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AMERICAN BEE JOURNA1-. 



stirring both together .as long as the 

 water would dissolve any more sugar. 

 As this seemed so simple I concluded to 

 use this. 



Having the syrup made and the feed- 

 ers in the hivo, I proceeded to feed, all 

 going well the first feed. When I came 

 to feed the second night, I found the 

 feed skimmed over with a crust of sugar 

 which had formed on the surface during 

 the 24 hours it had been standing. I 

 also found that it had granulated on the 

 bottom and sides of the can, and upon 

 going to the hives I found a little on the 

 bottom and sides of the feeders. How- 

 ever, I persisted in feeding it, as the 

 one giving the plan said nothing was 

 needed to keep the syrup from crystal- 

 lizing, as the bees put acid enough into 

 it in manipulating to keep it a liquid. 



After a few days, I noticed bees out 

 at the entrance of the hive of each col- 

 ony fed, having little grains of sugar on 

 their wings and bodies, trying to fly, but 

 most of them had so much on them that 

 they could only hop around, making a 

 purring sound with their wings. I next 

 looked inside of the hive, when I found 

 that fully one-fifth of the bees had more 

 or less of these sugar crystals on them, 

 while the inside of the feeders was all 

 covered with crystals. Upon looking 

 into the cells containing the syrup, I 

 found that in many of them crystalliza- 

 tion had commenced to such an extent 

 that the crystals were easily seen. I 

 said this would not answer, so when the 

 next batch of syrup was made, I put 

 vinegar in the water before stirring in 

 the sugar. While the vinegar helped 

 about the crystals, it also gave a taste 

 to the syrup which I did not like, so in 

 the next I tried cream of tartar, and 

 then tartaric acid ; but in spite of them 

 all, the syrup would crystallize some, 

 unless I added so much that a disagree- 

 able taste was given the syrup. 



It now came to me, how in early years 

 I had used, owing to scarcity of honey 

 at our house, honey and sugar mixed, on 

 the table, in which case neither the 

 honey nor sugar granulated, so the next 

 batch of syrup was made as follows : 



Fifteen pounds of water was put into 

 a large tin dish and brought to a boil, 

 when 30 pounds of granulated sugar 

 was poured in and stirred for a moment 

 till it had mostly dissolved, when it was 

 left over the fire till it boiled again. 

 Upon taking from the fire, five pounds 

 of honey was poured in, and the whole 

 stirred enough to mix thoroughly. I 

 found in this a syrup of about the con- 

 sistency of honey, which remained a 

 liquid from day to day — a syrup that 



any bee-keeper could easily make, and 

 one which would not crystallize on the 

 bees, feeders or in the ceils. I have 

 kept thisfsyrup standing in an open dish 

 for months at a time without its crystal- 

 lizing or souring. 



It has now been some 10 or 12 years 

 since the experiments above given were 

 tried, and during all that time I have 

 never found how I could improve on this 

 food for feeding bees for winter stores. 

 For spring feeding, I would use 25 

 pounds of water to the same amount of 

 sugar and honey, as this gives better 

 results in brood-rearing than does the 

 thicker syrup. 



As to there being any danger, should 

 it so happen that honey from a foul- 

 broody colony was used, I would say 

 that there need be no fears, for if the 

 honey is stirred in as above given, it 

 will all be scalded, and the scalding of 

 honey anything else having the germs 

 of foul brood about or in it, effectually 

 kills these germs. However, care should 

 be used in handling honey which may 

 have come from a foul-broody hive, as 

 the least bit of it carelessly left where 

 the bees can get it, while in its raw 

 state, will carry with it the seeds of foul 

 brood, just as surely as corn grows from 

 seed corn. 



There is one other item I wish to no- 

 tice before closing, and that is where 

 our correspondent hints at its being 

 necessary to feed his bees before long. 

 If, as I suspect, the correspondent lives 

 in the North, he should have fed the 

 bees in October what they needed to 

 carry them through the winter. This is 

 a duty he not only owes to himself, but 

 to the bees also, for, while bees often do 

 come through the winter when fed dur- 

 ing cold weather, yet the chances are 

 that a loss of colonies will not only waste 

 the bees, but the syrup fed as well. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



Bees In tlie Sierra Mnt Mountains. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 

 BY S. Li. WATKINS. 



The honey season, the past year, was 

 above the average, and bees have paid 

 well. The last two or three seasons I 

 have not kept so many bees as I form- 

 erly did. I took up a piece of land here 

 in the upper Sierras, and have been im- 

 proving it. I have started in the nur- 

 sery business, and I find that this goes 

 splendidly with the bee-business. From 

 now on, I shall increase my bees up, and 



