AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



115 



paratus conformable to the needs of the 

 new system. 



FEEDING BACK HONEY. 



Feeding back extracted honey to se- 

 cure the completion of unfinished sec- 

 tions at the close of the harvest is prac- 

 ticed by some apiarists, but with varying 

 financial success. Extracted honey can 

 be transported long distances with much 

 greater safety than can comb honey. 

 For this reason it has been thought it 

 might be profitable to feed bees ex- 

 tracted honey costing 7 or 8 cents per 

 pound to produce comb honey selling at 

 13 to 15 cents, locating the apiary de- 

 signed for this purpose near a large city 

 or other favorable market. With the 

 idea of adding light upon this subject, 

 extracted honey was fed to a number of 

 colonies under the following conditions : 



The hives were contracted, and the 

 queens kept in the brood apartment by 

 means of excluding zinc. Five colonies 

 were given two crates each of unfinished 

 sections, the sections of the whole 

 weighing 113 pounds. Three hundred 

 and thirty-eight pounds of honey were 

 fed these 5 colonies during 12 days. 

 The honey was thinned with 12 per 

 cent, of water, and warmed before feed- 

 ing. The amount of finished honey ob- 

 tained was 367 pounds, or a gain of 

 254 pounds by feeding 339 pounds of 

 honey. The hives were weighed both 

 before and after the honey was fed, and 

 a gain of 36 pounds during the feeding 

 recorded for the five hives. The follow- 

 ing gives the results from a financial 

 view : 



254 pounds comb honey by feeding, at 



14 cents $35 56 



36 pounds stored in hives, at 8 cents 2 88 



38 44 

 Minus value of 338 lbs. fed, at 8 cents 27 04 



Profit as pay for labor, etc $11 40 



Two colonies were given crates of sec- 

 tions with full sheets of foundation, and 

 were fed extracted honey, under the 

 same conditions as the 5 colonies above : 



Pounds. 

 Amount of honey fed each colony... 66% 



Colony No. 1, finished comb honey 41^4 



Colony No. 1, gain in weight of hive.. 9 



Colony No. 2, finished comb honey 38 



Colony No. 2, gain in ^eight of hive.. 754 



Taking these two colonies as a basis, 

 the following financial statement is 

 made : 



79% pounds comb honey, at 14 cents.. $11 13 

 16 % lbs. honey stored in hive8,at 8 cents. 1 32 



12 45 

 Mlnusvalueof 1331b8. honeyfed.atSc. 10 64 



$1 81 



Deducting from this profit the value 

 of the sections and foundation used, the 

 actual profit, as pay for labor, etc., is, 

 at most, nominal. 



When this whole experiment was be- 

 gun, and during the time it was in prog- 

 ress, no honey was gathered from the 

 fields, but before the sealing was all 

 accomplished, the fall honey-flow began, 

 and for this reason the experiment was 

 ended, and the honey removed sooner 

 than would otherwise have been ad- 

 visable. 



The results obtained in this work, or 

 in any experimental work of a similar 

 character, might vary under more favor- 

 able or unfavorable conditions of en- 

 vironment, and a continuation in various 

 seasons, and under other conditions, 

 would alone give really reliable results. 

 The above trials are, however, very en- 

 couraging, and longer and varied work 

 in this line is desirable. 



Agricultural College, Nov. 17, 1892. 



Where wa§ His mistake ?— The 

 Season in Nebraska. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY DR. JA8. B. HUNGATE. 



While away from home with the Na- 

 tional Association of Railway Surgeons' 

 Excursion, Mr. E. Kretchmer kindly 

 sent me an untested "Golddust" queen, 

 to replace one I got of him last fall that 

 was clipped. Mr. A. B. Campbell, who 

 handles bees here, very obligingly took 

 charge of the queen, and went to my 

 apiary and made up a nucleus, fixing 

 the cage so the bees could eat her out, 

 and laid it on top of the frames, covered 

 the box and came away. 



Now the colony he used in making the 

 nucleus was a rather weak one, with a 

 young queen that I got in April from 

 Mississippi. She proved to be an excel- 

 lent layer, producing finely marked five- 

 banded bees, but she herself was darker 

 than usual, with an extraordinarily long 

 and full abdomen. I prized her much. 



When I came home, five dayg after 

 Mr. Campbell's manipulations, and he 

 told me what he had done, I thanked 

 him, and asked him if he had examined 

 to see if the queen was liberated. He 

 said he had that day, and was surprised 

 to find her laying so abundantly. 



The next day I put frames of bees and 

 hatching brood in an eight-frame Lang- 

 stroth hive, and waiting until dusk I 

 went to the nucleus box to add the 



