1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



531 



HONEY CONSUMED BY A COLONY OF BEES 

 IN ONE YEAR. 



Some Interesting Data Collected to Go to Show 



that the Amount may Run from 200 to 250 



lbs.; a Valuable Article. 



BY ADRIAN GETAZ. 



Some time ago I made the statement that 

 a good colony of bees must consume for all 

 purposes about 200 lbs. of honey every year. 

 Proof was called for, and the statement 

 variously commented upon, most of the 

 writers thinking the figures too high. As a 

 matter of fact they were based upon the 

 amount of honey lost (or, rather, used) by 

 the bees during the feeding-back process. 



It is needless to say that this amount con- 

 sumed must vary exceedingly, according to 

 the strength of the colony, the amount of 

 brood raised, the temperature, and a num- 

 ber of other conditions not necessary to 

 mention. 



If we look into the matter systematically 

 we shall see that the amount consumed will 

 be made of several parts— 



1. To keep the bees alive. 



2. To furnish the heat necessary to the 

 welfare of the colony. 



3. To secrete the wax. 



4 To feed and raise the brood. 

 Let us examine them separately. 



KEEPING THE BEES ALIVE. 



How much does it take to keep the bees 

 alive? I know of but two experiments that 

 can throw any light on this question. The 

 first is by Mr. Dumont, in L'Apictilteur, 

 Nov. , 1902, pages 65 69 of the Report of the 

 Federation of the French Societies of Api- 

 culture. Without going into details, the ex- 

 periment shows that bees kept in a room at 

 the ordinary temperature consume each 

 0.0097 gram of honey every day. (One 

 American pound equals 452 grams.) The 

 average weight of each bee was found to be 

 0.0988. It follows from that, that the bees 

 not working consume daily about one-tenth 

 of their weight of honey merely to keep 

 alive. That would be nearly a pound for a 

 colony of 40,000 bees. 



At first sight, that seems enormous; yet, 

 after all, it is not. The stomach of a bee 

 •contains one-fifth of its weight of honey. 

 One tenth is only half of it— we might say 

 half of a ''square meal." Surely a work- 

 ing bee should be allowed half a ' ' square 

 meal " a day. 



The second experiment is from Mr. Sylviac 

 (U Apicultevr, Aug., 1903, pages 29 33 of 

 the Report of the Federation of the French 

 Societies of Apiculture). A nucleus (about 



J lb.) was wintered sucessfully out of doors 

 —that is, in a " rucher, " a bee-shed walled 

 on three sides, open in the front. The nu- 

 cleus lived through the winter, which hap- 

 pened to be very mild in that region. The 

 honey consumed daily averaged 0.028 gram 

 for each bee. That is enormous. This, if 

 no mistake has occurred, can be accounted 

 for by the fact that such a small number of 

 bees could not keep themselves warm enough 

 without the utmost efi'orts and the largest 

 possible consumption of honey. 



The question maybe asked here, " If it 

 takes that much honey to keep the bees 

 merely alive, how can a colony go through 

 the winter with only 10 lbs. of honey or less?" 

 Well. I don't know. Perhaps they "hiber- 

 nate" part of the time. I merely give you 

 the facts as I find them. 



The amount of honey consumed above the 

 quantity necessary to keep alive in order to 

 keep the brood and the interior of the hive 

 suflficiently warm mu-^t be exceedingly vari- 

 able—nothing at all in very warm weather, 

 but possibly more than one imagines in un- 

 favorable circumstances, such as during the 

 early part of spring. 



WAX- PRODUCTION. 



This is another very variable quantity. If 

 a swarm, natural or forced, has to build a 

 full brood-nest, that means something like 3 

 or 4 lbs. of wax at least. In weighing the 

 wax from full sections o| honey I found one 

 ounce of wax to each section. Somebody 

 reported once only half an ounce; but, if I 

 remember correctly, it was without the cap- 

 pings. A surplus of four pounds of honey 

 per day would mean the production of | lb. 

 of wax per day; and if it takes 4 lbs. of 

 honey to produce 1 lb. of wax, we have 

 right there a daily consumption of 2 lbs. of 

 honey for wax purposes only, not speaking 

 of what may be needed in the brood-nest for 

 capping brood, etc. But how many pounds 

 of honey does it take to make a pound of 

 wax? The experiments of Huber. and, 

 later, of Dumas and Milne-Edwards, can not 

 be considered. Huber wanted to prove, and 

 did prove, that the wax is produced by the 

 bees, and not gathered from the flowers. 

 Dumas and Milne-Edwards wanted to prove, 

 and did prove, that the wax, like all the other 

 animal fats and similar products, is due to a 

 transformation of the carbo-hydrates con- 

 sumed. That term, carbo-hydrates, includes 

 sugars, honey, starch, and other similar sub- 

 stances. 



So far as the relation between the honey 

 consumed and the wax produced is concern- 

 ed, those experiments, as well as others 

 similarly conducted, are worthless. The 

 quantity of honey reported includes what the 

 bees consumed merely to live. There were 

 too few bees, and, therefore, they must have 

 consumed a large portion of the honey given 

 to keep up the necessary temperature for 

 wax-producing and comb-building. Huber 

 reported only the amount of comb built, and 

 kept no account of the scales that might 

 have been on the bee's body. Dumas and 



