SKI'TKMBEK ] 5, 1914 



Ilieir long- experiences among the bees — tlie 

 \ery best source from which reliable knowl- 

 edge can be derived. Here is evidence facing 

 us, much of it to be found in the pages of 

 (tI;EAnings during- the twenty years I have 

 been a diligent student of its pages. The 

 one series of quotations (witli which I will 

 not burden your readers) positively confirm 

 the negative statement I have quoted above, 

 while the others, of no less bulk, whole- 

 lieartedly confirm the affirmative. Practi- 

 cally my own conclusion is that both are 

 right, and, paradoxical though it may sound, 

 both are wrong. 



]\Iy friend Dr. Miller must excuse the 

 bluntness of my assertion that he is wrong, 

 because I liope to prove it; and I have two 

 other reasons at least modifying the force 

 of the contradiction. It is partly balanced 

 l)y the statement that he is right, and, fur- 

 ther, he has looked at only one side of the 

 shield before declaring of what material it 

 is made. I think he really means spring 

 stimulation, which is another thing. His 

 " ever " is, therefore, too emphatic and too 

 sweeping. Again, Dr. Miller does not speak 

 for the "school;" he is really recording a 

 personal opinion. Another point is that Dr. 

 Miller is a comb-honey producer (and a 

 champion at that, as his average of 267 

 sections clearly testifies). I, too, work for 

 comb honey, and I never stimulate in a 

 general way, because I find that, without 

 doing so, working for a late flow, as I 

 mainly do, it would work evil and not good, 

 Ijringing my bees to the crest of the wave at 

 far too early a date for my late flow from 

 the heather. 



T know all that can be said against spring 

 stimulation, and wi'.l refer to some points 

 later; but meanwhile I will take the nega- 

 tive statement cjuoted above as a type of 

 that school of beekeepers. 



Stimulating bees does pay, and it pays 

 well. I will at present specify three condi- 

 tions under Avhich it will prove a boon and 

 a blessing to both b^es and their keepers 

 who practice it. First, sugar can be turned 

 into hees. I feel certain the small lots la- 

 dled out and placed on combs or founda- 

 tion, each headed by a young fertile queen. 

 a young virgin, or a nearly rijDe queen-cell, 

 about which the editor wrote not so long- 

 ago when describing the Root yard for in- 

 crease, profited immensely by the steady 

 stimulative flow considered an essential fac- 

 tor in helping- them toward development. 

 Don't we all, when making- up small lots 

 Avith two or three frames, stimulate? We 

 work them up all through summer and early 

 auluimi, stimulatively, to turn the syrup 

 info voung Ijees to enconr.-me (ineens to lav 



as rapidly as possible, and to secure not 

 oidy more combs but also food sufficient for 

 winter stores. I assert that, but for the 

 stimulation to cause breeding, these origi- 

 nally small lots would never be able to winter 

 successfully as independent units. Here is 

 a case where stimulative feeding is, indeed,- 

 the determining factor between success and 

 failure. The '' profit " is almost entirely 

 due to the syrup fed. 



Secondly, given a weakling with a well- 

 known prolific queen covering only one or 

 two frames in early summer, I will take in 

 hand to work it up to first-class form for 

 my full flow, mainly by stimulation. Obvi- 

 ously it is suffering from a paucity of bees ; 

 and, likely, many of these are old bees. 

 Adding more old bees from another weak- 

 ling, as is generally done, would be a waste 

 of labor. Give it a frame of just-hatching 

 brood, or two if you can afford it, and you 

 supply one of the elements hitherto want- 

 ing; viz., nurse bees. The other factor nec- 

 essary to success is stimulation. Your pro- 

 lific queen lays thousands of eggs under the 

 stimulus of the slow but steady increase, 

 and the just-hatched bees are there to care 

 for them in the larval stage. Here is an- 

 other instance of the blessing of stimulation. 



Thirdly, this autumn stimulation is the 

 occasion Avhere stimulative feeding- works 

 marvels, not only for the time being, but for 

 tlie entire year following. Perhaps neither 

 Dr. Miller nor myself have benetited much 

 from this autumn stimulation, being comb- 

 honey men, and because of being blessed 

 with a late flow. Indeed, som.e years I 

 have too much honey in the brood-body in 

 September. Tlie case is diffei-ent with "ex- 

 tracted" hives, where the surplus has ab- 

 sorbed all but the entire fruits of the fall 

 honey-floAv and the brood-body is left Avith 

 little if any winter stores. 



Now, taking it for granted that in autumn 

 every light colony must be fed less or more 

 — some only a feAV pounds, others ten, and 

 yet others tAventy pounds, the question 

 arises hoAv Ave are to feed them to secure the 

 most profit. Bearing in mind that young- 

 bees are an essential to successful wintering, 

 and of no less value in safe " springing," 

 let us get these by autumn stimulation. The 

 syrup slowly fed encourages breeding, as 

 the steady flow keeps up the vitality of the 

 queen right on from the cessation of the 

 natural floAv until Ave deem it time for her 

 to cease laying. I am 2)resuming that only 

 ounces have been allowed daily during this 

 period of stimulation, and that little if any 

 of it has been stored, all of it going to make 

 bees, or to keeji the workers living from 

 hand to mouth, Avithout any meddling with 



