1921 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNA-L 



279 



larva is used up in growth ; in the sec- 

 ond it is consumed in the production 

 of the organs of maturity. In the 

 imago the food is used solely for the 

 maintenance of bodily energy, and, 

 during the winter, in the production 

 of heat by muscular, not by chemical 

 action. Consequcntl}', in theory at 

 least, the insect offers a fruitful field 

 for study if the practical diflicullies 

 could.be overcome. Whetlicr this is 

 a matter of reasonable e.xpectation, 

 time alone will show, but the import- 

 ance of the considerations outlined 

 above to the practical beekeeper is 

 considerable, in view of its effect on 

 practical apiary management. 



It has been often stated by well- 

 known beekeepers that sugar syrup 

 affords a well-nigh ideal winter food 

 on account of its low ash content, 

 which is necessarily left in the in- 

 testines of the bees after the carbo- 

 hydrate has been dissolved in the 

 stomach and converted into heat 

 through the medium of muscular en- 

 ergy. Honey shows a larger ash, 

 and so must be considered inferior 

 for purely wintering purposes. It 

 should be borne in mind that insects 

 have no means of building up their 

 wasted tissues as have the higher 

 animals, and therefore this winter 

 food is used for one purpose only, 

 that of supplying the energy neces- 

 sary for the heat-producing activi- 

 ties of the cluster. 



When the progress of the season, 

 however, involves the commencement 

 of the labors of brood-raising, the 

 food used by the bees has a double 

 purpose to fulfill. There is the heat 

 necessary to "hover" the brood dur- 

 ing chilly spring days, and there is 

 the necessity for nourishing the lar- 

 vsE, as they emerge from the eggs. 

 There is also the feeding of the 

 queen to produce the large amounts 

 of eggs necessary to re-populate the 

 hive, but so little is known of this 

 matter that it need be only men- 

 tioned herq. Undoubtedly the 

 worker-bees feed the queen upon 

 some food that is given in a partly 

 or fully digested condition. 



It is at this point that the spring 

 gathering of pollen becomes of great 

 importance. This forms the nitro- 

 genous or protein portion of the ra- 

 tion, so necessary for rapid growth, 

 and as the larva has no drain on its 

 energies for motion, heat, or any 

 bodily function save only that of 

 growth, it is able to consume suffi- 

 cient food to make enormous prog- 

 ress when judged by the standards of 

 other organisms. Finally, when it be- 

 comes full-fed it has sufficient 

 stored-up nourishment to enable it 

 to elaborate the organs of the per- 

 fect bee. 



Finally the insect emerges from 

 pupation, and from then on she has 

 no growing or repairing of her anat- 

 omy to be effected by the fuel con- 

 sumed in her stomach. The sole ne- 

 cessity is the production of muscular 

 energy for the work of the hive, and 

 the heat regulation which, as stated, 

 is purely a mechanical affair, whether 

 it consist of hovering the brood on a 

 cold day, or ventilating the hive r.n 

 a warm one. The food that is pre- 



pared for the queen or brood is not 

 consumed in the body of the worker, 

 but only receives a chemical treat- 

 ment there. 



Translated into actual practice, 

 therefore, the philosophy of feeding 

 lices seems to conic out somewhat 

 like this: 



1. Whenever there is brood in the 

 hive there should be abundance of 

 pollen, natural or artificial, and 

 honey, as the constituents of honey 

 apart from the pure sugar are of a 

 protein nature, and in addition prob- 

 ably contain' necessary vitamins. 



2. When there is no brood, the 

 food should consist of the purest sac- 

 charine matter obtainable. In prac- 

 tice this is usually syrup made from 

 the best sugar. Its ash content is so 

 low that to compare it with honey is 

 like comparing hard and bituminous 

 coal. The hard coal is rendered 

 nearly all into gas during combustion 

 and there is much less ash than with 

 the soft coal. Similarly, the sugar 

 burns hotter in the laboratory or 

 furnace of the stomach and leaves 

 less ash to trouble the bees with dys- 

 entery. 



Even where cleansing flights are 

 possible, the use of inferior food is 

 bound to have its effect in sapping 

 the vitality of the colony through 

 the energy consumed in digesting 

 and separating the actual food from 

 the impurities and water in the food, 

 and it is quite a question whether it 

 would not be profitable to feed bees 

 exclusively upon the finest honey 

 gathered. It certainly is one factor 

 in improving the strains of bees 

 through breeding that does not ap- 

 pear to be considered. In improving 

 other lines of stock through breed- 

 ing, environment is considered as 

 well as heredity, and every effort to 

 give the pure-bred scion the utmost 

 assistance in developing constitu- 

 tional strength by assimilating the 

 best of food is made. Why not in 

 "breeding for the best" try to feed 

 the improving race of bees in such 

 a way as to ensure their developing 

 under the most favorable circum 

 stances and surroundings? 



Manitoba. 



MAKESHIFT HIVES 



By John Prothero 



Anyone advocating "Better Bee- 

 keeping" today in rural districts is 

 met with a very real difficulty, the 



Grecian hive witli lid removed. 



alarming price of good dovetailed 

 hives in pine or cypress. There is 

 little use in promising high dividends 

 after the capital e.xpenditure has been 

 made. The bottom has fallen out of 

 the bushel basket for the time being. 

 The new administration is hard at 

 work considering various methods of 

 tinkering; you cannot get people to 

 make what they consider to be heavy 

 expenditures at a time when retrench- 

 ment is the first need. I consider 

 that one is doing the large manufac- 

 turers a good turn, and not a bad one, 

 when one takes up seriously the ques- 

 tion of efficient makeshift hives.- The 

 larger the number of movable-frame 

 beekeepers the greater will be the 

 demand for good factory-made hives. 

 Nobody likes makeshifts, although 

 everybody enjoys showing examples 

 of ingenuity to admiring friends. The 

 makeshift apiary of today is the well 

 equipped apiary of tomorrow; and 

 tomorrow perhaps the price of a dove- 

 tailed, metal-roof hive will not be so 

 near the price of a Pierce Arrow. By 

 makeshift I mean the half-way house 

 between the gum and the factory- 

 made dovetailed hive. Get people to- 

 day to fit the Langstroth frame effi- 

 ciently into any old thing; that is the 

 first step. 



Take your foot rule in hand and in- 

 vade the back yard of the local store. 

 For years I used a Kirkman's Borax 

 Soap case as temporary hive, having 

 discovered that the length exactly 

 held Langstroth frames from staple 

 to staple. It seemed culpable to me 

 for apiarists to scatter frames around 

 a hive propped against the sides, lean- 

 ing against one another clumsily and 

 insecurely, when this light case held 

 the frames so well; it is better for 

 this purpose than an empty body, hav- 

 ing a bottom and extra depth, in ad- 

 dition to being lighter. With a small 

 roll of calico over the top it is a per- 

 fect insurance against starting rob- 

 beiy. I kept swarms on frames in 

 these cases when I happened to be 

 short of equipment, and it struck me 

 that one had here a quite efficient 

 makeshift hive in which one could even 

 winter bees in the South. I do not 

 see any reason for saying discreetly 

 "The packing cases of a well-known 

 soap will be found to make excellent 

 makeshift hives." Why not give this 

 noble and beneficent firm the full 

 benefit of the ad? I feel very 

 strongly that no beekeeper should use 

 any other kind of soap, that they 

 should blacklist and blackmail 

 any storekeeper who does not stock 

 it. In this way we may be sure that 

 other firms will follow suit, that the 

 Alaska salmon canners will recognize 

 the insistent claims of the Langstroth 

 frame, and that stoi-ekeepers will re- 

 alize that there are eight hundred 

 thousand beekeepeers in this country. 

 But to retrace the subject, the bee- 

 keeper who goes through the store- 

 keeper's back yard with foot rule in 

 hand may make other useful discover- 

 ies. A little sawing and nailing will do 

 wonders. With me it has become a 

 hobby; when I see a strong dovetailed 

 case, on a sidewalk outside a grocery, 

 I measure it instantly. The cartridge 

 packing cases of a Bridgeport firm 



