632 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Oct. 



o. 



why the beginner should confine himself to one, even if the 

 reason for having only one book should be considered conclu- 

 sive. For he will find all the divergence of views in any one 

 of the papers that he will find in all. 



Is Swarming Dk.sirablk?— Years ago it was a matter of 

 congratulation to have many swarms. At present most bee- 

 keepers would rather not have many, and on page 600 James 

 Cormac says : "All admit that if swarming could be prevented 

 entirely, much more honey could be obtained." But in the 

 next paragraph he says swarming ought to be encouraged. 

 Some explanation should be given for this apparent conflict of 

 opinion, for the beginner will probably ask, "If more honey 

 can be obtained without swarming, why should swarming be 

 encouraged ? " Marengo, III. 



Sugar for Winter Stores — Feeders and Feeding. 



BY C. DAVENPOET. 



I wish to apologize to Gleaner for not answering the 

 questions he asked me some time ago. But the fact-«is, I did 

 not know as much about sugar as he, and I also wanted to 

 know. Since then I have been trying to find out some things 

 about sugar, but as yet about the only thing I have been able 

 to discover is that I do not know as much about sugar as I 

 thought I did. 



Bulletin No. 13, from the United States Department of 

 Agriculture, Division of Chemistry, tells us that United States 

 chemists analyzed .500 samples of sugars obtained in the open 

 market and that all were found to be absolutely pure, except 

 that some of the lower grades were found to contain a slight 

 excess of water. I am skeptical about some of the statements 

 in this Bulletin myself. Two years ago I bought a quantity 

 of cheap, very coarse, granulated sugar, which had a some- 

 what blue or greenish color. I thought this might answer 

 for spring feeding, but although at the time bees were flying 

 freely nearly every day, from the very first the bees in all 

 colonies fed with it commenced to die off very rapidly, and 

 later there was a good deal of dead brood in these same colo- 

 nies. I have no doubt that this sugar was adulterated. Take 

 any kind of granulated sugar and make it into a thick syrup, 

 by boiling it, and after it stands for some time it will have a 

 blue or greenish color. This will be more apparent with some 

 brands than others. It is said that this is caused by ultrama- 

 rine, which is used in the refining process. This ultramarine 

 is a deadly poison, but whether there is enough of it in the 

 best brands of granulated sugars to affect the health of bees 

 in localities where they are, or are liable to be, confined for 

 four or five months during the winter, I do not know, but I 

 think there is in some brands. 



Some report very poor results with sugar for winter stores. 

 In Gleanings, Mr. E. France says that in the fall of 1892 he 

 was obliged to feed 14 barrels of sugar, and that winter he 

 lost 160 colonies. Although he does not say so, I infer from 

 what he does say, that he believed the sugar to have been the 

 main cause of his large loss of bees that winter. 



Gleaner says that across the seas they claim beet sugar is 

 not suitable for bees. If it is a fact that it is not, it may be 

 the cause of the poor results some have with sugar for winter 

 stores, for there is, I believe, a good deal more beet sugar pro- 

 duced in the United States than is generally supposed ; and I 

 think, without doubt, this is all consumed at home. From re- 

 liable statistics before me, I find that in 1892 there was pro- 

 duced 12,004,838 pounds ; in 1893, there was more than 

 double this amount produced; in 1894, California alone pro- 

 duced 32,788,442 pounds. I have been trying to find out 

 under what name, or brand, this beet sugar is put on the 

 market, but I have been unable to do so. It seems to me it 

 would be a matter worthy the attention of some of the experi- 

 ment stations, to find out how beet sugar is labeled, then pro- 

 cure some and give a number of colonies an exclusive diet of 

 it for winter, and see how it agrees with them. 



Some time ago, the editor of the Review, in making some 

 comments on an article he copied from the American Bee 

 Journal, among other things said : 



" I believe every one considers it perfectly legitimate to 

 use sugar in rearing and wintering bees. This means practi- 

 cally the exchanging of so many pounds of sugar for an equal 

 number of pounds of honey." 



I fully agree with him, but for winter stores it is very im- 

 portant, at least in the Northern and Middle States, to know 

 for certain what is the best sugar, and, if beet sugar is not fit 

 for winter stores, to be able in some way to distinguish it from 

 that which Is made from cane. I have largely used and pre- 



fer a brand that is labeled thus: "National Standard. Fine 

 Granulated Sugar." 



Gleaner also wanted to know how I got bees out of the 

 Miller feeders. If I wish to remove a feeder before the feed 

 is all taken out, I treat the feeder the same as a super of 

 honey, and use one of the super-clearers like I have before de- 

 scribed, or any of the bee-escapes I think would work all 

 right. But I do not put any more feed in than I wish the col- 

 ony, over which it is placed, to have, and I generally leave it 

 on until it is all removed. But after the bees have removed 

 all the feed, they will (many of them) stay in the feeder for 

 three or four days, and sometimes, in some cases, much longer. 

 When the feeders are empty it is no trouble for me to get 

 the bees out of them, for in nailing these feeders I do not nail 

 either of the two boards — the two that have the strip of wire 

 cloth on the bottom — fast to the feeder. I nail them fast to 

 the board that covers them. This then makes a long, narrow 

 box without ends or bottom. This can be removed from the 

 feeder in an instant, and any bees that are on it or the rest of 

 the feeder, can then be shaken off in front of their hive. I 

 drive a couple of small nails in each end of the feeder outside 

 of these loose boards, which keep them from moving too far to 

 either side. I do not use any wire-cloth on the bottom of these 

 boards. If the outside of each board next to the bottom is 

 shaved down thin, and a few small notches cut on the under- 

 side, there is no need of it. 



There is another advantage in having these boards loose. 

 When a feeder gets to leaking, it is much easier to fix it when 

 these boards can be removed. 



I will describe another way I made a few of these feeders 

 last spring. It is some more work to make them in this way, 

 but when they are made, in my opinion, they are superior to 

 any feeder that is, or can be, made for feeding a full colony. 



In making them neither of the three boards I have just 

 mentioned are used, with this exception : The feeder is nailed 

 up in the usual way ; a couple of thin boards are cut so they 

 will fit, but move easily up and down in each feed reservoir. 

 These boards need a cleat nailed on the upper side at each 

 end, to keep them from warping, and also to have a number 

 of small holes cut in them so that the bees can reach the feed 

 underneath. A light frame covered with wire-cloth is hinged 

 to the top of the feeder to prevent bees from flying out when 

 being examined, or when more feed is poured in, which is done 

 by simply pouring it through the wire-cloth into the feed-res- 

 ervoirs beneath. But that loose board in each of them will 

 sometimes get stuck fast to the bottom, and refuse to raise 

 when the feed is poured in. A piece of stiff wire, or a long 

 wire-nail, run through a hole in these boards with the head 

 on the under side of the same, and the other ends allowed to 

 project through the wire-screen above, enough so that one 

 can get hold of it, will overcome this. Of course, in pouring 

 the feed in, some bees will get daubed up with it, but the 

 others will clean them ofl" all right. Bees seem to take the 

 feed from this feeder more readily, especially weak colonies, 

 and all colonies seem to do so in the spring. 



But for rapid feeding in the fall for winter stores, a large 

 milk-pan, or any tin pan, answers about as well as anything. 

 This can be set in an upper story and covered with cheese- 

 cloth to prevent the bees from drowning. I have used these a 

 good deal, but I had a good deal of trouble with the cheese- 

 cloth part at first, and as some others may have the same ex- 

 perience, I will explain how I fixed it. 



I used to take a thin piece of board and cut it to fit the 

 bottom of the pan to be used ; punch a lot of small holes in it, 

 then tack the cheese-cloth around the edge of it; no matter 

 how flaring the pan used, or whether the board is anywhere 

 near the fit, if it is some smaller than the bottom of the pan 

 it will work all right. Of course, enough cheese-cloth should 

 be used to reach to the bottom of the pan on the outside, as it 

 is hard for bees to walk up on tin. 



I believe some say that when bees are fed sugar syrup for 

 winter, that it is better if they do not store it too fast ; and 

 that sugar syrup stored by bees tastes much more like honey 

 if it is stored slowly. This may be so, but I cannot see why it 

 should make any difl'erence in either case. If it is stored rap- 

 idly, more bees store it ; when it is stored slowly, only a few 

 bees work at it, which I believe is always the case where it is 

 stored slowly. I do not believe these few bees add any more 

 acid to it, or retain it any longer than each one would, if there 

 were enough to do the work rapidly. I can understand that 

 if the syrup was fed thick or thin it might make a considerable 

 difference in either case. Southern Minnesota. 



Every Present Sutoscriber of the Bee Journal 

 should be an agent for it, and get all others possible to sub- 

 scribe for it. See offers on page 642. 



