278 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 



except in the above case; but I am not certain there 

 is any economy in its use. J. H. Peirce. 



Dayton, O., May 3, 1881. 



It has been reported to me by several bee-keepers 

 of reputation that the immediate cause of your win- 

 ter losses was feeding glucose or grape sugar. 

 Please give us the facts in the case; to what extent 

 you have fed glucose, if at all. H. R. Boardman. 



East Townsend, Huron Co., O., May 14, 1881. 



Many thanks, friends, for your kind in- 

 quiries. You are botli, perhaps, well aware 

 that I have never advised the use of grape 

 sugar for wintering, and that I have, in all 

 my circulars and price lists, cautioned you 

 all against its use, on account of its harden- 

 ing in the cells. The first experiment I ever 

 made with it, for wintering, caused the death 

 of two colonies, whicli I duly reported in 

 these pages. They did not have dysentery, 

 but simply starved on heavy combs of solid 

 grape sugar. After our experiments with 

 candy made of grape sugar, coffee sugar, and 

 flour, I used it experimentally on several 

 colonies to start brood-rearing, at different 

 times during the winter of 1879- '80. It start- 

 ed brood ])romptly, and did no harm, as I 

 then reported. During this past winter, the 

 weather was so cold that no such experi- 

 ments were made at all ; all feeding w^as 

 done u]) before cold w^eather. I reported 

 last fall just how we fed those colonies 

 needing stores. It was candy put into 

 frames, made of 8 parts best granulated 

 sugar, to one part of grape sugar. A great 

 part of this remains in the frames yet, not 

 being used nor needed by the bees. It may 

 be urged, that the bees got grape sugar from 

 all the hives, from open-air feeding. This is 

 a mistake, for we did no open-air feeding 

 last season at all, on account of an apiary re- 

 cently started right across the street from us. 

 An examination of the combs sliows that the 

 bees did just the same on stores of honey as 

 they did where they had the frames of candy. 

 One colony that "had dysentery especially 

 bad was fed up on maple sugar. As an ex- 

 periment, I fed one up exclusively, early in 

 the fall, on pure grape sugar of the improved 

 Buffalo make, called the crystal sugar. The 

 bees ate this with greater avidity than the 

 old kind, and I thought it might be less apt 

 to harden in the cells. This colony was con- 

 sidered among our best early in April. Had 

 our usual April weather come on, we should 

 probably have saved about 50 colonies that 

 were lost. 



A few winters ago, neighbor Blakeslee had 

 his first spring dwindling, and lost the great- 

 er part of his apiary. As he had used some 

 grape sugar during the fall before, he de- 

 clared it was the cause of his losses, and de- 

 nounced it most strongly. A few days after, 

 he visited Mr. Pierson, of Ghent, an old vet- 

 eran who had wintered successfully for years 

 without loss. Mr. P. had had a terrible time 

 with the dwindling, and had lost almost his 

 entire apiaries, but had never fed a pound of 

 grape sugar in his life. Neighbor P>. told 

 us this with a smile, and confessed he had 

 been hasty. If the losses of the past winter 

 were only among those who used grape sugar, 

 it would very likely never be used any more. 



The case Mr. Langstroth mentions in the 

 A. B. J. of May 11th, seems to show very 



conclusively that grape sugar should not be 

 used for winter stores, and I can not see why 

 our friend McCord should have done so fool- 

 ish a thing as to have given the greater part 

 of the stores of 86 colonies a feed mostly 

 grape sugar. Although I have never known 

 a good article to produce dysentery, I should 

 have certainly supposed it would have 

 hardened in the cells so as to starve them. 

 Perhaps friend M. can tell us some thing 

 more about it. I am verry sorry that grape 

 sugar is used for bad or dishonest purposes ; 

 but even if it is, i can not see why this 

 should be a reason why we should not use it 

 to feed bees winle rearing queens, and bees 

 by the pound. The concluding remark of 

 friend Peirce, that it may be no economy, is 

 the great point at issue, and friend P. should 

 know some thing about it, for we have sold 

 him at least one barrel of the best Buffalo. 

 Our business is principally raising' bees by 

 the pound, and now bids fair to be for years 

 to come, unless somebody turns in to help ; 

 and for this purpose I think grape sugar a 

 great boon. 



I would suggest to friend Boardman, that 

 glucose don't mean grape sugar, as he ■will 

 discover by ordering a sample of both of the 

 articles from the factory. 



MclIiW.ilN'S COITIB-HOLDER. 



E have had almost as many comb- 

 holders as queen-cages ; but the one 

 below is so easily made, it may prove 

 a useful suggestion to some of the friends. 



COMB -HOLDER. 



Here is a picture of my comb-holder, which de- 

 scribes itself. I have put a box with sloping cover, 

 as shown by the dotted lines, on the other side of 

 holder, to keep smoker and fuel in. 



Abbeville, S. C. A. T. McIlwain. 



]3ut, friend M., I am afraid if your bees 

 robbed as badly as ours do this 24th day of 

 May, you would want some kind of a cover 

 over it, or some thing like our comb-bucket. 

 The boys do not even dare to carry a lot of 

 frames of candy around to colonies needing 

 supplies now, unless they use a comb-basket. 



Friend Heddon, in his report on page 2T3, don't 

 toll us how the 50 colonies he sold turned out. 

 Neighbor Dean has just been in with a load of bees, 

 and he says he lost 6 colonics in May, by the "dwind- 

 ling," and that, too, after he had counted them as all 

 right. I want to see these old veterans all own up 

 fairly and squarely just how helpless they are in the 

 matter. 



