1873.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



83 



[Translated from the Bienenzeitung.] 



Sugar Syrup for the Bees. 



For over twelve years — 1861, 1873 — have I 

 employed in my experiments, and in fitting out 

 my bees for winter, more than 400 leters of 

 sugar syrup, and always with the best results. 

 A mixture of 7 parts sugar, 4 parts water re- 

 duced to 2 parts sugar and 1 part water, gives 

 a syrup for the bees, as healthy, as accepted 

 and as nourishing as the best honey. By the 

 phrase "as nourishing," must be understood 

 that a certain quantity of this juice will go as 

 far as the same quantity of honey, in support- 

 ing a colony. 



The art of preparing this syrup is very 

 simple. You pour into a kettle 4 liters of 

 water and 7 kilos of sugar, broken into pieces 

 of from 100 — 200 grammes ; you place the ket- 

 tle over a moderate fire, then you stir the sugar 

 and crush the hardest lumps with a spatula ; 

 when the sugar is wholly dissolved, which takes 

 place in from 30 to 40 minutes, remove the ket- 

 tle from the fire, and when the mixture cools, 

 you pour the syrup into vessels to be preserved 

 for use. In this manner it can be preserved 

 for more than six months. 



While this mixture remained over the fire, it 

 lost one portion of its water and is thus reduced 

 to about 3 parts sugar and 1 part water, in my 

 judgment the best proportions. 



Waste of nourishment. Few bee-keepers are 

 aware of what takes place, in a stock, which 

 is being fed. They ])elieve that the bees store 

 up the food given them. But it is not so. 

 Let a stock be weighed before it is fed, and 

 then after it has been fed, and he will find the 

 waste or loss of 1-5 — 1-6 of the food. I have 

 made many experiments concerning this. I 

 will briefly state one of them. 



1st Experiment. 1860, August 10, 7 o'clock, 

 in the evening, I weighed most carefully six 

 stocks, of which 3 were to be fed, the other 

 three not to be fed, as they were to serve as a 

 standard of comparison. After weighing I 

 gave three stocks equal quantities of honey, 

 11,750 grammes, free from any mixture with 

 water. 



On the 14th of August, at 8 o'clock, three 

 stocks were weighed again. The three stocks 

 which had received the 11,750 grammes honey 

 and used it, showed a loss of 2,315 grammes, 

 i. e. 772 grammes to each hive ; the three stocks 

 which were not fed, had lost 428 grammes i. e., 

 only 143 grammes to the hive. The three hives 

 had between their first and second weighing 

 lost 1-5 of their furnished nourishment. 



2d Experiment. 1869, August 2, 10 o'clock, 

 A. M., I weighed 4 stocks marked A B C D. 

 The stocks A and B were to be fed, while C and 

 D were to receive no food. We will first de- 

 scribe the behavior of stock A On the day 

 on which it was weighed, at 6 o'clock p. m., it 

 received 1980 grammes sugar syrup; on the 



following day, 8d of August, at 5 o'clock, A. M., 

 it received 2,035 grammes of the same syrup, 

 and on the same day at 11 o'clock, it received 

 2,045 grammes, in all 6,060 grammes. On the 

 4th of August, at 5 o'clock a. m when weighed 

 it showed a loss 945 grammes in two days. 



The result of the experiments of stock B are 

 as follows :— On the 2d of August, 6 o'clock, 

 p. M., I gave it 2,045 grammes sugar syrup, on 

 the following day, 3d of August, 5 o'clock, A. 

 M., I gave it another 2,110 grammes, in all 4,155 

 grammes. On the 4th of August, 5 o'clock, A. 

 M., the weighing showed a loss of 775 grammes. 



The two remaining stocks C and D, also 

 weighed on the 4th of August, 5 o'clock, p. m:., 

 showed a loss of only 170 gr., 40 for C, and 

 130 for D. 



Another experiment : 1860, June 27, 4 o'clock, 

 A. M., a stock weighed 11,510 grammes; on the 

 same day, at 8 o'clock, p. m., it weighed 13,050; 

 gr. ; on the following day, June 38, 4 o'clock, 

 A. M., it weighed only 12,090 gr., showing a loss 

 of 360 grammes over night. I could give many 

 such examples, showing the loss over night 

 after a very productive day. 



Remarks. The storing of the food is always 

 accompanied with more or less confusion, in 

 proportion to the eagerness with which it is 

 sought. If this confusion does not make itself 

 apparent you may safely judge that the bees 

 are taking little or no food. And to this con- 

 fusion may be attributed the waste above men- 

 tioned. This loss is occasioned by the evapor- 

 ation, which takes place more rapidly owing 

 t o this tussle and confusion than it would in a 

 state of rest. 



It is well known that when the bees during 

 the day, carry in much honey, they set up a 

 greater humming during the night, than they 

 otherwise do. To this humming or fanning 

 must be attributed this waste. Evident it is 

 that the bees in a state of rest, do not lose in 

 their weight during the night. 



The stock A I gave, in 17 hours, 6 kilo of 

 nourishment ; had I given this quantity in six 

 portions separated by 3 or 3 days, the loss 

 would have been more than double. 



COLLEN. 



[For the American Bee Journal] 



Wintering Bees. 



In almost every bee-journal, English or Ger- 

 man, we see arguments about the best mode of 

 wintering our bees. We can raise honey in a 

 good season, as much as any body, no trouble 

 about that ; but how to bring our pets through 

 the winter safely, is what troubles us most. The 

 bees of some of our friends die of dysentery, 

 caused by bad honey, some on account of up- 

 ward ventilation and some for the want of it, 

 and as I see in the German Bienenzeitung espe- 

 cially a good many bees die for want of water. 



