762 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 



I next thought of how I had used, years ago, some 

 honey and sugar syrup mixed, for our own table, in 

 which case neither the honey nor sugar granulated, 

 so the next batch of syrup was made as follows: 



Fifteen pounds of water was put into a large tin 

 dish, and brought to a boil; then 30 lbs. of sugar 

 was poured in and stirred for a moment till partial- 

 ly dissolved, when it was left over the flre till it 

 boiled. Upon taking from the flre, .5 lbs. of honey 

 was poured in, and the whole stirred enough to mix 

 thoroughly. I now found that I had a syrup of al- 

 most the consistency of honey, which remained a 

 liquid from day to day— a syrup which any bee- 

 keeper could easily make, and one which would not 

 crystallize on the bees nor in the cells. Some of 

 this syrup has now stood in an open vessel for over 

 a month, yet it shows no sign of changing in any 

 particular. Thus I think I have solved the pi'oblem 

 how to make a good syrup for winter feeding, of the 

 best kind and quality. Bud here give it for the bene- 

 fit of the readers of Gleanings. 



Borodino, N. Y., Nov. 3, 1884. G. M. Doolittle. 



It seems to me, old friend, yoitr article 

 looks a little bit as though you wanted to 

 pitch into your editor. We have fed sugar 

 syrup to our bees, without any addition 

 whatever, for nearly if not quite ten years 

 past, and it did not do so very bad either, be- 

 cause we have wintered pretty well, not- 

 withstanding some crystallization. Sugar 

 does crystallize in our feeders too, and forms 

 a crust over the top and on the sides of the 

 tins; but the bees crawl down under the 

 crust, and take out the liquid portions. It is 

 only recently, you know, that we have taken 

 to using granulated instead of coffee A su- 

 gar, and the granulated sugar is nuich worse 

 to crystallize, which accounts in part for 

 what you say. Again, is it quite fair to take 

 an old copy of the A B C book when yon 

 ought to have, if you have not already, got a 

 late edition ? If I am correct, there is no 

 account made of grape sugar in the A B C 

 book as it stands now. I have objected to 

 vinegar and tartaric acid just as you do, be- 

 cause one must put in enough to make the 

 syrup taste suspicious, to prevent ciystalli- 

 zation. If all kinds of honey will accom- 

 plish the result in the way you state, your 

 suggestion is quite an important one. As 

 many of the friends liave been for years in 

 the habit of mixing honey with sugar syrup, 

 I suppose others can tell us if it works with 

 them as it does with you. Sugar and honey 

 are both so cheap now that we can well af- 

 ford to put our bees in good shape. We 

 have fed six barrels of granidated sugar to 

 our bees already, and 1 have iiot seen any 

 bees around the entrances rattling their 

 wings in the way you state yours do, al- 

 though I have seen bees behave that way 

 when one in his greed got right into the svr- 

 up. It is my impressi<ni, that even then his 

 comrades licked him off and fixed him up all 

 right as soon as they got over the demorali- 

 zation caused by such heavy feeding. I am 

 very glad indeed, come to think of it, that if 

 we "have got to put something in our sugar 

 syrup to prevent its" sugaring." that ''some- 

 thing" is nothing worse than pure honey. 

 Mr. Kimber. our apiarist, shall test it this 

 very day, and I will report before we go to 

 press. 



Later.— Mr. K. says that he has had very 

 little trouble this season with the crystalli- 

 zation, except where he had got- the syrup 

 too thick. You know, we dissolve it by 

 steam. He says he has fed many colonies 

 wliere he saw ho crystallization upon nor in 

 the hives, while at other times, for some rea- 

 son not known to him, unless it was because 

 he put in too much sugar for the (pmntity of 

 water, it turned back to sugar badly. 



Now, just here comes in another idea : 

 For some years some of the friends would 

 persist in sending to us for bee-candy. For 

 the last two seasons we have given them 

 Good candy, just as we fixed it for feeding 

 queens and nuclei ; that is, we just make a 

 ball of the candy, say the size of an egg or 

 biscuit, and lay it on top of the frames un- 

 der the mat. The bees lick it up, every bit 

 of it, and store it in the combs, and we have 

 never noticed this to candy ; and according 

 to your experience itought'not to candy, for 

 it is honey and sugar, and nothing else. The 

 quantity of honey, though, is perhaps con- 

 siderably larger. ' We can furnish this in lit- 

 tle balls, say about the size of an egg, at 10 

 cts. per lb. You have no feeder to fuss with, 

 and it can be fed any day in the year. If 

 you want brood-rearing to go on, just work 

 a little rye tlour along with the sugar and 

 honey. Be careful, however, about putting 

 in too much, for it m;iy dry up in the cells, 

 and become about as hard as a piece of bone. 

 With a small quantity of the rye flour you 

 would, however, be in no danger of such a 

 result. Now I wonder if we have got down 

 to " hard pan '' at last in regard to candy for 

 feeding bees in winter. Powdered confec- 

 tioners'' sugar, kneaded up with a good arti- 

 cle of honey— has anybody any objection to 

 rai.se to such candy for the children V 



PAPER NOT MADE BY HANDS. 



A MOST ASTONISHING PHENOMENON. 



LOST 25 colonies of bees last spring by dwin- 

 dling. After a time I found moths at work in 

 the combs, which were stowed away in closed 

 hives. I had them all thoroughly fumigated 

 with sulphur, and returned to the hives in hon- 

 ey-house. A few days ago I had the hives removed 

 (the few that had not been used for new swarms) to 

 the cellar. They were all in good condition except 

 one, which was literallu afii's with moth worms, and 

 the combs all destroyed. The hive-cover (Jj story) 

 was completely lined with a substance resembling a 

 sheet of tissue paper— a small piece of which I in- 

 close. Did you ever see any thing like it before? 

 Geo. H. Patch. 

 Stevens Point, Wis., Oct, 31, 1884. 



Friend P., this is truly wonderful. Wheif 

 I first took the specimen of paper yon in- 

 close in my fingers, I said to myself, " Sure- 

 ly this is the work of paper-machinery, and 

 somebody bv some process has put the paper 

 on to that hive-cap." But when I took hold 

 of it, it stuck to my fingers, just as silk does. 

 The paper, when held up to the light, is of a 

 beautiful, uniform, even texture, and is thin 

 and smooth as the finest .Japanese tissue pa- 

 per, and is very fair to write on. How is it 

 possible that 'moth worms ever did it? 

 Please mail a sample to Prof. Cook, to put 



