685 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



of honey tliat was ever stored for any pur- 

 pose for wliicli a bee ever uses lioney. Queens 

 raised on this syrup, and fresh pollen, have 

 so far given a better life-average, are nearer 

 all perfect queens, than any T have been 

 able to raise on stores gathered from flowers, 

 wliile the workers thus raised are hardy, 

 and can stand spring grief to the equal of 

 any worker ever raised. 



There is a gi-eat difference in the way the 

 work is put up to man or bee as to whether 

 the result is profitable or not. Now, in the 

 case cited by Mr. Hand, where 8 or 10 parts 

 of water was used to one of sugar, and fed 

 in the open, I cannot conceive of a more 

 disastrous condition imposed on bees than 

 to be tempted to convert this slop into a 

 suitable food. I will try to give a parallel 

 case with man instead of the bee, from 

 which we can draw the same lesson. Bread 

 is the staff of life with man, composed large- 

 ly of flour, a little yeast, salt, and a reason- 

 able proportion of water to make a stiff 

 dough to which the right amount of heat is 

 applied in the right way, and the result is a 

 wholesome food. But suppose we have the 

 same ingredients except that we increase the 

 water to 8 or 10 parts to one of the other 

 ingredients, and apply the same amount of 

 heat, and try to keep life in a man for the 

 period of three months with the resulting 

 compound, or expect him to be the equal in 

 sti'ength of the bread-fed man, and, further, 

 expect him to labor as the equal of the man 

 normally fed. It sometimes appears that we 

 exi^ect unreasonable things of our bees — 

 things that we could not or would not do if 

 we were a bee. 



Then our friend has overlooked the "bef 

 again when he holds up the " inversion " of 

 the syrup as weakening to the bee, and 

 carries the idea in his article that the nectar 

 of flowers is not inverted, or that this kind 

 of work weakens the vitality of the bee in 

 the one case and not the other. I believe 

 that the nectar requires just as much albu- 

 men when gathered from flowers to invert 

 as in the case of sugar syrup ; and in the 

 case of candy made from sugar there can be 

 no difference. Then why should this opera- 

 tion be so debilitating to the bee if done in 

 the most economical manner? I take a 

 common black iron bread-pan that will hold 

 at least half that I wish to feed to a colony, 

 an empty super, t\po sticks %, inch thick. 

 Going to the hive I take off the top, put on 

 the super, lay the sticks across the frames, 

 set my pan close to one side, pour in syrup 

 till the pan is full, and cover the top of 

 syi'up with a thin wooden float. Then 48 

 hours later a normal colony will be ready 

 for the last half, which will probably re- 



(juire li\e or six days to store, as finishing 

 and sealing of the cells lakes more time than 

 llie fli'st simple storing. Two weeks later 

 Ibis will all be capped in a normal condition. 

 The syrup used is from the best cane sugar, 

 in parts of about 21/2 of sugar to one of 

 water. A straight-sided vessel should show 

 a little more finished .syrup than there was 

 bulk su^r before mixing. The consistency 

 of the syrup is very important; for as soon 

 as one gets the syrup where it will not 

 congeal into a coating of hard candy on top 

 when allowed to stand for an hour or two, 

 the bees will store and seal it immediately; 

 while if too thick they find the transfer a 

 slow process. 



Then if we should use honey thinned, as 

 our friend thinned his syrup, would not that 

 be just as debilitating to the bee, and just 

 as disapijointing? 



Then, again, life provides as the acme of 

 its predestination in the species, that, in the 

 cycle of the generations, they perpetuate 

 their race in the highest possible manner 

 and degree, and then pass from the stage of 

 action to be succeeded by their progeny. It 

 is a well-known fact that, the busier their 

 life, the nearer perfection they reach, and 

 bees are no exception to this law. 



With rare exceptions I know of no reason 

 for feeding bees but the want of stores ; and 

 where there is a fall flow in August and 

 September there is seldom need ; but where 

 there is not such flow, is where it taxes all 

 the resources and knowledge of the apiarist 

 to put his bees in condition for profitable 

 wintering and a honey crop next year. Bees 

 raised in July and August have a very short 

 working life, possibly 30 days, being raised 

 under congested conditions, while from Sep- 

 tember on they have a working life of 54 

 days' average. Under such conditions, if 

 there is no fall flow, and colonies breed 

 freely during July and August, and fill the 

 hive with bees, they exhaust the stores and 

 do not breec in September, but prolong 

 their life by going into the comatose con- 

 dition that enables them to prolong their 

 life until the fix st part of the ensuing year, 

 and no doubt m.my of them thus live until 

 tliey are taken out of the cellar, when thus 

 wintered, only to furnish victims for spring 

 dwindling; while on the other hand the 

 colony that filled the hive with stores and 

 reduced the brood-nest at the close of the 

 lioney-flow will have sufficient brood-nest by 

 September to raise a populous colony of 

 long-lived bees, and plenty of stores to win- 

 ter them still on hand. 1 can find no more 

 profitable way to handle the first-mentioned 

 class than to give them, the first of Septem- 

 ber, 25 pounds of cane sugar in the manner 



