GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



CONVERSATIONS with DOOLITTLE 



At Borodino, New York. 



I'EEDING BACK TO COMPLETE SEC- 

 TIONS. 



"It now looks as if I would have 

 a large number of unfinished sec- 

 tions at the close of the white- 

 honey harvest. Because of the 

 shortness of the season and the 

 lig'ht honey-flow in this locality, only now 

 and then a colony has completed even otie 

 super of sections, thus leaving the most of 

 those worked for section honey with two or 

 three supers of sections from one-fourth to 

 tlii'ee-fourths filled. Under these circum- 

 stances it seems as tho it would pay to mass 

 all of the three-fourths-full sections on cer- 

 tain strong colonies, extract the honey from 

 the rest of the sections, and feed for the 

 completion of those massed nearly full." 



This is something about which quite a 

 little was written in the latter part of the 

 last century ; and while quite a few claimed 

 to make a success of such feeding, occasion- 

 ally the plan was reported a failure. It 

 was claimed that those who failed did not 

 have the right kind of bees, the colonies fed 

 were not strong enough, the amount of brood 

 and space given in the brood-chamber was 

 not right, or else the honey fed back was 

 not thin enough. 



There is quite a difference in the charac- 

 ter of the bees, even in the same apiary and 

 of the same race. Some cajD their honey 

 with a smoothness and whiteness that is 

 captivating to the eye, and store with en- 

 ergy and activity, even quite a distance 

 from their queen and brood. Others have 

 a disposition to cling to the brood-chamber, 

 to crowd it with honey, and, when that 

 affords no more room, to cease labor rather 

 than overcome the disinclination to pass 

 beyond the limits of the brood-nest into the 

 surplus apartment above. In selecting bees 

 to be employed for feeding back, no point 

 is more important than that those should 

 be chosen that enter the supers willingly. 

 Hybrids of the German and Italian varieties 

 are considered to be the best for the purpose 

 of finishing up partly filled sections by 

 feeding back extracted honey. 



Then the character of the queen has quite 

 an important bearing. The point here is 

 that the queen should be prolific. Unless 

 she is so, the colony will not have the nu- 

 merical strength, and, what is more impor- 

 tant, as fast as the brood emerges, the bees 

 will crowd the cells with the feed. 



. The season also has much to do with this 

 matter. That must be early — the earlier the 



better after the white-honey harvest begins 

 to wane. In selecting this time we gain in 

 two ways — first, we avoid as far as possible 

 the disposition of the bees to store honey in 

 the brood-chamber — a disposition which in- 

 creases as the season wanes; and, second, we 

 secure the great advantage of having the 

 work done during the hottest weather, dur- 

 ing which alone bees produce wax and build 

 comb most economically. The opportune 

 time is the interim between the white-clover- 

 basswood season and the late honey season. 



For obvious reasons the brood-chamber 

 should be small, because, otherwise, an op- 

 portunity is furnished for a large amount 

 of brood, the value of which beyond a cer- 

 tain limit cannot be gxeat, altho it would 

 cost a large amount of the honey fed ; and 

 any honey, if stored in the brood-combs, is 

 of less value than it was before. The ca- 

 pacity of five Langstroth frames is what I 

 have used, and consider that better than 

 either four or six. These five combs should 

 be filled with brood as far as possible, and 

 the remaining pai't of the hive made up of 

 dummies or frames of sealed honey. 



The further the comb in the sections is 

 worked out, and the more- honey they con- 

 tain when they are given to the bees to be 

 completed, the greater will be the relative 

 profit. Providing the bees with sections 

 containing comb well worked out and quite 

 well filled with honey, such as are usually 

 plentiful at the close of the early honey har- 

 vest is more important than any of the other 

 points in securing the highest success in this 

 feeding-back business. The combs are in 

 condition for the process of filling to pro- 

 ceed at once, and comparatively little wax 

 needs to be jjroduced, so that the work is 

 greatly hastened and the consumption of 

 honey saved in every direction. The honey, 

 also, in such sections, which is unsalable in 

 that condition, is doubled in value by the 

 completion of the sections. Indeed, without 

 the motive of bringing such sections to a 

 salable condition, feeding back would be of 

 doubtful advantage. 



For the purpose of feeding back, the ex- 

 tracted honey used should be thinned to 

 near the thickness of nectar as it comes from 

 the flowers; for if honey as thick as that 

 which comes from sealed cells is used the 

 bee will be slow in taking it, especially if 

 the weather is a little cool. By thoroly in- 

 « corporating with such honey one-half its 

 own weight of water the bees will handle it 

 more rapidly. 



