766 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 15. 



This rush of correspondence on the feeding 

 problem is undoubtedly owing to the poorness 

 of the past season in most localities, and I 

 know what it means to have a lot of starving 

 colonies, or nearly so, on hand at the close of 

 the last flowers that yield honey; and I re- 

 member with what anxiety I once looked over 

 the bee-papers to find how the bees could be 

 fed on sugar so they would winter as well as 

 though they had plenty of natural stores in 

 the hives. In thus looking over the papers 

 one of them told me that all I had to do was 

 to pour boiling water on sugar, and stir it, 

 when it would be ready to feed as soon as cool 

 enough, so that the bees would not be burned 

 by it. As this was the most simple of all the 

 plans I had ever seen, and required but little 

 work, I thought best to try it. The feeders 

 which I use are known as " division-board " 

 feeders, they being to my liking, as they can 

 be left in the hive when not in use, if I wish, 

 till it is convenient to take them out. As 

 these feeders allow the bees to go inside of 

 them, there would, of course, after they had 

 been once filled, be more or le.ss bees in them 

 when the feed was poured in the second 

 night. It is known by all that, if honey is 

 poured on bees, it does them no more harm 

 than water poured on a duck's back, provid- 

 ing the bees do not drown in the honey; so I 

 could not see \ny impropriety in turning the 

 feed on them j ust the same a s I would hone y. 



All went well the first night; but when I 

 came to go to the syrup the next night I found 

 it skimmed over with a thin crust of sugar 

 which had formed on the syrup during the 

 twenty-four hours it had been standing. 

 However, I persisted in feeding it, as the one 

 recommending this way said that syrup thus 

 made needed no cream of tartar or vinegar in 

 it, till one day I noticed bees out at the en- 

 trance, of each hive fed, in large numbers, 

 having little grains of sugar on their wings 

 and bodies, where the syrup had crystallized 

 on them. I now looked inside of the hive, 

 when I found that nearly one-fourth of the 

 bees had more or less of these sugar crystals 

 on them, while the inside of the feeders was 

 all covered with them. Upon looking into 

 the cells containing the syrup I found that, 

 in many of them, crystallization had com- 

 menced to such an extent that the crystals 

 were easily seen. As I had read of sugar 

 syrup crystallizing solid in the cells I thought 

 it time to call a halt; so when the next batch 

 of syrup was boiled I put vinegar into the 

 water before the sugar was added. This seem- 

 ed to help much about the crystallization, but 

 it gave a taste to the syrup which it seemed to 

 me would be unpleasant to the bees; so in the 

 next I tried cream of tartar, then tartaric acid; 

 but with any of them the syrup would crystal- 

 lize some unless I added so much that a dis- 

 agreeable taste was the result. 



While studying on the matter it came to 

 me that, years ago, during some experiments 

 made to prevent honey from granulating, I 

 had used sugar syrup in one of these experi- 

 ments, which syrup had accomplished the de- 

 sired end of keeping the honey liquid when 

 cold weather came. I was not long in reason- 



ing that, if sugar syrup would keep honey 

 from granulating, honey must keep sugar 

 syrup from cr3'stallizing. So the next batch 

 of syrup was made as follows: 



Fifteen pounds of waier was weighed out 

 and put into a tin vessel of suitable size. This 

 was now placed over the fire, and brought to 

 a boil, when thirty pounds of granulated 

 sugar was poured in, stirring all briskly while 

 putting in, so that the sugar would not settle 

 to the bottom, and burn, as such sugar is 

 sometimes liable to do if not stirred in. This 

 stirring is kept up till the sugar is pretty 

 nearly all dissolved, when the whole is left 

 over the fire till it boils again, when it is 

 skimmed, should any scum or impurities arise. 

 It was then taken from the fire, when five 

 pounds of good extracted honey was poured 

 in and stirred for a moment or two, till the 

 whole was thoroughly mixed. This honey 

 proved to be just what was needed, for syrup 

 thus made remained liquid day after day when 

 not fed to the bees immediately; and, even 

 after keeping it several months, by way of ex- 

 periment, it was found to be as good as ever. 

 Thus I had a feed that is easil}' made, the 

 whole giving me 50 pounds of feed of about 

 the consistency of honey, none of which has 

 ever crystallized a particle, although I have 

 now used this feed, whenever required, for 

 nearly a quarter of a century. 



I trust the readers will pardon me for going 

 over the ground so fully, and I have done so 

 only because some are still claiming that 

 all that is necessary to make a good feed 

 is to pour boiling water on sugar. As I know 

 this to be a fallacy, I thought best to go again 

 over the ground I have traveled, so that no 

 one would be tempted to trj^ the boiling-water 

 plan in making feed, unless such desire to do 

 so by way of experiment. 



[While no doubt Mr. Doolittle's plan will 

 make a syrup that will not crystallize, it 

 seems to me there is a simpler plan, and one 

 that can be pursued by the average beginner 

 with less danger of failure. As a general 

 rule, sugar and water, according to our ex- 

 perience, should be mixed in the porportion of 

 one part of water to one of sugar, either by bulk 

 or weight. If, on the other hand, there be 

 used, instead, two parts of sugar to one of 

 water, it will be necessary to do very thorough 

 cooking, run the risk of burning the syrup, 

 and, in addition, use some sort of acid, or 

 honey, to prevent granulation. Our method 

 of making sugar syrup, and one we have used 

 for two seasons with success, is to fill an ordi- 

 nary honey-extractor about half full of water. 

 Start the reel to going, and then add the sugar 

 gradually until there is enough to equal the 

 bulk of the water. The extractor is turned 

 vigorously until the sugar is all dissolved. 

 For a short time after stirring, it will look as 

 if it were still undissolved, owing to the small 

 air-bubbles. But these bubbles will disappear 

 after the syrup has been allowed to stand for 

 a time. By this plan there is no need of add- 

 ing acid or honey; no cooking, and, conse- 

 quently, no danger of burning; and when the 

 bees have ripened or thickened this half-and- 



