THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



163 



Mr. Root remarks : " If I am cor- 

 rect, cotton seed meal has once before 

 been mentioned, but if it is really a 

 fact that bees take it better than oats 

 or rye, it might be well to offer it for 

 sale. Who will tell us what it is 

 worth V" 



I was sorry to see Mr. Root make no 

 effort to fathom the reason why cot- 

 ton seed meal is preferred to any 

 other meal, his only idea seemed to 

 be to tind something to sell. The op- 

 portunity for teaching was there 

 offered, and thrown away. Had Mr. 

 Root Investigated the point raised, he 

 would have found that the proportion 

 of nitrogen in cotton seed meal, to 

 that in other meals, is as follows : 



Cotton seed meal contains 6.50 per cent, nitrogen. 



The wonderful instinct of the bee, 

 therefore, guides it to select the food, 

 that analysis shows contains the most 

 "nitrogen," and, therefore, for open- 

 air stimulation, wlien the weather is 

 favorable, the substances, as in order 

 named, will be found the best appre- 

 ciated. 



For intensive feeding, in the inside 

 of the hive, there are many highly 

 nitrogenized substances that may be 

 employed to advantage. On some of 

 these I experimented years ago, and I 

 will now, having proved, I hope, the 

 value of nitrpgen as a bee food, men- 

 tion some substances that may be em- 

 ployed, and methods of preparing tlie 

 same. 



Herr Weygandt (of Germany) pre- 

 pared his bee food thus : " Take 1 

 pound of wheat flour, adding thereto 

 either some salt or a little wine, then 

 with water make this into a batter, by 

 mixing carefully to avoid limpiness. 

 In another vessel put 2 pounds of 

 sugar (or if honey, IJ^ lbs.), and mix 

 this up in 1 or 2 quarts of water. This 

 latter is now intimately blended with 

 the batter, when it is ready for feed- 

 ing." This food can be given thus or 

 boiled. I gave it to my bees unboiled, 

 and can testify to its ready acceptance 

 by them. 



My advice is to feed it by pouring 

 over an empty comb, and hanging 

 that, thus tilled, in the hive. The 

 bees suck up all the sweet liquor first, 

 and a portion of flour remains in the 

 cells, whicli they continue to dig away 

 at, and, by degrees, carry it all off. It 

 is best to do all feeding at night, 

 then, if the morrow prove tine for 

 flight, those bees, that can, will go out 

 after the natural supplies. 



Mr. Raitt (Scotland's mostadvanced 

 bee-keeper) writes thus : " Three 

 years ago a Highland lad told me his 

 grandmother used to give her bees a 

 barley bannock (^or cake of barley 

 meal), soaked in honey every spring, 

 and that the bees ate all but the skin ; 

 this was the very idea I was waiting 

 for. I had previously given meal in 

 the open air; now I should try it in 

 the hive. My bannock disappeared, 

 and as soon as the bees began to eat 

 it, brood appeared. Now, when I 

 want breeding, I make easily dis- 

 solved candy cakes, with, perhaps, 

 one-tifth of flour, or pea meal, in 



them, and as certainly as I give tliem, 

 they disappear, and broocl appears. 

 The bees cannot store away sucli pol- 

 len ; ttiev must utilize it somehow or 

 other. They over- feed the queen, and 

 she lays. They go on brood-raising 

 in all weathers." 



Of highly nitrogenized foods there 

 are two, viz.: Eggs and milk, which I 

 experimented with. In milk we have 

 all classes of simple alimentary prin- 

 ciples and substances together. It 

 being composed of water, compound 

 of chlorine salts (caseine), fat and 

 sugar, whilst the egg contains six of 

 the alimentary principles, viz.: Car- 

 bon, liydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, 

 sulphur" and phosphorous ; all easily 

 soluble and assimilable. 



All concentrated foods are difficult 

 of digestion, and so we supply a con- 

 diment to assist digestion, in the 

 shape of common salt, either added to 

 the prepared food, or dissolved in 

 drinking troughs. 



The milk food I prepare thus : The 

 milk is ttrst boiled as soon as possible 

 after being milked, the clot removed, 

 and then, if sugar be used to sweeten 

 it, a pound of sugar is dissolved in 

 each quart of milk. If honey be used, 

 the milk must become cold before the 

 honey (a pound to a quart) is added, 

 and it must not be warmed again. 

 Boiling prevents souring, and coagu- 

 lates tlie excess of fatty matters which 

 would be indigestible, and is best re- 

 moved. In the milk of asses we find 

 a poverty of fatty matters, and an 

 abundance of sugar. Those who keep 

 those interesting and intelligent ani- 

 mals will, I hope, take the hint, and 

 feed their bees with their milk, and 

 report results. 



The egg-food I prepare thus : When 

 a sufficient number of eggs have been 

 broken into a basin, they are well 

 whisked, and honey added in the pro- 

 portion of double weight of honey to 

 a given weight of egg substance. To 

 eggs I have likewise added a sugar 

 syrup made of 7 pounds of sugar to 

 4 pounds of water. This milk, or 

 egg food, I used to give at night in 

 tin or glass dishes, either inside of the 

 hive or just at the door, the quantity 

 being regulated by the size of the col- 

 ony. The milk-food I gave every 

 night, and did not observe any ill 

 effects. The egg-food I used to give 

 for two nights, and allow the third to 

 pass without any. At eacti feeding, 

 I gave what I considered adapted to 

 the strength of the colony, increasing 

 the quantity as it grew in numbers. 

 Bees will store milk-food if allowed, 

 so I took care to give only what they 

 would consume. 



I was interrupted, in a course of 

 experiments I was about making as 

 to tlie relative advantages of feeding 

 the white of egg (which is i)ure albu- 

 men) only, or the entire egg. The 

 entire egg contains a great deal of oily 

 matter, sulphur and salts, the effect 

 of which I had not time to note. 

 Some colleague will. I hope, experi- 

 ment further tliis spring. 



In 1879, 1 wrote to a journal as fol- 

 lows : " The results are simply these, 

 that by the above means you can 

 start the queen laying at any moment, 

 and as fast as the bees hatch out 



strong enough to cover the brood, 

 every cell of a fresli frame of empty 

 comb you insert will be found to con- 

 tain a freshly laid egg. I have one 

 colony fed on milk-food only ; six 

 weeks ago it contained simply the 

 queen and a handful of bees ; they 

 now cover four frames, having built 

 out their comb from Raitt's founda- 

 tion, and are busily engaged on a 

 tifth. One noticeable fact is, that 

 whereas tho.se particular bees were 

 weak and puny, never showing fight, 

 the present generation are large, 

 strongly developed bees." 



From scientific investigation it 

 would appear that tlie bees assist the 

 mother bee's digestion by feeding her 

 half digested, or chymihed food, and 

 thus convey into her system a larger 

 amount of substances that go to form 

 the eggs, than her unaided digestive 

 organs could accomplish. 



There are, however, two sides to 

 every question, so I join ray warning 

 to that of the German bee-keepers, 

 from whose writings I learned so 

 much, quoting the words of Carl 

 Zwilling, a noted Alsace bee-keeper : 

 '• Although there be apiaries at Lune- 

 bourg of 60 colonies, which, by specu- 

 lative feeding increased, last year, to 

 300, it must not be forgotten that the 

 men who did this are old hands at the 

 work, that they know how to prepare 

 not only the food, but the colonies to 

 pass the winter, and the when exactly 

 to apply the artificial food. All goes 

 well if the bright, spring sun and mild 

 weather favor the bees in their daily 

 excursions, but if, with a bright sun, 

 there should be sudden gusts of wind, 

 or sudden rain storms, then the bees, 

 tempted out of doors by the thought 

 that the constant supply of nectar 

 comes from the fields, instead of from 

 man's hands, are caught, and chilled, 

 never to reach that hive again, where 

 the animal heat generated by each 

 one is so much needed. A hive in 

 this way may be quickly depopulated, 

 and the brood be chilled." 



Tersonally, I had ample proof of the 

 wisdom of these remarks (and, if again 

 feeding bees on nitrogenous diet, would 

 place a wire gauze door to my hives, 

 movable of course). Then, if windy 

 weather sets in, with bitingly cold 

 blasts, I would keep the door covered 

 by the wire, shade all light off and 

 keep the bees prisoners until the 

 weather again became favorable ; be- 

 ing careful, however, to see that the 

 bees are not crowded for room, so that 

 no danger from suffocation would 

 arise, if they became excited on finding 

 themselves prisoners. 



I trust I have now, in some measure, 

 answered the question, " Whatshall I 

 feed my bees V " I assure you, I have 

 but skimmed the surface of this most 

 interesting subject. It is one well 

 worthy of close and diligent study, 

 and I hope some colleagues will experi- 

 ment a little this spring, and, later on, 

 give us the benefit of their experi- 

 ence. If I have, in any measure, 

 suggested " food for thought," I shall 

 be well pleased. 



Philadelphia, Pa. 



[The above was read before the Phil- 

 adelphia Bee-Keepers' Association, at 



