174 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



May 



easily be too old for the production of 

 the largest crop. On the other hand, 

 it is equally true that a working force 

 with a majority still too. young to en- 

 gage actively in field work will not do 

 justice to the honeyflow until the 

 bees age a bit. It then frequently 

 happens that the best of the flow is 

 over. There is evidently a definite 

 period previous to the honeyfiow, 

 during which the raising of bees is 

 the most favorable thing a colony 

 can do. 



For practical discussion, the fac- 

 tors which may be considered as de- 

 termining this period, as above indi- 

 cated, are the length of life of the 

 worker and the age at which bees 

 first go to the field. Since the usu- 

 ally accepted average for the life of 

 the worker is six weeks, bees emerg- 

 ing previous to the sixth week before 

 the honeyflow are of no use during 

 the flow. Hence, brood-rearing, from 

 the beekeeper's standpoint, assumes 

 first importance in the colony activity 

 for a month and a half before the 

 honeyflow. Yet of the workers pro- 

 duced then only those that are just 

 becoming field bees when the flow 

 starts will be of maximum value. 

 When brood-rearing is at its best, it 

 is not unusual to see 75,000 cells of 

 brood at one time, and we would like 

 to exert some magic which would in- 

 sure all this brood present as eggs 

 about 35 days before the flow. 

 Should the harvest last over six 

 weeks, of course, it is important to 

 continue with a renewed force of 

 workers until it ends. 



There are regions and seasons 

 when, under a natural stimulus, this 

 peak of favorable population is long 

 past before the flow begins and the 

 beekeeper's problem is then compli- 

 cated iDy the need of delaying the 

 peak in some way, or of continuing 



the heavy brood-rearing. No two sea- 

 sons are alike in this and the bee- 

 keeper must be alert enough to be 

 able to shift his program to meet the 

 needs of the occasion. 



It is generally unsafe to depend 

 entirely on the nectar resources at 

 this time of year to supply the rich 

 abundance of stores so essential to 

 the development of numerous honey 

 gatherers. Each three days, for 

 weeks at a time, a fertile queen may 

 easily flll two frames with eggs which 

 hatch into thousands of hungry lar- 

 \x. The enormous growth which 

 these tiny creatures make in the six 

 days of their larval life is indicative 

 of their food requirements, and there 

 are periods when over 6 pounds of 

 honey a day are needed to keep up 

 the development. When sufficient 

 nectar is obtained, to furnish this 

 amount of food daily, it comes pretty 

 near being a honeyflow for which the 

 bees should have already been devel- 

 oped. 



Providing the Food 



The result of this discussion is to 

 bring us back again to the need of 

 providing the colony with at least a 

 part of its spring food requirements 

 in some other way. The feeder is 

 usually resorted to and frequently of 

 necessity. There are years when the 

 early consumption of stores is exces- 

 sive, due to unusual climatic condi- 

 tions; or the honeyflow the year be- 

 fore may hi,ve failed to supply 

 enough for reserve stores; or other 

 obstructions due to unavoidable cir- 

 cumstances may leave the feeder as 

 the only way out. It can scarcely be 

 disputed, however, that from all 

 points of view, the ideal way to pro- 

 vide stores is to leave an abundance 

 of sealed honey with each colony in 

 the fall; enough to last the winter 

 through and, under normal condi- 



Fig 2.- — riatc of canjy in place over frames for emergency feeding. 



tions, to provide for brood-rearing in 

 the spring. There seems to be only 

 two excusable situations for using the 

 feeder, (a) to prevent actual starva- 

 tion or an undesirable shortage due 

 to unavoidable conditions; (b), to 

 stimulate brood-rearing between 

 honeyflows or in queen-rearing. 



In either case syrup, or candy 

 made of granulated sugar or honey 

 free from disease, are the only foods 

 which can be universally recom- 

 mended. In feeding to make good a 

 deficiency, the syi-up is usually made 

 of one or two parts of sugar to one 

 of water, but for stimulative pur- 

 poses a much thinner syrup is more 

 effective. A common formula is two 

 parts of water to one of sugar, but 

 it is frequently made even thinner 

 than this. Unless feeding for winter 

 stores, no attention need be paid to 

 securing the inversion of the sugar to 

 prevent granulation, since the bees 

 readily take care of this part of the 

 process. The heaviest feeding is best 

 done during the six weeks' period 

 when brood-rearing is of most value 

 and it must be remembered that at 

 this time large amounts of food are 

 necessary. 



Stimulative feeding is a matter 

 which can be overdone, especially in 

 the early season, when the weather is 

 still cool. The practice of stimula- 

 tion at this time is often inadvisable 

 and, in the hands of the inexperi- 

 enced, it is easy to overcome the good 

 judgment of the bees and induce 

 them to rear more brood than they 

 can care for properly. Later stimu- 

 lation may be valueless, since usually 

 when it would do the most good there 

 is sufficient nectar available to serve 

 the same purpose. It should be again 

 emphasized here that, in the spring, 

 neither stimulative feed nor nectar 

 alone take the place of an abundant 

 reserve of stores. Whenever there 

 is a dearth of nectar, however, or it 

 is necessary to keep up brood-rearing 

 out of season, as in queen-rearing, 

 stimulative feeding is an acceptable 

 practice. 



Candy feed is most useful in cool 

 weather to prevent starvation from 

 lack of stores. The ordinary Good 

 candy, or queen cage candy, in 

 amounts sufficient to give five or six 

 pounds to each colony, is satisfactory. 

 The receipt for this candy is well 

 known and calls for honey or invert 

 syrup mixed to a stiff dough with 

 confectionary sugar which contains 

 no starch. If honey is used in mak- 

 ing the candy it must be free from 

 disease. When mixing, it is a good 

 scheme to heat the ssmip or honey, 

 since the resulting candy will then 

 remain stiff at ordinai-y tempera- 

 tures. Paper pie plates serve well as 

 inexpensive containers. Fig. 2. Two 

 of these filled with candy and in- 

 verted over each cluster of bees will 

 last a long time, unless brood-rearing 

 becomes too great. It is also im- 

 portant to keep the cluster covered 

 with some protecting material, to pre- 

 vent the escape of heat and, where 

 packing of any kind is used, this may 

 be reijlaced about the plates. Loose 



