918 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 1 



ITEMS AND SUGGESTIONS FROM CUBA. 



Feeding Cheap Sugar to Produce Beeswax ; Feed- 

 ing to Increase Brood; Overstocking, etc. 



BY FRANK N. SOMERFORD. 



In Pickings, Aug-. 15, I notice the sug- 

 gestion from the Australian Bee-keeper, p. 

 IW, regarding the feeding of sugar for the 

 production of wax. I wish to say. Mr. Ed- 

 itor, that I am more than surprised to see 

 you sanction such a scheme, especially 

 when I remember that part concerning the 

 sugar-syrup honey thus obtained as a side 

 issue. 



Favoring the matter as you do, it would 

 thus seem you would also sanction the sell- 

 ing of this product as honey, and all this, 

 too, just after having thrown "suds" on 

 Mr. David Wauford (^page h84j, for his 

 poke at seme member of the N. B. K. A. 

 for selling sugar syrup as honey. If the 

 pi an of feeding to secure wax were feasible, 

 the wax, of course, would be a pure prod- 

 uct; but the honey certainly would not be 

 so, although it, of course, would be much 

 superior in bothquality and flavor to muchof 

 the cotton or honey-dew honey of the United 

 States. But from my experience in feeding 

 sugar to bees I think I can safely say that 

 nothing can be made at the game in that 

 way. 



The bees, after a few days' feeding of 75 

 to 100 lbs. of sugar with an equal quantity 

 of water every second day, to a ranch of 

 200 colonies, seem to show, upon opening 

 them, just the slightest whitening of the 

 combs, with some increase in brood, for 

 which purpose I am feeding — that is, to get 

 the hives crowded with brood and bees be- 

 fore the cold or cool weather and the honey- 

 flow begins. I think this is the only ad- 

 vantage that can be gained from feeding. 



Some one, of course, will say that, at 

 the closing of the honey-flow, is the time to 

 get results from feeding; but in Cuba that 

 is not possible; for at that time ( the opening 

 of spring) the bees are all ambition to 

 swarm, rendering the plan impractical. 



Some wiseacre may state that there is an 

 art in feeding which I haven't learned. 

 Perhaps so; but this is not my first feed- 

 ing. I have been in Cuba almost four 

 years, and find it essential in my locality 

 to feed 30'i0 or 4000 lbs. of sugar each year 

 during the months of July, August, and 

 September- to encourage brood -rearing. 

 Nearly all the bee-keepers here have to re- 

 sort to feeding. 



Having tried several ways of feeding, I 

 find that placing the sugar and water in 



ihe extractor, and turning the reel a little, 

 is the easiest way to mix the feed. Then 

 to administer, pour into vats or tanks; set 

 out into the open air, with a slatted float, 

 or with trash, grass, weeds, etc., thrown 

 in to give the bees something to hold them 

 out of the "juice," else they'll pile in on 

 top of one another until your lank is filled 

 with drow'ned bees. 



I have at one ranch a tank for feeding, 

 of 12,000 cubic inches capacity', and a small 

 one of SOCO cubic inches. At another ranch 

 I have two of the 5000 cubic-inch capacity; 

 at a third ranch I have one of the 12,000- 

 cubic-inch capacity. 



You would probabU' suggest moving out 

 from such localities to better pasturage, 

 and I did trj' to after having spent several 

 days on a horse and wheel, riding after 

 locations. I decided on a place 40 miles 

 away, and not very near any bee-keeper; 

 but before I got there, or, worse still, after 

 preparing 100 hives, hauling them ten 

 miles to a point of shipping, placing them 

 nicely in the car, and arriving at destina- 

 tion, reloading on to carts, and driving 

 them out 3 miles to my location, I was in- 

 formed by the Cubans that another Amer- 

 ican had put a ranch of 200 just across the 

 branch on the next little hill. There we 

 were, the two ox-carts, their drivers, my- 

 self, and pirtner, and it growing dark, and 

 the next day was Sunday. The bees, of 

 course, had been jolted, thumped, jarred, 

 and banged about until they wanted "Cuba 

 libre" too; but after learning that the oth- 

 er bees were so close I decided not to set 

 my bees out and go into a war of pasturage 

 against the other fellow, even if he had 

 told me previously that he was ^oing to 

 put his bees somewhere else, and I had the 

 location rented long beforehand. 



I met the man a day or so later, and I 

 felt— well, I won't sxy just how I did feel, 

 for it would be impossible to express it. 

 I looked him over, and saw that he was a 

 man for whom I had gone to considerable 

 trouble to teach how to make founda- 

 tion, some two or three years ago. Well, 

 it flashed into my mind that "one good 

 turn deserves another." I had done him 

 the ono. good thing in going out to his place 

 and showing him how to make foundation, 

 and now I could do him the other by sacri- 

 ficing the location, and I did. Was that 

 right? Well, I thought a while and then 

 called to him, and he came over and I gen- 

 tly inquired if he had put out his new ranch 

 yet, and where. He told me where, and 

 said that he had changed his mind, and 

 didn't set them in the other place. 



Well, now it would seem that nowadays 

 one has no right to change his mind. Any 

 way, the bees were, as I stated, a piece 

 out in the country. The cart-men and my- 

 self had no place to eat and sleep, and the 

 poor bees were crying to get out, and it 

 was growing dark, and the mosquitoes 

 were singing the accompanying song of 

 praise, and biting as only mosquitoes can 

 in Cuba in June. 



