1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



231 



bees will not work In the sections as readily as they will when 

 they are in a smaller hive. We want the white honey in sec- 

 tions, and then we can let them secure winter stores from fall 

 flowers, if we are in a locality where the honey from such 

 makes suitable winter food. If it does not, or there is no fall 

 flow, we can feed sugar. I consider a pound of the best gran- 

 ulated equal to a pound of clover or basswood honey for winter 

 stores; and there is a difference of 10 cents a pound, and 

 often more, between the two. If we allow 30 pounds for win- 

 ter stores, this will make a diflference of S300 on 100 colo- 

 nies. This will pay us well for our time in feeding. I am not 

 going to give any theory about it, but I will say the largest 

 yields I ever got were from colonies in 8 and lo frame hives. 

 Another thing I would like to say is, that the most pro- 

 lific queens are not the best, in many cases. I have had some 

 very poor queens that were very prolific. Some of the very 

 best Italian queens I now have, or ever have had, are hardly 

 able to keep 8 Langstroth frames full during the time they 

 should be kept full. Very likely many that read this will 

 think I do not not know what a good queen is, and I feel quite 

 sure this will be the case when I say that last summer I killed 

 a 1^6 breeding queen that was prolific and equal to at least 10 

 frames. But that is not the worst. A year ago last summer 

 I sold for $1 a two-year-old imported Italian queen that cost 

 me over $9. I did not need a dollar very badly, either. But 

 if one was to buy some that I have, and I think they are good, 

 the price they would have to pay would make them think that 

 they ought to be good. 



Now as to the time to commence feeding in the spring. I 

 do not think, as a general thing, it has paid me to feed much 

 before fruit-bloom, and not even then, if the bees could secure 

 enough from it to keep brood-rearing going on as rapidly as 

 It should at this time. But if they do not, it has always paid 

 me well to feed. In this locality there are no flowers after 

 fruit-bloom until white clover. I generally feed a good deal 

 during this time. If we commence to feed we must keep it up 

 until there is some to be had from the fields, or else stop grad- 

 ually, for if we get the brood-nest full of brood, and then stop 

 all at once, if there is not much food in the hive, and none in 

 the fields, the brood will necessarily be thrown out, or else 

 starve to death, and then, as a general thing, here in the 

 North such a colony is ruined for that season, as far as sur- 

 plus honey is concerned. But on the other hand, we must not 

 feed too much. If we do, with small hives, we will restrict 

 the room in the brood-nest, and thus prevent the very object 

 for which we are feeding, namely, a large force of workers to 

 gather the flow which we hope for and expect will come later. 

 But shortly before the time for the main flow to com- 

 mence, feed heavy if we wish to fill the brood-nest with 

 sugar stores. Whether this is best or not, in a locality where 

 there is a fall flow, I do not know. I have practiced this 

 somewhat, and I think under the right management, it can be 

 made to pay. But my a,dvice to the inexperienced is to try 

 this on a small scale at first. There are certain diliSculties, 

 and much more to learn about this than there Is to simply 

 feed enough to secure a large force of workers. In feeding 

 for this purpose, I do not think it is necessary to feed every 

 day. I never feed more than every second day, and a good 

 deal of the time only every third or fourth day. But I think 

 we can push brood-rearing much more rapidly when we wish 

 to, by feeding a small amount every second or third day, than 

 we can by giving a large feed all at once, or a frame of honey 

 for feeding. 



I use a good deal of poor and inferior honey and honey- 

 dew when I have it. Such as is not fit for winter stores can 

 be extracted, and by judicous feeding at the right time it can 

 converted, as it were, into many times its weight of white 

 honey. I do not want any more honey-dew for winter stores. 

 Some winters bees appear to winter on it all right ; in others 

 they will not. There was a good deal of it gathered here last 

 fall. I put about 100 colonies in with this honey-dew, and 

 the loss so far is about 20 per cent. Very likely it will be 50 

 per cent, before May — perhaps more. A good many of these 

 hives were badly spotted by the first of January, but as far as 

 1 have been able to observe, honey-dew answers every purpose 

 as well as the best honey, when the bees can fly. 



When I feed sugar I use the best granulated. I have 

 tried cheap brown sugar, both dark and light, and such as we 

 can get here is not fit to feed bees at any time. There is 

 something in it that does not agree with them. 



Now a few words about feeders. I use the Miller for all 

 kinds of feeding, and I think this, or some kind in which we 

 can feed during the daytime without danger of robbing, is 

 best; for here, even quite late in the spring, the nights will 

 often be so cool that bees will not take feed readily from a 

 feeder that is set outside near the entrance, and if they would 

 when the nights are cool, I think it is much better to feed in 



the morning, and then the feed will be carried below by night, 

 and they will keep quiet and protect the brood better. 



Any feeder or method we use in which it is necessary to 

 use smoke every time we feed, is a bad thing. The less bees 

 are smoked and disturbed in the spring, the better. 



To illustrate the benefit that can be derived from feeding 

 in some seasons, let me describe one of the out yards. Last 

 year feeding was necessary to secure a crop. The bees in this 

 yard were mostly in 8-frame hives — a few were on 10-frames. 

 The surplus to be gathered from this yard was white clover, 

 basswood and fall flowers. There was but very little fruit- 

 bloom in reach of this yard. About this time feeding was 

 commenced, and continued right through the white clover 

 season, for at first it was so cold at night that it did not yield 

 any, and towards the last it dried up. But in the home yard, 

 about 13 miles from this, white clover yielded enough to keep 

 brood-rearing up, and considerable honey-dew was secured in 

 the spring, which formed on box-elder leaves. I never saw 

 the conditions vary in a few miles as they did last year in this 

 out-yard. Practically nothing was to be had until basswood, 

 which was fair, but it did not last long, but the bees were 

 ready for it, and secured what there was — about 53 pounds 

 per colony in one-pound sections. 



Each of these colonies were fed about 80 pounds of sugar, 

 which, at 5 cents per pound, would be .$1.50 per colony. 

 Fifty pounds of honey at 15 cents a pound would be .$7.50 

 per colony. Now to deduct $1.50 per colony for sugar will 

 leave $6 per colony. They also secured enough from fall 

 flowers to winter on, and about 12 pounds of surplus per col- 

 ony, but we will not say anything about this — we will say the 

 basswood honey was all they got, and we had to feed 30 

 pounds more sugar for winter stores — this would make $1.50 

 more to substract from $6.00, which would leave $■±.50 per 

 colony. In this yard there were 127 colonies, and this would 

 have left $571.50 from this yard to pay for the work. 

 Eeader, do you see the point? Suppose these colonies had 

 been in h\g hives, and had 30 pounds of honey in the spring, 

 they would certainly have used this up if they had not been 

 fed, and they would also have certainly put that 50 pounds 

 of basswood honey in the brood-nest. And, say it took 30 

 pounds of it to keep them until the next spring, they would 

 have only 20 pounds for another start. They would not have 

 secured any more per colony, or as much, if they were larger, 

 for there were bees enough in this yard to gather all, and 

 more than there was to be had from it, and it did not cost any 

 more, if as much, to rear them in small hives as it would in 

 larger ones. If we would carry the matter out, and count the 

 fall honey, the small hives would come out much farther 

 ahead. With big hives, where no feeding is done, the season 

 is often an entire failure. 



If this is not thrown into the waste basket, in my next I 

 will have something to say about swarming, for probably 

 many of you will think that bees, especially if they are in 

 small hives, and fed up as I have described, will swarm before, 

 or right in the midst of, the flow. Southern Minnesota. 



% 



Au Ominous Cloud in the Horizon. 



BY M. H. 8. BUBLEIGH. 



" Pretection to American industry " has been, for a good 

 many years, the magic political slogan at the sound of which 

 millions have danced. We see, in our mind's eye, an American 

 mechanic covered with a shipload of British goods, nearly 

 smothered. A patriotic Congressman comes to the rescue, 

 throws the goods into the ocean, and the mechanic arises and 

 resumes his toil. So far as that side of the question goes, I 

 have nothing to say. Let those .journals discuss it that are 

 built for that purpose. Just now I wish to speak of at least 

 one American industry that deserves the protection of six 

 feet of sod over it. It is not a British industry, but charac- 

 teristically American. It is an industry which has system- 

 atically injured a host of our commonest articles of food, and 

 has thrown unnumbered thousands out of work. The name 

 of this delightful beverage is glucose. Some time ago I read 

 of the destruction of a factory where it is made. The quan- 

 tity of glucose produced at this one factory, in the course of a 

 year, caused the production of all other sweets to take a back 

 seat so far as quantity is concerned, common sugar alone 

 excepted. The yearly output was 840 tons — an amount suf- 

 ficient, with that made elsewhere, to form the principal ingre- 

 dient in every pound of honey, every gallon of molasses, 

 syrup, and jelly, and all the co'nfectionery, produced in the 

 United States. I do not know whether beer is made any worse 

 by the liberal use of glucose in it or not : but doubtless it 

 aggravates renal troubles which pure beer alone simply induces. 



