GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 1 



1904 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1023 



FEEDS FOR BEES. 



Cane, Beet, and Palm Sugars ; Cheap Sugars 



for Bee-feeding; an Interesting and 



Instructive Article. 



BV W. K. MORRISON. 



Feeding bees is one of the most important 

 items in the management of an apiary, 

 whether the location is north or south. For 

 some occult reason this phase of bee-keep- 

 ing has been somewhat overlooked of late 

 by our periodical literature, so that a word or 

 two on the subject may not be out of place 

 just now. 



To feed bees is far more of a science than 

 it is generally supposed to be by many au- 

 thorities, as I shall endeavor to show. Most 

 bee-keepers are fully aware of the value of 

 sugar syrup in stimulating brood-rearing in 

 the spring' or just before a honey-flow, or in 

 the case of a colony that is short of stores 

 for winter use. But a great Held for scien- 

 tific feeding lies beyond this, practically un- 

 touched as yet, which the bee-keepers of the 

 future will have to explore before any great 

 advance over present methods can be ex- 

 pected. 



At present cane sugar forms an easy first 

 as a bee-food. Right here let me say I am 

 well aware that milk sugar and beet sugar 

 are both denominated ' ' cane sugar ' ' by 

 chemists; but the bee-man who would 

 milk sugar as a substitute for cane sugar 



would be wanting in common sense, even if 

 the price were the same. Any one who is 

 interested in this matter can not do better 

 than to get a sample of milk sugar and 

 compare it with the ordinary sugar of the 

 grocery, remembering that both are exactly 

 the same, chemically speaking. I think all 

 will agree with me that there is a very wide 

 difference between the two, both to the eye 

 and the palate. Beet sugar in a highly re- 

 fined state may pass for refined cane sugar, 

 and for some purposes may be superior to it 

 — tor example, in making fruit-syrup for so- 

 da-water fountains, where a syrupy taste is 

 not wanted. In a raw state beet sugar con- 

 tains a bitter principle, whereas raw cane 

 sugar (concrete) is an excellent food for 

 bees; and if it is kept clear of dirt, and 

 carefully handled, it looks and tastes very 

 much like maple sugar. Only an expert 

 could tell the difference. Be that as it may, 

 American bee-keepers nearly all use cane 

 sugar, for the reason that only a small pro- 

 portion of the sugar consumed in the United 

 States is beet sugar. There is one feature 

 of this question that is altogether over- 

 looked, and that is, unrefined sugar is both 

 cheaper and better. It seems ridiculous to 

 Ijuy expensive highly refined sugar when a 

 cheaper article would suit equally well or 

 even better. At the same time, it does not 

 pay to use inferior sugar— for example, mo- 

 lasses sugar. 



In Europe, beet sugar mainly is consum- 

 ed, cane sugar being the exception, the 



British Isles alone consuming 2,000,000 tons 

 per annum. European bee-keepers, how- 

 ever, have learned to prefer muscovado su- 

 gar, which is a cane sugar manfactured by 

 a simple process. This sort of sugar is not 

 as common as formerly. Porto Rico, until 

 lately, made little else; but more up-to-date 

 methods are now in vogue. Barbados still 

 makes a considerable quantity. It is in the 

 manufacture of muscovado sugar that table 

 molasses is secured. Molasses secured by 

 the more modern processes is unfit for hu- 

 man consumption, so that Porto Rican sugar 

 has lost its name in Europe among bee- 

 keepers, at least, and the Canadian wood- 

 cutters no longer want its molasses, which 

 causes Barbados to move up one place. 



There is another sort of cane sugar, prin- 

 cipally from Mexico, known as papelon, 

 which is sometimes exported to the United 

 States. It is an excellent food for bees. It 

 is sometimes known as clayed sugar. It is 

 often sold in Texas and New Mexico, and I 

 presume some of the Texas bee-keepers can 

 tell us all about it as a bee-food. Cane syr- 

 up is an excellent food for bees, but usually 

 too dear for that purpose in the United 

 States, where pancakes and flapjacks are so 

 much in demand. In Florida and Georgia, 

 why don't the makers of syrup use bees to 

 convert the cane juice into syrup, instead of 

 expensive machinery which endangers the 

 product by burning it? It ought to be easy 

 to try the experiment of making syrup by 

 bees in Florida. I have no doubt the bees 



would make a superior product, and possibly 

 cheaper. 



Here let me note, bees are away ahead of 

 the finest modern processes in evaporating 

 sugar. Heat is the great eaemy of the su- 

 gar-producer, and the bees make it without 

 heat. It would not surprise me if the beau- 

 tiful cane sugar of the future were made by 

 the aid of bees, very largely so if not alto- 

 gether. The process seems clear enough to 

 me. The bees should convert the juice into 

 syrup, then the syrup should be frozen to 

 cause rapid crystallization. It should be 

 added here, some far-seeing able men have 

 condemned the whole modern process of su- 

 gar manufacture. It seems wasteful in the 

 extreme to use a large amount of fuel to 

 evaporate sugar juice when the bees could 

 do it by the cold process. My calculation is, 

 it would require from 300 to 500 colonies of 

 bees to handle the juice of 100 acres of cane 

 during a campaign of 100 days. Some of 

 the Cuban readers of Gleanings are possi- 

 bly able to test this matter practically. It 

 should be remembered that the wax pro- 

 duced would compensate a bee-keeper for 

 his labor in attending to the bees. 



The average bee-keeper of the United 

 States never gets a chance to try raw su- 

 gar, for the good reason that very little of 

 it is imported. Raw sugar in the form of 

 concrete is sometimes imported from Cuba, 

 Venezuela, and Brazil. Most of the sugar 

 imported is more or less refined before it 

 reaches American ports, though the tariff 



ONE VIEW OF AN INNER COURT BETWEEN SOME OF Tl 



1. ROOT CO.'S MANUFACTURING PLANT. SEE EDITORIAL. 



