form and averag- 

 ing about 150 cubic inches will weigh near enough to 6 

 pounds. 



I have just made a number of oblong cakes for experi- 

 ment, by pouring the hot syrup into paste board boxes of 

 the right dimensions for a single cake ; the boxes first be- 

 ing lined with a sheet of butter-paper. The paper was 

 easily peeled off after the cakes had hardened sufficiently. 

 The boxes can be used over again several times, relining 

 them with paper by simply placing a sheet over them and 

 roughly pressing it down with the fingers. 



In feeding, one of these cakes is to be laid carefully 

 over the cluster of bees of each colony. If bur-combs ex- 

 tend over the top bars, so much the better ; but if not, then 

 a few sticks should be laid under the cakes to allow the bees 

 freer access to the cake from below. If no supers are on 

 the hives empty ones can t»e placed on and a piece of cloth 

 or old gunny-sacking should be packed over the top-bars 

 and the candy cake. Where deep covers are used the supers 

 will not be needed. In the more southern parts of the South 

 supers are kept on the hives the entire year. 



The question has been asked me several times, whether 

 can syrup or molasses would be satisfactory for feeding 

 purposes. I should not advocate it, not on an extensive 

 scale, at least. It has been used by some of our farmer bee- 

 keepers. One such case I remember last spring. The bees- 

 were starving and needed food at once, but there was no 

 other sweet in the house, except cane molasses. It was 

 about 20 miles to the nearest town, and the roads were bad. 

 To give relief to the starving bees at once, about a pint of 

 the syrup was given, pouring it into the combs by laying 

 them flat over the top-bars and allowing the surplus to drip 

 off when the combs were replaced in the hive. 



Care should be taken in all feeding manipulations not to 

 incite robbing. This molasses feeding was done later in 

 the spring. Sugar syrup replaced the former as soon as sugar 

 was obtained, as the molasses contains undesirable constit- 

 uents that are harmful to bees. It can not be safely fed in 

 a diluted state on account of the formation of acetic acid 

 when thinned with water. The acid is injurious to bees 

 and kills them. 



The same trouble obtains when feeding "pelloncillos. " 

 This is an unrefined sugar manufactured in Mexico, and 

 comes in the shape of small cones weighing about 13 ounces 

 each. As a feed it is cheaper than cane-sugar, costing 

 about Z% cents per pound. Cones of this sugar are placed 

 above the brood-nest like the candy cakes mentioned before, 

 and the bees help themselves. These "pelloncillos' - are 

 often used by Southwest Texas bee-keepers for feeding in 

 "off" years. It is claimed that this sugar does not stimu- 

 late brood-rearing when fed in this way. It works all right 

 for feeding in dry localities of the country, but in damp or 

 moist locations the sugar takes up water and the formation 

 of acetic acid results. If syrup is made from this sugar by 

 adding water, fermentation takes place to a certain extent, 

 and the amount of acetic acid is so great that bees fed upon 

 the syrup will die by the thousands. Great care should 

 therefore be taken when feeding " pelloncillos" when the 

 weather is not absolutely dry. 



Please Send Us Names of Bee-Keepers who do not 



now get the American Bee Journal, and we will send them 

 sample copies. Then you can very likely afterward get 

 their subscriptions, for which work we offer valuable 

 premiums in nearly every number of this Journal. You 

 can aid much by sending in the names and addresses when 

 writing us on other matters. 



