Jan. 24, 1907 



American Hee Journal 



cool weather the bees would be slow to 

 come up through that ;s-inch openingf, 

 but as Mr. Smith intimates that such 

 is not the case, I am willing to with- 

 hold judgment until others have tested 

 the matter, 



As it seems winter feeding is becom- 

 ing quite common, even if it is not pop- 

 ular ; and as some may happen to have 

 colonies which they know are short of 

 stores, while the "feeder" subject is 

 under discussion, I thought it might 

 be wise to submit the following 

 from the Farmers' Advocate. I hap- 

 pen to be well acquainted with the 

 writer of the article, and know him as 

 one of Ontario's brighest of beekeep- 

 ers — in short, a hustler. It is needless 

 to say that anything from the pen of 

 " E. G. H.," I always read with inter- 

 est. Here is the article referred to : 



^Feeding Bees in Winter. 



While all bees should long before this time 

 of the year be snugly tucked away in their 

 winter quarters, with plenty of honey within 

 their reach to carry them through until 

 spring, there are almost sure to be a few col- 

 onies here and there which, from one cause or 

 another, have entered the winter "light in 

 stores," and, unless something be done to 

 help them, will starve to death before the win- 

 ■ ter is over. Perhaps their owner neglected 

 them in the early fall, thinking he would have 

 more time to attend to them later on, or the 

 bees may have become the property, late in 

 the season, of some person who knew nothing 

 of their requirements, and has only very 

 lately become aware of their condition. In 

 either case, the bees must have feed given 

 them, if they are to be brought through the 

 winter. 



If the owner of the hungry bees has any 

 combs full of honey in his possession, and the 

 combs on which the bees are wintering are of 

 the movable variety, his best plan is to re- 

 move a comb from near the outer side of the 

 hive (it this can be done without breaking 

 the cluster of bees), and to put a full comb in 

 place of the empiy one, getting it as near the 

 bees as possible. It the comb can not be got- 

 ten into the hive, the next best plan is to lay 

 it flat on top of the frames, placing a couple of 

 narrow strips of wood under it to hold it up 

 from the frames half an inch or so, so that 

 the bees may get at all the underside of it. 

 When the bees have emptied the underside, 

 turn it over; and when both sides are empty 

 remove it and place on another full one. 



If no combs of honey are to be had, it will 

 be necessary to make what is known as 

 " hard candy " for the bees. If well made, 

 this candy will winter the bees iust as suc- 

 cessfully as honey will. To make the candy, 

 place granulated sugar in a vessel and add a 

 little water— just enough to slightly wet the 

 sugar. Melt it on the stove and boil it until 

 it will become hard and white when taken 

 from the stove and allowed to cool. Stir it 

 more or lees while boiling. To tell when it is 

 " done," test it occasionally by taking a little 

 from the stove and stirring it on a dish until 

 cold. When it cools hard, smooth, white and 

 dry, it is all right. When it reaches this 

 stage, remove it from the stove and stir while 

 cooling. If not stirred it will harden like 

 taffy instead of like candy, and will daub the 

 bees when they eat it. 



When it has cooled to the point where it 

 will just nicely pour, it should be poured into 

 dishes or pans that will make cakes of con- 

 venient size for laying on top of the frames 

 of the hive. These cakes are laid on the 

 frames in the same manner as the combs 

 spoken of above. About 10 or 15 pounJs of 

 this candy should suffice for an ordinary col- 

 ony of bees, but they should be examined 

 again early in the spring and given more if 

 they are in anyway nearly out. 



The principal thing to be careful of in mak- 

 ing hard candy is not to let it get burnt. The 



least sign of lurning renders It unfit for bee- 

 food, and it will kill them if given to them. 

 Better make u small lot first to learn how. 



After the Iii'ls have been given honey or 

 candy, they should be covered up well with 

 chaff or leave.s if wintered outside, and should 

 then be left severely alone until there is rea- 

 son to believe their supply of food may be 

 nearly exhausted. 



Feeding bees in cold weather Is only mak- 

 ing the best of a bad job, but if you find your- 

 self with the had job on your hands. It is bet- 

 ter to miiki; the best of it than not to make 

 anything of it; and bees wintered on candy 

 are just as good, other things being equal, as 

 any other txjee, and are worth a good deal 

 more than bees that starve to death in Feb- 

 ruary. E. G. H. 



Report of the Ontario, Can- 

 ada, Convention 



REPORTED BY MOKLKY PETTIT. 



lOootinned from paee ,=3] 



SPRINa MANAGEMENT UF BEES 



Spring m.'uiagemeut is a very impor- 

 tant part of bee-keeping and the writer 

 will not be able to do it justice. 



Spring management depends so much 

 upon fall management that you will not 

 object, I hope, to a few remarks on that 

 subject: Every hive should have a good 

 queen and not less than 40 pounds of 

 good honey when put into winter quar- 

 ters ; then if properly protected during 

 the long winter, spring feeding will not 

 be necessarj-. Feeding in spring is a 

 disagreeable job for the bee-keeper, and 

 you can not fuss around a hive at any 

 time of the year without annoying the 

 bees, more especially at this season. 



Suppose a bee-keeper has about ic» 

 colonies, part having been wintered on 

 the summer stands, the balance in a 

 good cellar; if proper protection and 

 ventilation have been provided for, and 

 the hives left outdoors, there is no need 

 to touch them till we are having nice 

 days in April ; about that time those win- 

 tered in the cellar may be taken out, 

 but a great deal depends upon the sea- 

 son, some seasons being very much later 

 than others. .'\ good time for removal 

 from the cellar, if the bees can be kept 

 quiet, is when the first pollen is com- 

 ing on ; then choose a fine day. The 

 writer has not tried the Alexander plan, 

 and finds no difficulty with bees. Of 

 course, one must be careful not to put 

 too many hives in one place at the start 

 — put a few at one corner of the yard, 

 then the opposite corner, and so on, un- 

 til all are placed ; then take 4 or 5 sheets 

 of newspaper, previously saved for that 

 purpose, and cover the tops of the hives, 

 taking care that no heat can escape. Then 

 when the bees are done flying for the 

 day, close all the entrances as close as 

 possible ; this to keep the cold wind and 

 robber-bees out. If the hives on the 

 summer stands have not had paper put 

 under tlie cushions it should be done 

 now. 



In an average season this work should 

 be finished .\pril 12 to 20; then we may 

 expect the first fruit-bloom about the 



same dates in May; and knowing the 

 bees have plenty of stores it is a good 

 plan to let them alone, except to look 

 out for robbing on a day when the 

 weather is suitable for the job. 



.\bout the time the first flowers come 

 out a start should be made to examine 

 the hives, clip the queens, spread or re- 

 verse the brood-frames, break a portion 

 of the cappings on the honey, making 

 the bees think they are in clover ; when 

 this is being done the bee-keeper should 

 have a book and note the condition of 

 every hive ; a record of this kind saves 

 lots of unnecessary opening of hives. 



When we get to No. 100 we will prob- 

 ably find 80 per cent will be ready for 

 the honey season, 15 per cent a little 

 light, 2 queens and 3 dead colonies. (The 

 dead ones have been found before the 

 examination, or should have been.) The 

 80 should be watched closely, making 

 sure that there is enough unsealed honey 

 in the hives, and that the queen has lots 

 of room for breeding. A good plan to 

 treat the 15 that are light is to select 

 say 7 or 8 (according to their strength) 

 of the best of them, take out all empty 

 frames, then go to the lighter ones and 

 take out brood frames and bees, fill out 

 the 7 or 8, making sure you leave the 

 queens in their own hives. The few that 

 are left light can be used to shake 

 swarms on, or anything else the bee- 

 keeper can do with them to the best 

 advantage. 



We w'U suppose this work is finished 

 by, say, May 20; in less than a month 

 the clover season will be on, and upon 

 the care given the bees for the next 

 few weeks largeh- depends the amount 

 of surplus the bee-keeper will get for 

 his work. Some seasons the bees may 

 fill the hives so full of honey in a few 

 days that the queen is crowded out, then 

 another season the bees will be confined 

 in their hives most of the time, and 

 run short of stores, and the queen will 

 stop laying: to avoid either extreme the 

 bee-keeper must be on hand every day 

 to know what is going on, and apply 

 the remedy. J.as. Storer. 



Lindsay, Out. 



"Is it better to give 40 pounds in the 

 fall, or 25 in fall and the balance in the 

 spring?" 



Mr. Holtermann — Better feed all in 

 the fall. It may not be safe to have only 

 25 pounds in the fall. You sometimes 



