1894. 



THE . I MEEK ', I ZV BEE- KEEPER. 



137 



The former looks u|)i>n Bwarming with 

 cheer and complacence, i he other with 

 dread ; the one gladdens its coming, 

 the other fears ; the one hive.- with 

 neatness ami correctness, the other 

 with slovenliness and irregularity ; the 

 one succeeds, the other Tails ; the one 

 we honor ami follow, the other we 

 shun and despise. 



One remarked thai by the chips he 

 could tell the workman ; so by the 

 oondition of the combs we can tell the 

 story id' that bee-keeper's life. No 

 matter if he combine any trade or pro- 

 fession with apiculture — the amateur 

 bee-keeper experiment.-, the profes- 

 sional learns. The amateur becomes 

 the professional when he combines 

 reason with the honey-bee's instinct — 

 when he observes, notes and studies. 



Eight here I may say no science af- 

 fords such a field of experience and 

 pleasure as the culture of the Italian 

 honey-bee. No science portrays the 

 character of a man better. We can 

 see men who are painfully economical 

 in the apiary, and we see them fail. 

 Indeed, no profession so combats eco- 

 nomy as this. This profession is com- 

 paratively new, yet one very old. 

 Progress was never greater nor faster 

 than to-day. and who can see it> cli- 

 max ? There are bee-keepers who 

 will take every ounce of honey from 

 a colony and leave them to gather 

 their winter stores from the last of 

 buckwheat or the frost-bitten flowers. 

 What is there seemingly more cruel ? 

 Such businesslike little creatine-, 

 brimming with animal life, and their 

 wonderful God-given instinct, gather- 

 ing perhaps live or six fold their own 

 consumption ! 



The art of bee-keeping is holding 



out it- hand for men who are men, 

 according to Emerson — men lit to 

 tutor a family of intelligent children. 

 Apiculture is becoming a pleasure 

 with its ample gain. — S. ('. Markon in 

 Am. B. J VI. (N. V.i 



MAKING -I GAR sYi:i P FOB FEEDING. 



Feeding intelligently is, in my opin- 

 ion, the key to certain success in 

 honey-production. It now appears 

 certain to me that it is impossible to 

 winter bees with certainty in our Nor- 

 thern country, where they are confin- 

 ed five or six months, unless the hives 

 are well filled with young bees when 

 winter commences. Sometimes the 

 usual fall flow of nectar from flowers 

 fails ; and the colonies, especially those 

 that have made a large amount of sur- 

 plus white honey, will cease to rear 

 brood when their store of surplus is 

 taken away, and lam now certain that 

 such colonies cannot be wintered by 

 any perfection of quarters or prepar- 

 ation, so as to come out in the spring 

 sufficiently strong in bees to breed up 

 strong for the white honeyflow ; and 

 without this, profitable bee-keeping, 

 as the conditions and demands of mar- 

 kets now are, is impossible. 



The remedy is, to feed the bees in 

 the fall, when the flowers fail from 

 any cause; and I know that, by ex- 

 pending 50 cents to $1.00 for sugar, 

 and making it into suitable syrup, and 

 feeding it intelligently, it will cause 

 a colony to continue brood-rearing, 

 and have the necessary force of young 

 bees that can live until another seas- 

 on begins. 



Granulated sugar is the cheapest 

 material to make this syrup of, as a 

 dollar will now buy about 20 pounds 



