.1016 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 1 



Will C. W. Dayton or any one else tell us 

 why naturally built comb should not last just 

 as long as that built on foundation? One 

 would infer from his article on p. 838 that he 

 believed otherwise. We will grant that nat 

 urally built comb may contain more drone 

 comb than is desirable, which will need to 

 be replaced. Accidents will happen to combs, 

 making holes that the bees are apt to fill with 

 drone comb, making these combs in time less 

 desirable unless they are kept patched up. 

 But are not these accidents just as likely to 

 happen to a comb that was originally built 

 on a full sheet of foundation as to one nat- 

 urally built? 



WOODPECKERS. 



In Gleanings for Nov. 15, 1900, is an il- 

 lustration of damage done to hives by wood- 

 peckers. These were much more considerate 

 than the woodpeckers here, boring only 

 through the hand-holes, where the damage 

 could be easily repaired. I have seen hives 

 here where the giant woodpecker had chisel- 

 ed great jagged holes in the upper edge of 

 the hives, beginning at the crevice between 

 the hive and cover, and doing a great deal 

 of damage. This giant woodpecker makes 

 itself a great nuisance here by boring holes 

 into buildings, apparently out of pure mis- 

 chief, as sometimes several holes will be 

 bored close together through perfectly sound 

 wood. I have had to shoot a number to keep 

 them from tilling our house full of holes: and 

 while at this writing a vigorous rap-rap-rap 

 on the gable end of the house called me out 

 to settle w^ith the mischief-maker. 



FEEDING BACK EXTRACTED HONEY. 



How this Plan Can be Made Profitable in 

 the Production of Comb Honey; the Im- 

 portance of Thinning the Honey and 

 Feeding During a Natural Honey-flow. 



BY E. W. ALEXANDER. 



[This article deals with a very seasonable subject, 

 Vjarticularly this poor year when there will be many 

 unfinished sections. The knowledge of how to com- 

 plete them, thus renderins them lit for the market, is 

 important. Incidentally this will supplement the ar- 

 ticle by J. E. Hand in this issue.— Ed.] 



On page 645 friend Reddout calls my at- 

 tention to this subject. He can hardly see 

 why there should be such a diffei'ence of 

 opinion on this subject as there seems to be. 

 I also can not see how there could be any 

 variation in the results, only such as would 

 naturally follow from the "difference in the 

 time of the season in which the feeding was 



practiced, the quality of food, and in the way 

 in which it was given. 



My first experience along this line was 

 something over 30 years ago. The honey fed 

 was thick extracted, and fed in its natural 

 state after the August harvest was past. 

 This I fed for the purpose of finishing up 

 partly tilled sections. I soon found this was 

 a very unnatural time of the year for bees to 

 build comb, as nearly every night was quite 

 cold, with frequent frosts. I also found that 

 it took on an avei'age a little more than 3 lbs. 

 of extracted honey fed in this way to produce 

 1 lb. of comb honey, and it frequently granu- 

 lated in the sections in a short time so as to 

 spoil their take. 



I next tried thinning the honey with boil- 

 ing water to about the consistency of nectar. 

 This made a great difference in results. The 

 bees took it from their feeders moi'e readily, 

 and it did not require nearly as much honey 

 to till their sections, and I was not troubled 

 any more with its granulating in the combs; 

 but I was not satisfied to stop here when 1 

 could see that it required nearly 2 lbs. of ex- 

 tracted honey to produce one of comb, and 

 I realized that I was fighting natural law in 

 trying to foi'ce my bees to produce comb 

 honey decidedly out of season. 



My next step was to make extracted honey 

 very thin with hot water, and feed it to cex'- 

 tain colonies producing comb honey during 

 the entire summer harvest, giving each colony 

 about all it could handle during the night. 

 At first I was afraid it would have a tenden- 

 cy to check their work during the day; but, 

 not so. It seemed to act as a stimulus to 

 still greater activity when they could go to 

 the flowers. Then I felt I had solved the 

 problem of producing comb honey from ex- 

 tracted. There were no more partly filled 

 sections to bother with; no more travel- 

 stained sections to sell at a reduced price, 

 but every one nicely tilled out clear to the 

 wood, and well capped. 



I then found I had at my control for about 

 60 days as rich a harvest for the colonies I 

 ran for comb honey as I could desire, and 

 with not a break of even a day it was a 

 pleasure to see those sections filled with 

 choice comb honey. 



I don't think it possible to feed thick ex- 

 tracted honey to bees for the purpose of pro- 

 ducing comb honey so as to derive any prof- 

 it from it after the honey-producing season 

 is over. I think that nearly all those that 

 have ever tried it, and went only so far 

 along this line, have given it up in disgust. 

 But when I took up this line of the business 

 I went much further than any I had ever 

 heard of, and made it a success. 



The day is coming when the comb-honey 

 producer will find it as I have stated above. 

 He Avill have complete control of his harvest 

 for comb honey simply by keeping a few 

 more colonies and running them wholly for 

 extracted honey to help his comb-honey 

 colonies along during those natural changes 

 of the atmosphere which frequently cause 

 the flowers to stop secreting nectar several 

 days at a time. Then the bees stop working 



