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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



a suspicious sample of brood togettier with 

 considerable honey all sticky and dripping 

 because the sender merely wrapped it up in 

 a few thicknesses of newspaper, we feel 

 like — well, we won't say what we feel like 

 doing. Sending such a package through 

 the mails is almost criminal carelessness. 

 Such samples should not be sent to us any 

 way, but to Dr. Phillips, Bureau of Ento- 

 mology, Department of Agriculture, Wash- 

 ington, D. C. 



m Sugar 



In Dr. Wiley's department in Good 

 Housekeeping for May appears a paragraph 

 under the heading " Foods Rich in Sugar " 

 As it puts honey at the head of the list of 

 natural foods richest in sugar content we 

 are glad to reproduce it for our readers. 

 This, coming as it does from one of the 

 greatest authorities in the world on foods, 

 means something. The whole article, in 

 fact, is worth reading, as is every thing 

 else from Dr. Wiley. Here is what is said : 



Among the natural foods which contain notable 

 quantities of sugar may be mentioned the following: 

 beets, sweet potatoes, turnips, radishes, carrots, and 

 other root crops. Indeed, all the common vegetable 

 foods consumed by man contain notable quantities 

 of sugar. The sugar-beet yields from 10 to 18 per 

 cent, and the sweet potato has from 4 to 7 per cent. 

 The natural food richest in sugar content, however, 

 is honey. Nearly all the solid content of honey is 

 composed of sugars : namely, levulose and dextrose 

 in practically equal proportions, in which are usu- 

 ally mixed small quantities of ordinary sugar. Hon- 

 ey is the type of natural sugar foods. Prepared 

 foods which are largely sugars include, besides the 

 ordinary sugar of commerce, molasses, syrups of all 

 kinds, and confections. Among the confections are 

 included the sugar cakes of various kinds, which are 

 such a common component of desserts, and candies 

 of every description. 



Feeding Sugar to Make Colonies; a 

 Further Explanation from Mr. Sel- 

 zer 



Referring to our experiments in the 

 matter of making increase at swamps or 

 nectar from natural sources, and making 

 increase by feeding sugar syrup, in our Oct. 

 15th issue, page 794, Mr. Selser writes, 

 making a further explanation as follows : 



In Siftings, October 15, page 794, you are quite 

 correct in reference to a dollar's worth of sugar 

 building up three-frame nuclei to full colonies with 

 full sheets of foundation, ready for the honey har- 

 vest; with all consumed and no surplus; but it costs 

 $2.23 per colony to carry them up with stores to a 

 surplus sufficient for winter. 



The procedure was this: In the Root Co.'s Salem 

 apiary, directly after the June honey-flow, with all 

 surplus taken off, we divided eight-frame hives (pop- 

 ulous, of course) into three three-frame nuclei, put- 

 ting two frames on the original stand with an emp- 

 ty frame of drawn comb. This was in the tirst part 

 of July, or right after the Fourth; and by the 25th 



of August, when we have a big swamp fall flow at 

 tliis point, the bees were in shape to stop feeding 

 and continue on the natural flow; but this year 

 spoken of was a failure, so we continued feeding 

 until frost, and carried some five hundred colonies 

 through to spring with a minimum loss of about five 

 per cent. 



We bought sugar that year in ten-barrel lots at a 

 time, at four cents, less grocer's discount. Of course, 

 with sugar at five cents the cost in dollars and cents 

 would be a little more. We do not remember just 

 what sugar we used; but we figure the cost in actual 

 dollars and cents, so as to guide us in our future 

 calculations. 



Philadelphia, Pa., Oct. 30. Wm. A. Selser. 



Mr. Selser is entirely correct. On the 

 other hand, if we buy a colony of bees in 

 July or August, we probably would have 

 to feed that colony in order to put it in 

 shape for winter. The point we wish to 

 make in this connection is that one can, with 

 sugar at normal prices, if he understands 

 the art of slow feeding, make up a colony 

 of bees from three-frame nuclei in July 

 with a dollar's worth of sugar. As the 

 nucleus will be worth anywhere from $2.00 

 to $4.00, it will make the colony net us, 

 not including the labor, from $3.00 to $5.00 

 by Sept. 1 ; or including labor, 50 cents 

 more. This will not inlcude the hives nor 

 extra feeding for winter if there is no fall 

 pasturage. One reason why we went to 

 the swamps was to get the honey for noth- 

 ing; but, as will be seen from report else- 

 where, the fed colonies came out ahead this 

 year as the fall pasturage did not hold out 

 in one location at least as we had expected. 



Swamp Beekeeeping vs. Feeding for 

 Increase in and about Medina — a 

 Final Report 



Last summer we had sold our bees down 

 so low that it became necessary to make 

 increase. Two plans were pursued to get 

 more bees. One was, to leave some of the 

 bees at the original outyards, and feed up 

 with cheap Porto Rican honey after the 

 general honey-fiow was over. The other 

 was, to move some yards to locations near 

 big swamps. There was one big swamp, it 

 will be remembered, of something like 1000 

 acres, about 30 miles nortlieast of us. From 

 there were other swamps nearer at hand 

 where we placed other bees. The nearby 

 .swamps did better than those far away, and 

 the increase was satisfactory. The Richey 

 yard, near the thousand-acre swamp, did 

 not make as good increase as some of the 

 other yards; but it drew out nearly a thou- 

 sand combs from full sheets. One reason 

 they went backward was, we drew on them 

 heavily for bees in pound packages in July. 

 The other reason was, that the bees had to 

 fly so far to jiasture that they wore them- 



