Mar. 7, 1907 



I^American Bac Journal j(| 



Feeding Sugar to Starving 

 Bees 



UY C. C. CKKINER. 



As I expected and feared, llie open 

 and comparatively warm weather of 

 last winter (1905-6) induced and com- 

 pelled bees to use larger quantities of 

 their winter stores than they usually do 

 during steady and colder winter weather. 

 Tlie fall flow from our late honey- 

 sources, such as goldenrod, asters, sweet 

 clover, etc.^ had not been over-abundant, 

 so that bees had only enough supplies 

 to bridge them over to the early spring 

 flows, if the winter had been one of the 

 usual kind. But under the circum- 

 stances, I awaited with fear and tremb- 

 ling, the warm days of the coming 

 spring, that I might find out the condi- 

 tions of my bees and lend a helping hand 

 where necessary, .^t last the month of 

 May arrived, and indications were 

 favorable that the warm season had 

 opened to remain so. 



All my bees were packed in chaflf on 

 the summer stand, making it somewhat 

 unhandy to examine them in a satis- 

 factory way. I therefore stripped them 

 of their winter protection as soon as 

 the settled weather made it safe to do 

 so, which, in this case, was a little ear- 

 lier than I would have done if possible 

 shortage of supplies had not caused me 

 a great deal of uneasiness. 



On May 3, being a warm, idea! spring 

 day, the bees were busily engaged bring- 

 ing in pollen and honey from early fruit- 

 blossoms, and as I had nothing to fear 

 from robbing or chilling brood, I made 

 a thorough examination of all colonies. 

 The result was a shocking discovery. 

 About one-third of them had plenty of 

 honey so that many could spare in case 

 of an emergency, one or 2 frames, but 

 the rest were practically in a starving 

 condition, not a few so completely des- 

 titute of stores that literally not a cell 

 of honey could be seen; all their combs 

 not occupied by brood were as dry as 

 extracting or bait-combs, after they are 

 cleaned out by the bees. But. strange 

 as it may seem, with the exception of 

 a very few, all were strong in bees and 

 had plenty of brood. 



To judge from this state of affair, I 

 knew, to prevent a calamity, something 

 had to be done before the rising of an- 

 other sun, and the only question was 

 how that "something" could be managed 

 to the best advantage. I had no honey 

 in brood or extracting combs ; all I 

 had reserved from my extracting combs 

 the previous summer for this purpose 

 I had to use the previous fall in feed- 

 ing up for winter on account of the 

 unexpected light fall flow, which was so 



contrary to my experience of former 



years. 



In Gleanings the editor says: "We 

 have come to the conclusion that we 

 can rear our own bees with sugar- 

 syrup far cheaper than we can buy 

 them." The principle of this assertion 

 I followed to the letter, and I did it 

 in the following way: 



In thinking the matter over, I felt anx- 

 ious to observe these points : To feed 

 all colonies at once (practically) and 

 do it with the least work; to give the 

 least inducement to start robbing; to 

 disturb the colonies as little as possible 

 by opening the hives ; and last, but not 

 least, not only to save their lives, but 

 to induce them to start anew and con- 

 tinue brood-rearing, which under the 

 prevailing conditions, I feared they had 

 given up. To hit all these "flies" with 

 one blow seemed quite a puzzle to me 

 at first, but I succeeded beyond all my 

 expectations, as the result plainly proved. 



Of course, I had to resort to sugar- 

 feeding. I manufactured syrup in lots 

 of 20 pounds at a time, using 10 pounds 

 of each (sugar and water), and stirring 

 the same without boiling, but slightly 

 warmed, until all the sugar was dis- 

 solved. The feeding process was a 

 simple affair. At night, just before 

 dark, I went along the rows of bees, 

 raised the front of their hives one af- 

 ter another to a position of about 45 

 degrees, turned a soup-ladle nearly full 

 of the prepared syrup into the entrance, 

 and lowered the hive to its proper place. 

 The whole operation was so easily and 

 so quickly done that it complied with 

 nearly all the above requirements. 



As an explanation, I will say that all 

 my hives stand level (by test of spirit- 

 level) except a slight pitch toward the 

 front of about one-half inch. To make 

 the above process of feeding practical, 

 every hive had to be pitched at least 

 that much the other way. But tliat was 

 an easy matter. A little block under 

 the front end of the stand accomplished 

 that, and in many cases, raising the hive 

 on the projecting notch of the alight- 

 ing-board was all that was necessary. 



To test the action of the syrup when 

 being turned in. and make sure that no 

 drowning of bees could take place, 1 

 tried the experiment with an empty hive 

 before I undertook the real business. 

 The syrup would run back in a narrow 

 stream, strike against the back of the 

 hive and spread sidewise, filling the 

 corner, formed by the bottom and bot- 

 tom-rim, with quite a body of the liquor 

 clear across the width of the hive. 

 When the hive was lowered to its level, 

 the syrup would flow forward and form 

 a thin sheet covering one-half or more 

 of the entire hive-bottom. Being satis- 



fied that the danger of drowning was 

 reduced to a minimum, I proceeded with 



the operation. 



The following morning I could not re- 

 sist the temptation to find out how the 

 bees had accepted their ration. I ex- 

 amined a number of the stronger colo- 

 nies, and a few of the weaker ones, by 

 unhooking the bottom-boards and rais- 

 ing the front of the hives high enough 

 to give a fair view of the bottom. All 

 the former had everything cleaned up; 

 the bottom was perfectly dry, not a 

 sign of the syrup fed the night before 

 could be detected. Although some of 

 the weaker ones had some of their feed 

 left on the bottom, the result of my first 

 night's feeding was so gratifying that I 

 kept it up regularly every night for near- 

 ly 2 weeks. 



On May 15, bees began to refuse their 

 offered feed, and I could plainly see that 

 another source of sweets drew their at- 

 tention. The apple-trees had been in 

 bloom for several days and bees were 

 getting quite numerous among the blos- 

 soms. In the hives a change was taking 

 place ; the white coating of the combs, 

 the well-known and pleasing indications 

 of a hone}-flow, and the appearance of 

 new honey were getting quite conspicu- 

 ous in all the better colonies. These 

 conditions grew more prominent from 

 one day to another, and before I had 

 hardly time to realize what was going 

 on, every comb in many hives was 

 crowded to the last cell with honey; 

 even cells among hatching brood were 

 glistening with their contents. The few 

 surplus cases, both for section and ex- 

 tracted honey, which I had put on when 

 new honey made its first appearance, 

 were full of bees rushing their work at 

 a rate that I never experienced before 

 during fruit-bloom. 



.^s may be imagined, I was rushing 

 things also to get my surplus cases in 

 place, not knowing that a sad disap- 

 pointment was in store for me. The 

 climax had already been reached, and 

 the drop was as sudden and discourag- 

 ing as the beginning had been promis- 

 ing. A cold rain set in on the l8th, 

 and continued more or less all through 

 the remaining apple-bloom, with the re- 

 sult that no more honey was gathered 

 until the latter part of June. 



Stimulating feeding in the spring to 

 induce brood-rearing is one of the many 

 subjects on which the opinions of our 

 ablest writers are greatly at variance. 

 One sees his only salvation in its prac- 

 tice, while another says it does more 

 harm than good. One reason why the 

 views of our experts run in such op- 

 posite directions, is simply because it is 

 a very difiicult matter to produce posi- 

 tive proof either for or against it. It 

 is very much the same in the case above 

 stated. To estimate the beneficial re- 

 sults of my 2 weeks' sugar feeding, or 

 the consequence of it had been omitted, 

 is merely a matter of conjecture. How- 

 ever, there are a few facts connected 

 with it from which we can draw a fair- 

 ly correct conclusion : 



1. On May 3, bees w-ere in a starving 

 condition. 



2. On account of occasional unfav- 

 orable weather at that time, which pre- 

 vented the bees from flying for days at 



